Rebuilding a State DOT’s $14.8B Financial Framework

A state transportation agency managing $14.8 billion in grants and investments partnered with North Highland to modernize its aging financial technology infrastructure while preparing for a new statewide accounting system implementation.

The Challenge

The agency relied on a Financial Management System that interfaced with their current statewide accounting system, but legacy technology platforms created significant operational risks including security vulnerabilities, limited integration capabilities, compliance concerns, escalating maintenance costs, and difficulty adapting to new requirements.

With a new statewide accounting system implementation approaching, the agency needed to assess technology readiness and establish a methodical modernization plan for these critical financial systems to ensure a smooth transition.

The Vision

North Highland partnered with the agency to develop a comprehensive modernization roadmap based on a holistic assessment of their technology ecosystem. By facilitating remediation efforts across IT monitoring and affected business units, we reduced the risk of technology failure while positioning the agency for compliance with state mandates.

• Comprehensive Assessment and Strategic Planning: We began by evaluating the agency’s technology ecosystem, mapping out vulnerabilities and creating a prioritized roadmap of immediate remediation needs while establishing the foundation for long-term modernization. 
• Proactive Impact Analysis and Transition Planning: Building on our assessment, we identified how the upcoming statewide accounting system would impact existing operations—from interfaces and reports to user experiences and infrastructure components—enabling us to identify targeted solutions before problems emerged. 
• Organizational Transformation Through Agile Adoption: To ensure lasting impact, we implemented Agile methodologies that broke down silos, accelerated decision-making, and established a comprehensive three-year Execution Playbook—helping to ensure the technology transformation would be matched by the organizational capacity to sustain it.
  

The Value

Our collaborative partnership delivered substantial value that extended beyond immediate technical fixes:

• Structured a $32M Remediation Framework with clear sizing and effort estimations for 62 financial systems 
• Supported Successful $14.8B Fund Management through identified dependencies and critical remediation points 
• Enhanced Cross-Organizational Communication by transforming traditional workflows to a more Agile approach 
• Helped Agency Realize a 25% Reduction in Development Efforts through creation of an Azure DevOps repository for streamlined remediation

This strategic modernization initiative has transformed the department's technological foundation. With a comprehensive roadmap in place, the transportation agency can now confidently navigate their financial system improvements while preparing for the statewide accounting transition.

The framework we established doesn't merely address current vulnerabilities—it creates a sustainable architecture that enhances security, improves compliance, and enables the flexibility needed to adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and business needs.