• Procurement Card Program

The OSC has recently developed a Procurement Card program that created a module within NCAS to handle all agency procurement card transactions.  The module appears transparent to the user but is programmed to receive data from First Union bank, routed to the Financial Controller and processed in the system with other daily transactions.  Users are able to track detailed transactions and reconcile to monthly card statements prior to payment.
• DOA Mail System Interface

The OSC has recently developed a statewide interface for the Department of Administration (DOA).  The new interface supports agency expenditures from the centralized mail system.  The charges post directly from DOA.  Once verified, the charges post against the agency account and a transfer of funds is initiated.  The implementation of this interface greatly improved turnaround time for payment, as well as reduced the cost of checks and mailings.
• Electronic Payments

The OSC has purchased the BottomLine Technologies’ Paybase electronic software to generate Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions.  The Paybase product suite is designed to provide a single platform to control, manage, and issue all payments, whether paper based or electronic.  The Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) ’99 Act, which required all Federal Government payments to be electronic by January 1, 2001, led the Federal Reserve Bank to select BottomLine Technologies to provide Financial Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI) translation software to all financial institutions. Thus, BottomLine Technologies will provide the system that allows all financial institutions to receive a FEDI transaction via the ACH system.  Bottomline Technologies’ Paybase system has been recognized by several of the major consulting firms as a best business practice for an e-payments solution.  As part of this initiative, the OSC will also be working with the Office of the State Treasurer to implement Positive Pay.
• Real-Time Purchase Order Faxing

Real-Time Purchase Order Faxing has been installed to allow buyers to fax purchase orders real-time from NCAS.  The Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) piloted this new function in the P region, and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) piloted it in the NC23 region.  It is now available to all agencies.
• Automated Call Management and Call Tracking System

The OSC has purchased Goldmine's [formerly Bendata] state of the art Automated Call Management and Call Tracking software, Help Expert Automation Tool (HEAT), to improve the NCAS Help Desk’s ability to respond to user requests.  HEAT will allow NCAS users to initiate tickets by the current method, telephone, or by e-mail and the Internet.
• Accounts Receivable and Debt Collection

The OSC is in the process of redesigning the accounts receivable and debt collection functions for State government.  The Analysis of the Accounts Receivable Function Within the State of North Carolina report, dated May 8, 1998, included several recommendations to redesign accounts receivable and tax setoff processes and to infuse accounts receivable systems with a greater amount of technology.  Implementing these recommendations would ultimately redesign accounts receivable systems as well as maximize automation and minimize manual processing.  The recommendations provide four phases in order for the State to fulfill the minimum requirements toward achieving Best Practice standards.  During the 1999 legislative session, the OSC requested expansion funds to move forward with several of the study’s recommendations.  In particular, OSC requested funds to continue analyzing accounts receivable requirements statewide and to design a centralized bad debt collection clearinghouse.
• Electronic Payment (Credit Card) Acceptance
Senate Bill 222 was ratified in July 1999.  One of its key mandates was to allow state agencies to accept credit card payments in conducting government business transactions.  The OSC, working with the State Treasurer and the Office of Information Technology (ITS), has initiated a Credit Card Acceptance Project to establish the State credit card infrastructure and select a credit card processing vendor.   The project team will:
• Identify and document the state’s business requirements;
• Identify and document the technical infrastructure required to support credit card processing;
• Recommend an implementation approach and prepare a Scope Statement to solicit proposals from credit card processing vendors; and
• Assist in evaluating responses and in selecting a credit card processing vendor.
Rapid deployment of the credit card infrastructure is critical to the state’s e-commerce strategy; therefore, it is anticipated that initial contractual arrangements will be determined by January 2000.
• Expansion of DSS

The OSC is upgrading its data warehouse through an expansion of its current client server reporting Decision Support System (DSS).  In this expansion, the DSS will be upgraded to utilize a newer version of Cognos Powerplay, which will allow more data to be extracted from the NCAS general ledger.  In future expansion, the OSC is evaluating a new and more efficient extraction, transformation and loading tool, which should save on processing time and allow even more data to be moved to the DSS environment for reporting.  It is anticipated with this expansion that information relating to vendor payments, inventory, purchasing and inventory can be resident in the DSS support statewide reporting for requirements such as HUB vendor reporting.
• Electronic Purchasing

The state already has a pilot program for the procurement card.  This card allows requesters of goods to acquire those goods quickly, and the card provider (First Union National Bank) pays the vendor quickly.  The bank, in turn, bills the State once per month for its procurement card transactions.

The procurement card definitely has its place, which is to provide timely purchases for employees working outside the office, where it is extremely inconvenient to complete a requisition and wait for a purchase order to be issued.  However, the procurement card has limited controls, and there is a huge loss of detailed data connected with each transaction.  As a result, many companies and governments are moving toward electronic, web-based purchasing, in addition to the procurement card.

Electronic purchasing allows agency requesters to access vendors’ catalogs via the Internet, using a standard requisition format to send orders to the vendor electronically.  Such a system allows agencies to build approval into the process before the order is released to the vendor, and the system also collects data on the transactions as they are entered and released.  These transactions could be paid via an agency credit card, or the vendor could invoice the agency directly.  Like the procurement card, electronic purchasing results in a huge reduction in both the number of purchase orders processed by buyers and the number of invoices processed by accounts payable clerks.  This saves the State money not only in forms, envelopes and postage, but also in time spent by employees handling these transactions.

The scope of electronic purchasing should not be limited to the NCAS alone, but rather should be applied statewide.  Because this kind of process lends itself to term contract transactions, an implementation of electronic purchasing should include not only all State agencies, but also county and local governments who utilize P&C’s term contracts.  As the utilization of this functionality increases, it is likely that the vendors with catalogs available to state agencies will expand beyond term contract vendors.  Indeed, the system could be expanded to include catalogs from vendors with federal contracts whose prices are extended to state governments.

If electronic purchasing is fully implemented, state agencies will have three types of purchasing transactions.  Traditional purchasing will not and should not be eliminated.  Large purchases, where quality is critical and potential savings are great, should be reviewed and bid by competent buyers, resulting in formal purchase orders.  Direct purchases from vendors via the procurement card should remain an option for those state employees whose work takes them out of the office and whose jobs require quick access to goods and services.  Most small purchases, however, will be accomplished via the new electronic purchasing functionality.  The controls that can be applied and the data that is accumulated make this the preferred method for making small purchases, especially term contract purchases.  With electronic purchasing, all agencies, and even local governments, will utilize the same system for accessing vendors’ catalogs and placing small purchase orders.  As an added value, the establishment of vendor catalogs for small purchases allows P&C to influence agencies’ purchases toward HUB vendors.

• Imaging and Document Management

An imaging system allows users to store images of documents in electronic file format for retrieval whenever needed.  These files would be stored on the mainframe, and could be accessed and viewed by NCAS administrators and users while on-line.  These are not documents created in the NCAS, which are already in electronic format, but rather paper documents which would be scanned and converted to electronic files.  Each image file would be identified with the key that can be matched to key information entered on a particular NCAS screen.

There are a number of documents that are candidates for imaging.
 

1. Vendor questionnaire responses (Payment Verification Forms) with vital 1099 and HUB information are processed and then filed.  There are several hundred thousand of these, and filing and retrieving consumes a lot of time.  Images of these forms could be stored on the mainframe and viewed from the main vendor screen.
2. Vendor invoices are recorded and filed in accounts payable.  When there is a price discrepancy between the invoice and the purchase order, the buyer would like to see the invoice before negotiating a settlement with the vendor.  A stored image of the invoice would allow the buyer to view the document while on-line.
3. Even though the NCAS stores an electronic purchase order, it retains only the most recent version.  If the buyer has issued any change notices, the system overwrites the previous version, and the information is gone forever.  An image of each PO version could be stored and viewed by the buyer whenever required.
4. Images of travel and advance authorizations could be stored and displayed during reimbursement processing.
5. Agencies’ budget revision authorizations could be imaged and displayed in BC or even FC.

• New Reporting Model (GASB Statement 34)

For over fifteen years, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has been working on a project to change the framework of financial reporting for state and local governments.  By unanimous vote, the GASB issued the most comprehensive accounting standard ever developed - GASB Statement No. 34, in June 1999.  This new standard will make governmental financial reports easier to understand and will provide more useful information to anyone with an interest in public finance - legislators, bond raters, the media, investors, creditors, resource providers, and citizens.  However, to bring about the implementation of GASB Statement 34 will require significant effort by the OSC and State government as a whole through financial system modifications, policy and procedural changes, infrastructure documentation and required staff training.

Some of the more significant changes include the following. Consolidated, government-wide financial statements will now accompany the more traditional fund-based financial statements.

The new government-wide Statement of Net Assets will include not just current assets and liabilities but also capital assets and long-term debt.  Therefore, it will include the cost of buildings and infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, and general obligation debt. Governments will be required to report depreciation expense for all their capital assets, including infrastructure assets.  For the first time, governmental financial reports will include an objective, "plain English" narrative section referred to as Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A).  This section will introduce the basic financial statements and will provide an analytical overview of the government's financial performance for the year.  The focus on Major Individual Funds will be on a government's most important or "major" individual funds, including a government's general fund. Data on the less important or "nonmajor" funds will be aggregated into a single "other" column, regardless of fund type.  The State of North Carolina will have at least 3 major funds: the General Fund, the State Highway Fund, and the Highway Trust Funds.  GASB Statement 34 is effective beginning with fiscal year 2002.

• Host-On-Demand

Host On Demand is designed to provide a low cost Web-to-Host solution for internet and Web users who require occasional access to mainframe applications.  Host On Demand is a Java based solution that offers Telnet 3270 emulation for up to two mainframe sessions concurrently.  Access is achieved by clicking on a link from the user's web browser.  In it's simplest format, no changes to the host application or programming are required.  In this format, Host On Demand is a different view of exactly the same data, with exactly the same functionality as the mainframe.  However, it is a graphical presentation and has a PC look and feel.

In addition to Host On Demand, IBM offers Host Publisher.  Host Publisher is a product that allows users to extend the functionality of their mainframe applications.  It is with Host Publisher that fields from multiple host screens can be combined onto a single Host On Demand window.  Further, extraneous fields can be eliminated, and field literals can be made more meaningful.