IFMIS Acquisition
Principles
Office of Technical Assistance
U.S. Treasury
Budget Team Recommendations
Donna Lewis and Rich Bartholomew
Washington, DC, May 17 2007
General Rule: Go Slowly
Develop systems over a long time line,
based on user need and capacity
Go Slowly
Stretch out the acquisition and
implementation schedule.
New modules (functions) should be added
over a fairly long period of time.
Pre-planning for a system may well take more
time than the actual implementation
Take Time to Assure Usefulness
IFMIS DEVELOPMENT Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8
Explore IFMIS options
Document current practices
Procurement of Design X
Design Phase
Procurement of
Implementation X
Train, Test, Implement
and phase in modules
Go Slowly
Assure the integrity of data planned to go
into the system before it is implemented
Assign a unit coordinator/advocate to
represent every organizational unit
affected. This will become a full time job.
Thoroughly document the current
operating procedures prior to development
Beware of the Big Bang!
"Big Bang" approaches (many modules implemented in a
relatively short period of time) carry very high risks that
administrative procedures, staff training, etc. won't keep
up with the new system
Specific Principles
1. Assure full country ownership of all
installed software and systems
Specific Principles
2. Insist on "interoperability" of systems and
programming
similarto the stipulation used by some states.
require all vendors to supply systems and
modules that can work together
demand that new or upgraded systems
accept word processing and spreadsheet
documents commonly used in a country for
budget preparation and reporting
Specific Principles
3. Separate design procurements from
implementation procurements
Specific Principles
4. Require stringent up front estimates of the
operational/maintenance costs (including
ongoing training and reprogramming)
which will be required after build out
Specific Principles
5. Include more regional and medium size
vendors, not just giant international firms
in the bidding process
Specific Principles
6. Do not accept forced changes in business
procedures primarily to accommodate new
software or "off the shelf" solutions.
Do not fit the process to the system
Fit the system to the process!