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New System Ensures Improved Client Service

BY Jean-François Talbot, Project Manager, CORCAN Migration, Comptrollership Systems Directorate

Jean-François Talbot

CORCAN and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) marked the beginning of a new phase in their ongoing partnership, effective April 1, 2005. Corporate financial and material management systems are now aligned through the use of one system: the Integrated Financial and Material Management System (IFMMS).

Previously, CORCAN’s accounting and manufacturing operations used another system called Syteline, which was established prior to CSC’s Oracle implementation. Both organizations pursued a parallel development course, but over the years it became evident that an integrated approach would be beneficial to both.

When CORCAN signed the IFMMS agreement in November 2003, both organizations aimed to merge their work into one integrated system. The scope of the project initially comprised the migration of accounting modules only but soon incorporated manufacturing components as well.

In the spirit of true partnership, the project team included the Comptrollership Systems Directorate (CSD) as well as CORCAN resources. Numerous working group sessions were held; CORCAN resources across the country could be counted on to share their insights and expertise related to their business processes. CSD faced new and challenging issues and gained invaluable insight into the manufacturing world. Processes and procedures were streamlined for both organizations. In order to meet CORCAN’s unique requirements, Oracle Discrete Manufacturing modules were adopted to supplement the current modules in use at CSC. CSC/CORCAN is the only federal government department to implement these modules.

In total, more than 100 CORCAN users from every region were trained on all the IFMMS modules during the busy year-end period. In addition to meeting end-of-year production and sales orders, staff were engaged in two training phases of two weeks each.

CORCAN will now have all its information — such as inventory items numbers and customer addresses — under one database. This will help the organization with their business decisions (for example, deciding which institution can manufacture a particular product at the best cost).

This new affiliation between CSC and CORCAN will streamline financial and material management activities. It’s simply one more step taken by CSC and CORCAN to improve methods and processes and ensure improved client service. ♦