STAARS

The STAARS Operations Group is a multifaceted team that thrives on its members’ accounting and information technology backgrounds. Our primary focus is on the maintenance, improvement, and training of the STAARS Financials, Vendor Self Service, and Performance Budgeting applications. Serving as a second tier of support to the Comptroller’s Help Desk, we utilize our functional and technical experience to work on larger projects and solve more complex issues that may arise in day-to-day operations. In addition to support, our team actively collaborates with the State Comptroller’s Office, Division of Purchasing, and Executive Budget Office to provide special assistance as needed with larger tasks. Third, our focus is on the improvement of our existing applications. Whether actively involved in the implementation of new processes or through the testing of software improvements, our group strives to have STAARS Financials, Vendor Self Service, and Performance Budgeting operating at optimal levels of performance. Finally, our team focuses on the training of these applications. Our goal is for agency users and vendors to be proficient and compliant with our software. We provide a consistent training schedule, as well as actively updating existing job aids, to ensure an increased level of understanding among all users.

Contact information – staars-operations@finance.alabama.gov

The STAARS Analytics and Reporting Team is responsible for providing Multi-Agency coordination of reporting and data analysis. Reporting capabilities are provided through a Business Intelligence development interface and Microsoft Power BI application, which allows us to provide our customers with interactive reports and dashboards capable of complex analytics. Both Business Intelligence and Power BI reports are organized based on the functional content of the data provided and stored in a repository to ensure the best practice for development standards and security policies. The STAARS Analytics and Reporting Team is responsible for the accuracy of data, updates and maintenance of data warehouse sources which are used to build the reports and dashboards. The most important aspect of our job is the relationship that we have with our customer. Since successful data delivery is dependent upon a clear understanding of user requirements, we maintain a very collaborative environment which helps us to stay informed of Agency reporting and data requirements.

Contact information – staars-reporting@finance.alabama.gov

The ICC Team is responsible for assisting state agencies with file mapping and data integrations into the STAARS application. The ICC team provides documentation to state agencies which pertain to specific STAARS document types and requirements for file imports. The team strives to maintain positive customer relationships through assistance with new accounting processes or explanations of data which is required for imports into STAARS. SBS also strives to provide analysis and resolution of any issues an agency might be experiencing with existing STAARS imports. The ICC team is responsible 100+ files from multiple agencies across the state to map data and perform file conversions required for STAARS imports.

Contact information – staars-interfaces@finance.alabama.gov