General information about the Financial System and how it will be used at the University of Arizona.
KFS Implementation Re-evaluation Update
On January 28th, the Mosaic Executive Steering Committee announced the decision to delay the July 2010 implementation of the Kuali Financial System (KFS) and re-evaluate how the University should proceed with the implementation of an enterprise financial system. In the meantime, the KFS project continued its efforts with reduced staffing in order to preserve current momentum while minimizing project costs during the review period.
The Financial Systems Review Team (FSRT) was chartered in February, 2010 to examine the key differences between two enterprise financial system applications, PeopleSoft Financials (PSF) and the Kuali Financial System (KFS), and make a recommendation on which application provides the most advantageous path to a successful UA implementation given the strengths and weaknesses of each product.
The Review Team utilized information provided by the software providers and peer institutions in completing their evaluation. Evaluation of the products was conducted in four primary areas of concern: Functional Requirements, Technical/Support Criteria, Risk Factors and Cost.
After consideration of all information available to the Review Team during its review, including Vendor Questionnaires, Peer Surveys, Gartner research, internal staff interviews and consultant experience, the Review Team recommended to proceed with the implementation of the Kuali Financial System. The recommendation was based on the opinion that the functional advantages that KFS offers, especially those related to eDocs, Workflow and Effort Reporting, outweigh the technical advantages that PSF offers, as well as any risks associated with a KFS implementation.
The UA President, Provost, and CFO accepted the recommendation to proceed with Kuali Financials on April 22, 2010. The recommendation to proceed with Kuali Financials was also brought before the ABOR Technology Oversight Committee and accepted on April 30th.
Given the impending vote on May 18th for Proposition 100 (which calls for a temporary 1 percent increase in the state sales tax) and the potential impact on the University and Mosaic, the Executive Steering Committee and the Mosaic team have agreed to the following:
- The Mosaic team will proceed at the current pace of implementation for the financial system.
- The time between now and May 18th will be used to identify an appropriate and acceptable implementation target date and re-calibrate the implementation plan.
- On May 19th, once the results of the vote are known, the Mosaic team will decide how best to proceed with the implementation.