September 11, 2023
The journey to transform UCSB’s financial management capabilities by implementing our new Common Chart of Accounts (CCOA) and Oracle Financials Cloud (OFC) is a monumental undertaking, and we deeply appreciate the entire community's commitment and patience
The process of introducing new systems, especially of this magnitude, often brings challenges and complexities, along with many exciting opportunities. As of now, we face a few key factors that have influenced the timeline of our implementation:
Retention of Jaggaer (Gateway): The decision to retain Jaggaer as the procurement application was not made lightly. It necessitated substantial analysis and replanning, impacting the overall timeline.
Common Chart of Accounts Implementation Delay: Our endeavor to finalize the design of the CCOA has taken more time than initially anticipated. This is a foundational change for us and is paramount to ensuring the success of subsequent steps.
Design Approvals: The approvals for our integration and report designs are essential to ensure our new systems align with our campus' unique requirements. This process fell behind schedule, but we have been diligently working to address this and get back on track.
Data Warehouse & Analytics Planning: The planning phase for our Data Warehouse & Analytics implementation also encountered some delays, which further impacted our timeline. Our goal is twofold: 1) implement a data warehouse solution to accommodate the campus needs for unified financial reporting and supplement OFC reporting capabilities, and 2) implement a scalable and expandable campus data platform to support a variety of data sources and data analytics use cases in the future. In July, Snowflake was selected as the best platform to meet those objectives.
Testing Readiness: System Integration Testing (SIT) is vital to ensure the smooth operation of our new financial ecosystem. Given its importance, we are taking the necessary time to ensure that every component is thoroughly vetted prior to this phase of testing.
While these challenges have affected our initial timeline, they emphasize an important point: major implementations are intricate endeavors. We are committed not only to implementing new systems, but also to ensuring they are reliable, efficient, and in alignment with UCSB's long-term needs.
We are currently working diligently to address these challenges. However, in light of these complexities and the need for meticulous planning, we are not yet ready to announce a new go-live date. This decision is rooted in our commitment to ensuring that when we do go live, we do so with a robust and effective system in place.
Our aim has always been, and remains, to transform UCSB’s financial management capabilities, ushering in enhanced budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting throughout campus. We remain optimistic and confident in our project team's expertise and commitment.
Your understanding and patience have been invaluable throughout this process. We are deeply grateful and look forward to sharing our progress with you in the coming months.
(Above) On July 11, the UCSB and Deloitte project management teams met in person with workstream leads and owners of interdependent projects to finalize 14 major project decisions and align milestones to the revised project plan.
Workstream Updates
- Project Management: The PMO team reviewed and re-evaluated 173 “user stories” (specific work scenarios) and scheduled sessions to validate these user stories. Once this work is complete, the project will move to the “testing” phase. Project leaders have begun planning the approach and strategy for testing.
- Reporting: This workstream is responsible for developing financial reports that are customized to UCSB's business requirements, one of the most important benefits of OFC for campus. In the last month, 25 custom financial reports were developed for a total of 42 reports to date. Additionally, 27 of these reports have been tested by the functional team, marking significant progress in preparation for the project’s testing phase.
- Technical: The technical team completed five additional integrations between OFC and other campus systems that will result in automated data flows.
- Record-To-Report (RTR): The RTR team finalized the file format, design, and technical development for CashNet.
- CCOA: The CCOA, RTR, and Enterprise Data Management (EDM) teams focused on mapping the Fund, FRU, and Account segments, and also aligned on a strategy for educating departments on new CCOA values.
- Procurement: The Procure-To-Pay (PTP) team finalized how Flexcard transactions will be processed and accounted for in OFC through integrations.
- Budgeting: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is the OFC module responsible for budgeting activities. This team has been working closely with the Projects & Grants Management (PGM) team and departmental representatives on the development of EPM’s grants forecasting component.
- Conversion: Transferring data from legacy systems to OFC (otherwise known as “conversion”) has been a priority for all workstreams. The PGM team refined data and resolved technical issues to ensure successful conversion of projects, budgets, project costs, and customer data. In RTR, conversions were completed for banks, fixed assets, and the General Ledger. Customer and supplier conversions were also completed for Invoice-To-Cash (ITC) and PTP, respectively.
Upcoming Events
FMM Training Town Hall: Wednesday, September 13 from 10-11 a.m. (via Zoom)
- The FMM Training team will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday, September 13 at 10 a.m. This webinar will provide a deeper dive into the Office of Financial Traning’s strategy-and discuss the first round of training to be offered this Fall. Click here to register for the event.
FMM Walkabout: Tuesday, October 17 from 2-4 p.m. in Corwin Pavilion
- Please save the date for the FMM Walkabout on Tuesday, October 17 from 2-4 p.m. in Corwin Pavilion. At this interactive, open-house style event, users will learn about various components of the new campus financial system through engagement with FMM program leaders and team members. More information and details will be provided in the coming weeks.
Milestones Completed
- The project team is analyzing responses to the workforce assessment that was distributed to department managers and business officers in the divisions of Research and Academic Affairs, asking them to provide information about staff roles that will be impacted by the CCOA and OFC implementation. The goal of this activity is to better understand where financial administration work is occurring and at what volume, so we can better assess the potential impacts on staff and inform our training efforts.
Completed Events
- The project team held an in-person Training Town Hall on July 25 to share the vision for training, anticipated rollout dates, and how your feedback will help make this program a success. We were unable to publish a live recording due to unexpected technical issues, but if you were unable to attend this event, you can view the presentation slides here.
- On August 24, the OFC Projects & Grants Management (PGM) conversion team hosted a virtual PGM/GUS Conversion Recap Session to discuss next steps for GUS data maintenance with departmental conversion participants.
Staying Engaged
- Please encourage any staff members who may be impacted by FMM to enroll in the FMM mailing list so they can stay up-to-date on this upcoming transition.
Thank you for your continued support in modernizing our campus financial system.