mdot overview

The State of Michigan’s Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO) engaged Quantam Solutions in early 2015 to provide project management services supporting the Department of Transportation (MDOT).  The Senior Project Manager was chartered to manage the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) agency specific portion of the Statewide Integrated Governmental Management Application (SIGMA) Project, a multi-million dollar modernization of the State of Michigan’s financial management system, Michigan Administrative Information Network (MAIN).

reduced footprint

Along with the replacement of the State’s legacy financial management system, an essential targeted improvement provided by SIGMA is the reduction of the number of applications supported and interfaced throughout the State of Michigan.  The implementation of SIGMA provides State agencies with the opportunity to replace and retire outdated legacy technology, thus reducing long term system maintenance and support and related costs. 

phase one

SIGMA is organized into three primary phases: Phase 1 addresses budget preparation and development. It establishes legislative tracking, configuration and salary benefit forecasting, and the budget bill and publication of the State budget book.  Phase I is currently scheduled to be completed by October 2015.  

 management

As one of the most impacted agencies, the Senior Project Manager has worked with MDOT to formally identified agency scope of work including interface development, data conversion, and replacement of eight legacy business critical transportation systems. 

ANTIQUATED DISPARATE SYSTEMS

Many of the systems and software applications used by the State of Michigan and MDOT to track and process statewide invoices, payments, and reimbursements from the Federal government are over 25 years old.   Maintenance of these aged disparate systems has continued to grow over time and prohibits efficient integration with modern technology.  

COST SAVINGS

The State of Michigan’s Department of Transportation has long been regarded across the country as a trendsetter in technology utilization, and MDOT recognizes that consolidating and converting to modern technology will save the State millions of dollars.

CGI ADVANTAGE 360 . sigma

The State of Michigan will adopt the CGI Advantage360 as the replacement for its legacy statewide accounting system, employee timekeeping system, and numerous agency systems.  The new system, known as SIGMA  will integrate State systems and provide end-to-end support for statewide administrative functions.  SIGMA will provide important centralization and automation of statewide budget planning processes, financial management, procurement, performance budgeting, and time and expense management.  

CLOUD BASED ERP

The SIGMA solution will result in the replacement of many legacy agency systems, reducing the number of systems requiring support. SIGMA also allows the State to move away from aged internally developed systems to a vendor supported, cloud based, and upgradeable Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solution.

SUCCESSFUL EXECUTION

• Identifying and forming sub-teams responsible for each aspect of this work; assign work; and establish, communicate, and monitor progress and timelines
• Creation of weekly and monthly progress reporting to state project leadership and executives
• Impact assessment to MDOT’s 230+ project and finance systems
• Gap analysis research on eight systems scheduled for replacement to ensure functionality match
• Establishing project team organization and hierarchy

A DAY IN THE LIFE

• Facilitating technical and business solution discussions, and documenting options and conclusions
• Collaborating with technical and business stakeholders to document key project decisions, and turn these into formal decision documents that are routed and signed by executive sponsorship
• Communicating directly with business stakeholders to organize work tasks, provide information about project status and approach
• Identifying, documenting, and escalating issues and risks
• Participating in strategic discussions and decisions regarding project status and the impact of the project on MDOT’s entire project portfolio
• Facilitating structured walk-throughs of required project documentation
• Ensuring that all data mapping to new SIGMA chart of account values is accurate and consistent across all MDOT systems
• Facilitating of stakeholder meetings to build consensus and resolve project issues

SENIOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Senior Project Manager provided strategic as well as tactical management of the data conversion, interface, and system replacement tasks. They were instrumental in identifying and mitigating potential gaps in the solution provided by the SIGMA vendor, and in proposing creative solutions to meeting the stringent government mandated timeline.   Processes and documents introduced by the Senior Project Manager and adopted by the project team have been modeled as best practices and adopted by other agencies involved in the SIGMA projects. 

CONVERSION AND INTERFACE

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for the management of the MDOT data conversion and interface portions of the MDOT SIGMA project.  The Senior Project Manager is engaged in daily tactical and strategic actions and decisions supporting the successful execution of this project.

BENEFITS FOR DECADES

SIGMA will result in a state-side centralization of budget preparation, budget control, project management, fixed asset management, inventory, and procurement.  It will automate and streamline critical Department of Treasury functions and enhance financial transparency and accountability.  MDOT’s portion of this project includes the enhancement, replacement, interfacing of various MDOT systems that will share data with SIGMA.