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CSPS Project Newsletters

CSPS Project Newsletter
-For those with a vested interest in our progress-
Edition 13 : March 2023
California State Controller Betty T. Yee

In this edition:

State Controller Malia M. Cohen

Welcome from Controller Malia M. Cohen

As California’s 33rd State Controller, thank you for such a warm welcome as I embark on this new journey. 
 
I am proud to join an organization that has protected the fiscal integrity of the greatest state in the nation.  In my initial interactions with the team here at the SCO, it is clear to me that you are the organization’s greatest asset. 
 
Many of you have dedicated countless years to the success of the SCO and I am excited about what we will accomplish together.
 
In particular, the completion of the CSPS Project which will modernize the State’s personnel and payroll system is an example of SCO’s commitment to continuous improvements. The CSPS Project represents what is best about the SCO team members across the organization leveraging technology to further modernize and accomplish a critical business objective. It is an exceptional example of the innovative leadership and audacity to dream that occurs within the physical and virtual walls of our organization every day.  
 
Please allow me to tell you about myself and my work history. I was born and raised in the Golden State in the city of San Francisco. I attended public schools and received my bachelor’s degree in political science from Fisk University, a historical Black college, and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. 
 
I have dedicated my career to public service, focusing on making public dollars work for all Californians. I have championed policies and programs that protect public health, foster economic development, promote new affordable housing, and create good jobs through protecting and expanding the local manufacturing base. 
 
I pride myself on being a watchdog for public resources, which is why I was eager to  serve as your State Controller. 
 
Prior to being elected State Controller, I served as Chair of the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), the nation’s only elected tax commission responsible for administering California’s $100 billion property tax system. I was elected to the BOE in November 2018. As the BOE Board Member for District 2, I represented 10 million constituents living in all or parts of 23 counties extending from Del Norte County in the north, to Santa Barbara County in the south. 
 
As Chair, I led the effort to modernize California’s complex property tax system, provide guidance to the 58 county assessors on remote assessment appeals board hearings, and utilize property tax abatements to stimulate affordable housing. I also ensured that the views of all individuals who came before the Board were considered carefully, with respect, civility, and courtesy. As Controller, I will continue to serve the Board as its fifth voting member.
 
Prior to being elected to the BOE, I served as President of the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco. I served as Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee and the Audit and Oversight Committee. During this time, I also served as President of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS), which at the time was a $23 billion pension fund.
 
And now, as the chief fiscal officer of the world’s fifth-largest economy, I am counting on each of you to join me as we write the next chapter of history at the SCO. We have many significant business issues facing us as an organization, but nothing our greatest asset - our people - and our partners in State government are not capable of solving.
 
Our future is bright and every Californian, our fellow state agencies, the Administration and the Legislature, and our colleagues are counting on us to achieve our mission.
 
I believe that how we spend our resources is a statement of our values.  I look ahead to building a fairer, more equitable California for all.

Warmly, 
Malia 

Chris Maio, CSPS Project Director

Chris Maio, CSPS Project Director
The Director’s Corner

As we embark on the New Year, I’d like to first welcome our new State Controller Malia M. Cohen. The project team is excited to have her enthusiasm and support for CSPS and look forward to her leadership as the project progresses through procurement and through the other important phases and milestones.

Procurement?  Did somebody say they wanted an update on the CSPS procurement?  While the process and information surrounding procurement is confidential, I can report the Proof-of-Concept phase of the solicitation was completed on time at the end of November and Phase 2 proposals were received on January 20th.  The evaluation team is now diligently reviewing these in advance of entering negotiations and I can only reiterate Brandon Rutschmann’s sentiment he expressed in the November 2022 newsletter that we are seeing some exciting products and we can’t wait to share our findings after we have executed a contract.

The Organizational Change Management Team continues its outreach work through the Department/Agency Readiness Team formation.  The team completed its Sponsor and Liaison kickoff sessions in December and hosted a Coordinator and Subject Matter Expert informational session in mid-February. The audience, composed of Sponsors and Liaisons, were asked to begin exploring possibilities for identifying personnel for DART Coordinators and Subject Matter Experts. The OCM team will conduct a full DART Kick Off in spring of 2023. The team is actively implementing a customer relationship management tool which will help support communications and assignment tracking amongst the Agency Change Experts on the OCM team and the DART Liaisons and their teams.

SCO and CalHR CSPS is hiring! Recruiting will be a constant for the project as it is with all projects, but we’re in a surge right now as we fill critical roles that were received as part of this year’s budget. Check out https://jobs.ca.gov/ to see where you might fit and put your hat in the ring – we’d love to meet you! The CSPS Project is a place for you to put your skills to the test, a place to learn and grow, and a place where you will make a difference.

The project team has been measuring for the past six years and we are approaching the day when we finally get to take that cut and begin the execution phase of this project.  We look forward to partnering with you in the creation of our collective future.

“We are seeing some exciting products and we can’t wait to share our findings after we have executed a contract” ~Chris Maio, Project Co-Director

 

Team Member Spotlight – CSPS Training Manager

Barbara Ching,
CSPS Training Manager

The CSPS OCM Team is excited to announce the addition of a Training Manager to our growing team! 

We are proud to introduce Barbara Ching, the newly hired CSPS Training Manager. She feels it is rewarding to be a part of a project that is bringing innovation to the State of California and that serving on a team that focuses on the people side of change is exciting because it allows her opportunities to support managers/supervisors in leading their staff through the changes coming. She adds it is also fulfilling being a part of the engagement efforts that support staff with the transition of CSPS and the adoption of the new ways of doing their work. Barbara stays extremely busy spending her many hours on conducting training needs analyses, designing, developing, implementing and evaluating all things training and learning related. Barbara joined the CSPS Team on September 1, 2023, and came to us from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) where she served as one of the Learning & Development managers overseeing the training efforts for the largest technology implementation in their organization’s history, also known as the Pension Solution Project. 

In her free time, Barbara finds enjoyment playing pickle ball, attending Broadway and B Street Theatre shows, reading non-fiction books, and spending time with her husband and seven-year-old daughter, and little dog named Butters. She also shared that she met her husband playing adult kickball, as he was the captain of the team that she joined! Tomales, CA (Dillon and Doran beaches) as well as Taormina, Sicily are two of her favorite vacation spots. When asked what her favorite foods and/or restaurants are, she replied with Linguine Mare Chiaro from II Fornaio, warm chocolate cake from Riverside Clubhouse, and Mexican mocha from Temple coffee. Her favorite local Sacramento restaurants include The Kitchen, Moxie, Allora and El Novillero.

We welcome Barbara to the team and are overjoyed she has joined us on this exciting journey!

Department Engagement & Empowerment

Falling in cadence with this season of flourishment, the CSPS OCM Team is assisting departments in growing their Department Agency Readiness Teams (DARTs). It is a truly an exciting time for both the project team and departments.

You might be wondering why assigning DARTs to support each department is important. These department teams are crucial to ensure change is not done TO departments, but rather WITH them, and to make certain departments are empowered to facilitate their own readiness.  The project’s Organizational Change Management (OCM) Team is actively working to support all Departments in building their DARTs. These DARTs will serve as a bridge linking the departments to their Agency Change Expert (ACE-from the OCM team) and the CSPS Project. The Liaisons will support, help prepare for implementation and advocate for the change at the department level. The DARTs will be responsible for executing project readiness activities within their organization in partnership with their project advisor, their ACE. There are four prominent objectives that will be carried out by the DART teams:

With the Sponsor and Liaison roles already established for the DARTs at each department, we have moved on to assisting in identifying Coordinators and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). There are three Coordinator roles to be designated for each department:

            Reporting Coordinator: This role will be responsible for:

            Technical Coordinator: This role will be responsible for:

            Training Coordinator: This role will be responsible for:

Along with the Coordinator roles, the Functional Subject Matter Experts and Super User roles will be identified. These individuals should have significant knowledge and are considered SME’s in the following areas within the scope of the project:

SME responsibilities include:

In February and March, we will host informational sessions to assist the Sponsors and Liaisons in understanding the importance of these roles and how to properly identify and assign. We will work closely with Sponsors and Liaisons in confirming these role assignments before we move on to next steps.

We are dedicated to keeping you updated on progress and milestones. If any questions or inquiries arise, please feel free to reach out to us at CSPShelp@sco.ca.gov. We also invite you to explore our website at: California State Payroll System (CSPS) Project

New to the CSPS Project?

Let’s catch you up on the basics!

The California State Payroll System (CSPS) Project will modernize the human resource management, travel and business expense, and payroll system used by approximately 300,000 state government employees to provide accurate and timely personnel and payroll services with quality customer service. SCO has developed and modified the current systems over time as the business requirements became more complex. As a result, SCO must exert an enormous amount of effort to maintain and modify the current systems to meet the ever-changing needs of California.

The objectives of the project are focused on providing user-friendly information that is validated timely to reduce rework. This includes enabling greater employee and manager self-service functionality for ease of use, such as online view capabilities for payroll, employment history, and tax information to name a few. Additionally, it will provide a user-friendly interface for all human resource and payroll transaction specialists who input and interact with the system daily.

There are six primary capabilities in scope of the project: 

Each of the areas within scope affects roughly 45 different state processes that will span many business rules and requirements.

The CSPS Project is a highly complex and large undertaking for the state. It requires a partnership between most of the control agencies and will require support from all departments. Due to the complexity and size, the CSPS Project is using the CDT’s Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL) process. The goal of the PAL process is to improve the planning, quality, value, and likelihood of IT project success by providing a guided approach for projects to follow. The Project Timeline graphic below illustrates the high-level steps and timing for the CSPS Project.

Project Approval Lifecycle

Looking to join our AMAZING CSPS Project Team?

Please explore our open recruitments here:

Cal Careers

•    Associate Governmental Program Analyst –Agency Change Expert (x2)- SCO – JC-337594
•    Program Consultant- Staff Personnel Program Analyst/ SSMI- CalHR – JC-335515
•    Personnel Program Advisor/SSMII- CalHR– JC-336310
•    Information Technology II- Business Analyst Lead- SCO – JC-354048
•    Information Technology Specialist II – SCO – JC-354540