August NextGen Newsletter

The NextGen Project aims to modernize the state’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system by replacing PeopleSoft Financials and Human Capital Management with a new cloud-based solution that will propel Georgia government into the forefront of technology and change the way we do business. Click here to learn more.

What's New

In our July newsletter, we shared our newly established mission and vision statements – outcomes from a summer strategic planning session to create the guideposts for the NextGen Project. Other outcomes from that session include our values and desired outcomes.

Values

Desired Outcomes

NextGen Project Update Meeting

On Aug. 7, the NextGen Project Team met with selected agency heads and their finance, HR and procurement team leads – chosen because of their organization’s volume of transactions / business practices in the current TeamWorks system. During the meeting, project sponsors Gerlda Hines (State Accounting Officer), Rebecca Sullivan (DOAS Commissioner) and Stephanie Beck (Office of Planning & Budget Deputy Director) provided a project update and stressed the importance of agency involvement in the next phase of the NextGen Project.

As soon as a System Implementer is onboard, the Project Team will be reaching out to these agencies to ask for available subject matter experts to participate in Implementation activities that include designing, building, testing and validation, training and deploying.

This involvement is critical to NextGen’s success. We need input from across the enterprise to ensure our future system is a viable solution for all.

What's Next

Q&A with Myra Guy, NextGen Project Lead
Over the past couple of months, we have received a few questions about critical project activities. Read the below Question & Answer session with Myra Guy, NextGen’s Project Lead and the State Accounting Office’s Chief Information Officer.

Question: We had several in-depth workshops months ago to build our process maps. What is next? 
Answer: We ended up with over 200 process maps, and they are a part of the RFP to find our System Implementer. Once we select and onboard this partner, the process maps will be used for requirements workshops and input to configure our Workday system. 

Q: We haven’t heard about the System Implementer. What is the timeline? 
A: We are still in the process of reviewing RFP responses this summer and expect to make the System Implementer selection in the fall. This process is critically important, and we are ensuring that we are thorough. That will move us into our project Phase 2, or Implementation Phase, which will begin with HCM. The overall project timeline was shared in last month’s newsletter.

Q: How can I ensure I’m staying informed on the latest NextGen updates? 
A: This summer, the NextGen Project Team has been targeting specific audiences to ensure our messaging makes its way to various levels and functions within our stakeholder agencies. We recently hosted meetings with Agency Heads, Points of Contact, Chief Information Officers and Chief Financial Officers.

The NextGen Project Team will also be presenting at the August HR Community Meeting. And you can look for us at this year’s Georgia Fiscal Management Council Annual Training Conference and the Georgia Council for Human Resources Conference.

Additionally, be sure to keep up with our monthly newsletter and visit the NextGen website at https://sao.georgia.gov/nextgen for the latest updates.

You Oughta Know

Newsletters
We are aware that our monthly newsletters are being blocked by many organization firewalls and spam filters. While we are working on solutions to this issue, we want to encourage those of you who receive our emailed newsletters to share it widely with your colleagues or send them to the NextGen website to find the latest newsletter. Help us spread the word about NextGen!

CIO Survey
The NextGen Technical Team recently deployed a survey to agency CIOs to gain insights into existing technologies, interfaces and integrations across the enterprise and to gauge interest in future system capabilities. Thank you to our CIOs who participated in the survey and a special shout out to our Points of Contact for helping us ensure we received responses by our deadlines.

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