As with any new implementation, close collaboration between the SSS and NBC staff was critical to the success of the project. Under the direction of the SSS Chief Financial Officer, Mr. William Reese, and the NBC Project Lead, Todd Tiffan, client issues were well coordinated and appropriately resolved.

SSS utilizes the core Oracle® financial modules, as well as the integrated suite of Oracle® Procurement products - iProcurement and Procurement contracts. iProcurement provides a self-service, "Amazon.com" like user interface for SSS employees to enter requisitions. Procurement Contracts provides contract authoring and deliverables management tools to the SSS acquisitions staff. The SSS plans to implement Oracle's Sourcing module in the next few months. Oracle's Procurement suite is fully integrated with Financials, including automatic funds control and general ledger accounting in the core financial application.

This was the NBC's first implementation of the Oracle® Procurement suite. With outstanding contractor support under the lead of Girish Balani from Softec Solutions, the procurement implementation was a genuine success. Several enhancements to automatically populate FAR clauses and generate Federal procurement forms were implemented by Mr. Balani. The SSS Chief Acquisitions Officer, Mr. Calvin Montgomery, provided client liaison and coordination efforts to ensure a smooth transition for SSS staff.

The transition from FFS to OFF was accompanied by changes in the SSS business practices. As a complement to the new procedures, the SSS implemented Oracle's workflow to automate forwarding and approval processes throughout the agency. The combination of a new system and updated procedures, required extensive collaboration between SSS headquarters, their regional offices and the NBC. Both SSS headquarters and regional offices were trained by the NBC to allow distributed processing of requisitions and purchase orders. Training delivery was provided by the Finance and Procurement Systems Division and the NBC Program Support Office and was very well received the agency.

The implementation of the SSS makes the sixth Oracle® client supported by the Financial Services Division. The SSS is one of several clients utilizing the NBC's shared services model which provides the opportunity for smaller Federal agencies to implement a premiere ERP application at a much more affordable price than a stand-alone implementation.

For More Information:
Michael Sciortino
Michael_D_Sciortino@nbc.gov
703-390-6656