Largest SC District Deploys Enterprise Resource Management Systems

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 09/15/09

Greenville County Schools in Greenville, SC has chosen the enterprise software from St. Paul-based Lawson Software to streamline its administrative functions and financial data management. The system includes: the Lawson System Foundation, the required operating platform; S3 Enterprise Financial Management suite; S3 Strategic Human Capital Management suite; and Lawson Business Intelligence solution.

GCS serves more than 70,000 students in 90 schools and employs a staff of approximately 9,000. The district previously used a legacy system that comprised several disparate software solutions and required a number of routine processes to be performed manually, leading to unnecessary expenditures of money and time, as well as physical space for paper file storage.

A spokesperson for GCS said the district needed to organize its human resources and financial administration systems under a single, integrated platform and significantly reduce paper-based practices. In addition, the software package is helping GCS meet a number of administrative challenges, including:

• Improving efficiencies, including quicker requisition approval, through automated work flow;
• Creating a centralized repository of information;
• Creating efficiencies through data accuracy and reduced redundancy;
• Launching a new accounting structure to standardize relevant financial data and centralize financial reporting; and
• Providing ease of use for staff and streamlined customer service.

The deployment is the first of a two-phase rollout the district has named "The GRETIL Project." Phase 2, currently underway, will focus on the system-wide implementation of several additional components of the HCM suite not previously launched by the district.