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By Marianne Weber

The Financials 8.4 Fit Gap phase was completed January 31, marking a significant collaborative effort by the Health Systems, Research Foundation and the University to integrate the financials systems of the three into one and implement a new Grants administration software using Web-based technology.
"As the university's administrative systems have stabilized and matured, we have an opportunity for these three major parts of the institution to join forces to create an integrated financials system that will more effectively serve all the areas involved," said Dave Kieffer, OIT project director for the Financials 8.4 project.

Fit Gap's collaborative efforts also produced a university-wide reporting strategy along with technical strategies for system testing, batch process scheduling, hardware and security.

This effort was possible thanks to extensive participation from the Health System, Research Foundation, and the University in addition to representatives from key areas such as the Treasurer's Office, Internal Audit, University Satellite Operations, Office of Human Resources, Senior Fiscal Officers and various colleges.

On a more detailed level, the Fit Gap phase produced analysis of 119 financial business processes in Analyze Functionality documents prepared by the General Ledger and Budget, Procurement, Grants, Reporting and Technical teams. Advisory groups have approved 116 of the 119 financial business processes. The remaining three processes were deemed "out of scope" by the Grants Advisory Team.

This detailed analysis resulted in:

• 189 Analyze Functionality documents
• Recommendations to eliminate 367 of current 671 V7 modifications
• Recommendations for 69 new modifications in V8.4
• Significantly fewer modifications recommended for V8.4 compared to V7
  

Key Highlights from Fit Gap Phase

• Enhanced search capabilities available in V8.4
• PeopleSoft delivered Procurement Inquiry tools will replace Master Inquiry
• Budget checking to be used by the Research Foundation on Research-related purchases
• Single point of entry for Grant proposal and awards tracking
• PI Portal, ETAERS and E-Activity will be carried forward for Grants Similar financial reporting will be available in V8.4
• General Ledger will have three business units.
• General Ledger processes carried forward to V8.4 include:
  • Deposits and Other Bank Activity
  • Custom Budgets
  • Budget and Fund Transfers
  • Ledger Inquiry
  • Interdepartmental Billing cutoff
  • Manual Pre-Encumbrances
• Finalized kickoff sessions and design awareness sessions for fiscal officers and end users.
• Launched Financials 8.4 Status Pages on OIT Web site
• Archiving eliminated from scope of Financials 8.4 Project