Vendor Selected To Develop State’s Enterprise Financial System

HONOLULU - The state project to modernize its financial management system is moving into the next phase. The Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS), which is spearheading the effort, selected both Guidehouse, a global professional services firm, and Workday, a software firm, to shepherd the state through its Enterprise Financial System (EFS) project.

The team of Guidehouse and Workday will serve as the systems implementation and transformation partner, creating a modern, cloud-based financial management platform. The goal is to modernize the aging financial data system that drives the state's economy.

Simply put, Guidehouse is the system integrator and Workday is the platform provider.

Here are more details relating to the roles each firm plays:

Guidehouse is a professional services firm that works with customers to implement new solutions. It does this by streamlining and standardizing financial processes, enhancing reporting and transparency capabilities and helping agencies successfully transition to the new system. It guides change management through training and operational readiness support.

Workday is a software company that produces complex, large-scale applications engineered to handle massive data volumes, high user loads and cross-departmental workflows. It will provide the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, a cloud-based software delivery model where applications are hosted by a provider and accessed over the internet. The state's SaaS will include the core financial management technology platform and ongoing product innovation.

"This is the single most transformative modernization effort in Hawaiʻi," says DAGS Director and Comptroller Keith Regan, currently also acting as the Lieutenant Governor. He explains that everyone in our state is impacted by this software - from employees, to those who receive SNAP benefits and tax refunds, to state vendors and departments with federal grants.

DAGS formed a team to shape the new EFS and is working with fiscal managers throughout the executive branch to ensure there is input from all parties who need to use this software. "Our core message is ʻPeople, Process, and Platform,ʻ" says Comptroller Regan.

DAGS published a request for proposals (RFP) on March 31, 2025. Just over a year later, it issued the award on April 30, 2026. It is currently engaged in the next step in the process, executing a contract.

"Guidehouse and Workday are honored to partner with the state of Hawaiʻi on this transformational initiative. We are especially proud to support this effort alongside local stakeholders and leaders committed to building a stronger, more resilient future for Hawaiʻi," says Collin Lopes, Guidehouse's Partner and West Market Lead.

Lionel Liniger, Workday's Senior Vice President of North America, adds, "By combining Workday's innovative technology with Guidehouse's mission-driven consulting, we are committed to delivering a financial system the people of Hawai'i can rely on for decades to come."

EFS is replacing the Hawaiʻi Financial Accounting and Management Information System (FAMIS), whose workflow has been in place since the 1920s. That antiquated workflow was computerized in 1970. That means the software alone has been in place for 56 years. FAMIS is an anachronism; costly to maintain and inefficient, it puts state operations at high risk in the event of a major system failure or cyberattack.

Comptroller Regan provides a macro view: "We run more than 600,000 transactions through the system every year, which puts into perspective the incredibly important task of ensuring we have a system that meets the organization's and the public's needs."

When the core accounting functionality is completed in a few years, DAGS plans to have a retirement party for FAMIS. DAGS will retain the data from FAMIS for archival records. Developers will then continue building out the software platform for several more years.

This is DAGS' third effort to modernize FAMIS; it also tackled this in 2015 and 2020. What's different this time, though, is that it is having the end users steer the project.

"We are reengineering the way we operate; accounting and fiscal operations have lead roles this time. It does require a lot of time and effort on the people-side of our organization, but it's important. The people who will be using it every day need to have a say in how it functions," adds Comptroller Regan.

DAGS is grateful for the support of Governor Green and the legislature in this significant modernization effort.