CASE STUDY
Client
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
In 2007 GCR began work on a project to automate and streamline the flow of paperwork related to the capital facilities program at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (LANOIA). A second objective of this project was to improve the reporting of DBE activity at the airport.
At that time, the New Orleans Aviation Board used three systems to manage financial activity at the airport: Ross Accounting and Financial System for General Ledger and Accounts Payable; GCR’s AirportIQ Business Manager (ABM) to track revenue producing agreements, manage all billing rates, and track all airline activity, landing fees and concession information; and GCR’s AirportIQ Project Manager (APM) to track the status of projects managed by the Office of Planning and Development.
To accomplish the project’s objectives, GCR expanded the use of existing information technology systems at the airport, implemented new management system modules, and integrated these systems so that data could be shared effectively. GCR divided the installation of the Systems Implementation & Integration plan into six phases:
Phase 1- GCR’s AIRPortal application was implemented. It is used by all airport service providers to enter and manage their DBE quarterly reports. The DBE office of the Aviation Board also uses the system to review and tabulate the data.
Phase 2 – An integration point between Ross Accounting System and APM was established. This allowed APM to read accounts payable and general ledger entries related to individual projects and then use this information to manage the flow of funds and the closeout of projects in an effective manner.
Phase 3 – Additional modules were deployed within APM to support a broader range of system and user functions including CIP development, grant reconciliation, FAA drawdown, project management, and capital management.
Phase 4 – DBE Reporting was deployed. This included establishing a DBE certification database, developing automatic DBE calculations for concessions, and creating standard FAA required quarterly DBE reporting.
Phase 5 – Functionality was added to allow contractors and consultants to input the spread of Board payments to their subs (including DBEs). This addition fully automated DBE reporting.
Phase 6 – An informational portal that summarizes all relevant information was developed to allow executive staff to view summary information on agreements, revenues, airline activity and cargo, and capital facilities program.
In addition to streamlining data entry and automating the flow of paperwork related to the capital facilities program, this project gave Airport business partners an effective and convenient way to participate in the DBE certification process. |
