- Project's Key Benefits
- Upcoming Project Dates
- Managing the Cutover
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- Procurement During Cutover
- ServiceNow Improvements
- Contact Information
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Hello campus colleagues,
The Alpha Financials project continues to make progress toward its Jan. 4, 2021 go-live. We are excited to provide a quick update on our progress and approach to the implementation of a campus-wide system that will dramatically improve access to our financial data. Key benefits and changes associated with this project include:
- Aligning UC Merced with the UC system’s Common Chart of Accounts
- Reducing manual processes and duplicative efforts, and increasing efficiency of approval workflows
- Improving data integrity and quality with real-time and streamlined reporting
- Enhancing compliance with a new requisitions process with greater visibility into the approval status and associated purchase order information
- Centralizing university-wide service requests on one ServiceNow portal to enhance and streamline employee experience
- Simplifying the expense management process with Concur, a platform for reimbursement of travel and other expenses
This extensive project, which kicked off in April 2019, is now less than two months away from its go-live date.
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Cutover is the time period during which the Alpha Financials project will transfer data from the legacy system to Oracle Cloud. The cutover window is Dec. 8, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021, with data conversion activities beginning Dec. 1.
During this period, projects data, fixed assets, open purchase orders, open receipts, outstanding invoices, information on students and suppliers, and general ledger balances are converted to Oracle Cloud, and activities are frozen in the legacy systems. Tap the button for more information and key dates about the cutover.
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Alpha Financials and Procurement Activities |
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Significant efforts have been made to limit the impact of the cutover process on procurement operations. Procurement Cards (PCards) will remain active throughout the cutover:
- New orders through Bobcat Buy were stopped on Nov. 20. Through Dec. 12, critical and emergency orders may be placed with a ServiceNow General Purchasing ticket processed by CBS2 in coordination with central procurement and contracts. Critical and emergency orders are those that would significantly impact campus research or are associated with campus health and safety.
- From Dec. 13 through Dec. 23, all procurement activity will be manual and require additional time to complete and reconcile after the Oracle system goes live on Jan. 4, 2021. During this time orders will be reviewed by CBS2 and Procurement to ensure they are critical to ongoing operations
- From Dec. 24 and Jan. 3, procurement operations will be closed due to campus curtailment and no procurement activity will occur, as is standard practice for the curtailment period.
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Alpha Financials Training |
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Training began Sep. 30 and will run through Dec. 15. It is a combination of 24 live, instructor-led training (ILT) courses delivered through Zoom, seven web-based training (WBT) courses that are self-paced, and associated step-by-step guides.
For campus roles outside of the Division of Finance and Administration (DFA), seven WBT courses and three ILT courses have been developed. Invitations from the Alpha Financials mailbox and the Learning Management System will go out as the courses become available. The Alpha Financials team also will hold regularly scheduled office hours in January-March 2021 to answer questions and provide support. Tap the button for more details about the training schedule and courses.
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With the Oracle Cloud system, Concur, GLACIER, and Effort Reporting scheduled to go live in January 2021, new ServiceNow requests will be available for direct routing to areas such as Financial Systems Support, General Accounting, Chart of Accounts, Project and Portfolio Management, Tax Services, and Travel and Expense Management. Additionally, existing Center for Business Services and Solutions (CBS2) tickets with processes related to the new systems will be updated.
This will give end users a centralized location for finding services, reduce reliance on group email, and provide a better way for staff to manage tasks with metrics and reporting. The DFA website will host a consolidated service catalog, with individual pages to describe each service available. Additional forms will be released in 2021 supporting DFA business needs, including Accounts Payable, Treasury, Business and Financial Services, and Cashiering.
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Key Upcoming Project Dates |
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We will continue to share updates with you as we progress toward our Jan. 4, 2021 go-live. If you have any questions regarding the project, please feel free to reach out to the following contacts:
Please be on the lookout for the next Alpha Financials Go-Live! newsletter in two weeks!
Take care,
The Alpha Financials Team
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