The Bottom Line - Winter 2019 - 5

CFO'S JOURNAL
Since SOAR's implementation and stabilization, it has been a reasonably reliable
system that does our accounting and helps
us produce our Comprehensive Annual
Financial Report (CAFR) on time, but considerable resources and effort are required.
It does not have a treasury management
system to oversee our debt and investments
or a grants management system to administer the large value of grants the District oversees in our roles as city, county, state and
school district.
Any reporting or other added enhancements are accomplished through "bolt
on" programs that use SOAR data. The
new modern systems are integrated, provide information in real-time, and have a
sleeker presentation of information, closer to
Windows or what you might see using your
smart phone. They provide functions far
beyond just the processing and reporting of
accounting and budgeting information. The
SOAR system is like an old flip phone, probably more like a rotary dial phone, that can
reliably make calls but not much more. The
new system we are moving to is more like a
new iPhone or the latest Smart phone that
can do a great deal more. For those of you
over 40, do you still carry around a calculator, paper maps, a camera, your calendar,
voice recorder, music player, photo album,
flashlight and a newspaper? Smart phones
have made these accessories obsolete.

Beyond a modernized look and feel, the
new systems are necessary to provide the
information, services, transparency, and efficiencies for the OCFO and the District to be
"best in class" in the 21st Century.
The old system sits on a Mainframe computer written in a language with code that
cannot be updated. The new system will sit
on a cloud server using modern tools and
will be updated every three to four months
by Oracle. We will always have the most
recent updates with the latest security
enhancements. The old system is customized solely for the District. The new system
will reflect constant enhancements from
lessons learned by users across the United
States and the World that we can benefit
from. We will update our business process
to take full advantage of these new technologies This means we will always be in "best
of class" status when it comes to our financial systems and tools which is what our
employees deserve.
In the old system, we rely on batch processing as of a point in time. In the new
system, you will be able to "drill down" all
the way to the source documents in real
time. This will give us better transparency,
less reliance on paper documentation,
and less risks for fraud. The current SOAR
system is minimally interfaced with the
PASS procurement system. SOAR will be
replaced while PASS will be updated and

WINTER 2019 | 5

The Bottom Line - Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bottom Line - Winter 2019