CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite months of training, state employees are expected to struggle with a massive computer system switch that starts today in West Virginia.
The group overseeing the overhaul has warned Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s cabinet secretaries about a host of possible problems: “bottlenecks,” “errors in processing transactions,” and “confusion and frustration,” according to a PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Gazette.
Also, state agency administrators should expect “lower productivity” from state employees and delays to “execute business processes,” according to the presentation given to Tomblin’s top appointees.
The computer system switch will affect every state agency’s financial operations and purchasing practices. More than 1,900 state employees have attended seminars to prepare for today’s changeover to the new system called wvOASIS.
“Regardless of the training efforts and preparation for the transition to wvOASIS, there will be resistance, anger and frustration to change by some,” said Lisa Comer, who leads the project’s Enterprise Readiness Team. “We also anticipate some end users [state employees and vendors] may not have the access they need for various reasons.”
To address the expected problems, wvOASIS has set up a “help desk” with technical experts standing by to answer questions…