OSC Projects in Progress

 
Recovery of Overpayment by State Agencies 
 		 The North Carolina General Assembly has mandated that, "The State Controller shall negotiate a contract with a third party to perform an audit and collection process of inadvertent overpayments by State agencies to vendors as a result of pricing errors, neglected rebates and discounts, miscalculated freight charges, unclaimed refunds, erroneously paid excise taxes, and related errors.  The third party shall be compensated only from funds recovered as a result of the audit."  The OSC has selected the vendor, PRG, Inc., and is in the process of negotiating a contract for the recovery of overpayments.  This project will be directed by the Financial Systems Division (FSD).
BottomLine Technologies' Electronic Payment System The OSC has purchased the BottomLine Technologies' PayBase electronic software to generate Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions.  The paybase product suite is designed to provide a single platform to control, manage and issue all payments, whether paper based or electronic.  BottomLine Technologies has over 2,000 customers using their payment products.  The EFT '99 Act, which requires all Federal Government payments to be electronic by January 1, 1999, led the Federal Reserve Bank to select BottomLine Technologies to provide FEDI (Financial Electronic Data Interchange) translation software to all financial institutions.  Thus, BottomLine Technologies will provide the system that allows all financial institutions to receive a FEDI transaction via the ACH system.  The OSC will begin modeling this software for use with the NCAS in February, 1999.
Real-Time Purchase Order Faxing Hardware and software have been installed to allow buyers to fax purchase orders real-time from the NCAS.  This new functionality is being piloted by DENR in the P region and by DHHS in the NC23 region.  The pilot testing is scheduled to be completed at the end of January.  At that time, instructions on the use of the new functionality will be sent to all NCAS purchasing operations.

Completed:  Effective 1/29/99
Having completed a successful pilot program at DENR and DHHS agencies, we are pleased to make the "Fax PO" option of transmitting NCAS Purchase Orders available statewide.  This feature gives buyers the option of transmitting a PO to the vendor via fax as soon as the PO is complete, without ever producing a printed copy.  The addition of this feature provides agencies increased ability to respond to high priority requirements without creating a "firedrill" atmosphere.  Best of all, it is simple to use.  Refer to the NCAS SIG for additional information.
Procurement Card Reconciliation System The OSC is in the process of developing a system, within the NCAS, for reconciling and paying procurement card invoices.  This system will insure that payments are charged to the appropriate accounting distributions, and will aid agencies in recording taxes by county and accrued taxes for card transactions, as well as allowing flagging of recycled goods purchases.  OSC is working with several NCAS agencies to complete the design.  It is expected that the system will be ready for use before April 1, 1999.
Help Desk Automatic Call Management and Call Tracking software The OSC has purchased Bendata's Automated Call Management and Call 
Tracking software, HEAT (Help Expert Automation Tool), to improve the 
NCAS Help Desk's ability to service our NCAS customers.  This product 
will allow NCAS users to initiate tickets by the current method, 
telephone, or by email and the Internet.  The implementation of HEAT is 
planned for Spring, 1999.