The Tampa, Fla.-based Hillsborough County school district is preparing to go live by Aug. 9 with its new payroll software application.

The application is part of an US$18 million ERP implementation from Lawson Software Inc. The system includes financials, procurement and human resources modules, said Richard Laneau, data center manager for the information services department for the school district.

The district is one of the largest in the country, with 27,000 employees and a $2 billion budget. The rollout is designed to retire the school system"s homegrown mainframe-based applications.

At this time of year, just before school begins, there"s always a scramble to get ready, Laneau said. There was some "scope creep" in the implementation, such as complying with Florida-specific personnel requirements, that required customization of the project. The district also implemented Unicenter system management software from Computer Associates International Inc. for monitoring performance.

There is a bit of nervousness about flipping the switch.

"I expect that, like most other large organizations that have implemented such a system, there will be issues," Hillsborough School Committee Chairwoman Candy Olson said in an e-mail statement. "We are, after all, replacing a 30-year-old system and making major changes in our payroll processes. I believe our staff is ready to address those issues in a timely manner."

After the payroll application is up and running, the district will eventually implement self-service applications. But no specific time frame for that effort has yet been set.

"To me, a month from now, they"ll be seeing the benefits of why we went through the effort," said Laneau.