As the new CIO of the Union's largest state, Teri Takai is using the breadth of her 30 years of experience to ensure the success of California's FI$Cal project.

Teresa (Teri) Takai was appointed the Chief Information Officer of California in December 2007 and has hit the ground running with the FI$Cal project. Teri is of course known in the State and Local world as past president of the National Association of State CIO's (NASCIO) and for serving as the director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology (MDIT), where she also served as the state's chief information officer (CIO) from 2003 to 2007. When rumors of Clark Kelso leaving the CIO position in California started flying, they were followed quickly by rumors of the well-respected Takai replacing him.

Teri's experience in Michigan reorganizing and consolidating the state's IT functions into a centralized department, which serves 19 agencies and over 1,700 employees, seems to be translating very well into her handling of buy-in by FI$Cal's stakeholders. On May 12 – 13, 2008 Teri hosted the 1st Annual Government to Government ERP Forum, a collaborative forum that allowed governments to discuss and share their experiences with ERP projects. Clearly an attempt to inform and involve individuals from across and outside the California enterprise, the forum could be an outstanding vehicle to foster individual investment in the project and collaboration to identify best practices.

Another move to garner unity within state agencies is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the State Controller, the State Treasurer, and the Directors of the Departments of Finance and General Services demonstrating support for the project at the highest levels of these organizations. FI$Cal team members, partner agency representatives and State department representatives have begun an education process to include software vendor demonstrations allowing all stakeholders to get familiar with ERP and other related software.

The Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) project concentrates on the budgeting, accounting, and procurement areas of California state government. This revolutionary project will allow state systems and personnel to function in an integrated financial management system environment. The current systems lack complete and timely data, interoperability, and are aging. FI$CAL will be a solution with ERP as a principal element but will integrate more than one software, a transformation of business process, and the conversion of the workforce.

On February 6 – February 28, 2008, Compusearch Software Systems, Inc., CGI Group, Inc., Cognos Inc, Golden Gate Software, Inc., SAP, Business Objects, Beacon, Peoplesoft, and Hyperion provided demonstrations for the stakeholders. Companies wishing to participate should be positioning for partnerships. Everyone else should watch closely for a good show and possibly some new best practices in enterprise wide software procurements and implementation.