Title
Contract No. REQ-0000765 effective September 1, 2024 with Slalom for Finance Operations Assistance for a cost not to exceed $1,000,000.00 for one year
Body
Agenda of: August 28, 2024
Item No.: 2024-265
Amount: $1,000,000.00
TO: The Honorable
Board of Directors
Great Lakes Water Authority
FROM: Suzanne R. Coffey, P.E.
Chief Executive Officer
Great Lakes Water Authority
DATE: August 23, 2024
RE: Contract No. REQ-0000765 effective September 1, 2024 with Slalom for Finance Operations Assistance for a cost not to exceed $1,000,000.00 for one year
MOTION
Upon recommendation of Nicolette Bateson, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer, Board of Directors of the Great Lakes Water Authority authorizes the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to enter into Contract No. REQ-0000765 effective September 1, 2024 with Slalom for Finance Operations Assistance for a cost not to exceed $1,000,000.00 for one year; and authorizes the CEO to take such action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
BACKGROUND
GLWA has successfully launched Workday as its ERP. The companion effort to that launch is the now the intensive effort to rollout Workday Adaptive Planning (formerly known as Adaptive Insights). This effort will directly source data from the general ledger with added analytical and reporting capacity to replace many individual Excel, Word, PDF and other files to create the annual budget document, annual comprehensive financial report and eventually in-source the cost of service study. In addition, the organization’s ability to perform advanced analysis and performance indicators will be significantly enhanced. The flexibility of Workday and Workday Adaptive brings significant opportunities, but is one that also requires coordination and governance to successfully deploy. This is occurring at a time where there is significant concern related to staff burnout from multiple years of the ERP and enterprise asset management (EAM) implementations. The project management information system (PMIS) launch is expected to ramp up in the near term.
JUSTIFICATION
For the reasons outlined above, a proposal was obtained from Slalom (attached) to support finance operations to achieve success in the deployment of Workday Adaptive Planning, support the many post-implementation tasks of Workday, manage multiple competing priorities of EAM and PMIS, and to manage strained resources while the day-to-day work and deadlines are met. Slalom provides personnel who have been working with the GLWA team during the course of the implementation and have a first-hand working knowledge of our organization and people. Slalom’s performance has been excellent and are positioned to support our team members in an effective manner.
FINANCIAL PLAN IMPACT
The proposed contract is an operational expense of the Chief Financial Officer & Treasurers budget in the Financial Services Area. A budget amendment will be prepared for an amount less than the proposed contract award with a primary offset in a vacant leadership position in the Financial Management & Planning Area (cost center 884113).
Cost Centers: 884001 - Chief Financial Officer
Expense Types: Contractual Professional Services
Estimated Costs by Year and Related Estimated Total Variance:
Proposed Budget by Fiscal Year
FY 2025 $ 756,000
FY 2026 244,000
Not-to-exceed Contract $ 1,000,000
COMMITTEE REVIEW
This matter was reviewed by the GLWA Audit Committee at its meeting on August 23, 2024. The Audit Committee unanimously recommends that the Board of Directors of the Great Lakes Water Authority authorizes the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to enter into Contract No. REQ-0000765 effective September 1, 2024 with Slalom for Finance Operations Assistance for a cost not to exceed $1,000,000.00 for one year.
SHARED SERVICES IMPACT
This item does not impact the shared services agreement between GLWA and DWSD.