COMMUNITY NEWS
Sai Kumar Rachuri honored for
revolutionizing Ohio finances management
GEORGE JOSEPH
The Government Technology mag-
azine has selected Sai Kumar
Rachuri, chief information officer,
Ohio Office of Budget and
Management, as one of its ‘Top 25
Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.’
The magazine annually selects
25 people in public sector service
who have conquered barriers to
innovate and reshape government
operations for the better. Rachuri
won the honor for his ground-
breaking design of the Ohio
Shared Services Center’s technolo-
gy backbone.
The Ohio Shared Services Center
has revolutionized how the state
manages functions like accounts
payable, travel reimbursement,
call center services, imaging and
vendor paperwork. These tasks
used to be handled by each state
agency. Now they are consolidated
within a single building for the 14
state agencies participating voluntarily.
The design ensures that employees work on thin clients
Sai Kumar Rachuri
and voice over Internet protocol
telephony; data goes to the
onsite, dedicated server room.
State employees send their
invoices to the center through a
statewide PeopleSoft ERP implementation called the Ohio
Administrative Knowledge
System.
Earlier, processing each invoice
would cost the state $33.
“Ohio Shared Services has lowered that to $12 and hopes to get
down to $6,” said Rachuri, who
came to the United States in
1986 and earned a degree from
Ohio State University in electrical engineering. He has served
the Ohio state government in different capacities, ranging from a
technology specialist to a member of senior management.
In 2009, Ohio became the first
state to roll out a statewide
shared services center specific to
finance, saving taxpayers countless dollars.
“We adopted a voluntary approach when we were creating the financial shared services model. Agencies that par-
ticipated willingly were invited to help design the solution,”
Rachuri said.
It reduced costs, but the most impressive changes have
been cultural, reports noted. All employees joined voluntarily from participating state agencies, and see their daily
performance tracked and monitored on flat-screen monitors throughout the center. This has created an aura of
teamwork, job satisfaction and ‘friendly competition’ seldom seen in the public sector.
The OBM also successfully negotiated with Ohio’s labor
unions to introduce a first of its kind merit-based pay system. Today, the only limit on employees’ pay increases at
the center is how much they are willing to learn.
“We leveraged our shared knowledge, and by not out-
sourcing, we kept our money right here in-state, saving
even more,” Rachuri said. “This had never been done before
in Ohio: a non-central service agency providing a service to
another agency. Now, we are each others’ service providers
and customers.”
He believes that shared services is a viable concept for
other verticals like technology and human resources, and
for governments everywhere.
“The OBM’s business leaders decided to transform the
way we do business, and our IT team gave them the framework to do so,” said Rachuri, whose group was a semifinalist in the 2010 TechColumbus Innovation Awards in the
Outstanding Tech Team category.
A native of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, he hails from a
family that operates the retail store chain Kalamandir.
Nicholovos to head Malankara
church's north east diocese
;Page A40
bishop in 1993 by the Patriarch of Antioch, becoming one of the
church’s youngest bishops. Soon he came to head the US diocese of the
faction of the church headed by the Patriarch. In 2001, after a court
verdict in India asking for unity of both groups, he moved to the
Malankara Orthodox Church and became assistant metropolitan
under Mathews Mar Barnabas Metropolitan, who retired recently at
the age of 85.
The church authorities in Kerala elevated Mar Nicholavus unanimously.
Since he has been actively involved in the administration for the last
few years, he said he does not envisage any major changes immediately. “There are many people in America who are living without God
or without knowing about God. Bringing the light of faith to them is
a duty,” he said.
The Orthodox church is more democratic than most churches, especially in the US, he said. Ethnic groups consider the church or temple
as not just a place of worship, but a center of social activity.
The church in India is focused on social services like hospitals or
orphanages, he noted. Here, the needs are different and the church is
more focused on human development. Currently, most ethnic churches in the US are viewed by their mother churches as a source of financial aid, he said.
The diocese recently constructed a center in Muttontown, Long
Island. Though it is the headquarters of the diocese, its facilities like a
conference hall are opened for other communities for legitimate use.
The church in North America is growing in numbers as well as in
spirituality, the metropolitan said. “The new generation is more interested in church activities. Twenty-two youth who are born and
brought up here, are studying in seminaries to become priests,” Mar
Nicholovos said.
Ranjan Manoranjan on Ohio
Casino Control Commission
GEORGE JOSEPH
tions. “I was a founder of the biparti-
san Asian Indian Alliance and (am)
currently the vice president. The
AIA is part of the Ohio political
landscape for many years and
Governor Kasich is working closely
with our community.”
He came to the US in 1979 and
received his CPA from the
Accountancy Board of Ohio in 1980.
Currently he is the chief executive
officer of the 3SG Corporation, a
300-employee company founded in
2000 that specializes in digital doc-
ument imaging.
He also serves on the Columbus
Franklin County Finance Authority
of the Columbus Port Authority and
Manoranjan, who received degrees from the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Colombo, Sri
Lanka, and the Institute of Cost and Management in
London, was presented the Ellis Island Medal of
Honor in 2005.
Ohio Governor John R Kasich has
appointed Ranjan Manoranjan as
the designated certified public
accountant on the Ohio Casino
Control Commission. Manoranjan
will serve a three-year term ending
February 2014.
Seven people were appointed to
the commission from the Republican and Democratic parties.
Manoranjan is not affiliated with
any party.
“The commission makes the reg-
ulations of the new gaming indus-
try in Ohio and work as a watchdog
for the tax payers of Ohio,”
explained Manoranjan, who said
he does not gamble. “Casino gam-
bling is a big change for Ohio and it is important to
implement the law fairly and with integrity. This very
important appointment reflects his (the governor’s)
commitment to work with our community.”
The commission deals only with casinos, though
horse racing and lottery also feature in the state. The
money from the games is a very important part of
Ohio’s budget during these hard times, Manoranjan
said.
“Our family has been actively involved in politics,”
he said, adding that he does not have political ambi-
