Public Sector and Local Government ERP

Public sector organizations are striving to offer better, more efficient services to their constituents. In today's economic climate especially, with revenues dropping, budgets shrinking and public needs increasing, the role of the public sector Finance Manager has become even more challenging.

External conditions are changing rapidly; on the one hand businesses are closing, and on the other, new federal infrastructure dollars are "up for grabs". Managing your finances and operations in today's environment requires local government erp solutions that are able to manage the unpredictable.

The UNIT4 Business Software Advantage

Agresso, UNIT4 Business Software's fully-integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for core accounting/financials (AR, AP, GL), budgeting and forecasting, procurement, HR and payroll, project management; and managing field workers and asset maintenance staff, can help public sector organizations:

  • Improve efficiency with modern web-enabled Public Sector ERP systems
  • Eliminate the administrative burdens of managing disparate systems and unmanageable interfaces
  • Identify opportunities to reduce spending
  • Eliminate the cost of maintaining legacy systems
  • Control risk and improve process controls
  • Respond to changing requirements easily and cost-effectively

Challenges Facing Public Sector Finance Leaders

The need for operational stability in the face of changing requirements
Regulatory changes like GASB, PSAB, re-organizations, public requests for information and even elections can all create unpredictable new requirements that a finance manager must take in stride.

Public sector Finance leaders must be able to understand and manage the financial and operational impact of change, while maintaining expected levels of transparency and accountability.

The need for cross-departmental cooperation
In a world where functional boundaries are blurring, many finance managers are partnering with operational departments, other similar organizations and third parties to minimize costs and optimize value.
This raises the challenge of standardization and/or the ability to interface with other systems.

The need to replace disparate legacy systems
Local government finance managers often rely on an inefficient combination of independent, disjointed software applications (many of them out-of-date), spreadsheets, cumbersome interfaces and manual intervention to pull together the information they need.

  • Process is inefficient and error-prone
  • Reporting is rigid and difficult to change if a new requirement emerges
  • There is no organization-wide visibility
  • Multiple maintenance agreements are burdensome (and some applications may even become unsupported)


The Scope of UNIT4 Business Software's Integrated Solution

Agresso was built from the ground up to replace multiple disparate systems and provide a coherent shared environment across the organizations. Public sector organizations benefit greatly when all these functions are available “under one roof”:


With a single integrated system, Finance Leaders enjoy improved and timelier reporting and visibility across the entire organization, – leading to better decision making and improved service to the public.

Agresso's Unique Advantage - the Ability to Respond to Change

Public Sector organizations can implement their local government ERP system in stages – as budgets allow, and increase scope later on without disruption. The ability for users to make system changes using screen-based tools, without reliance on programming or external IT.

In systems from other vendors, changes often require programming or expensive external consultants, leading to more risk of operational disruption and higher costs. Agresso’s unique VITA Architecture empowers trained users to make changes to the system, as the occasion demands (and permissions permit). For example:

Challenge Agresso Solution
Department Reorganization Trained users can make organizational changes through screen-based tools, changing structure, processes, reporting and other necessary changes. These changes are also held within the system through upgrades and do not need to be “reprogrammed”.
Regulatory changes Trained users can add new parameters to track, alter reporting and make system changes through screen-based tools that will allow them to comply with, track and report on regulatory changes.
Population growth As growth puts strains on current structures and programs, trained users can make system changes to efficiently manage changes to organizational structure, work flow, processes, reporting etc. quickly using screen-based tools.
Internal initiatives A new internal initiative may give rise to a new reporting requirement. Trained users can respond by creating a new report right using screen-based tools. Users can add, track and report on new parameters. With our tight relationship between processes, data and analytics, adding data in one place means that it is automatically seen across the system.

By empowering customers to change their own systems in response to new requirements, the Total Cost of Ownership of the Agresso solution is significantly lower than other, more rigid systems.

Integration with External Systems

Often public sector organizations have best-of-breed government software solutions they want to keep using, or they want to phase out legacy systems in stages rather than all at once. In these cases, Agresso’s out-of-the-box XML web services and “business connectors” provide a modern infrastructure to connect with other systems. Interfaces to local government specific systems are available, allowing for leading land management, GIS, property taxation, permits and licensing systems to operate seamlessly with Agresso.

A Proven Solution

Well over a thousand public sector organizations worldwide, including cities and counties of all sizes use Agresso.

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