For years, officials in the Peoria ...

For years, officials in the Peoria shire Ill., treasurer's office were encumbered with a financial reporting scheme that was so structured, users had difficulty creating reports in a timely manner. Employee sometimes had to write on the outside financial statements by hand, and frequently officials would receive no report at all.

About 15 years ago, Peoria shire began focusing on achieving greater efficiency with better financial software and equipment. With a commitment from the shire board of commissioners, the shire decided to move to a mainframe environment. The treasurer's office used the mainframe a whole for years but became increasingly frustrated at unreadable reports and slow rejoinder time from the computer network. Users had the advantage of an automated a whole but could not always do exactly what they wanted.

Beginning in 1990 the ne for a more sophisticated and flexible theory was explored in depth. The board decided to change to