Financial Information System update, by Ron Semarge

The Controller's Office is very excited about providing a single financial system that will better meet the varied reporting needs of both central and departmental users. FIS is a robust, all-encompassing accounting system. Our development team continues to find new capabilities of the system as they complete the daily testing and development processes.

The focus for Phase I of the implementation is to ensure the new system adequately provides the functionality and information available in the current Financial Reporting System (FRS). The initial implementation efforts also will concentrate on providing reporting tools and training to the campus on the core system.

Project Development and Testing
The Financials team has begun intensive testing of screens and procedures this month. Team leads Bryan Kraus and Dave Winter have been meeting with other Controller's Office and Budget Office staff to test input and flow procedures within the Oracle Financials system.

To understand their work, here is a simple explanation of how the team tests for data accuracy:

*Input historical accounting data from June and July 2003 into the system.
*Run the Oracle accounting processes to figure ending balances and test data flows, journal entry, and General Ledger processes.
*Validate the final balances with the actual End-of-Month July 2003 data.
*Determine differences and then analyze where, and why, any differences occurred.

Once these test results are accurate with the historical accounting data, the team will move on to the accounting data from August and September 2003 and repeat the test again.

Concurrently, team members are working with the campus to convert the current FRS accounts to the new financial account structure. This structure is quite different from our FRS General Ledger structure, and we anticipate much of the end-user training will concentrate on understanding this new structure and basic reporting.

Training
While the decision has been made to continue to use the eForms system for the preparation of several documents, the financial system brings significant changes in forms, reports, procedures and data security. Therefore, end-user training will be mandatory. Successful completion of formal training will be required before an office or department can input 'live' data into the new system.

In this light, end-user training plans continue to develop. We have estimated that there are 550+ financial end-users that will need to be trained prior to the launch of the application in July 2005. This volume of end-users requires an early start of classes to ensure everyone is properly introduced to the newly revised forms, reports, and procedures.

Starting this January and continuing through February, training will consist of informational briefings about account structure, budget and payroll interfaces and methods. Hands-on training sessions will begin in March and run through June to introduce changes to current eForms documents and new reports. Again, completion of this formal training is mandatory in gaining access to the new system.

Working closely with LASER communications and training coordinator Aimee Hagedorn, and iTAC staff, a dedicated training classroom has been established for the hands-on sessions. New monitors and desks have been ordered and will be installed in Fairchild 009 during November. Additionally, iTAC has hired a student lab assistant to maintain system availability.

Questions concerning the FIS can be emailed to laser@ksu.edu where the question will be forwarded to the responsible development area, or to the Controller's Office directly.