Helping a U.S. Federal Agency Modernize Its Financial System

Challenge

A prominent U.S. federal agency, which provides financial services to other federal agencies was embarking on a modernization of its financial system. As the agency prepares financial statements for itself and other entities, any system changes could significantly affect its operations.  The plan was to transition from its legacy financial, accounting, data management, procurement, and asset management systems to a new SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning solution. The complex implementation was scheduled to occur in phases, with the agency and its customers migrating to the new financial system across a three-year period.  

To achieve a smooth transition with minimal disruption to its financial operations, agency leaders recognized the need to partner with financial system modernization implementation experts with a background in business process reengineering, organizational change management, financial management, and internal controls. They turned to us for help with migrating operations to the desired future state through a comprehensive transformation plan. 

Approach

With a deep understanding of the client environment, our subject matter experts across implementation, financial management, business process reengineering, organization change management, and internal controls worked together to develop and support the transformation plan. It was designed to help guide the business operations redesign—including the pre-discovery, discovery, implementation, and sustainment activities that would be crucial for a smooth migration from the current financial system to SAP S/4HANA. We worked with agency leaders to ensure that it met and supported mission-critical objectives. The plan features:

• Detailed milestones with checkpoints and goals to track progress 
• Specific timelines with dates and schedules for each phase and task to guide timely execution 
• Actionable steps that contain comprehensive details and instructions on how to implement each task 
• Risk management strategies for identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks and impacts during the transition 
• Resource allocation plans to support transformation activities as necessary, including designation of responsible groups for milestones and tasks 
• Performance metrics for measuring transformation effort success and effectiveness 
• Governance framework with guidelines and structures for decision-making, oversight, and accountability throughout the transformation process 
• Continuous improvement mechanisms for ongoing evaluation and refinement of processes and systems post-implementation 

We also crafted and executed a data cleansing strategy to prepare the agency for the upcoming system transition. These efforts helped address discrepancies in financial data, improve data alignment with policy, and optimize business processes—laying the groundwork for a successful migration. 

Impact

With our data cleansing expertise to support the transition and the transformation plan in place, the agency is poised to: 

• Enhance operational efficiency by migrating seamlessly to SAP S/4HANA, streamlining business processes, streamlining business processes, and reducing manual interventions 
• Mitigate risks and reduce downtime by proactively addressing challenges  
• Optimize resource allocation and reduce the chance of resource bottlenecks during implementation by ensuring that program management office, information technology, and business teams are aligned, trained, and adequately prepared for the transformation 
• Improve data accuracy and real-time insights by facilitating centralized data management, accurate reporting, and data-driven decision-making across the organization 
• Implement smooth change management through a structured approach that ensures employees are properly trained, aligned with new processes, and supported throughout the transition—resulting in less resistance and stronger adoption and support of the new system 

With this robust plan in place, the agency is well-positioned to complete this large-scale transformation to a new way of doing business.