Procurement Shadow System Comparison

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

ARTS Shadow System Detailed Report

Requisitioning

Travel

P-card

PRS Shadow System Detailed Report

Requesters

Routers (Approvers)

Purchasing

AIMS Shadow System Detailed Report

Purchasing Module

Bids Module

Invoicing Module

Travel Module

Research Module

Leases Module

Cost Comparison

MFMP

ARTS

PRS

AIMS

ARTS Shadow System Detailed Report

The Automated Requisition Tracking System (ARTS), is the requisitioning system currently utilized by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD). DCF handles the majority of the purchasing for APD. The system is housed on the DCF Intranet and developed and maintained by DCF’s internal IT department.

Access to ARTS is assigned to a user by the ARTS system administrator and each user is assigned system permissions through the use of different roles.

To add vendors into the ARTS system, a vendor must first register with MFMP then the ARTS system administrator adds the vendor into the ARTS system. If vendors make changes to their MFMP registration information, the updates are not automatically transmitted to ARTS; the ARTS system administrator would need to make updates to DCF’s system.

ARTS’ main functions include requisitioning, travel, and P-card approval.

This graphic illustrates the ARTS procurement process:

Requisitioning

The purchasing process begins with a requester’s need for a good and a field requester submitting a request to the Purchasing Office in the form of a requisition. ARTS identifies requisitions by type: P-card, Blanket, Emergency, and Regular. The requisition process in ARTS is similar to the process in MFMP (without the automated workflow that MFMP offers) however the largest difference is that ARTS does not accommodate attachments.

Purchasing reviews the request (after obtaining supervisory approval) in ARTS and ensures purchasing rules are followed and approves the requisition. E-mail notifications are generated, alertingapprovers an item is in their approval queue. The purchasing office then creates and issues the purchase order through MyFloridaMarketPlace. If the order requires encumbering, MFMP encumbers the funds in FLAIR.

The receiving process in ARTS is also very similar to MFMP; however ARTS requires an approval flow for their receipts. Once goods are received in ARTS by the end user, Finance and Accounting completes the receipt in MFMP based on the information in ARTS.

Travel

Our understanding is that ARTS allows a traveler to input their P-card charges incurred while traveling and works with the P-card module to obtain approval.

P-card

ARTS enables users to input their P-card charges and obtain Level 4 (L4) and Level 8 (L8) P-card approvals. It also works with the travel portion of ARTS for approval of travel P-card charges.

Once charges are approved in ARTS, approvals must be made in the P-card module of FLAIR. There is no interface between ARTS and FLAIR.

An interface does exist with ARTS and the Supply Inventory Management System (SIMS) and DCF feels that this property management portion of ARTS is very valuable.

Department of Children and Families Business Process:

PRS Shadow System Detailed Report

The Purchase Requisition System (PRS), the requisitioning system currently utilized by the Florida Department of Corrections (DC) and the Florida Parole Commission (FPC), is housed on the DC Intranet and developed and maintained by DC’s internal IT department.

Users access PRS through a network ID. Each user role/permission (Requisitioner, Purchasing, etc.) requires you to logout and uniquely log back in under the different role. Users keep up with their own profile maintenance by changing it themselves, which is laterapproved by system administrators.

This graphic illustrates the PRS procurement process:

Requesters

The purchasing process begins with a requester’sneed for a good and a field requester submitting a request to the purchasing office in the form of a requisition. Additional details regarding PRS Requisitions include:

  • Denotes whether this purchase utilizes federal funds or state funds
  • Recycled Products Indicator on each line item
  • Requires MSDS sheet for toxic/hazardous materials
  • Requires a Contract Manager for requisitions with 900-000 series commodity codes (which indicate services)
  • Comments section is internal only
  • Free text Commodity Code and Object Code fields
  • Routes to IT for approval and creation of an IRR ; Also includes a field indicating the IRR number
  • History shows date and time of most changes made, however it does not record text changes i.e. line item description
  • Supports attachments (as an intranet based system, confidential information can be attached)
  • Requester enters “Estimated Cost,” and once Purchasing obtains quotes the actual price can be entered
  • Requisitions can be copied so that users can easily create similar requisitions quickly

Routers (Approvers)

Routers or Approvers include supervisors, IT, and the Budget Office. Routers review and approve requisitions to ensure that the purchase is necessary, is compatible with other agency equipment, and ensures budget is available, etc.

Purchasing

Purchasing reviews the request in PRS and ensures that purchasing rules are followed and approves the requisition. The Purchasing Office then creates and issues the purchase order through MFMP. If the order requires encumbering, MFMPencumbers the funds in FLAIR. Once the order is issued to the vendor by MFMP, the Purchasing Office records the MFMP order number on the PRS requisition. Additional details regarding PRS Purchasing duties include:

  • Denies single line items rather than the entire requisition
  • Enter the Actual Cost of the line items once the quotes are obtained
  • Issue a DC Purchase Order in case of an emergency (DC estimates they have issued less than 5 in the past year)

Receiving is completed through Central Receivers in MFMP. Dept. of Corrections utilizes the invoicing portion of MFMP to complete disbursements.

Regional training is conducted on the PRS system.

NOTE: PRS utilizes the DC Intranet rather than the internet due to the fact that most correctional institutions do not have internet access within the walls of the institution. MFMP identified that DC uses MyFloridaNet for their intranet which is what DMS also uses. MFMP offered, at no cost to Corrections, to make MFMP available on their intranet.

Department of Corrections Business Process:

AIMS Shadow System Detailed Report

The Administration Image Management System, (AIMS),an Internet based procure-to-pay system currently utilized by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DOACS), is an Oracle application and began in 2001 and was developed and continues to be maintained by Image API. AIMS is comprised of six modules:

  • Purchasing (Requisitions, Purchase Orders, and Receiving Reports)
  • Bids (Electronic Bid Records)
  • Research (System Searches)
  • Leases (Not currently utilized by Dept. of Agriculture)
  • Invoicing(Disbursements)
  • Travel (Both Authorization and Payment)

This report focuses mainly on the Purchasing and Payment modules. This graphic illustrates the AIMS procurement process:

Purchasing Module

Access to AIMS is permission-based andis administered by the purchasing office. There are security features built into AIMS to allow for separation of duty ( i.e. requesters and contract managers cannot be the receiver for a particular order). While user manuals are provided, training is not offered to agency staff on how to use AIMS.

The purchasing process begins with a requester’sneed for a good and a field requestersubmitting a request to the purchasing office in the form of an electronic requisition. While AIMS has some drop-down choice fields, many are free text. The only accounting fields required on an AIMS requisition are the organizational code (access is not restricted based on a user’s profile), expansion option, and object code. These fields are checked for validity with FLAIR. Unique features of AIMS include:

  • Uses a 16-digit commodity code
  • The “Notes” or comments section is internal only and can be deleted easily if necessary
  • Auto-generates an IRR form as required for IT purchases
  • Free text Bid Number field
  • Requisitions can be saved as “templates” so that users can easily create similar requisitions quickly
  • Creates a requisition with an item discount
  • No restrictions on change orders

The purchasing office edits all fields and maintains the choice tables which dictate the choices available to users in the drop-down boxes. They also have a “Tracking” button which shows all requisitions in “Submitted” status. There are several standard reports available to assist the purchasing office, including a Processing Workload report.

Purchasing reviews the request and ensures that purchasing rules are followed and approves the requisition. The purchasing office then creates and issues the purchase order through AIMS. Prior to final approval, the delivery address needs to be recorded (the address is not pre-populated). Purchase Order documents are auto-generated by AIMS; they are then printed, signed, and transmitted to the vendor via fax or traditional mail. Purchase Order number range is selected by purchasing at the start of each fiscal year. AIMS has an extensive document management system; all documents associated to a requisition have a scannable barcode so that if items are printed and altered they can easily be scanned and attached to the appropriate transaction. Documents can also be e-mailed to non-AIMS users through the system. The document management portion of AIMS is very comprehensive and well developed; storage is not an issue, even with the many documents stored. Document management may have been the main focus of the system.

Receipts (generated for all commodities) are completed by receivers and cannot be completed by the requester or the contract manager. For services, the system creates a Contract Services Summary which is similar to a Partial Payment Log. AIMS also offers the ability to identify a contract manager.

Bids Module

While this module includes the technical ability to have a requisition with an approval flow for purchases over $25,000, Agriculture does not to utilize this functionality.

Agriculture uses the module as a document management tool for their solicitation documents. It works with their Contract Administration Tracking System or CATS, which is a separate system.

Requisitions created against solicitations can import bid documents from the Bids Module.

Invoicing Module

Invoices are generated in the system by fiscal representatives. They are input to AIMS and then to Finance and Accounting for auditing and approval. Additional details regarding AIMS Invoices includes:

  • Based on the encumbrance number, the system will auto-populate the Vendor FEID and location or sequence and encumbrance amount
  • Partial Pay screens show all payments related to that encumbrance
  • Does not automatically pre-audit the Invoice by comparing the invoice with the Purchase Order and Receipt (if applicable)
  • Invoices do not allow users to add lines that are not on the Purchase Order
  • Ability to restore encumbrances for Invoices that fail to disburse
  • Disbursements are sent to FLAIR via a batch process initiated by a user in the Finance and Accounting Office
  • FLAIR failures generate a failure report which is monitored by the agency
  • Copies of Voucher Schedules are batch imported
  • Warrants are scanned in and then indexed with the appropriate disbursement
  • Ability to process Journal Transfers (JT’s) for payments to other state agencies

A User Manual is posted and maintained for user training.

Department of Financial Services (DFS) has access to AIMS to review documents for audit purposes.

Travel Module

This module is an online version of the DFS travel forms for travel authorizations and travel reimbursements. This system does not interface with the FLAIR P-card module; therefore P-card transactions must be manually entered into the system. Additional details regarding AIMS travel includes: :

  • Approvals are obtained through electronic approvals and not paper signatures
  • Alerts if the hotel price exceeds the $150 limit
  • Calculates meals and per diem based on length of stay
  • Supporting documentation can be saved to the travel documents

DFS has access to AIMS to review documents for audit purposes.

Research Module

This allows the user to search for transactions based on PO number, contract number, and other transactional information.

Leases Module

Not currently utilized by the Department of Agriculture.

Cost Comparison

Cost information available for each of the compared systems, including MFMP is detailed below:

MFMP

The current cost of the MFMP contract is $14.8 million per fiscal year. Salary costs for the DMS MFMP team total approximately $360,000 per fiscal year.

Currently 32 State agencies utilize MFMP including the support, maintenance, and customer service desk at no cost to the agencies.

DMS pays for both the DMS MFMP team and the contract cost via the revenue generated from the 1% transaction fee.

ARTS

ARTS currently uses utilizes one FTE in the IT section to support the AIMS application, costing an estimated $90,000 per fiscal year. The IT Helpdesk also supports ARTS questions (along with other DCF systems).

It is unknown what hardware including servers, etc. that is utilized to run ARTS and the cost to maintain that equipment; however, that cost should be considered in the total cost of the ARTS system.

Presently, DCF staff creates a requisition in ARTS and approves it, withthe purchasing office re-entering therequisition into MFMP and approving it to issue a Purchase Order (PO). The estimated cost of this duplicated effort is below:

Transaction / Estimated Administrative Cost for FTE / Estimated Time to re-enter in MFMP / Estimated Number of PO’s/Receipts for DCF/APD in FY 08/09 / TOTAL ESTIMATED COST FOR DUPLICATIVE EFFORT
Requisitions / $ 30.00/hour / 15 min / 8,952 / $67,140
Receipts / $30.00/hour / 7 min / 16,000 / $56,000
TOTAL / $123, 140

DCF is exploring the possibility of an upgrade to ARTS which would result in a total re-platform of the system. This would result in a onetime large cost.

ARTS is paid for from the DCF budget.

PRS

PRS utilizes one-half FTE in the IT section to support the PRS application costing an estimated $45,000 per fiscal year.

Currently it is unknown what hardware including servers, etc. that is utilized to run PRS and the cost to maintain that equipment; however, that cost should be considered in the total cost of the PRS system.

Presently, DC staff also creates a requisition in PRS and approves it, with the purchasing office re-entering the requisition into MFMP and approving it to issue a PO. The estimated cost of this duplicated effort is below:

Estimated Administrative Cost for FTE / Estimated Time to re-enter requisition in MFMP / Number of PO’s issued by DC in FY 08/09 / TOTAL ESTIMATED COST
$ 30.00/hour / 15 min / 39,000 / $292,500

PRS is paid for from the DC budget.

AIMS

As stated earlier, AIMS was developed and is partially maintained by a contracted vendor. In the last 5 full fiscal years the DOACS has paid Image API more than $3.5 million.

FY 05 / $707,448.65
FY 06 / $726,473.04
FY 07 / $967,308.78
FY 08 / $614,025.36
FY 09 / $412,503.66
FY 10 (as of December 2009) / $279,471.42
TOTAL / $3,707,230.91

NOTE: This is a summary of all spend between DOACS and Image API, it is possible that some of this spend is not exclusively related to AIMS

Due to the fact that AIMS prints, signs, and then mails their Purchase Orders,it is estimate that it would cost $1.00 per PO for an estimated 5,000 PO’s issued per fiscal year for a total estimated cost of $5,000 additional dollars per FY. This $1.00 per PO includes:

  • Paper for the PO
  • Envelopes
  • Postage
  • Administrative time in printing and mailing

Currently it is unknown what hardware including servers, etc. that is utilized to run AIMS and the cost to maintain that equipment; however, that cost should be considered in the total cost of the AIMS system.

AIMS is paid for from the DOACS budget.

December 20091