So many good things have happened with the support team for UCF Financials lately that it has been difficult to find time to capture the accomplishments and write them all down in one place.
First, I want to congratulate Computer Services and the HR/SA upgrade team for their successful implementation of version 8.9 on November 1, 2006. I know personally how much work was involved, and from all accounts, the upgrade couldn’t have been smoother. We all appreciate the new look and functionality available in the myUCF portal.
UCF Presents at Oracle OpenWorld
The last few months have been particularly active for many on the Financials Support Services (FSS) team. In October, several FSS team members, as well as others from Finance and Accounting, traveled to Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Corporation’s premier event for business decision-makers, IT management, and line-of-business end users. We were honored to be selected to participate in this year’s event present, presenting on our recent upgrade to Financials and Supply Chain Management 8.9. Our presentation, “UCF Graduates with Early Success to PeopleSoft Financial Management 8.9” detailed UCF’s experience with Oracle’s Early Success Program and gave conference attendees a preview of what to expect if their organizations upgrade to Financials 8.9. Pictures of the UCF presentation and team members are available at...
Becky Vilsack nominated to Customer Advisory Board
Just prior to Oracle’s OpenWorld conference in October, I was pleased to be asked to serve on Oracle’s Customer Advisory Board (CAB) for the company’s Applications Unlimited initiative. Applications Unlimited has been announced as a way to enable the customers Oracle inherited through acquisition of PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and others to maintain their investment in their current software applications. The CAB will help form recommendations to Oracle on future software development direction for current applications. Applications Unlimited is great news for UCF, as it provides the university an alternative path to Oracle’s forthcoming Fusion product. It is great to have the flexibility to continue with future versions of PeopleSoft products for which Oracle has promised continued support—or to be able to evaluate whether Oracle’s Fusion product will represent a stronger alternative for UCF in the future.
Change coming in Travel procedures
In September, Finance and Accounting personnel took advantage of three days of Oracle University training in the company’s Travel and Expenses modules, offered locally in Orlando. Finance and Accounting has committed to implementing the Oracle/PeopleSoft Travel and Expense modules in a university-wide rollout coming soon. These modules promise to greatly simplify travel procedures at UCF at every step, from originally obtaining travel authorizations to expediting reimbursement payments to travelers. Representatives from both the Travel department and from FSS attended the training in preparation to support this initiative.
Kudos to FSS team members
I am very proud to report the following appointments, nominations, and achievements for members of the FSS team:
Dorann Mullins – nominated and selected to serve a three year term on the Procurement-to-Pay Product Advisory Group (PAG) of the Higher Education User Group (HEUG). PAG members advise Oracle on future software development direction for the products around which they are centered, and serve to advance the needs of Higher Education customers specifically. The Procurement-to-Pay PAG is centered on processes from procurement through payment, encompassing Oracle Purchasing, Supply Chain and Accounts Payable modules. Dorann was also nominated to The Functional Architecture Working Group. In this role, she will work with Oracle to provide insight into a particular business process, product, technology or architectural situation. Dorann will be presenting at the 10th annual P-Cards on Campus conference in February, 2007 in Austin, Texas. She will also be presenting at the 2007 Alliance Conference regarding our early success program implementation of the procurement card module.
Varsha Das – nominated and selected to serve on HEUG’s General Ledger PAG. In addition, Varsha has been selected to serve as a member on Oracle’s Fusion Steering Committee where she is responsible for executing committee communications.
Kristal Jackson – nominated and selected to serve on HEUG’s Technical Advisory Group. In this role, Kristal will be responsible for communicating to HEUG member institutions on technical issues regarding Oracle technology products. In addition, in December, Kristal brought great credit to UCF by filling in on a presentation to the Oracle HCM Users Group (OHUG) conference in Orlando. One of the the regularly scheduled presenters fell ill, unable to travel to the conference, and Kristal admirably and capably assisted the other presenter, Shane Anderson of Yale University, in delivering an E-Business perspective on preparing a roadmap for “The Road to Fusion.” Kristal literally had only hours to prepare, although she has had considerable experience editing the content that was going to be presented, and was a natural choice for such a critical assigment.
Dawn Vu – Dawn, along with F&A’s Doris Santos and Linda Baker, recently received acceptance to present a session at the International Association of Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP) Conference in May 2007, in Dallas, Texas. Their proposal, “End-User Challenges in PeopleSoft Financials” was accepted on November 1st. They will share the challenges and solutions we have developed surrounding PO closing, matching rules, and data integrity for the benefit of their fellow accounts payable professional colleagues.
Hector Santos – Hector recently joined the FSS team full time. He has been working with Reggie Besana to provide additional support for the General Ledger module in UCF Financials.
I’m proud of these accomplishments by FSS team members; they indicate the kind of professional development and recognition that is important to those who work in the information management profession.
Project Manager
Associate Controller, UCF Finance & Accounting
|
