ISP News
November 7, 2000

New on Our Website
If you haven't visited the ISP website for awhile, now is a good time to look again. Our Training and How Do I? links have been activated to house preliminary information. Of particular interest on the How Do I? page are the desktop requirements for the new Integrated System.
     Several items have been added to our document repository for your review: Responsibility Document - Describes all the Oracle financials responsibilities to which U.Va. employees might be assigned.
Organization Document - Presents the Oracle organization codes and descriptions for the University.
Fund/Source Document - Includes all the types of funds and sources of funds combinations for the University. These are the primary financial "source" codes.
Object Code Document - Lists all balance sheet and revenue object codes to be housed in the Oracle General Ledger.
Expenditure Function Document - Identifies the use of funds, for example, undergraduate education, sponsored research training, auxiliary enterprises, etc. These are the primary financial "use" codes. Each project in Funds Management will be assigned one expenditure function code.
     We will let you know as more new information is available on the ISP website.

Conference Room Pilots Begin
November 6 marks day one of the first set of conference room pilots, which will test transaction flow within each Oracle application. Fifty-two subject matter experts from throughout the University are following test scripts developed by the teams to evaluate whether the set up steps entered into the system will do the work of the University.
     Lisa Waterbury, director of institutional analysis and computing and ISP liaison for the School of Medicine, speaks for many of the CRP participants in expressing her excitement and sense of anticipation at "being able to sit down, put my hands on it, and see how it works."
     To find out the types of transactions each team is testing, go the ISP website at http://www.virginia.edu/isp, scroll down and link to the team site that interests you, then click "Status Report" in the contents on the yellow bar. We'll share the outcomes of the CRPs in the next ISP Bulletin.

The Foundation is Set, The Building Begins
The Integrated Systems Project, from now until we go live, is in its "Build and Test" phase, and part of what gets built and tested are one time conversions of data from legacy systems to the Oracle system, ongoing interfaces from legacy systems that will not be going away in the first phase of the project, and modifications to the software to assure it meets the requirements of the University. Many of these efforts will be tested during the second conference room pilots in February. But they are starting to be built, as the technical team gets "their toes in the water."
     A major milestone was reached recently with the conversion of all U.Va. employees into the Oracle Human Resources application.
     "Since you have to be in the Oracle HR table in order to use or be a party to any transactions in the Oracle applications, this is an important first step in getting the Integrated System ready for U.Va.," says Bill Randolph, ISP project director. "Many thanks to the U.Va. and KPMG technical staff who put extensive efforts into making this conversion a success. It is kind of amazing the first time you select from an on-line list that contains every one of us!"
     Another effort underway is converting all Office of Sponsored Programs customers into Oracle Accounts Receivable.
     In the interface arena, the technical team is currently building a journal entry import interface for internal service providers.
     And one of the first modifications being tackled is for PTAEO validation, an automatic means of verifying that any PTAEO that enters the Oracle environment is a valid combination.
     These are the first among an approximate total of 30 interfaces and conversions and 25 modifications, according to Russ Dinsmore, ISP technical coordinator. "The interfaces, conversions, and modifications will take several months to complete," he says, "but it's good to get going and see progress toward the final product."

Step 3: Who Will Do What?
Step 1 was identifying who does what in the financial world at U.Va. now. Step 2 was defining Oracle responsibilities for the University. (An Oracle Responsibility is a collection of functions within an Oracle application. Each application user is assigned one or more responsibilities that allow them access to specific applications screens that will let them do their work. For a list of all U.Va. Oracle responsibilities, go to http://www.virginia.edu/isp/5archives/repository.html)
     Now we are at Step 3: identifying who will be given which of those Oracle responsibilities in the new Integrated Systems environment.
     "All the ISP advisors have received Excel spreadsheets on which they previously identified who does what now," reports Leah Goswell, associate director of ISP. "We have mapped the corresponding Oracle responsibility where one exists. The advisors now have a couple months to work with their units to determine where there will be a one-to-one mapping of current and future responsibilities (in most cases) and where we might rethink assignments to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new system."
     The completed spreadsheets will generate the list of students for the responsibility-based training sessions currently being designed for next year.

First Hint of Collapsed Shadow Systems
Taking 13,277 FAS accounts and converting them to Project-Award combinations is taking an enormous amount of time and effort, largely because this is where the benefits of moving to an integrated system and a Project Centric environment originate. While the majority of accounts (grants, contracts, gifts, endowments) will have a one-to-one mapping, other types of funds allow the flexibility to structure combinations that will, ultimately, enable departments to do the type of project costing they now do in shadow systems.
     Marshall Hunt of Business Operations says this will be particularly true for them in the area of housing. "While it is too early to know exactly what shape the projects and awards will take," he says, "it definitely appears that we will be able to collapse some of our shadow systems."
     Cindy Reed of Continuing and Professional Studies foresees using the Project-Task combination, rather than their current proliferated tracking system of Excel files, to capture revenue and expenses for different types of courses offered by their regional centers, such as courses in the procurement and contracts certificate program, education open enrollment courses, or Masters in Reading courses.
     Athletics will be able to track all their revenue from sources as diverse as ticket sales, concessions, licensing, and facilities rentals, and fund one Award. Then, by funding such projects as football, tennis, or intramural recreation from that Award, Athletics will be able to determine, within the Oracle financial system, revenue and expenses by each major activity.
     "We have to be careful not to try to unleash the full functionality of the Oracle system right away," says Bill Randolph. "Our KPMG partners and other universities warn us that there is a lot to learn, and it is easy to add complexity later, after all of us have reached a comfort level with what we are doing. It is clear, though, from these examples of units already anticipating the benefits of the system, that that day will come sooner rather than later."

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