County reduces costs 4X with Agiloft contract management

The challenge

At the start of the year, while away on vacation, Jeff Brown of King County’s Health Department received an email that the current contract management software was ending its support. With this one brief notification, Jeff’s year turned upside-down. “We’d had the system for 10 years — it contained a lot of data. However, the news was almost a relief because it gave us the opportunity to find a system that better met our needs. Still, we had no idea what was out there. We’d last undergone the process of selecting a contract management software in 2005. It’s amazing how much the landscape has changed and how many more options are available. We had to start from the beginning.”

One of the biggest limitations of the legacy system was its rigidity. Any significant adjustment required working through the vendor’s engineers, driving up costs. A simple change to the workflow (which Jeff can now do by himself in just five minutes with Agiloft) would cost $10,000 in service fees. However, finding a low cost solution within an aggressive timeline wasn’t the most pressing challenge.

He explained, “My biggest beef is that almost all contract management systems are intended for corporations and geared toward their needs. The out-of-the-box fields are designed for a profit generating business. It’s difficult to use even the best software systems because of that.” What King County and other government bodies face is a disconnect between contract systems and the way that funding moves through their organization. In general, the market has yet to recognize that a versatile public-sector solution needs to address these differences. More than 90% of King County payable agreements are within the community— distributing federal and local grants as well as those from private foundations. This process requires a meticulous system that can easily link the terms of every source of incoming funding with the executable parameters and accountability for those receiving the funds; this enables tracking the funds as they come in, as they go out, and the sensitive restrictions related to both. It requires that the solution designers understand why government exists and the vital function of effective fund management.

“In the public sector, we are always aware of our budget and doing all we can to reduce expenses. In this case, the small amount of money that we pay does a lot to make us a more efficient and effective department—it speaks volumes for the Agiloft product.”

– Jeff Brown, Contract Specialist, King County Health Department

“Agiloft is so customizable. It’s the best combination I’ve ever seen with the versatility for
public sector and private,” Jeff said. During their search, King County identified the most compelling products on the market and had them conduct demos. The team had a strong preference for Agiloft after experiencing its government-friendly design, ease-of-use, intuitive interface, and farreaching administrator controls. However, all of these benefits weren’t enough. The team was looking at a lengthy procurement process that could leave them without a replacement system. Fortunately, Agiloft was already installed in other local governments, allowing King County to piggyback on previous review cycles and bypass much of the administration required in approving a new vendor.

“Agiloft is so customizable. It’s the best combination I’ve ever seen with the versatility for public sector and private.”

– Jeff Brown, Contract Specialist, King County Health Department

The solution

Briefings between King County and the Agiloft implementation team began in early June with a target go-live date of August 31. “We went live nine days early on August 23rd, coming in ahead of schedule and under budget,” Greg Myers, Agiloft Project Success Manager, reported.

While the Agiloft team worked on customizing the system to meet King County’s specific requirements, they introduced Jeff to the administrator training so that when the system went live, he and his group could hit the ground running.

The impact

“Our Chief Administrative Officer stopped by the other day to comment on how well Agiloft is working for us and how, especially given the low cost, it has benefited us as a department. In the public sector, we are always aware of our budget and doing all we can to reduce expenses.

In this case, the small amount of money that we pay does a lot to make us a more efficient and effective department. It speaks volumes for the Agiloft product,” Jeff said. Agiloft paid for itself in the first year. For all subsequent years, Jeff’s team is looking forward to substantial annual savings.

For the busy civil servants in public health, money isn’t the only thing saved with Agiloft. The previous system ran on local servers. At one point, following an upgrade to a new version, errors and problems led to a 6 week system failure during a very busy time. After a year with Agiloft’s hosted system, King has had no downtime on their contract management system.

“There are a couple other departments here who are looking to implement Agiloft. I always tell them how easy it is to understand and how it supports you with all the materials to get you up-and running. It’s one of the best systems that I’ve ever come across,” Jeff concluded.

Challenges

Identify a solution that addresses the
unique requirements of the public sector

Urgent need to replace existing contract management system with a more flexible, intuitive option at significantly lower cost

Meticulous and lengthy government procurement process

Benefits

The total for implementation, licensing and support costs were considerably less than just one year of maintenance fees with legacy system

Hosting the solution on Agiloft servers
eliminates painful downtime

Customization and ease-of-use supported the multi-dimensional flow of funds for government and public sector

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