Financial System Replacement Project Update

As we hope many of you are aware by now, the Financial System Replacement Project (FSRP) is a crucial UC initiative focused on implementing the mySAP financial system, while revising our financial processes to better align to mySAP. The Core Financial Management component (R/3 Enterprise) is currently in the Business Blueprint Phase, which is on schedule to be completed by the end of July 2004. In addition, the Budget Planning component (SEM-BPS) has recently begun its Business Blueprint Phase and is scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2004. For both components, this is the second of five phases, where the final phase (Go Live & Support) is planned to occur from April through June 2005. Blueprinting for the remaining Financial Reporting and Portal components is scheduled to begin later this year.

Business Process Workshops
The key activity of the Business Blueprint Phase is the completion of over sixty Business Process Workshops, involving over 150 participants. These workshops are focused on designing how the University's business processes will be aligned and automated into the new system. They are collaborative events that bring together consultants, key users, and subject matter experts from across the University. The output from these workshops is a Business Blueprint document, which provides a detailed description of the revised business processes that will be implemented.

System Infrastructure Procurement & Installation
Other key Business Blueprint Phase activities include the procurement and installation of hardware. The mySAP financial development system will be run on an IBM p670 server, using the Unix (AIX) operating system and the IBM DB2 UDB database management system. Planning continues on the uninterrupted power supply, network communications, and data storage in the UCit Computer Room located in the Medical Sciences Building. In addition, System Infrastructure Workshops are focused on the initial installation of the Enterprise Portal software, which will enable an Internet browser access to SAP R/3 transactions and Business Warehouse (BW) reports as an alternative to installing the SAP Graphical User Interface (SAPGUI) on individual workstations.

Additional and ongoing project details can be found on the FSRP web site. If you have a stake in this project, or just a general interest, we encourage you to visit the project web site occasionally, and invite you to subscribe to its its Listserv while you are there. Also, feel free to send your questions and comments to fsrpcom@ucmail.uc.edu. This account is reviewed on a weekly basis. Thank you!

previous article | next article

Return to the Summer 2004 index.