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A 2001 Case Study: Litton
By Dawn Marie Yankeelov
Private sector players can still snare lucrative web projects in federal
havens, even as dotcoms continue to bomb in the private sector.
Signs of progress toward the “new economy” continue in government
with automation in human resource planning. Most prominent
in the headlines continues to be the U.S. Treasury award of a program
management and support services contract potentially valued at $110 million
to PRC, a Litton Industries subsidiary. This spending, begun in
May 2000, insured the replacement of more than 100 legacy systems for
personnel and payroll functions. The contract typifies the new breed
of ERP implementations in the federal landscape—modular approaches
with cohesive, experienced consulting that follows the project through
all locations. Northrop Grumman Corp. saw the value in PRC/LITTON
and completed its $5.1 billion purchase of all tendered shares of Litton
Industries Inc. in April 2001.
PRC/LITTON’s contract with the Treasury reflects on the competency
of an earlier ERP system in 1998 at the Department of Energy for human
resources on time. Other customers of PRC/LITTON adding ERP in recent
years include: the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the U.S. Space
Alliance.
Under the Blanket Purchase Agreement signed, Litton will provide program
management and systems integration support services at the 14 different
U.S. Treasury Bureaus. PRC/LITTON has more than 80 offices worldwide
offering its information technology consulting, and is ranked as one of
the federal government’s top 10 contractors.
The Litton work for U.S. Treasury and its 14 different bureaus actually
began in 1998 with Litton handling program management and PriceWaterHouseCoopers
handling system integration. But a review in the Summer of 1999,
showed that having two vendors wasn’t working as well as anticipated.
So, in the Fall 1999 Litton recompeted for the entire contract and won
in May 2000.
“While $110 million sounds like a great deal of money for an HR ERP
implementation, the special security requirements of the U.S. Treasury
add to the complexity of the job. In light of the reach of security
necessary, the award seems reasonable, if anything modest, “ according
to Stephen Arnold, president of Arnold Information Technology, a web consulting
firm who handles federal government contract work, including technical
review services for firstgov.gov.
In 1999 and 2000, efforts were made to bring online four and the fourteen
bureaus: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); Departmental Offices (DO); and
a payroll interface to the Finance Center; and the Secret Service.
The front end architecture of Peoplesoft 8 with the backend architecture
of 7.51 is currently in use.
This year a focus was placed on using Peoplesoft portal technology available
with Peoplesoft 8 in beta at the Departmental Offices of the U.S. Treasury
in D.C. “This gave a desktop standard to managers’ work
lists; employees’ work list; showed weather, mail and treasury identity.
We expect to stay current with the technology, and we are fortunate that
Todd Turner, the program manager for the U.S. Treasury, understands their
work process today and where it needs to go in the future,” explained
Christina Williams, HR Connect Program Manager from PRC/LITTON/Litton.
She added that the U.S. Treasury has a diverse population which has presented
its own challenges. “We deal with people who are not tech-literate
and use carbon paper with typewriters. We are doing a great deal of training
in the next six to 12 months with short-term and long-term goals,”
Williams said.
VP of Enterprise Solutions for PRC/LITTON/Litton added, “Access is
a big issue. All bureaus had proprietary systems and the Peoplesoft
implementation is supporting one line of code for all.” This
creates an automated work flow and an opportunity for analysis and growth
in career opportunities, he added.
Acceptance has been hard-won through training and the Human Resource specialists
now using the Peoplesoft tools are provided with a layered approval process
easing workflow. Feedback comes through the assembled HR Advisory
Council now in place at the U.S. Treasury. Some offices have requested
they be moved up in their “go live” dates, such as the Federal
Law Enforcement Training Center. “Momentum is spreading and
we do support all our efforts with extensive internal public relations
and marketing,” Williams said. She suggested that one of the
more successful marketing ploys has been a pocket CS demo disk and an
updated website showing status and timeline for implementation work.
Training classes have been opened to anyone working in the bureaus converting.
At this time about 15,000 employees are serviced, with as many as 200,000
federal employees expected when the full implementation is complete into
2003.
“The technology itself is not rocket science, but what makes it complex
is working with people across 14 different bureaus with different missions.
The support from U.S. Treasury workers and Peoplesoft has been exemplary,”
Williams said.
Dawn Marie Yankeelov writes frequently for Faircount International and
owns ASPectx, a marketing and web consulting firm based in Louisville-Ky.,
for Fortune 1000 clients, trade associations and government accounts,
which includes an ASP Knowledgebase. For more information contact,
dawny@aspectx.com.
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