The City of Frederick is the hub of arts, culture, commerce and government within Frederick County. Located less than an hour from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, Frederick is the second largest city in Maryland with 65,000 residents. Frederick offers a balanced and thriving economy, a highly educated workforce, and a quality of life that is nothing short of enviable.

Related 

• Follow the City of Frederick on Twitter: @FredCityGovt
• Keep up with the latest Frederick news and events on the City's Facebook page

She went on to say: "I really applaud John's project management AND communication throughout the effort to virtualize our GEMS applications! He kept everyone totally up to date on progression of activities and next steps - keeping everyone on the same page and in the loop!!  SUPERB!!!"

See What Other Customers Are Saying About Us

"I would like to share some comments about Brent Goetz.  I think it is okay to say that these comments not only come from me but also from entire R&D team of St. Louis. Brent is very prompt in answering St. Louis R&D requests.  He handles them with passion.  He is instrumental in helping us qualify on the newer versions of EAE applications (IC3280 version in particular) and handle the project of converting EAE applications to a new platform, called Agile Business Suite.  This will allow our customers who are comfortable with the GEMS software to stay as long as they like with GEMS.  Brent is very enthusiastic and he promotes his very positive attitude whenever he has a chance. Thanks a lot, Brent; please keep it that way!"

MS Govern Senior Business Analyst Darlene Franck took the City and Borough of Juneau, AK live on the Govern Miscellaneous Billing module this week. This is the latest module to go live on this multi-year enterprise project.

Vice President of Professional Services for MS Govern's TAX/CAMA business, Bill Koperski, migrated the City of Arvada, CO Sales Tax system from Oracle to SQL Server. Arvada went live on SQL Server Monday of this week. Arvada will now enter the next phase of the project and plans to go live with the Govern Public Web Portal, our e-Government services application, this summer.

Way to go team!

As a reminder, the goals of the early adopter program are to:

• Establish the effort and cost of migrating from GEMS to Innoprise
• Understand any gaps that may occur between the GEMS and Innoprise products
• Define feature use
• Build conversion tools and interfaces
• Present our bundled migration solution to you at the 2012 Harris Customer Conference

Johnson County, TX

Johnson County has been an MS Govern customer since 2004 and will be implementing the Innoprise Financial suite(General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Fixed Assets, Central Cash Receipting, and Budget Preparation). Implementation has begun with an estimated go live in Q3 2012. Currently they do not use the GEMS Payroll/Human Resources applications but will implement the Innoprise Payroll/Human Resources/Employee Portal during a phase II implementation plan.
 
Carol Oberlohr spoke with two Johnson County employees who provided their view of how the early adopter program is going so far:
Dan Milam, IT Director for the County said, “For the past two years, Johnson County Information Technology has worked to raise the bar and set the standard for others to follow. We strive to provide exceptional solutions and first class support. Becoming an Innoprise Early Adopter fit within our strategy to deliver the best software we could find at a price we could afford. The move to Innoprise will deliver more functionality, increase end user productivity and reduce help desk costs. We are excited to be chosen as an early adopter and appreciate the opportunity to lead the way.”
 
Kirk Kirkpatrick, County Auditor commented, “The financial user team of Johnson County extensively evaluated the benefits of moving forward with the Innoprise Early Adopter program. We determined that the benefits of getting to experience the user-friendly functionality of the software, as early as possible, and having some early input into additional needed modification, reaping long-term benefits, would surely be to our benefit as well as all future users. Our goal is to make sure our contribution will result in the most user-friendly and efficient software tool that it will prove to meet our needs for many years to come.”

The City of Durango, CO

The City of Durango, CO has been a MS Govern customer since 1997. In addition to using the GEMS modules, the City also uses the GOVERN Community Solution. Durango is upgrading to Innoprise Financials (General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Inventory, and Fixed Assets); Payroll, Human Resources, Employee Portal; CIS, Utility Billing, and Citizen Access (Water, Sewer, and Trash).
 
Although Durango is still in the early stages of planning implementation, Julie Brown, Director of Finance for the City expressed her enthusiasm about the program: “The City of Durango is excited to be involved with the Innoprise Early Adopter program. Being a long-time GEMS customer we were excited to jump on the opportunity to upgrade to the new Innoprise software and look forward to all it can do for us. The new features and functionality that are present in the new software was a large driver in volunteering to be an early adopter.”
 
Durango is also integrating with the System Innovators iNovah Cash Receipting application and the Questica Team Budget, Budget Preparation application.

Want to know more?

You’ll have a chance to speak directly with Julie, Carol, and Vice President of Professional Services, Cheryl Zeier, at the 2012 Harris Customer Conference during our “Early Adopter” round table session. Julie, along with other Durango staff, will discuss the progress of the City’s Innoprise implementation and will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions about it.

Stay tuned for another update next quarter.
 
Sincerely,
Carol Oberlohr, National Inside Sales Representative
MS Govern

"I want to thank you for your true understanding of our small claims process, the new procedure you created for us to reduce the taxes worked perfectly. This makes our job more efficient, quick and easy. Once again it is a pleasure to deal with you and the Govern staff."

Donna has a long history working in municipal government and comes to us most recently from Harris' NorthStar Business Unit.

Donna worked in Municipal Government for 14 years in Massachusetts (6 years with Littleton Light and Water Dept. and 8 years with Concord Municipal Light Plant) as a Business Manager/Accountant prior to joining Harris Computer Systems as an Application Consultant.  She first worked with Harris from 1997 to 2000 implementing the Financial and CIS package at that time. She left Harris to do independent consulting and was hired by WPPI (Wisconsin Public Power Inc.) in 2001 to 2004.  WPPI is a joint action agency for 30 plus Municipal Electric, Water and Gas agencies.  She was hired as a Project Manager to help implement the NorthStar CIS application to 30 of their customers.  In 2004, she returned to Harris Computer Systems as an Application Consultant Implementing the NorthStar CIS product and in 2010, she started implementing the Cayenta Financial system as part of the NorthStar package.

When she is not working, Donna enjoys cooking, reading, working in her vegetable garden, and spending time with her family.

Registration is not yet open, but we are giving MS Govern customers an exclusive opportunity to get a sneak peek at the regular conference agenda and session summaries, as well as the pre-conference line up of courses. Hopefully the information provided at the links below will help you kick start your travel planning and course selections!

• MS Govern Conference Agenda
• MS Govern Session Summaries
• MS Govern Pre-Conference Courses

Conference Details:

When: November 7-9

(Pre-conference dates: November 5-6)

Where: Gaylord Opryland; Nashville, TN

Once again, we will be offering Online Registration for your convenience, and will notify you via email when registration opens.

Each year the Customer Conference brings together staff, customers and business partners from around North America and is an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas, solutions and best-practices.

2011 Conference Feedback

"I just want to take this opportunity to thank [you] all for the most outstanding user conference to date. Every user that attended from the Mat-Su Borough feels the same way - that it was the best we've ever attended. Thank you to all of you again for such a stellar experience."

--Idris Van Sant, Mat-Su Borough, AK

For More Information...

We will communicate additional details about the conference as they become available, and they will also be posted on the Harris Conference page as well as the MS Govern Blog.* Remember to follow along with Conference reminders on Twitter using hashtag #HUC12.

*Select "Customer Conference" as the category on the right-hand sidebar to view all conference-related posts.

Questions? Comments?

Contact Farrell Clancy

Inside the registration packet you'll find all you need to know, including:

• Agenda and Session Descriptions. Our agenda includes one and half days of sessions across most Innoprise modules as well as: ample round table/networking opportunities; technical training; latest release enhancements; tips and tricks; and much, much more! (*Note that our Agenda may be subject to change based on number of registrants per session).
• Instructions for registering. For your convenience, we are offering online registration for this conference. To register, please go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IUG12.
• Instructions for booking your hotel room. The special discounted rate is $99/night + tax. Reservations must be made by June 13, 2012.
• Payment instructions. You can pay the $300 registration fee via check or PO#. If paying by check, please make it out to Innoprise, a division of Harris Computer Systems and mail to:
  62133 Collections Center Drive
  Chicago IL 60693-0621
  If you would like to pay by PO#, you will be able to enter the PO # at the survey link above.
  If your organization will not allow you to pay by check or PO#, please contact Farrell Clancy.

DOWNLOAD THE REGISTRATION PACKET.

CONFERENCE DETAILS

When: July 12-13, 2012

Where: Ameristar Casino Resort Spa, Black Hawk, CO

The Innoprise User Group 2012 is an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas, solutions and best-practices with your colleagues, other Innoprise customers, and Innoprise staff members.

REGISTER TODAY!

Please Note: ***Registration will not be processed until payment is received. Space is Limited! You must register by June 13, 2012.***

Questions? Comments?

Contact Farrell Clancy at fclancy@msgovern.com
Or
Toll-free: 800.383.6029 x335
Direct: 314.275.8877 x335

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in July!

CAFR Statement Series - Net Assets
Joy Richardson will show you how to create the GASB Statement of Net Assets within the CAFR Unlimited financial report writer.
Wednesday, May 2: 2-3pm - Course #CU050212

TS- GEMS GLI TRAINING for FMS/HRMS
Michael Sparks shows the GLI (Generalized LINC interface) process to load data via batch.
Thursday, May 3: 2-3pm - Course # GLI040110

CAFR Statement Series - Activities
Joy Richardson will show you how to create the GASB Statement of Activities within the CAFR Unlimited financial report writer.
Wednesday, May 9: 2-3pm - Course # CU050912

GEMS IT/Administrator Discussion Forum
This session is for IT staff and administrators of the GEMS systems. Brent and Dave will provide a status update on the efforts to migrate from the Unisys EAE platform to the Unisys AB Suite platform, and answer any questions you have about this.  They will also address any other questions you might have regarding administration and support of the GEMS systems. 
Tuesday, May 15: 1-2pm - Course #TS051512

CAFR Statement Series - Cash Flows
Joy Richardson will show you how to create the GASB Statement of Cash Flows within the CAFR Unlimited financial report writer.
Wednesday, May 16: 2-3pm - Course # CU051612

HRMS Security Set Up
Donna Wortman will walk you through setting up security for your new users within the GEMS HRMS System.
Thursday, May 17: 2-3pm - Course # HRMS041712

FMS Budget Preparation
Blake Robertson provides a demonstration of the GEMS Budget Preparation module within the Financial Management System (FMS). Topics will include how to: set up the budget control record; create budget versions; use non-detail budgeting versus detail budgeting; load data from FMS into the Budget Preparation module; use QuickReport for the Budget Comparison Report; and how to print detailed budget information.
Wednesday, May 23: 2-3pm - Course #BP052312

View our Online Training Calendar to register for any of the above courses!

Do you have a training suggestion? Email training@msgovern.com.