FAMIS Data Warehouse

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The County’s General Ledger (FAMIS) Data Warehouse business intelligence solution was designed because of a long-standing need for easy and flexible access to financial data in a format that facilitates detailed analysis and forecasting. FAMIS is a 30-year old legacy system that does not allow users “self-service’, making it very difficult for users to query and export data. In a time of budget constraints, the implemented solution made use of existing county infrastructure and standards; therefore providing, with limited financial investment, an expeditious solution to this critical problem. OLF Executive is their business intelligence solution provided by Cogsdale Holdings, Ltd that offers a robust data analysis and reporting architecture based on industry-standard tools from Cognos and informatica. The initial deployment in September 2009 was limited to 12 ‘pilot’ departments and approximately three users per department using 1-year of historical, plus 1-year current data. Currently, they have over eighty users, two years of historical plus current year data. Data is refreshed nightly and verified the next morning. The FAMIS Data Warehouse provides “self-service” online analytical and reporting capabilities for financial data to selected users in departments. Departments now have the necessary tool and framework to perform detailed analysis and forecasting by accessing summary and detailed financial data. This has reduced the efforts required to provide critical financial reports, audit requests, CAFR reports, and public requests.