The NCAS Project History
 
The NCAS project is the result of the State’s purchase of the Geac Software [formerly Dun & Bradstreet Software (DBS)] in 1986.  Numerous studies indicated the need for a new NCAS and confirmed the fit of the Geac systems to statewide application.  The first study was the NCAS Business Review, developed by the OSC with the assistance of Arthur Andersen & Co., in 1988.  The review provided initial statewide confirmation for the use of Geac in agencies currently using the OSC Departmental Accounting System (DAS), and the ability to interface with the Universities, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and other interface agencies.  The second study was the Legislative Study Commission (Second Opinion), developed in 1989 by Price Waterhouse.

In 1990, the General Assembly mandated the development of the first Financial Systems Master Plan (FSMP).  The OSC developed the FSMP with the assistance of Price Waterhouse.  In 1990, the OSC, with Geac’s technical assistance, completed the design, development, and testing of the NCAS Model.  The NCAS Model provided a fully operational financial system prototype ready for agency implementation.  Pilot implementations at OSC and DPI enabled further refinement of the model, development of specific agency reports, and confirmation of central system interface and reporting requirements.  Concurrently with the development of the NCAS Model, the OSC developed an Agency Implementation Methodology (AIM), which provided a framework for implementing the NCAS in the State agencies.

The OSC added new functionality to the NCAS in 1993 with implementation of the Geac Inventory module.  In 1994, the OSC implemented the Decision Support System (DSS) module, which allowed agency and central managers to analyze and synthesize information in a client/server environment using daily extracts of data from the mainframe applications.

In 1994, the OSC and the other central management agencies completed a major statewide uniform NCAS Chart of Accounts confirmation.  The OSC and the central agency managers reviewed and confirmed the NCAS Chart of Accounts, identified the key data elements in the NCAS, defined the statewide uniform reporting requirements, established the major statewide legal and budgetary control levels, and identified the statewide data element uniformity requirements.

In July 1995, the OSC completed the NCAS Core Financial Functions (CFF) Project.  The CFF implementation included the statewide implementation of the key financial and materials management modules of the system, including General Ledger, Budgetary Control, Financial Controller, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Information Access, as well as the uniform chart of accounts, and statewide vendor and central item files.  This implementation impacted 66 agencies and over 3,000 users.  In addition, interfaces were created between agency operational systems and the new state accounting system.  Every state agency, with the exception of the Universities and the Department of Transportation (DOT), was then using the statewide accounting system to perform its daily transactions and financial management functions.  The Universities and DOT provide monthly interfaces to the system to enable statewide reporting.

During the fiscal year 1996-97, the OSC implemented the Extended Financial Functions (EFF) which included additional functionality in the materials management area of the NCAS.  The new functionality provided on-line requisitioning, requisition to purchase order processing, request for quotes processing, on-line receiving and automated matching of invoices.  The EFF implementation also extended the number of primary users to over 5000.

During the fiscal year 1998-1999, the OSC implemented upgrades for both the General Ledger and Financial Controller modules to version 98.01 and the Materials Management Modules (Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Inventory and Budgetary Control) to version 96.01.  These upgrades provided enhanced functionality for both reports and on-line inquiries, as well as ensured the system is technically compliant to support the State’s future infrastructure needs.  The OSC also implemented an enhancement to the Accounts Receivable module by upgrading to version 97.01.  The OSC is currently upgrading its DSS to version 6.0.  This upgrade will enhance reporting capabilities and ensure this reporting application is Year 2000 compliant.