Agenda - 06-14-2001-4d - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Needs Assessment Project Page 12 with non-standard information from vendor to vendor. A purchasing system that is Web- enabled to allow the vendor to enter all information online, including commodity codes for all applicable offerings, would result in an efficient process for maintaining a standardized vendor database. This would enable the;.County to consistently request bids and proposals from all registered vendors that offer the desired good or service. Issue 4: Vendors frequently contact Purchasing to request a modification to a purchase order. Purchasing generally makes the .adjustment, which requires updated pricing, inclusion of freight charges, etc. A standard purchase order system could be configured to prompt the requesting department for ancillary chazges such as freight or sales tax. BUDGETING: Issue 1: The current budget system was created in-house by Budget staff and integrates Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. The system utilizes source spreadsheets containing amounts for individual line items in each department. In order to summarize that information at various levels, (functional, category, fund), it is necessary to create . links from the source ,spreadsheet. This causes the system to be very fragile and labor intensive. For example, with the creation of a new department, Budget staff must manually update all summary spreadsheets to include the new links. In addition, staff must constantly check to ensure that all "checks and balances" are in place at all times.. Issue 2: Budget data (including requested, recommended, approved and final actual amounts) must be manually entered into each department's individual source spreadsheet. As part of an integrated solution, historic data and budget information would be stored in a shazed database, automatically updating the files in .both the general ledger .and the budget systems. Issue 3: The current budget system has a very limited capability to maintain different versions of the budget. For example, during budget prepazation, it is important that staff be able to perform "what-if' analyses on different levels of revenues and expenses. With the existing system, the staff time required to perform these analyses is too prohibitive to analyze every desired option. Issue 4: During the yeaz, it is necessary for departments to transfer budgeted funds between operating Iine items. To accomplish this task, the department prepazes a transfer request and forwards it to the Budget department. The Budget staff then manually keys the transfer information into the mainframe general ledger system. ,After creating and posting the batch, the Budget office maintains one copy of the transfer. and returns another copy to the originating department. Anew budget system would, allow departments to make pre-approved line item transfers on-line, reducing the paper and staff time required by the current system. Issue 5: An interface between the Budget system and the Personnel system does not exist. The creatian and maintenance of the annual budget relies heavily on information