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Orange County page 9 <br />Needs Assessment Project <br />APPENDIX A. EXAMPLES OF .DETAILED ISSUES <br />This list of specific issues is designed to illustrate a selection of current issues that serve to limit <br />the efficiency and effectiveness of service within County operations. This list is not an a11- <br />inclusive detailing of existing issues and, therefore, should not be seen as comprehensive. <br />SYSTEM-WIDE: <br />Issue 1: Many of the current applications do not maintain historical information. Once <br />the latest information is entered into a system, the previous information is overwritten <br />instead of azchived. <br />Issue 2: The systems do not have the capability to perform the ad-hoc queries needed for <br />analysis. With this lack of functionality, this gathering of information becomes a manual <br />process. <br />Issue 3: Since the current applications are not integrated there is no shared database for <br />storing recorded information. This forces departments to maintain duplicate copies of <br />files and transactions. For example, to ensure accurate processing and tracking, copies <br />of purchase orders aze kept in Purchasing, Finance and the requesting department. <br />Issue 4: The proper management of each department requires the ability to perform <br />`what-if analyses to determine the impact of different financial decisions. The County's <br />applications currently have no ability to perform this type of analysis. This function <br />would be invaluable during the annual Budget process when assessing the potential <br />impact of varying revenue projections vs. proposed expenditures. Additionally, many <br />packaged products have the ability for employees to perform "what-if' inquiries for <br />themselves. This might be particulazly useful to them when they try to determine the <br />impact of health insurance costs, or of putting additional pre-tax money in a 401K plan, <br />etc. <br />Issue S: The applications were built using chazacter-based technology, which results in <br />display screens that are difficult to read. Unlike Windows-based screen presentation, <br />these displays are very limited in the amount of information that can be placed on the <br />screen. For this reason, codes aze often utilized in an effort to display more of the needed <br />information. This increases the difficulty for the user, particulazly those who do not work <br />with the data daily and may not understand the codes. This can also result in keying <br />en:ors. <br />