Financials Information System update, by Ron Semarge

Welcome to the first Financials update. We will use this newsletter as an electronic means of providing you with general information concerning the upcoming transition from the Financial Records System (FRS)--and ultimately the Billing and Receivables System (BRS) -- to the Financial Information System (FIS). This is a major change in our basic business methodology and practices. The target go-live date for FIS is July 1, 2005.

First let's start with a short introduction of the Controller's Office personnel working on the basic functionality and environment of FIS. This team, established just a year ago, is comprised of Bryan Kraus, Financial Lead; David Winter, Financials Application; and Doug Ackley, Student Financials. Ron Semarge, Financials Training Coordinator, recently was added to the team. Other members from various offices are now being tasked with items for completion as we move forward.

FIS has been making steady progress in the development of this new system. The first step was Conference Room Pilot (CRP) 1, an introductory phase during which the software is introduced, configured, and learned by the team. The team has used this past year to learn not only what Oracle can do, but, more importantly, what it is K-Staters do to conduct daily business transactions. These skills and methods are now being codified so the team can develop the next level in preparing for implementation.

This next level, referred to as CRP2, is the further development of how business processes will work within the Oracle application. Team members are preparing written documents that will provide the basis for the Oracle online help. These documents will become the base from which we will draw our end-user training materials.

We will initiate the production environment in CRP3 this coming fall. End-user training also will begin using this module as we move towards our July 1, 2005 go-live date. We hope to keep K-State informed and involved as we successfully implement this major application.