PCI helps Sound Transit Authority achieve greater system integration and access to data, as well as more automated functions within their ERP system of record.

Sound Transit was created by the state legislature (Washington) to build a mass transit system that connects regional employment and population centers in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The agency was legally formed in 1993, when the Councils in the three counties voted to participate in the authority. In November 1996, voters in the urban areas of those counties approved local taxes to build the first phase of that system. Today, the cornerstones of that system are in place.

Sounder commuter trains run more than 80 miles every weekday from Everett and Tacoma into Seattle and back. Sound Transit Express regional buses have already run more than 42 million miles of service on 19 new routes, connecting Seattle and Bellevue with Everett, Tacoma and many other cities. The Tacoma Link light rail line began operating in August 2003 and quickly became a major chapter in the renaissance of downtown Tacoma. The 14-mile Link light rail initial segment, which will connect downtown Seattle to the airport, is under construction in Seattle. Besides that, Sound Transit continues to build transit centers, park and ride lots and HOV access ramps throughout the region to make it easier for people to use the agency’s buses and trains.

The situation

Sound Transit had internally achieved their upgrade from OneWorld Xe release of the JD Edwards software to PeopleSoft, Enterprise One 8.10, but still had a goal to replace the ‘patchwork’ of homegrown and third-party software to achieve full system integration.
While only a small part of their business; a primary goal was to integrate and automate the Property (Real Estate) Management Division’s processing of both receivables and payables lease functions. The replacement of a non-integrated, third-party leasing program was to be achieved, with full integration to Sound Transit’s system of record.

Additionally, a homegrown application (a series of Microsoft Access database tables with front-end entry and inquiry screens) referred to as ‘STARTS’ (Sound Transit Acquisition and Relocation Tracking System) was to be retired, in lieu of an Enterprise One solution for the capture and storage of such data. Overall business requirements included:

1. Replace ‘Pro-Lease’ software for leasing, and related, activities
2. Replace ‘STARTS’ databases with E1 solution for Acquisition & Relocation Tracking
3. Train Property Management & Real Estate staff to be self-sufficient with applications
4. Provide adequate end-user documentation on how to perform necessary functions
5. Achieve full integration of Leasing and ‘STARTS’ data with all other E1 applications

Solution

Sound Transit elected to implement the PeopleSoft Real Estate Management applications in conjunction with their recently-graded E1 8.10 software as a means of achieving integrated functions for Property Management and Real Estate Development activities.
In part with the discontinuation of the ‘Pro-Lease’ application was the definition and/or automation of heretofore manually performed functions such as:

• Property/Building Structures
• A/R and A/P Leasing Functions
• Recurring Vouchers/Billings
• CPI (Escalation) Billings
• Late Fee Billings
• Sales Overage (Percent Rent) Billings
• Security Deposit Maintenance, Application, and Refund Processing
• Lease Versioning (Amendment) Controls
• A/R and A/P Lease Abstracts (Documents)
• A/R Rent (Revenues) and A/P Rent (Liability) Projections

The replacement of the homegrown ‘STARTS’ databases of information was achieved by solutions within both the E1 Real Estate Management and Procurement applications. Sensitive and crucial relocation data (and supporting transactions) was redesigned using more accurate and appropriately integrated Procure-to-Pay functionality. Additionally, the voluminous sets of acquisition and relocation data were converted from the Access tables into the Real Estate Management Log Class/Amenity Code tables; including such information as:

• Appraisals
  
• Acquisitions
  
• Condemnations
  
• Easements
  
• Environmental Assessments
  
• Relocations
  
• Right-of-Entry
  
• Parcel and Owner Information

Benefits / ROI

Sound Transit’s E1 system is now fully integrated with regard to Property Management (Leasing) and Real Estate Management (Acquisitions, etc.) functions. The discontinuation of ‘Pro-Lease’ and ‘STARTS’ has resulted in:

1. End to disparate and disconnected software systems (and processed transactions)
2. No manual re-processing of Lease vouching/billing functions into E1 system of record
3. Additional automated vouching/billing functions
4. More accurate capture of information, based on true integrated processing
5. Improved processing and controls