Fusion
Fusion is an internal initiative the City and its boards and corporations are undertaking to prepare for future growth, ensure sustainability and serve the changing needs of Saskatoon citizens. Through this project, the City will be adopting industry best practices in the areas of Finance, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management and Asset Management and Operations, and putting an ERP system (one master database) in place to support this work. Fusion will provide benefits across the organization and result in long-term operational savings to refocus resources on activities that deliver on our mission.
All about Fusion
Our vision
"Fusing our many diverse processes, creating a new energy and a unified approach to managing our resources."
What is Fusion?
At the City of Saskatoon, we use over 279 systems to support critical areas like finance, HR, project management and more, not to mention all the spreadsheets and paper! It is time to wipe the slate clean and move to a single master database using SAP S/4HANA. Fusion is an opportunity for the City of Saskatoon to partner with its boards and corporations to implement a world class ERP cost-effectively.
SAP S/4HANA will support the City, boards and corporations to fuse our many diverse processes, creating a new energy and a unified approach to managing our resources. Once we have this foundation in place, we will be ready for the integration of a Customer Relationship Management System—a tool to support citizens in their interactions with the City—and our Customer Information System (CIS)—the tool responsible for utility and property tax billing.
Why are we doing this?
Fusion will result in operational efficiencies across many departments and functional areas, provide greater potential for collaboration and ensure we are adopting industry recommended practices. The operational efficiencies realized through Fusion will strengthen citizen services and provide higher value for tax dollars.
Key operational benefits include:
- One master data source
- Accurate and timely data analytics for informed business decisions in real-time
- Enhanced controls reducing financial and reputational risk
- Significant reduction of manual, paper-based, and duplicate processes
- Improved and standardized processes across the organization
- Support for cost-effective and timely software upgrades
Benefits to citizens include:
- Prepares the City to address future growth, sustainability and the changing needs of our citizens
- Once the core functionality is in place, Service Saskatoon will be able to implement a CRM to provide citizens with a 311-type experience
- Expected to provide $40M in financial and efficiency savings in the first six years following implementation and ongoing savings of approximately $10M per year
How are we approaching this work?
Implementation will occur in two waves. In late 2019 and throughout 2020, functionality within finance, human resource, supply chain and operations and asset management will be delivered. In 2021, expanded functionality of human resources and operations will be added.
Implementation Wave 1 - October 2019 to February 2021
- Finance & Accounting: general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, fixed assets, and budgeting
- Supply Chain Management: purchase requisition, purchase orders, purchase contracts, and inventory including material master data
- Human Capital Management: core HR, time and attendance, applicant tracking, and payroll
- Operations: asset management, work order, project/activity management template
Implementation Wave 2 - March 2021 to March 2022
- Human Capital Management: recruiting, onboarding, performance & goals, compensation, succession & development, learning, health & safety
- Operations: asset management, work order, project/activity management, linear assets
Project Updates
COVID-19 Update
The City is committed to keeping our employees, boards, corporations and citizens informed on this initiative. Check back often for updates as the project progresses.
Recent updates
- On August 30, negotiations concluded and contracts were signed between the City of Saskatoon, PwC and SAP.
- On June 24, 2019, City Council approved funding required to move the Fusion project forward to implementation. Read the Standing Policy Committee on Finance Report for more details.
History
Following the lead of other complex organizations and municipalities, the City of Saskatoon began exploring an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in 2016. Since 2016, a steering committee and small project team have been leading the procurement process and preparation for this change in how City employees do their work, including a comprehensive requirements gathering and request for proposals (RFP) process for a system implementer and software provider. A joint proposal from PwC (system implementer) and SAP (software provider) is the successful RFP proponent, and implementation of an SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Cloud solution officially kicked off on October 1, 2019.
COVID-19 Update
Circumstances in our world have changed significantly over the past few weeks and this has required a shift in approach to the City’s priorities. Essential services are always the City’s top priority, and even more so in our current environment.
The pandemic has outlined even more clearly how important the Fusion project is for the City, boards and corporations. Fusion will significantly reduce manual steps saving critical time when it is needed most to get work done. Fusion will add greater visibility and more accurate data to quickly and seamlessly deploy staff and deliver on essential services for residents. It will also significantly improve remote work capabilities - not just for those who can work at home but for our field staff working on the front-lines.
Fusion is one example of a project where we have an opportunity to keep the momentum going despite the uncertainty we face from COVID-19. The Fusion team is more passionate than ever knowing that adapting to situations such as the one we are in will be made much easier with the implementation of SAP.
The work we’ve done over the past six months has allowed us to collect much of what we need from over 1,400 stakeholders across the City, boards and corporations to build and configure the system. The current priorities mostly require the dedicated focus of the Fusion team and a few key stakeholders, and most of this work can be done remotely if there is a continued need for employees to work from home.
As the COVID-19 situation continues to change and evolve rapidly, the Fusion project will adjust as required to keep moving forward.