Common Financial Desktop Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 10:19:01 -0700 To: "DC - All District Chiefs", "AO - All Administrative Officers" From: Steve Blanchard Subject: Common Financial Desktop Cc: "A - Division Chief and Staff" As many of you know, there was a team put together to examine the possibility of adopting one common financial software system for the whole USGS to use in accomplishing its budget planning and execution work. The Common Financial Desktop team made its recommendation to the Operations Council that the USGS not adopt a common financial software for the divisions to use in accomplishing most of their budget planning and execution work at this time. But instead, for those few information types that are needed at the bureau level, that the bureau develop a "data warehouse" so that the divisions can transfer the common data that is needed at the bureau level into this warehouse. The end result, is that each division will be able to keep its current financial software. For those divisions that need additional capabilities, they are encourage to partner with the other divisions. The bureau is investigating the data warehouse concept and what information would need to be transferred from the Divisions into it. Once the data warehouse configuration and data needs are determined, there will most likely be an interface built between FFS and the division software systems (such as AIS) and the data warehouse. I want to thank all those who helped me with this effort, especially those who made significant contributions -- Isabelle Halley des Fontaines, Jim Bettandorff, Kiera Woods, Sandra Edwards, and Lee Lenfest. The memo from Barb Ryan announcing the decision is posted below. In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 105 #10813 MEMORANDUM July 28, 1998 To: Division Chiefs Acting Chief, Office of Program From: Barbara J. Ryan /s/ Barbara J. Ryan Associate Director for Operations Subject: Decision Regarding Common Financial Desktop Please share the following update on bureau efforts toward adopting a bureau wide common financial desktop (CFD) with managers, supervisors, and team leaders within your divisions and offices. In May 1997, the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Operations Council, with concurrence of the Policy Council, tasked a multi-division team with investigating the feasibility of a CFD to serve as a common system within the USGS for financial management information needs. During the past year, the Common Financial Desktop Team, through cooperative efforts with USGS divisions and offices, identified core system requirements for a CFD; identified desirable technical characteristics of such a system; analyzed existing and future financial management costs; and tested two inhouse systems, the Administrative Information System (AIS) and the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS), that might meet identified requirements. After analyzing the data collected and testing the two systems, the CFD Team found that cost is not the primary determining factor in a making a decision to implement a CFD; in fact, the analysis revealed that there were no significant cost savings over the short term (5 years) associated with the implementation of a CFD for the USGS. The team did, however, determine that there are real, as well as intangible benefits in having a common information component for analytical purposes and for data sharing. During its studies, the team found that the most critical requirement for the USGS is the need for common financial information, not for a common system. After evaluating various options, the team recommended that the bureau pursue a data warehouse within our existing and future systems environment to serve as a common repository for bureau-level financial information. The Operations Council accepted this recommendation and has decided to use the data warehouse approach as a first step toward initiating a bureau common financial desktop. Additionally, the Operations Council has decided that USGS implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act will not be made through modifications to AIS or AIMS, but through a single bureauwide system, yet to be selected. The Operations Council is also planning for the future when the current Federal Financial System (FFS) will be replaced. The Council will evaluate the use of an open architecture that offers the best commercial software capability and will likely be compatible with the next generation of FFS. As next steps in moving toward realization and implementation of the data warehouse, the Operations Council has accepted and begun action on the following: * identify and define common information requirements and standards for the bureau, * evaluate the data warehouse approach for technical viability and feasibility to meet the identified bureau-level information requirements, * explore new/expanded use of additional capabilities in the FFS, * actively participate in the Department's financial management systems migration process, and * reexamine our approach to a common financial desktop in conjunction with developments in the financial management systems migration effort. We will keep you informed regarding progress made in making the data warehouse for financial information a reality.