Umoja runs through us

Ms. Pauline Omondi-Ingabo didn't hesitate for a moment when she read the October 2008 iSeek article announcing the competition to name the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Her entry – the word "umoja" (meaning unity in Swahili) – leapt to mind instantly; she felt it perfectly captured what the ERP was setting out to accomplish.
"When people work together towards a common goal, you get results," said Ms. Omondi-Ingabo, Administrative Assistant in the Office of the Director of the Division of Administrative Services (DAS) at the UN Office at Nairobi (UNON).

Born in Nairobi, Ms. Omondi-Ingabo joined the United Nations in August 2008. She revealed that working in the Secretariat had been a life-long dream and that she aspires to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while serving the organization. Before joining UNON, Ms. Omondi-Ingabo had been working with the Secretariat of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

"Umoja" has been a guiding principle throughout her life. She is the eldest daughter of eight siblings, and she has held her family together through good times and bad. Now married and a mother of three, she stresses the need for people to support and help one another. "Umoja is dear to my heart because there is strength in unity," she affirms.

Ms. Omondi-Ingabo was ecstatic to learn that her submission had been selected. "It's like winning a gold medal! I was on cloud nine," she said, searching for words to describe how she felt upon learning Umoja had won. She wishes to express her deep gratitude to all the colleagues who cast their votes for her entry.

To celebrate the naming of the ERP project and to congratulate their colleague for her prize-winning contribution, her Office had a small get-together in Ms. Omondi-Ingabo's honor. She said of the team, "Umoja runs through them."

Her elated team members also used the occasion to discuss the name and how the project will impact them, the duty station and the larger organization. She and her colleagues were looking forward to learning more about it during the visit by members of the Umoja team to Nairobi, one of the stops on their world tour of Secretariat locations away from Headquarters.

Ms. Omondi-Ingabo said that there is excitement and anticipation amongst many of her colleagues at UNON for the improvements Umoja will bring to their work. She foresees that there will be individuals within the Secretariat who may at first resist changes to how they work, but she feels that once people understand the benefits they will embrace it.

With her background in planning and project management, Ms. Omondi-Ingabo is most looking forward to better access to accurate and up-to-date information, the ability to undertake higher quality analysis, increases in efficiency both in terms of time and money, and improved measurement of programme performance.

Ultimately, Ms. Omondi-Ingabo feels the implementation of Umoja will enable the Organization to meet more of its goals and help more people. "When people come together, they can move mountains. So let’s make it happen."

Originally published on iSeek on Thursday, 12 March 2009, Nairobi

Umoja team embarks on first "world tour"

Members of the Umoja project team have embarked on a "world tour" to meet with colleagues at offices away from Headquarters (OAHs) and field missions to wrap up the first major step in Umoja's implementation.

Once in place, the Umoja system will enable more effective management of human, financial and physical resources to support fully the needs of the United Nations. This will have been achieved by reengineering our processes and practices to be more efficient and implementing them on a single, global information system that will replace IMIS and many of the 250 administrative systems scattered across the Secretariat.

As recently announced, Umoja is the name that was selected for the United Nations enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. (Umoja to bring unity to the way we work)

Broadly, the main steps in developing Umoja are:

• analyzing current administrative processes and needs,
• designing new and more effective working methods reflecting best practices,
• developing a single global information management system to support those working methods,
• testing the solution extensively in real-life scenarios,
• training staff to use it effectively, and
• implementing it in all offices and missions.

The analysis phase is now reaching a close. While visiting approximately 20 UN entities in OAHs and field missions during February and March, Umoja staff are completing and validating the documentation of existing processes.

In the course of their travels, the Umoja team members are working with administration managers to ensure that the list of business processes across the four functional areas – finance, human resources, supply chain/logistics/procurement and central support services – is complete; to document systems, processes and databases that have not already been captured; and to seek feedback as to whether processes already recorded elsewhere in the Secretariat match their own. Colleagues in missions and OAHs are also being asked to identify challenges, risks and opportunities for improvement.

Equally important, the visits will add to a Secretariat-wide network of colleagues contributing to and supporting the implementation of Umoja.

It is not possible for Umoja staff to visit every office or mission on this trip, but colleagues in all locations will be invited to review and validate the complete set of processes captured. The team looks forward to meeting with staff in additional offices and missions in upcoming project stages.

The Umoja project is a strategic part of the UN reform initiative and enjoys the support of UN management at the highest levels. The replacement of IMIS and other legacy systems with Umoja presents a rare opportunity for the UN to improve its working methods so that it can carry out its work more efficiently in all major areas of resource management. There is great potential value to be realized by learning from good ideas that have been implemented around the global Secretariat and by harmonizing processes.

The input and participation of experienced staff members in all duty stations and missions is critical to the success of Umoja's implementation. The Umoja team is aiming to build strong relationships for the duration of the project with colleagues throughout the Secretariat. These visits are just one part of a much larger effort to ensure that the design of the system has considered the full spectrum of the Organization's needs as well as best practices in the UN system.

Originally published on iSeek on Friday, 6 March 2009, New York

Umoja to bring unity to the way we work

The suspense is over! The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system now has a name: "Umoja" (pronounced oo-MO-jah), which means "unity" or "together" in several African languages, including Swahili and Zulu.

Ms. Pauline Omondi-Ingabo of the Division of Administrative Services at the UN Office at Nairobi (UNON) entered the winning name. Ms. Omondi-Ingabo explained her choice of Umoja for the ERP Project in her submission, stating "the UN is working towards a common goal globally and that is to bring the world together as one."

Regular iSeek readers will recall that, in October 2008, the ERP Project held a competition among staff to find a name for the ERP system that will be implemented across the Secretariat. This system will enable more effective management of the human, financial and physical resources that allow us to more efficiently fulfill our mandates.

Over 1000 staff members submitted 1287 names, demonstrating the diversity and creativity of our colleagues.

The names were considered by 58 ERP Focal Points from different departments, offices away from headquarters and field operations around the world. Based on their feedback, eight submissions were then presented to the ERP Steering Committee, the Project’s governing body.

The Steering Committee further narrowed the list to four finalists – Aurora, Nexus, Orion and Umoja. Staff selected their favourite of the four in a final round of voting in January.

In a close contest, Umoja came out on top with 34 per cent of the vote, followed by Nexus with 30 per cent.

At its 29 January meeting, the Steering Committee endorsed the selection of the name Umoja for the project, noting with pleasure that it reflects the United Nation’s multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment and a shared mission.

The Umoja Team congratulates Ms. Omondi-Ingabo, who will be featured in a future iSeek article, on her winning proposal. The team would also like to thank the hundreds of other staff members who submitted names and voted in the competition for their interest and support.

Originally published on iSeek on Wednesday, 18 February 2009, New York

Name the Enterprise Resource Planning Project and win an iPod - Four finalists announced!

On 23 October 2008, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project launched a five-day contest challenging staff to come up with a name that embodies the promise and expectations behind the proposed ERP system.

The response was overwhelming! Over 1,000 staff members participated, from D-2s to interns, as well as military and police officers, and staff from peacekeeping duty stations and Offices Away from Headquarters (OAHs). The ERP Project Team was delighted by the enthusiasm and creativity displayed by staff members.

The ERP Project Team has now completed a detailed review of the 1,287 names that were suggested. The review process included inputs from ERP Focal Points from different departments, OAHs and field operations around the world. Following this, eight names were presented to the ERP Steering Committee. The Committee narrowed the names down to four finalists.

All UN Secretariat personnel are now invited to vote on the following four ERP Project name finalists:

1. Nexus: Derived from the Latin nectere, meaning to bind, Nexus implies a network, or connection, or interaction. The new ERP system will be at the core of the UN’s management systems and it will connect the Organization both geographically and functionally.
2. Orion: A prominent constellation on the celestial equator. In Greek mythology, Orion is a hunter who challenged the gods, as well as a mythical figure in several ancient cultures including Australian, Chinese, Mexican, and Scandinavian. Orion implies strength and equality.
3. Umoja: A word meaning together or unity in several African languages, including Swahili and Zulu. The ERP will provide unified information technology (IT) systems, processes and ultimately organizational culture. It will also unify a diverse group of people (UN personnel) around a single cause: protecting and uplifting humanity.
4. Aurora: The Roman goddess of the dawn, as well as an atmospheric phenomenon (Aurora Borealis or Australis), Aurora represents a new era or a new dawn in the management of the UN’s resources, characterized by spectacular and uplifting effect of the rising sun, or the polar lights.

To vote, please email your preferred name to erpproject@un.org by 16 January 2009. You are requested to vote only once.

The ERP Project Team reiterates that the staff member who originally proposed the winning name will win an iPod Touch for his or her creative efforts!

Originally published in iSeek on Wednesday, 31 December 2008, New York

Give the ERP Project a name and win an iPod

By now most of us have seen or heard the acronym "ERP", which stands for Enterprise Resource Planning – but are you familiar with what an ERP system is and what it will do to support the UN?

The ERP Project is an organization-wide effort to improve our administrative and operational functions by making them less complicated and more efficient. This, in turn, improves our ability to manage resources as well as to provide services to constituents and beneficiaries across the world. From a staff perspective, the ERP Project will help us to streamline current everyday processes as well as better share and access the information we produce. Over time, the ERP will replace a number of IT systems such as IMIS, Galileo, IMDIS, and Mercury.

The system and the project now need a name. Secretariat staff have been responsible for some of the most creative names so far such as Galaxy, Mercury, Galileo or the Fast-Forward Programme and the ERP Team would like to continue this tradition by challenging you to submit the most innovative name for this enterprise project.

As an incentive, the person who proposes the winning name will win an iPod Touch for his or her creative efforts!

The name should be easy to pronounce, easy to remember and should be reflective of the multilingual, diverse UN community that we all belong to. For example, current ERP systems implemented in other UN agencies and programmes have names such as ATLAS (UNDP), IRIS (ILO), and GSM (WHO).

Please send your suggestions to the ERP Project Team at erpproject@un.org by 30 October 2008. Your submission should include an explanation of why your proposed name is the most suitable name for the project and explanation of the acronym, if it is one.

Additional information on the ERP Project can be found below or within the Secretary-General’s Report A/62/510/Rev.1.

We look forward to seeing your ideas!

Originally published on iSeek on Thursday, 23 October 2008, New York