Kuali
Foundation releases open source financial system, launches a research
administration system project, announces new board members and
corporate partners
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Kuali
Foundation announced today the first release of the open source Kuali
Financial System (KFS), the first phase of a comprehensive set of
open-source software tools to serve the financial system needs of
higher education. The Foundation also announced the appointments of two
new board members, new corporate partnerships, and the launch of Kuali
Research Administration (KRA).
"The release of Financials makes
clear the growing momentum for colleges and universities to take
control of their enterprise software by pooling investments in
community source projects," said Brad Wheeler, Indiana University chief
information officer and chair of the Kuali Foundation. "The model shows
that we can pool our investments, execute a disciplined project, and
share the benefits of these efforts as part of a sustainable open
source community."
The Finance and HR teams have mapped 180 major processes and are reviewing these processes for improvement opportunities.
The
Future State design phase is beginning with a focus on the
institutional (unit and central) needs for information and the
organization and availability of data across the institution.
The
first DecisionDirector forum was held to request input from over 900
faculty and staff members regarding the effectiveness of our primary
financial and HR support systems. The feedback indicates strongly
that the available systems are insufficient on their own to meet our
needs for data collection and management. This had required that
most units create “shadow systems” to supplement the
functionality. Additionally, training opportunities have been
identified through this forum.
Presentations to
various groups (Physical Plant, Student Affairs, ADUG, the
Communicator’s group, HR representatives) have been held and more are
planned.
Articles have been published in the HR
Source, CT News and Faculty/Staff News Bulletin (April) will progress
reports on the project.
The project leadership met
with the Coalition of Labor Organization to review and develop a
climate of open dialogue on the SRD project. Additionally
meetings will be held.
Planning for the expected new phase of the project (selection of the software) and development of the teams continues.
The System Requirements Definition (SRD) Project is a 20-month project
designed to improve our collective understanding of the information
systems in the Finance and Human Resources areas that we collectively
need to support MSU. This project will last until the end of 2006
and end with a set of recommendations to our senior leadership on next
steps. Key elements in our plan include: a current state
analysis, future state vision, a review of the product offerings
available (including Kuali - an open-source approach to finance) and an
understanding of the changes required to convert our systems.
GOALS
To understand the needs of our business functions
To create a common vision of how we operate in the future
To improve workflow across the University
To provide recommendations on replacing the finance and Human Resources system
CORE VALUES
Broad participation across the University community
Collaborative approach
Respect for our people and the work that they do
To focus our creative abilities on the mission of the University
Questions about the SRD Project may be sent to
ASKSRD@msu.edu.
