The Metra Board of Directors has approved a $12.6 million contract to replace a diverse set of aging, back office financial systems with a modern, fully integrated system that can better support the railroad’s operational and financial reporting requirements.
After a thorough selection process, Crowe Horwath LLP has been chosen to assist Metra with installing and configuring Microsoft Dynamics AX financial software. Crowe Horwarth will bring a team of technical and functional consultants to redesign Metra’s business processes using best practices, and to assist the organization in transitioning from antiquated technology to a new, fully integrated application. The effort is expected to take three years to complete.
“This may be one of the single most important management steps that this board has taken since it was reconstituted a year and a half ago,” said Metra Board Chairman Martin Oberman. “If we want to operate as effectively and as efficiently as possible we must bring our operations and financial reporting systems up to par.”
The new system will support a variety of functions, including grant management, project accounting, purchasing, budgeting, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, treasury, payroll, inventory and fixed assets. It will enable more efficient operations and tracking for Metra’s financial systems and replace systems that are more than 25 years old and no longer supported by the information technology industry. In addition, the systems being replaced are not integrated and require additional resources to meet operational and financial reporting needs.
“Most of our current systems were state of the art three decades ago but have been obsolete for quite some time,” said Cherie Kizer, Metra’s Chief Information Officer. “It’s critical that we get a single integrated system in place that can meet our current and future needs.”