Located in central Ohio between Columbus and Springfield, Madison County has a predominantly rural geography of about 467 square miles and a population of over 40,000 people. The county seat is in London, Ohio. Madison County employs about 350 people with about 25 department heads. The 2007 budget was about $11.5 million with approximately 100 different funds.
Madison County has used SSI Financial Management and Payroll applications since the early 90s, upgrading to the Microsoft SQL Server-based eGovRelational product in 2004. In addition to budgetary accounting and general ledger, Madison County processes all purchasing and accounts payable transactions using SSI Financial Management system. Payroll and benefits for all salaried and hourly personnel are managed using the SSI Payroll system.
"SSI software is essentially the 'financial engine' for Madison County," says Jim Williamson, County Auditor. "It provides the controls we need to ensure we adhere to all of the financial constraints of an Ohio government entity while providing the visibility we need to maximize the value we provide our citizens within the budget available to us."
Better Financial Management with Direct Access to Up-to-Date Information
Since upgrading to eGovRelational, the Auditors office has leveraged the SQL Server database underlying SSI software to develop a series of Excel spreadsheets that have since become some of the county’s most valuable financial management tools. The spreadsheets utilize an ODBC connection to automatically access information from the SSI database for analysis and reporting purposes. Using these flexible tools, the auditor’s office and individual department heads have the up-to-date information they need to effectively manage their respective budgets, with full visibility of detail revenues, expenses, and remaining funds.
"The controls built into the SSI software combined with the ease-of-access provided by the Microsoft architecture give us a real handle on where we stand at all times," says Williamson. "Using this approach, the system brings various issues to the surface early, enabling our people to resolve them before they become problems."
Easier Benefits Management with SSI Payroll
"The SSI Payroll System has the flexibility to handle all of our pay calculation, paycheck printing, and government reporting needs just fine, as I would expect most payroll systems to do," Williamson continues. "Where it really helps us is in benefits deduction management. Different departments have somewhat different benefit plans and it handles all of them without a problem."
Responsive Support and an Active User Community Provide Benefits That Go Beyond Just Software Features
Over the years, Madison County has used SSI support services to help out with employee training, trouble-shooting, version upgrades, and other special needs. "We get excellent support from SSI," Williamson is quick to say. "Using their remote connection capability, they sometimes get directly on line to our system and work interactively with our people to understand a particular question, resolve issues, or provide training on specific functions."
Williamson also talks about another, maybe less obvious, benefit of working with SSI: "Because there are now quite a few Ohio counties using the SSI software, I will often give one of them a call to talk about how to best handle a new state reporting requirement or other challenge we may be having. It’s great to be able to compare notes with other county auditors and talk about ways of doing various things when we are all using essentially the same software tools."
"Accessibility" is the Key
In summarizing, Williamson comes back to the software: "The thing we really like about the SSI software is the easy access it gives us to information. With the combination of SSI applications and Microsoft tools, we can query directly into our financial and payroll information, format it exactly the way we need it for a particular task, meet all of our public record requirements, and provide our departments with all the information they need to manage their respective functions. At this point, we can’t quite imagine running Madison County without our SSI software." |
