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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">FYI<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Erling<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">===============================================================<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Professor Erling Riis<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Head of Department<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Department of Physics, tel: 0141-5483490<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Strathclyde University,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">John Anderson Building, e-mail:
<a href="mailto:e.riis@strath.ac.uk"><span style="color:blue">e.riis@strath.ac.uk</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Glasgow, G4 0NG<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">UK<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">The Department is a partner in SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"> acaheads-bounces@lists.strath.ac.uk
[mailto:acaheads-bounces@lists.strath.ac.uk] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Hugh Darby<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 09 December 2015 12:50<br>
<b>To:</b> 'deans@lists.strath.ac.uk'; 'directors@lists.strath.ac.uk'; 'acaheads@lists.strath.ac.uk'; 'admheads@strath.ac.uk'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [acaheads] Financial Management System progress update<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dear Colleagues</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Financial Management System (FMS) has now been live for 14 weeks following implementation on 12 August. The project represents the single-biggest process and software change
the University has undertaken in many years.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This email provides an update on progress to date. Please share this information with colleagues who may be using the system.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Overview</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">FMS is a complex application, supporting a huge change in ways of working across the University. By replacing our manual and paper-intensive
processes with online processing, a greater number of users than ever have been brought into direct contact with financial processes.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Significantly, after many years of supporting our finance systems in-house, we are now using a third party for the supply and support
of a proprietary system.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The new FMS is based on Agresso, which is the pre-eminent system in the UK, used by more than 40% of the country’s higher education
institutions.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Operational processing following go-live</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As colleagues may have experienced, this initial period of using FMS has presented some significant transaction processing challenges,
particularly in the areas of supplier invoicing. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Transaction volumes received into FMS in the weeks after go-live were much lower than normal, but rose significantly thereafter.
This peak in workload was exacerbated by the unexpectedly high volume of transactions initiated pre-FMS but having to be concluded on FMS – transactions which are more time-consuming and complex to process.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These factors, in addition to a number of functional and configuration issues, resulted in a period of unsatisfactory transaction
processing times. <span style="color:black">Throughout this period, the project team has been working with the software suppliers to resolve the issues, while the Payments team has been working intensely to sustain operational activity, supported by colleagues
from other areas of Finance. Support and cooperation from departments and the wider University community has been very important during this period.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">Our first priority has been to get all payments processed as quickly as possible, while endeavouring to respond to
the large volume of inquiries we have received since the implementation of the system.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">We have emailed all FMS-enabled suppliers to apologise for any delays they may have experienced, and have reminded
them of our new processes, to assist in ensuring invoices are paid promptly.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The situation today</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The operational position is improving and new invoices are generally being captured on FMS within 1‑2 days of receipt.
Suppliers and customers are becoming more familiar with the system and the backlog has been significantly reduced. Our focus now is on resolving outstanding inquiries and responding more quickly to new ones.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">We are working hard to move towards ‘business as usual’ processing, which is expected to be achieved by the end of
this month.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Notwithstanding the frustrations and delays arising from the operational challenges, the University has continued to pay suppliers
throughout the period. In the first three months of FMS, more than 15,000 invoices have been paid to 1,250 different suppliers, reflecting some £23m of purchases.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">I will write to you again next week to outline the steps we are taking to provide ongoing support for the continued
embedding and enhancement of FMS as we move out of the project phase and into business as usual use of FMS.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Kind regards,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Hugh Darby</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Financial Controller</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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