4-page Case Study - Posted 11/30/2007

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City of Waconia

Growing Municipality Increases Efficiency and Improves Regulatory Compliance

The City of Waconia, Minnesota, a fast-growing municipality located just west of Minneapolis, faced the challenges of streamlining its accounting system and providing more government services over the Internet. The city was using multiple software systems to manage its accounting, budgeting, and utility-billing information. But these systems were not integrated and lacked the scalability Waconia needed to accommodate growth. To improve accounting, increase workflow efficiency, and streamline service delivery, Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Diamond Municipal Solutions helped the city implement Microsoft Dynamics™ GP business management software, and then enhanced this solution with customized Diamond utility-billing and eGovernment software. Now, the City of Waconia generates improved financial reports in less time and is more accountable and responsive to its citizens.

Microsoft Dynamics GP and the integrated solutions from Diamond Municipal Solutions have given us the tools we need to handle the challenges of growth while providing better service to our citizens. Jennifer Schwinn, Director of Business Development, City of Waconia

Situation

Located 34 miles west of Minneapolis, the City of Waconia has consistently been one of Minnesota’s fastest-growing municipalities, experiencing annual population increases of up to 20 percent since the early 1990s. This remarkable growth reflects the ever-widening perception of Waconia as a desirable place to live and work. But it has also placed a tremendous burden on the municipal government. Substantial residential and commercial development and a steady rise in the number of city-managed utility accounts have created a more complex accounting and reporting environment. In addition, as the population has expanded, constituent demand for better infrastructure, faster service delivery, and a more accountable government has risen.

Comprised of 134 employees, the City of Waconia municipal government oversees the delivery of a range of services, from community development projects to utility services. This includes managing billing and collection for 3,500 utility accounts. Charges for city-provided utilities, such as water and sewer services, are an important source of income for the City of Waconia, contributing more than 25 percent of the municipality’s total annual revenue. This means that efficient management of the billing and collections process for these services is a crucial part of the city’s fiscal strategy and always a top priority.

The progressive-minded citizens of Waconia—with an average age of just over 33 years old—have given momentum to the perennial push to streamline service delivery. In various public forums and in a steady stream of e-mail message requests to City Hall, a growing number of Waconia residents have expressed strong interest in adding more online services to the city’s government infrastructure. They have specifically mentioned a desire to access their utility account information and pay their monthly utility bills over the Internet.

The City of Waconia had been using several different software systems to manage its fund-accounting, budget management, and billing processes, but realized that these systems could no longer keep pace with the city’s current needs. Its fixed assets were managed using spreadsheets instead of a database. In addition, the software it used to manage its financials was not integrated with the rest of its system, making reporting extremely time consuming. Online utility bill payment was virtually impossible with the old system. Report generation and other basic business activities were further hindered by the lack of an efficient means of communicating information between various departments.

In addition, the city had no dedicated system for fixed asset accounting, which meant that the city’s business management team often had to consult paper-based purchase and maintenance records to make general ledger adjustments. From 2001 to 2006, independent auditors cited conditions of noncompliance, reflecting the city’s urgent need to improve its accounting and financial reporting. 

City officials recognized the critical need to meet regulatory compliance requirements. Employees wanted to avoid sifting through paperwork and sought a better way to share information, and citizens expressed a keen desire for greater government transparency and responsiveness.

Solution

To address the need for better accounting and financial reporting, more efficient interdepartmental communication, and improved service delivery to constituents, the City of Waconia turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Diamond Municipal Solutions. With U.S. headquarters in Fargo, North Dakota, Diamond Municipal Solutions develops and deploys solutions tailored to the unique needs of municipalities nationwide. Diamond Municipal Solutions helped the City of Waconia deploy Microsoft Dynamics™ GP business management software, and then enhanced this solution with its customized utility-billing and eGovernment software. The company also integrated the city’s financial systems with other existing municipal systems, such as public works and parks, and recreation management.

The City of Waconia needed a fast-track deployment to resolve deficiencies in its financial system—a concern that was identified by the Business Development and Finance department and cited in the city’s annual audit report. Fargo-based consultants from Diamond Municipal Solutions worked to expedite the implementation process, enabling the city to take immediate steps towards meeting regulatory compliance with auditing standards. “The deployment was incredibly fast paced, especially given all of the customization we had built into our new system. The tight integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP and the Diamond solutions, and the outstanding support we got from the Diamond team definitely helped speed up the deployment process,” says Jody Lechner, IT Technician for the City of Waconia.

Addressing the Critical Need for Better Fiscal Management
The city chose to implement Microsoft Dynamics GP because it needed to quickly integrate and automate its financial systems for improved internal control. Specifically, the city needed to transform its fixed asset management system from a series of spreadsheets to a database-driven system with enhanced capacity for data security and detailed reporting. The city benefits from the extensive functionality of several modules in Microsoft Dynamics GP, such as Business Portal, General Ledger, Fixed Asset Management, and Report Writer, to increase the efficiency of key business processes and enhance the depth and accuracy of its financial reports.

Employees no longer have to selectively extract data from one spreadsheet and manually reenter that information into another spreadsheet to produce reports for internal use, or for presentations to the city council, auditors, and other stakeholders.

Building a Foundation for Future Growth
In addition to addressing the immediate need for improved accounting, internal control, and reporting, the city also wanted a comprehensive solution that offered scalability to accommodate future growth. By integrating customized utility-billing and eGovernment software systems with the city’s new financial system, Diamond Municipal Solutions helped the city meet its goal of streamlining constituent service delivery.

The seamless interoperability of Microsoft Dynamics GP, with the utility-billing software from Diamond Municipal Solutions, has enabled the city to complete its billing and collection process faster with better quality results. Employees input more detailed information into customer account records, which lets them track utility usage more reliably. Because these two systems are completely integrated, the city’s financial team can make updates to the general ledger quickly and easily, without worrying about data entry errors. This integration has also enabled the city to offer an online utility bill payment option. Customers will be able to access their password-protected account information, check their balance, and make payments by credit card—all through the city’s Web site. These payments are automatically entered into the city’s accounting system and are instantly available for reporting, giving employees complete confidence in the documents they create.

The tight integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP and the Diamond solutions, and the outstanding support we got from the Diamond team, definitely helped speed up the deployment process. Jody Lechner, IT Technician, City of Waconia

Improving Information Sharing
A perennial goal of the City of Waconia is to better prepare for the challenges of continued growth by strengthening its internal workflow processes. For years, the city has struggled with operational inefficiency, which stemmed largely from its dependence on unreliable and inflexible technology. For example, before Diamond Municipal Solutions helped the city implement Microsoft Dynamics GP, the city’s budget-planning process relied heavily on the circulation of marked-up spreadsheets and handwritten documents among department managers. Now, the city uses Questica TeamBudget Capital software, which tightly integrates with the rest of the city financials through Microsoft Dynamics GP, to create more accurate and informed budgets in less time, without the risk of losing or compromising data.

To further promote and enhance cross-departmental information exchange, the city has made Business Portal in Microsoft Dynamics GP a vital part of its day-to-day operations. This module gives employees throughout the organization access to the information they need to increase productivity and maximize performance. “With the use of the Business Portal module and the customized solutions from Diamond Municipal Solutions, we’ve built a great technology framework that will support better process management, improved communication, and streamlined service delivery,” says Schwinn.

Benefits

The integrated solutions delivered by Microsoft Dynamics GP and Diamond Municipal Solutions have enabled the City of Waconia to improve its financial system, increase productivity, and streamline its constituent service delivery model.

Improved Accounting Accuracy and Speed
Offering a comprehensive business management package, Microsoft Dynamics GP has helped the city improve the accuracy and efficiency of its accounting system to align with regulatory compliance standards. The most critical area for improvement was the city’s method for fixed asset management. The built-in functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP has enabled employees to perform calculations, such as asset depreciation, in a much more reliable way, helping to avoid costly errors. After using Microsoft Dynamics GP to compile reports for the end-of-year audit, the city’s financial team reduced their total time output by four days.

Increased Productivity
By taking advantage of the seamless interoperability between Microsoft Dynamics GP and the account management solutions from Diamond Municipal Solutions, Waconia employees can now synthesize more information in less time and share that information without delay. Since the city’s financial records—including all utility customer account information—are completely integrated, employees no longer have to manually reenter data to update the general ledger or other financial documents.

In addition, whether members of the finance team need to gather and consolidate information for a report, department managers need to begin preparing budget documents, or a clerk needs to access customer payment information, they can augment the data available at their fingertips with additional information shared throughout the organization. This means that Waconia employees can now make better informed decisions at every turn and complete tasks and projects more quickly. For example, the city can now complete its utility-billing process 47 percent faster.

Enhanced Constituent Service
The combined solution of Microsoft Dynamics GP and the utility-billing and eGovernment software from Diamond Municipal Solutions has enabled the City of Waconia to achieve its goal of improved constituent service delivery. Now, customers can access their utility account information and pay their bills online through the city’s Web site. Using the customized utility-billing solution from Diamond Municipal Solutions, city employees can add detail to customer records and generate billing and payment summaries quickly and easily, enabling them to provide more responsive service to the citizens of Waconia. Further, the flexibility and extensibility of Microsoft Dynamics GP provides a rich platform that will let the city expand its e-government program as demand for these services increases over time.

Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics

For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about City of Waconia products and services, call (952) 442-2184 or visit the Web site at:
www.waconia.org

For more information about Diamond Municipal Solutions products and services, call (701) 232-6631 or visit the Web site at:
www.diamondmunicipal.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.