SAP ERP Implementation Helps USDA Modernize

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was established to provide leadership in the areas of food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development and other issues. The USDA Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) sought to modernize the aging systems within the departmental, financial, administrative payment and program and general ledger systems of the USDA.

The purpose of the modernization was to address specific challenges and opportunities the organization was facing in its financial management environment. The organization turned to SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) to leverage the high-quality financial and performance information captured in its systems to make decisions that affect policy, management, stewardship and programs.

With the implementation of the SAP ERP solution, the organization was able to consolidate and modernize platforms in order to eliminate the need to operate and maintain specific USDA legacy feeder systems and the data warehouse necessary to produce the timely external financial statements managed throughout the organization.

SAP’s ERP was selected to replace the legacy mainframe system. The USDA preferred the advanced, web-based financial management system in the SAP ERP as it complies with federal accounting and system standards. The ERP solution also provides the USDA with general accounting funds management and financial reports.

As a result of the SAP ERP implementation, the USDA has been able to improve program delivery and internal and external communications to better serve all USDA constituents. The organization was also able to eliminate the duplication in processes and disparate systems, standardize its practices and provide the entire agency with the business agility necessary to drive better decision making processes.

Overall, the organization has been able to not only modernize with the SAP ERP platform, but also to leverage a strong return on investment by streamlining internal processes to deliver better efficiency.