Mythics Consulting: Successful Implementation of Iraqi MOI Project

Last week the Mythics project team members each received the USF-I, Iraq Training & Advisory Mission, Director’s “Award for Excellence” for a job well done for the successful implementation of Oracle e-Business Suite for the Iraq Ministry of Interior’s eMinistry Program.

eMinistry provides the Ministry of Interior with the first comprehensive automated information management and reporting application of its kind in the history of Iraq.  It revolutionizes the Ministry’s processes for Human Resource Management, Strategic and Annual Planning, Requirements Based Resourcing, Financial Management, and Performance Analysis.  The MoI eMinistry project is the second largest single implementation of the Oracle eBusiness Suite Human Resources (HR), Payroll (PR), & General Ledger (GL) software management system in the world to date.  The MoI eMinistry application of automated integrated management processes may serve as the model for the development of an enterprise management system for the country of Iraq, potentially resulting in the future implementation of eGovernment, moving the entire nation into the 21st century.

Over the past 6 years the Iraqi Ministry of Interior (MoI) has experienced unprecedented growth.  At the beginning of 2005 MoI employed less than 60,000 people and had an annual budget of approximately $1.8 billion.  As the mission of national internal security moved from the Iraqi Army (IA) to the Iraqi Police (IP) it was necessary for the MoI to rapidly increase their force structure.  As a result of the internal security requirements, today the MoI personnel authorizations for 2011 exceed 650,000 and the 2011 MoI annual budget is over $7 billion.  In the span of just 6 years the personnel requirements grew by over 1,000% and the budget increased by over 400%.  By 2010 it became obvious that an organization of this size could no longer conduct their management process using manual, paper-based systems.

In the past year and a half the Iraq Training & Advisory Mission for the MoI (ITAM-MoI) has assisted the MoI with the eMinistry Program—implementing Oracle EBS to address their most important needs—Human Resources Management and Financial Management.  Using USF-I funding, ITAM-MoI contracted with Mythics, Inc. to perform the implementation.  The first area of concern was in Human Resource Management and Payroll.  Mythics brought in HR/PR consultants to work with the MoI to configure the Oracle HR/PR software to meet the needs of the MoI.  Within 10 months of beginning the project Mythics had configured the software to apply all of the relevant laws and policies associated with personnel actions including hiring, assignments, transfers, promotions, retirement, etc…  The other significant area is finance—linking the priority requirements from strategic planning to the annual budget cycle.  In the last year Mythics consultants have configured the GL software to perform the MoI Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) processes.  Now, for the first time, the MoI is able to develop a budget based on the requirements identified in the plans of the General Directorates.  This requirements based resourcing is a model for the rest of Iraq to follow—and other ministries are already taking notice and expressing interest in becoming part of eMinistry.

Although eMinistry is a very ambitious and challenging undertaking, it has the potential to be the most significant contribution ITAM-MoI has made to the MoI.  A successful eMinistry project will provide the MoI, and potentially the Government of Iraq (GoI), with an enduring capability to improve Iraq’s internal security through the modernization and development of automated management practices, improving readiness through the better application of limited resources to priority programs.