Philip Cram. Number. Address Project Title. years for its financial. stewardship is CFS. to CFS and. inventory. changed from 10.

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1 Requester's Name Requester's Phone Number Requester's or DL Address Project Title General Description Philip Cram CFS Upgrade from to R12 - Phase II This proposal is a request to fund an upgrade of the College Financial System (CFS). MCCCD prides itself on being a fiscally sound organization. It is one of only two community college districts to receive Triple A ratings from all three national bond ratings agencies andd has been recognized for 19 consecutive years for its financial reporting excellence. The application that MCCCD relies on to achieve these great results and support the commitment to public stewardship is CFS. CFS is used daily to purchase goods and services and to receive those goods. CFS interfaces with the other Maricopa enterprise applications, the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and Studentt Information System (SIS), and provides information to many shadow systems. Since the original implementation in 1996, some of the enhancements to CFS and business processes at MCCCD are: Assetss are now tracked using bar code readers for efficient inventory. Payments are sent electronicallyy to reduce check printing costs. The Accounts Payable invoice imaging system and electronic approval routing changed the way that invoices aree paid, reducing the average time for payment from 10 days to four days. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, CFS has periodically been upgraded over the years to keep the software current. From the original character-based version to the recent addition of a new Grants Accounting Management module this year, these upgrades and additions have expanded the capacity and capability of CFS. It is now time for another major upgrade to CFS. Oracle Corporation, the software vendor for CFS, has released a new version of the software and will be discontinuing support on the current version at the end of This means that if we should have a problem with our system or if there should be a regulatory update, we will not be able to have the company correct the issue. This new version, R12, has been available for three years, and MCCCD has been planning on adopting the upgrade. A project for the Page 1

2 upgrade was approved and fundedd by the Governing Board in August, In October, 2009, as the first step in that project, MCCCD invited experienced consultants to review the current implementation and assess the readiness to upgrade. Overall, the consultants found that MCCCD wass utilizing CFS well but, based on industry best practices, there weree several significant areas of improvement recommended. They suggested that we re-architect the hardware, a cost not includedd in the original project request. They also suggested ways to increase efficiencies with our processes andd how we can implement additional modules to fully utilize CFS. Many of thosee recommendations that required no additional resources, such as simple procedurall or configuration changes have already been implemented. The new module recommendations broadened the scope of the original upgrade project to add three new modules to CFS: iexpense: To increase efficiencies in the processing of expense reports, it was suggested that the iexpense module be implemented. MCCCD processes close to 15,000 expense reports a year,, with each report requiring details to be entered manually and paper shuffled through many hands. Electronic expense reporting would allow for the information to be entered directly into the system so that timely payments can be made. isupplier: Another module that was proposed was isupplier, which would allow vendors to manage their own records. MCCCD currently has over 45,000 active suppliers and any additions or changes to vendor addresses are processed by staff in the purchasing office. Treasury: Finally, the addition off the Treasury module would allow MCCCD to better manage bank accounts andd the Triple A bond accounts. While MCCCD has kept up with application upgrades to CFS since 1996, our software license is no longer compatible with the license model used for the new modules. Oracle Corporation has changed the licensing metric, whichh requires that MCCCD pay a one-time fee to convert our license to the newer model in order to purchase the new modules. They are no longer individually licensed. On the positive side, this conversion charge includes the purchase costs for the three new modules and three additional extensions to the ebusiness Suite. To accomplish these new goals, the scope and the budget of the project needs to be increased. The additional dollars can be broken into separate categories. Consulting provides the knowledge of the software so that new Page 2

3 functionality can be incorporated into MCCCD business processes as well as providing technical assistance. Hardware is the replacement of the current production and development servers as well as for disaster recovery. Training provides the technical team members the tools necessary to support the new software. Software is the one-time licensing conversion charge along with a year of support. Finally, a five percent contingency is included for unforeseen issues. Project Budget Hardware 120,000 Upgrade Consulting 225,000 Training 70,000 Software License 847,000 New Module Consulting 226,000 Contingency 74, $1,562,400 Executivee Sponsors Project Management Procurement Strategies Debra Thompson - VC Business Services George Kahkedjian - VC Information Technology Philip Cram, District ITS This will be a multi-purpose request with multiple vendors. MCCCD issued RFP# in spring 2010 for the purpose of garnering and qualifying consulting service partners for the upgrades of the three primary enterprise systems, SIS, HRMS, and CFS. Twenty-one companies responded to that RFP and 12 weree selected as qualified. In May 2010 an RFQ was then issued based on RFP# # butt specific to the CFS upgrade requirements. Five companies responded. The RFQ responses were reviewed by the R12 Upgrade Steering Committee, andd two companies were selected as finalists. They were invited in to do presentations and HighPoint Consulting was selected as the provider of consulting services. Total ITC Budget Requested for Complete Project Est Exp Against Master Fiscal Year Other vendors include Oracle Corporation for the software licensing and ITPartners for the hardware. Training vendors have not been selected at this time. $1,562,, Page 3

4 Anticipated Project Close 3/31/ Date Multi-part Orders Yes Annual Operational $152, Budget Operational Support Consulting resourcess will be used to augment MCCCD staff in the planning and Requirements implementation of the upgrade effort. Existing staff will maintain the system after the upgrade is completed. ITS will use existing staff to support the ongoing application needs. This includes normal support and troubleshooting, bundle installation, and implementation of moderate level enhancements and customizations. Staffing Requirement ts MCCCD Goals Other Funding Options? Describe any required budget details Consulting resourcess will typically be used for major upgrades such as this R12 upgrade, or other major functionality implementations such as the new modules. Once the upgrade or implementations are executed, existing staff will be used to maintain those systems. This maintenance and operational support is executed by District ITS Civic Responsibility There are no other funding optionss available at this time. Operational funds might be considered, however, due to scope, size and the original planning for the Bond regarding Enterprise Systems, this does not seem feasible. The upgrade project was originallyy included in the bond as an expected expense. The expansion of new modules is new request and consists of approximately 50% of the entire project budget. The R12 upgrade is a mandatory upgrade; MCCCD needs to upgrade its application to stay current with regulatory and other updates. Project Life Cycle The new module expansion is being added to the R12 upgrade project because it savess money and time. If MCCCD were to implement the new modules separately from the upgrade, the estimated expense would be approximately $1.6 million compared to the current $1.1 million. Oracle releases major upgrades about every five years. Oracle ebusiness Suite Releasee 12 was officially released in Oracle has just announced that the next major release (Fusion) will bee in Q Given that the new releasee is usually not immediately placed into production,, the implementation of the next major upgrade for CFS can be expected around 2014/2015. There is no foreseeable intent to replace Oracle as the provider of the enterprise financial Page 4

5 system. District Wide No Replacement If this is a District Wide Replacement - Pleasee Describe Are other Systems Impacted? How many and whichh colleges participated in the research? Is this a District Wide Service? All enterprise systems within MCCCD ITS will have a tangential impact from this upgrade. SIS and HRMS exchange data with CFS, and CFS will be integrated with EIMS and BDS. The current interfaces will need to be evaluated and replaced and will be included as part of the project plan. Yes. CFS has been in use for 14 years as the District financial system. Colleges use CFS to request and order goods and services, approve invoices for payment, and track budgets. How does this system add CFS provides MCCCD with an enterprise system to deliver economies of scale overall value to Maricopa? regarding general ledger, purchasing and accounts payable as a District standard. Delivering upgraded tools that will allow for better tracking of our financial information will prove invaluable in these difficult economic times. System support from the manufacturer requiress that MCCCD stay current with the vendor releases. What is the estimated The project will begin immediatelyy upon approval. The upgrade will be first with schedule or timetablee for implementation? an estimated completion of Q and the new module implementation is estimated to be complete Q A high-level timeline is attached to this proposal. Monitoring and Feedback? A detail led project plan will be created during the first phase of the project that will allow project management to monitor the project. The project will update the ITS Project Portfolio website that will include the plan, progress and documentation. Regular status updates will be provided as appropriate. Training Strategy End user training will be provided as part of the consulting package; the consultants are versed in UPK andd if the UPK content is purchased, will update with MCCCD specific information. The end userr training is planned over four months for the R12 upgrade portion tentatively planned for August - November If the additional modules are funded with this proposal, another three month training period will be planned. There iss no separate budget item for this training as it is included in thee consultant agreement. (Any in-house training would require staff resources. If staff time is considered the cost is likely to be comparable to the UPK.) Technical training is budgeted for both DBA's and developers; which is more Page 5

6 Risk Assessment technically focused in nature and requires specific training classes as recommended from both Oracle and the consultants. Technical training will take place over the project lifecycle. There is always risk in implementing a software upgrade; prior business processes may no longer function in exactly the same way or the new software may require additional business processes to be instituted. These risks are mitigated by careful planning and testing throughout the project. Contingency Plan & Alternative Options If this project is not funded, Maricopa faces the risk of running financial software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Oracle plans an end of life support of our current version of CFS in MCCCD would need to start paying for extended support in November As described in the risk assessment section above, it is essentially required that we upgrade the application. If we do upgrade, we put MCCCD at risk withoutt the possibility of data fixes or application upgrades. 1) The requested approach is that the entire project request be funded (hardware, consulting for upgrade, training, software licensing, and new module consulting). This is the desirable approach in that all of the requirements from the business office are met and the EBS licensing is setup for future module requests. The risks of not fully funding the project, in addition to support issues, is that MCCCD is simply postponing the payment for licensing costs to a time where uncertain funding may occur. Total requested approach cost: $1, 562,400. 2) The second alternative is fund the project as is but not include the UPK content. This reduces the project budget by $152,000 and annual support costs by $27,000. The pros for this approach iss that the budget is reduced. The cons are that the end user training foundation is weakened and alternative training materials will need to be developed in house. Total second alternative approach cost: $1,412,400. References 3) The third alternative is the bare minimum required. In this scenario, the additional modules and implementation costs ($ $921,000) as well as the UPK contentt is removed from the project, leaving only the hardware and additional consulting dollars ($415,000 plus contingency).. While the pro for this alternative is current cost savings,, the cons are that the system will not be able to add any new modules in the future without ncurring the licensing conversion costs. Total third alternative approach cost: $456,500. Page 6

7 Critical Success Factors Critical Success Factors Include: 1) The project budget is closely based on estimates from the consulting company and Oracle. By tracking hours tightly, the budget and contingency will keep the project on plan. 2) In the Grants project, it was learned that communication amongst all groups is tantamount to project success. The CFS core team is being re- as well as energized to meet on a monthly basis to monitor project progress utilizing both a MCCCD project manager and an external project manager. 3) If the new modules are implemented, there will be approximately 45,000 external suppliers accessing the system with isupplier and the number of expensee reports processed by the new iexpensee will be almost 15,000. 6) The added value will be an upgraded, current system that will be used for the next 5-10 years. 7) CFS integrates with HRMS and SIS as well as other systems. 8) CFS currently has a staff of developers that maintain the system; this staff will remain and maintain the upgraded system without any additional personnel costs. At this point, there is no foreseeable requirement to add staff. If the UPK content is included, support iss included for upgrades from Oracle. Additionally, a plan wouldd need to be developed to make sure that MCCCD is continuing to keep the information up-to-date. 9) Issues will be tracked using thee Help Desk Ticket system. 10) Please see the training section above; end user training will be included as part of the consultancy. 11) The stakeholder register andd communication plan for this project will be monitored and updated periodically and as required. (Pleasee also refer to item 2 above regarding communication lessons learned previously) 12) Yes, there are customizationss but the end goal is to reduce the total number. CFS has about 100 modss and a large number of those are reports. Is this an instructionally related purchase? Infrastructure Refresh Program Increase Request to Original Proposal Reason for Increase Request Ready for ITC Review? No Yes Page 7