Financial System Transformation (from FreeBalance to GCFM)

Background

  • The Financial Management Transformation (FMT) program at the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG)/Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) has a mandate to implement a more modern approach to comptrollership by modernizing the financial and material management business model across the government.
  • As part of this mandate, the OCG is leading the delivery of the SAP next-generation S4/HANA enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform for departments that are currently using the FreeBalance financial system.
  • The first version of the solution is scaled to accommodate 18 departments whose FreeBalance financial systems are at risk of failure.
  • LAC is scheduled to onboard as of April 1, 2020.

Consideration

  • Costs associated with the implementation of the GCFM for LAC are currently estimated at $560K over three (3) years. This estimate includes the system built, the support for change management activities, training and project management.
  • The OCG is using an incremental onboarding approach over three (3) years to reduce risk by providing the opportunity to test the system with a small, controlled population of users, prior to any broader deployment. LAC is part of the first cohort to onboard.

Next steps

  • The department will initiate various change management activities with the tools provided by the OCG.
  • Various communication products will be developed to support the implementation of the new system for senior management, managers and employees who will be affected by this change.
  • Financial Services and Procurement Branch will continue to work in close collaboration with the OCG on the various activities required to onboard successfully in April 2020.
  • In Fall 2019, an assessment of the overall schedule and deliverables will be done with the OCG, to determine whether or not we are ready to onboard on April 1, 2020.

Key messages

  • This project supports the transformation agenda of the OCG and TBS.
  • This new system will provide LAC with better analytical tools as well as a solid platform to support its financial management operations in the future.

Contact:

Éric Désautels
Email: eric.desautels@canada.ca
Tel.: 613-415-9614

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