University of Oxford assesses financial systems upgrade with Version 1 partnership

The University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world and has been a cornerstone of British education since 1096. Its mission is to advance knowledge through teaching, research and the open communication of information, but in order to continue its vital work, Oxford needed to modernise its financial management systems.

Oxford University is an existing Version 1 customer. As the university’s Managed Service Provider, we were ideally placed to advise on upgrade options for its current finance system (E-Business Suite R12.1.3), create a clear roadmap and scope out high-level costs to build a business case.

Our modelling included upgrading the E-Business Suite and the database tier to the latest supported versions and producing a costed resource model to migrate E-Business Suite to new infrastructure. We also included the potential for Public Cloud hosting and delivered a business case to secure funds for the upgrade and platform migration.

We worked closely with the university to get to grips with its challenges and requirements to develop a detailed upgrade path for E-Business Suite while optimising its database system. Public cloud migration offered long-term advantages in scalability, so our team took a thorough look at that, too. Equally crucial was minimising disruption to day-to-day operations, ensuring a smooth transition to new systems.

The recommendations will give the University of Oxford a state-of-the-art finance platform. Now, the finance team can work more efficiently and securely. Redundancies in the system were removed, saving time and money in the long run. With a cloud-optimised infrastructure in place, Oxford is now well-positioned to handle future growth and evolving needs, keeping its focus on delivering academic excellence.

Outcomes

• Upgraded Oracle E-Business Suite and database tier to the latest versions.
• Streamlined system architecture to reduce complexity and maintenance costs.
• Removed custom code (CEMLIs), replacing it with standard Oracle functionality.
• Re-designed technical infrastructure for efficiency and potential cloud migration.
• Provided a compelling business case for securing funding for the modernisation project

The work delivered fulfilled all of our requirements and more. Thanks to this work we now have a good understanding of the project requirements and scope to enable us to commit to a significant investment with confidence. The Version 1 team projected a highly professional image and delivered above and beyond what we expected in a short timescale, taking into account the conflicting requirements of many different stakeholders.

– Paul Moorhouse, Operations Manager, Financial Systems Support Centre, University of Oxford

The timescale required to meet the project deadlines was tight, but Version 1 mobilised appropriate, skilled personnel quickly to hold very useful and detailed workshops and the deadlines were met for all the subsequent documentation. Everyone was helpful and friendly (and impressed with our documentation, as that made their job easier). The excellent outputs, both the final report and business case, are now being considered by the appropriate Boards so as to receive the correct level of funding.

– Susan Gillis, Development Manager, Financial Systems Support Centre, University of Oxford