Cardiff University Assessment

Introduction

Cardiff University is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893.

Cardiff University originally implemented Oracle E-Business Suite release 12.2.5 some time ago and requested an independent assessment of the application to understand if the application and processes were optimally configured for the University today.

Version 1 is Cardiff University’s current managed service provider. The scope of this support includes providing level 2 and 3 functional (configuration), technical (CEMLI) support, database administration and also requested changes and enhancements.

Key Challenge

Cardiff University’s overarching requirement was to understand the development potential of their existing E-Business Suite implementation to address known challenges and user ‘pain points’. The guiding principles used to evaluate the solutions proposed in the review are listed below:

• Efficiency – Reduce duplication of effort, reduce complex processes with
  needless human intervention. Streamline, simplify, automate.
•  Functionality – Reduce the gaps in functionality available to Finance and HR.
•  Reduce Risk – Reduce level of off system processes that could lead to blind
  decision making, increased risk of data loss, data breach and/or
  reputational/financial damage.
•  Move to SaaS – Focus on moving to vanilla processes and adopting rather than
  adapting functionality.
•  User Centric – Move towards a more modern user interface, flexibly support
  hybrid working and availability anytime, anywhere across multiple devices.

The aim of the final report was to deliver a roadmap of work that can be delivered over the next few years to maximise Cardiff University ROI in their E-Business suite-based Finance estate.

Solution

• Documented several opportunities to bring processes on-system and reduce the level of manual transaction processing and data manipulation by configuring currently unused standard Oracle functionality and introducing new Oracle or third-party tools.
• 18 immediate opportunities – real benefits that can be realised now.
• 14 Solution redesign opportunities – leveraging existing licenced products with minimal implementation cost.
• 18 opportunities to increase efficiency – implementing complementary modules or tooling to extract maximum value from E-Business Suite.
•  Identified the opportunity to extend the configuration of Oracle Projects to support Capital and Revenue Projects.
• Highlighted an opportunity to extend the configuration of Oracle Collections to better support debtor management, reporting and collections.
• Identified an opportunity to better utilise Oracle Receivables functionality to automate Income Accruals and Deferrals.

Difference Delivered 

• A licensing review was included to ensure areas of potential license optimisation were highlighted to Cardiff University.
•  An estimate of the time/cost/effort required to implement the suggested recommendations was provided to aid planning. 

About Version 1

Version 1 proves that IT can make a real difference to our customers’ businesses. We are trusted by global brands to deliver IT services and solutions which drive customer success. Our team of difference-makers work tirelessly to provide independent advice and deliver impactful changes to help our customers navigate the rapidly changing Digital-First world we live in. Our greatest strength is balance in our efforts to achieve Customer Success, Empowered People and a Strong Organisation, underpinned by a commitment to our values. We believe this is what makes Version 1 different and more importantly, our customers agree.