What We Know Now: A Look into Lessons Learned Implementing Federal Financial Systems Projects

While the financial management community has made significant progress over the years, it continues to face challenges in meeting some of the basic standards for accounting and reporting. Many agencies currently use outdated financial systems that do not support their efforts to improve financial performance and accountability. Efforts made to improve financial systems through upgrades or replacement of current financial systems must be undertaken with planning and care.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently issued Memorandum 10–26, which establishes government-wide policies associated with financial systems modernization. As a follow-up, OMB conducted a review of agency plans for financial modernization and provided recommendations to help ensure consistency with the new policies.

This paper presents ten principles designed to provide insight into effective and efficient strategies on how to best deploy financial management systems in alignment with OMB’s goals and policies, with a focus on optimizing resources and information. We offer these principles based upon lessons learned from multiple financial management system deployments throughout the public sector domestically and abroad.

It is imperative that financial management systems and their modernization
or replacement efforts be managed in an effective, efficient, and transparent manner. Leveraging the ten principles outlined in this paper will help agencies ensure the success of these efforts. Taking a focused look at how to optimize and modernize these systems will not only yield better systems, it will yield better management and provide better accountability for taxpayer dollars.