SFS Project News
- Legacy Accounting to SFS Transition (LAST) Project (03/27/06)
- WISDM 2 Project Underway (03/27/06)
- Both WISDM Training Guides Updated (01/03/06)
- New Item Added to the Shared Financial System FAQ Page (07/18/05)
Legacy Accounting to SFS Transition (LAST) Project (03/27/06)
We are currently conducting an analysis and project planning for the migration of the remaining functions performed in our legacy accounting system over to the Shared Financial Systems (SFS). The project team is focusing on the following objectives:
- Review the current use of SFS by Accounting Services and update the inventory of all business processes and interfaces that are currently handled by Legacy versus SFS.
- Determine if processes that are currently handled by Legacy can be addressed using SFS/PeopleSoft functionality. As part of this task, the team will document all known legacy systems and will review models used by other UW campuses and other Peoplesoft customers that may be applicable to UW-Madison. The team will prioritize functionality that should be considered for implementation and consequently address which legacy systems can be eventually turned off.
- Develop a practical work plan that outlines the sequencing, timing and the estimated effort to migrate from Legacy to SFS, including resource and funding requirements.
- Determine the workload changes on Accounting Services and on Schools/Colleges/Departments that result from the options for addressing the migration of Legacy to SFS for the identified processes.
- Determine the impact of Legacy to SFS transition on the UW-Madison’s implementation of the Peoplesoft Grants software, a project proceeding in parallel with LAST.
The project deliverables will include a process inventory, implementation project plan, cost analysis and business case for the project.
A project Executive Committee with representatives from key Schools and Colleges, Accounting Services, Budget Planning and Analysis, Research and Sponsored Programs, and System Administration will evaluate the study team results and recommend a course of action. There will be periodic project briefings to the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) and the Divisional Business Representatives (DBR’s) which has membership from all schools and colleges. As the project progresses, there will be more updates from the Core Team.
WISDM 2 Project Underway (03/27/06)
The current version of WISDM is starting to show its age as it has now been around for 5 years, though only in use by the Madison campus since fiscal year 2003. New technologies have emerged that would make WISDM easier to navigate and more user friendly. Thus DoIT and UW System, with campus input, are working on the details of a second generation of WISDM, also known as WISDM 2. All of the functionality of the current version of WISDM will be in place in WISDM 2, with some additional enhancements added:
- Expanded Organization Rollup – multiple funds can be queried on at the same time, and the option of having individual reports returned for multiple Organizations will also be available.
- Use of Favorites – you can save a search and navigate to it via the My Favorites navigation link. Favorites will also be able to be shared among users and each user can categorize their favorites via a folder navigation system.
- Option to see a pie chart on the Summary Report pages – chart will be broken down by percentage of total expenses, or percentage of budget used.
- Use of a cache – if a user performed a search earlier in the day, running the same search again will invoke the cached version and decrease wait time for search results.
- Introduction of a Custom Search – the user can choose which fields will be used in the search criteria from a list of possible fields.
- Start Pages – users will have a choice of which search they want to see when logging into WISDM. A favorite can also be chosen to show first upon login. If no start page is chosen, the default will be the Announcements page.
There will be a transition time while the current WISDM system and WISDM 2 will be run in parallel to give users time to adjust to using the new version, which is anticipated to be around June or July 2006. Any questions or comments can be directed to sfsmsn@bussvc.wisc.edu.
Both WISDM Training Guides Updated (01/03/06)
Slight updates have been made to both of the training guides in regards to the Salary Encumbrance search in WISDM (Appointment Searches, Encumbrance). In the Project/Grant guide, slides 35 and 36 were updated. In the Divisional/Departmenal guide just slide 38 was updated. This search was changed so that you can filter your results by Status, and also four new columns were added to the results. Go to the Training Tools page to get both of the guides, or click the links in the above text.
New Item Added to the Shared Financial System FAQ Page (07/18/05)
Quite a few WISDM users have been asking why they cannot see all of their project/grants via the Project List feature now that fiscal year 2006 has started. The new FAQ answers that question here. We've also added a contact email at the bottom of the FAQ page if you have any additional questions not answered there.