FIS BULLETIN Number 16

Announcements | Calendar | Status | T&T-Q&A | Training | Inside Peek | Odds & Ends

January 14, 1998

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL: SCHEDULED FIS BANNER DOWNTIMES - None at this time.

ACQUISITIONS: None.

BANNER REPORTS: None.

OTHER FIS / BANNER ITEMS:

Mid-Year FIS Project Update - FIS Status

Banner FIS Upgrade Update - Insiders Peek

CALENDAR OF FIS / BANNER EVENTS

MONTHLY INTERFACE SCHEDULE (Financial data from other admin systems)
All interfaces begin running at 5pm; dates subject to change

FIS STATUS

BANNERSLUG'S MIDYEAR FIS PROJECT STATUS REPORT

With the fiscal year halfway done (someone had to remind you), it's time for a mid-year FIS status report:

FIS DAILY MAINTENANCE: Ongoing maintenance of the system has proceeded with minimal problems. A recent reorganization of FIS data tables (for techies: defragmentation) has resulted in some improvements in performance. As some of your probably noticed, back in October, there was some sluggishness experienced during the upgrade of the operating system on which FIS resides. These problems have been resolved.

DISTRIBUTED OFFICE OF RECORD (or DOOR, formerly DISTRIBUTED DIRECT PAYMENT PROCESS IMPROVEMENT): This Business Practices and Process Workgroup project is expected to be implemented by May 1, 1998. One of the suggested modifications requested by the users participating in the project workgroup is complicated, involving creation of a new Oracle table, major input/query forms modifications and processing modifications. Needless to say, this caused a delay from the original plans to deliver the modification by March 1998. Despite this, programming of modifications is proceeding without significant problems.

DISTRIBUTED FIS BUDGET RESERVATION FUNCTIONALITY ("MEMO LIENS"): As was reported last month, we are close to having a viable model to use in developing this functionality. Over the next few weeks, an informal user group will be assembled to provide some feedback on it. Once this is done, a formal project plan will be communicated to FIS users for comment.

CONTRACT & GRANT INCEPTION-TO-DATE (ITD) REORT ENHANCEMENTS : The enhanced report is nearing completion.

REPORT PRODUCTION COORDINATION: Portions of this work have been completed and implemented. Work continues on the remaining work.

ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER (EFT) PROCESS FOR FACULTY AND STAFF EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENTS: This project is expected to commence in the Spring 1998. Office of President has advised campuses to wait to implement this functionality because OP is in the process of negotiating for more advanced services (for techies: Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, capability in addition to EFT) from banks.

IMPROVED CAMPUSWIDE REPORTING: This project is ongoing. So far, analysis has been conducted on most of the existing ledger-based financial reports. A model is being developed to streamline the processing of data necessary to produce the reports. FIS BANNER UPGRADE TO VERSION 3.1: See the related article in the Insiders Peek section for the latest details on the status of the upgrade.

1997-98 FISCAL YEAR END MODIFICATIONS TO THE BUDGET ROLL: This project is currently under review due to the need to direct resources to other previously unplanned projects that are likely to have a larger campuswide benefit, such as the Procard procurement card project and the Account Code project. Because implementing modifications to allow for more options would require a significant programming effort and a full-scale retest of the fiscal year-end budget roll process (which took several weeks of effort by 5-6 people last year), it does not appear that the benefits exceed the costs from a campuswide perspective. Not having to make this change would result in not having to perform the full-scale test since no other changes to the budget roll process are planned. In addition, with the FIS upgrade planned for implementation in the Spring of 1999, this is likely to be the last fiscal year we will use this version of the budget roll process.

PROCARD PROCUREMENT CARD PROJECT: This is a Purchasing Office project for which FIS will be programming an interface to process transaction data provided by the Procard vendor to the FIS operating ledger. FIS-related analytical work on this project is expected to begin by early next month.

ACCOUNT CODE PROJECT: This is a Planning and Budget Office project for which FIS will be assisting with the updating of the chart of accounts to accommodate an enhanced account code structure. FIS-related work has already begun on this project. Service Centers (Student Affairs, Library, Physical Plant and University Extension) beginning in June 1998 for approximately 3 months.

TIPS & TRICKS / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

TIPS & TRICKS: None submitted this month.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

We've received queries from several FIS users regarding scheduling of monthly FIS processes. Here's a recap:

PERIOD CLOSE:
Each period (month) closes at 5 pm on the 7th WORKING day of the subsequent month. For example, the month of December 1997 (Period 06 of fiscal year 98) closed at 5 pm on January 13, 1998, which was the 7th working day of January.

The only exception is the month of June (period 12), which closes a few days later in July to allow for the additional year-end processing workload. The exact date for June's closing is announced in the Year-End Calendar distributed each April.

ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM INTERFACES:
All data from other administrative systems (interfaces) are processed during the first 5 working days of the month, beginning at 5pm each day. Which interfaces are processed each of those days is subject to change, but generally is as follows: (WD = Working Day)

MONTHLY SERVICE CENTER REPORTS:
The monthly operating ledger reports (FWRDOLD, FWROLAS, FWROLPS, FWROLAYand FWRTDEA) are run on the day after the period closes, and are distributed via campus mail to all Service Centers on the next working day.

The monthly Available Balance (FWRBBAL) and Invalid Fund/Org Combination (FZRINOF) reports are run on the 3rd working day AFTER the period closes, and printed directly to Service Center printers. E-mail notification that these reports have been produced is sent to the fis_user mailing list.

________________________
Questions or problems regarding the Banner system can be directed to:
Acquisitions, Accounts Payable - Karsen Jones (kjones@cats)
Ledger Reports, Fiscal Closing - Vicki Gutzwiller (vickig@cats)
Banner Security, Access, Other - Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats)
FIS Training Content, Schedule - Nancy Miller (njmiller@cats)

INSIDER'S PEEK AT FIS

BANNER FINANCE - UPGRADE UPDATE

As we mentioned in a past Bulletin, we plan to upgrade from our current Banner Finance, version 2.0.7, to the soon-to-be-released version 3.1 in the Spring 1999. Version 3.0 was released by SCT Corp. by the promised deadline. We expect version 3.1 to be delivered to us on-time in the late Spring/early Summer 1998.

[You may ask why so long to install - we have highly customized the basic Banner Finance module with hundreds of modifications and dozens of reports. All of these modifications have to be analyzed and reprogrammed in the new version along with analyzing and modifying reports as necessary. Then comes updating training and user documentation. Needless to say, this takes a lot of time.]

Version 3.1 should contain a fair number of enhancements and many of obligatory bug fixes in the purchasing, fixed assets, and contracts and grants area. (Emphasis on "should." We are now very SCT-savvy.) Here's a sample based on info provided to us by SCT:

GENERAL
1. Full compliance with Year 2000.
2. Graphical User Interface

PROCUREMENT
1. An Open Encumbrance Report to show remaining encumbered or reserved balance amounts for Requisitions, POs, and General Encumbrances.
2. An Incomplete Document Report that lists all incomplete documents.
3. Copy forward function for the Requisition and PO.
4. Query by open, closed, canceled, incomplete, or all invoices, and by fiscal year, on the Open PO by Vendor on-line query.

FIXED ASSET
1. Completion of Fixed Asset enhancement delivered in release 2.1.11.

CONTRACT AND GRANT
1. The deferred grant accounting process that provides the capability to process grant related transactions for revenue accrual, indirect costs, an cost sharing on a periodic basis.
2. Entry of grant, contract, and other award information for tracking and reporting purposes.
3. A Grant Budget Report.
4. Creation of a subsidiary grant ledger that reconciles to the operating and general ledgers.
5. Ability to specify different indirect costs rates for account code ranges, account types or location codes within account.
6. Cost share calculated by percentage or lump sum amount.
7. The ability to drill-down to detail on grant inception-to-date queries. As we mentioned before, version 3.0 and 3.1 are largely technical upgrades. In other words, a lot of the "behind the scenes" technology has been updated (that you don't necessarily get to see much of, but we do. More than we might want). Among the things technical:

1. CLIENT SERVER TECHNOLOGY: You might recall that beginning with Banner Finance version 2.1 (which we are skipping over), client-server technology is used to process information. Most contemporary on-line data processing systems using this computing methodology which involves your workstation doing most of the processing rather than a large, expensive central computer, like DINKY. As you can guess client-server requires robust computing workstations.

2. PLATFORM SUPPORT: Version 3.x is the last version to provide both Windows and Macintosh-formatted input and query GUI forms (Mac forms will be dropped after version 3.x). Platform support poses a problem for the campus. As many of you know, drawing graphical forms on your workstation takes much more computer processing power than showing characters (the way the FIS works now). Robustly equipped Pentium-level PCs or Power Macs will be required to run Version 3.x as provided by SCT (i.e. "fat clients"). Currently, FIS and CATS staff are analyzing options for dealing with our situation of providing FIS to users with more modestly powered Macintosh and PC workstations. Several options have been identified so far (with more analysis yet to be done):

1. Implementation of a Citrix Winframe (Microsoft is unveiling its version of this technology this month) applications server that provides a Windows interface on Macintosh workstations. UPSIDE: provides support to Macintoshes; will provide support for underpowered Macs and PCs. DOWNSIDE: expensive (estimated initial $200k-300k), will require purchasing, installing, and supporting (on an ongoing basis, 6-8 applications servers and third-party workstation software; a currently volatile technology environment as it relates to client-server may render this technology obsolete within a couple of years (i.e. we might not get much of a return on our investment).

2. Use web-enabled forms that are promised with version 3.1 to all FIS users. UPSIDE: platform-independent (i.e. works with Macs and PCs); inexpensive with only the need to have appropriate browser software. DOWNSIDE: for heavy-duty users (i.e. input, approval, heavy query), unacceptably slow processing (take current processing times and multiply by ten). For techies: the slowdown is due to web-enabled forms constituting another processing layer on top of all the other processes going on. 3. Distinguish between heavy-duty FIS users (input, approvals, queries) and light FIS users (occasional queries, approvals). For heavy-duty users, provide standard GUI forms (i.e. Windows 95/98 and NT). For light users, provide query interface through web-enabled forms (i.e. accessing FIS through the Web). UPSIDE: little or no cost for light-duty users who can continue to use Macintoshes to access FIS; acceptable processing speed for heavy-duty users; maintenance of FIS software on a single computer server rather than many. DOWNSIDE: for heavy-duty users, replacing Macintosh with Windows-based workstations.

As was mentioned earlier, analysis continues on the options available to deliver Banner 3.1 services to users. We expect to have much more information for you in the next few months. You might ask that given all the trouble it would take to upgrade, why do it? There are a number of reasons:

1) Staying reasonably current with Banner Finance software means that we continue to receive support from SCT and Oracle (the database on which Banner operates). Losing support means no technical support, bug fixes, or regulatory upgrades (for things like IRS 1099 reporting). Now that we (and most all other Colleges and Universities) are using a sophisticated on-line, real-time financial system rather than a relatively simple, old-fashioned, batch-oriented system, it is important to stay technically current.

2) Regularly upgrading our Banner Finance software every couple of years is much easier on users and providers than going through a complete system implementations every 5-10 years. Upgrades tend to involve relatively small incremental changes. With the exception of moving from character-based to GUI, Banner Finance version 3.1 operates similarly to the version we are currently using (e.g. data is input in much the same sequence). Ignoring too many upgrades or switching systems means having to relearn whole processes, or worse, having to reengineer processes to conform to the new system.

3) Planning on regular, periodic upgrades of our financial system means that we can allocate financial and human resources in a planned manner. From this comes stability stemming from minimal surprises and a steady gaining and maintaining of knowledge and experience. As we mentioned earlier, more information will be forthcoming about how FIS services will delivered to users over the upcoming years. Our goal is to minimize disruptions through careful planning, communication, and preparation. We look forward to receiving any comments you might have. Please forward them to Monique Leduc at mleduc@cats.

Contributors: Kirk Lew, Monique Leduc
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please direct them to the Editors, Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats) or Kirk Lew (kllew@cats)

Financial Affairs | Accounting Offices | Campus Controller | FIS

Comments to: controller@ucsc.edu - Maintained by FIS, Updated