Deloitte and Oracle Team Up to Improve U.S. Government IT Operations

Deloitte Consulting, the consulting arm of Deloitte & Touche wants to take advantage of emerging opportunities as a commercial shared service provider to federal agencies with its new Deloitte Consulting Federal Shared Services Center (SSC) for Federal Financial Management, which includes a hosting arrangement with Oracle On Demand. The Deloitte Consulting Federal SSC will help federal agencies streamline information technology (IT) operations, implement innovative solutions, and improve cost-effectiveness.

The Deloitte Consulting Federal SCC is targeted at providing industry-leading federal financial management services for federal agencies to meet the requirements of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Federal Financial Management Line of Business (FMLoB) initiative. According to Gene Procknow, managing director, Federal Government Services, Deloitte & Touche USA, the FMLoB initiative addresses the need in the federal government to concentrate IT investments to take advantage of shared services. "We've seen the same trend in private industry to consolidate financial processes. The idea is that Deloitte Consulting Federal SCC will allow the government to improve IT operations and get faster, cheaper solutions, while avoiding large up-front capital costs."

The Deloitte Consulting Federal SSC will enable Deloitte and Oracle to combine multiple disciplines to provide integrated solutions. Procknow says, "We can provide Oracle Applications expertise and risk management compliance all in one solution so that the government doesn't have to look to one firm for technology and another for compliance."

According to Clarence Crawford, the former CFO of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and now Deloitte Consulting director in the Federal Practice group, many federal agencies are using older systems that force users to introduce work-arounds outside of core financial systems. This drives up labor costs and increases the potential for errors. Agencies also are grappling with declining resources coupled with increasing demands for better decision-making. Many agencies are not able to put their focus on providing high quality, timely information because of financial systems challenges and workarounds.

In response, the government introduced internal Federal service centers to provide standards-based financial systems. Starting in summer 2007, the OMB plans to open the competition to the private sector so the agency has even more opportunities to locate providers that offer the best solutions to meet financial services needs at Federal agencies. Crawford says, "Deloitte is uniquely positioned to offer functional, technical, human capital, accounting, and compliance competencies needed to fully-deliver a complete, integrated financial management solution to the Federal government."

Deloitte's long-standing relationship with Oracle makes Oracle a natural choice as a partner for the Deloitte Consulting Federal SSC initiative. Derek Risley, director of sales, Oracle On Demand Public Sector, Oracle Corporation, reveals, "Oracle On Demand is recognized as offering the highest quality standards in software hosting and maintenance. Oracle can deliver the critical components and security controls that are a cornerstone to what the OMB requires and what the Deloitte Consulting Federal SSC will provide."

Crawford believes that government agencies are cautiously optimistic about the FMLoB initiative. He predicts that as the first forward-thinking agencies move ahead with transforming their financial systems using shared service centers, more and more agencies will follow—generating IT cost-savings and improved efficiencies for the government.