In January 2020, Sierra-Cedar and Lucas County, Ohio brought live Phase One of the County’s Oracle Cloud investment: Oracle Financials, Procurement, and Budgeting Cloud Services. Weeks later COVID-19 hit, and operations changed overnight for the County’s 3,200 employees. On May 21, Oracle did a webinar with Lucas County staff and Sierra-Cedar’s Brian Christenson, Vice President of Public Sector Solutions, to discuss how Oracle Cloud allowed the County to not only operate efficiently but also make critical executive decisions during the pandemic. Here are a few highlights from the conversation, including excerpts from Lucas County’s Tony Stechschulte, Director of Accounting and Internal Control, Ellen Lauderman, Chief Accountant, and Alison Carpenter, Assistant Disbursement Director.
“We are 100% paperless at this point and it has been wonderful!” – Tony
Previously, Lucas County’s Disbursements Department manually processed thousands of paper invoices and supporting documents each year. In addition, interdepartmental transactions required heavy foot traffic to deposit checks from each area. County employees are thrilled with Oracle Cloud’s effortless journal entry process and can now devote more time to demanding tasks. Since implementing Oracle Cloud, the County is now 100 percent electronic from digital documentation to communications.
“We can download the documents into Cloud, which is huge.” – Alison
Lucas County staff can now attach documents to the system for auditing and reference, organize digital receipts, transition to paperless dialogues, and much more to meet the dynamic demands of the County. Oracle Cloud has removed factors that previously impacted the environment and consumed resource time.
“Oracle (Cloud) is lightyears faster than the old PeopleSoft.” – Ellen
Before Oracle Cloud, remotely accessing PeopleSoft was complicated and the system’s responsiveness was lacking. In the office, the performance was not much better. Now with Oracle Cloud, the speed of the system is lightning fast, whether in the office or working remotely. This has been a “game changer” for the County’s administrative staff, particularly when they all began working remotely in mid-March. Prior to Oracle Cloud, the County believes this operating model would have been impossible.
“Live data, live reports, in one stop.” – Tony
County users develop and access reports without the need for a third-party application. Furthermore, users consume reports with real-time information anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Sierra-Cedar was proud to help Lucas County go live with Oracle Cloud as well as boost the confidence of its everyday users and superusers alike. The County now takes advantage of the continuous improvement provided by Oracle’s Quarterly Updates, reaching new heights along the way.
To listen to the entire webinar click here. To discuss Oracle Cloud options for your organization, email us today.