The Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS) announced earlier this week it had successfully deployed its third and, by far, largest release on July 2, 2007, the first day of the new State Fiscal Year.  Known as FIN Release 3, this implementation included five areas of State government’s financial business functions (Purchasing, General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Enterprise Performance Management) and impacted the State’s financial business processes, affecting more than 12,000 State employees. Yet, despite the enormity and complexity of FIN Release 3, the OAKS program management office (PMO) reports, so far, a very high level of user satisfaction with the system and significantly fewer user complaints than were logged during Release 1 in December 2006.   

The facility with which FIN Release 3 was deployed was no accident, however.  “It was the result of careful and deliberate planning,” said OAKS Executive Program Manager David L. White.  In order to ensure the seamless transition from various old and fragmented business applications and the State’s Central Accounting System (CAS), the OAKS PMO offered a comprehensive program of training and on-going customer support. Formal training, consisting of web-based, instructor-led and self help courses, began May 1 and continues through the end of July.  Once formal training ends, ongoing help, in the form of frequently updated, detailed job aids, is available at http://oakstraining.ohio.gov.

Live support, an integral part of OAKS’ training approach, also exists in several forms to accommodate a wide variety of end users.  The first level of live support is OAKS Super Users, highly skilled staff that has experience with OAKS functions and their agency’s legacy systems.  Super Users have been identified as the primary “go to” OAKS resources for OAKS FIN processes.  In addition to End User Training, Super Users have at their disposal access to unlimited Super User Labs that will take place daily in July, August and September and an online listserv that links them to a continuous stream of information and resources.  End users are strongly encouraged to consult with their agency’s Super Users first when they have questions or encounter problems navigating through the system. 

In the event Super Users are unable to provide adequate assistance, end users have been instructed to contact the automated OAKS Help Desk.  Consisting of several tiers, the Help Desk is equipped to handle end user questions that range from simple password resets, to matters of functionality and policy to full scale hardware and software issues.  Help Desk personnel have greatly increased in number since previous releases and have benefited from additional training and troubleshooting techniques.  The Help Desk can be reached from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 614-644-6625, 1-888-OhioOAKS or oaks.helpdesk@oaks.state.oh.us.

Additionally, FIN Release 3 end users may avail themselves of one-on-one lab time, offered on any number of OAKS financials processes by the Ohio Department of Budget and Management.  These lab sessions, scheduled in one-hour increments, are held on the 34th floor of the State Office Tower and can be scheduled through the OAKS Help Desk.  One-on-one lab sessions, dealing specifically with Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), the OAKS Data Warehouse and report generation, will begin July 9 and continue through the end of August.  Agencies may register for multiple sessions but may not send more than two end users to any particular session.  Special assistance teams will be formed on an as needed basis to assist agencies on site if lab support proves insufficient to meet agency need or if the central agency determines it is necessary.

The OAKS PMO is committed to providing quality customer support and ensuring all end users have the necessary resources to maximize the myriad benefits OAKS offers.  The OAKS PMO sends many thanks to the men and women who help make FIN Release 3 an overwhelming success and an exemplar for other public institutions that may be looking to embark on their own enterprise resource planning projects.

The OAKS system is an online enterprise resource planning application similar to many used by large private sector companies, to consolidate their business operations for efficiency and cost-savings.  For the State of Ohio, the OAKS system will replace numerous outdated and fragile computer systems which have been in use for 30 years or more.  For more information about OAKS, contact: OAKS.Communications@oaks.state.oh.us.

For more information about OAKS contact: OAKS.Communications@oaks.state.oh.us