An immediate benefit was that the number of people working in the financial area dropped from about 50 to 14, a reduction due partly to business process re-engineering. Under the old system, when a user wanted to buy a product from a different division of an existing vendor, he would have to send a request to purchasing, which would file the new location as a separate vendor. With the new system, if the location listed on the purchase order is not on file, it's automatically added to the district's vendor list. The district also automated a few processes with a local bank. The bank now sends the district's new financial system a list of paid checks, which means Dick's staff knows which invoices are paid before the vendors do.
Vendors inquiring about the status of an invoice now receive vastly improved service.
Although many state and local governments are taking advantage of the year 2000 problem to justify systems upgrades, not all states can afford such massive overhauls. Ross Kory, manager of American Management Systems Inc.'s Government Systems Group, said making systems able to handle four digit date fields is a major project in itself. He said some states are opting for small projects focused on the year 2000 problem because of funding shortages or because existing systems work just fine. Start small Ted Lightle, director of South Carolina's Division of Information Resource Management, said even a very focused year 2000 upgrade is expensive. There's no doubt that many state and local financial systems are in desperate need of upgrading.