RCUK (Research Councils UK) SSC (Shared Services Centre) Grants System

1. RCUK (Research Councils UK) SSC (Shared Services Centre) Grants System Keith G Jeffery Science and Technology Facilities Council Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, OX11 0QX UK e-mail: keith.g.jeffery@rl.ac.uk

2. STRUCTURE • UK Research Councils Grants Systems • SSC Project • Grants Design Process • Current State and Future

3. UK Research Councils • RCUK is umbrella organisation. • 7 research councils • fund ~£2.5b p.a. R&D; • ~9k new grants/studentships awarded p.a. from ~28k proposals, • ~ 21k grants live at any time • Also decide research strategy & policy. • Academic community used extensively on committees and as reviewers.

4. RCUK Grants Systems • Each RC developed own, some starting from 1960s evolving through batch, to online • 2003-2006 developed unified front-end to all RC grants systems – JeS (Joint electronic submission) – still in production use • Each RC has some sort of general read-only access GOW ‘grants on the web’ • Attempts to unify grants systems, currently 5 among 7 RCs • Similarly RCs have independent systems for Finance, HR, payroll, procurement (with some sharing)

5. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map - AHRC 15, Payment Requests HR PeopleSoft (NERC) Payroll Northgate (STFC) 13, Payroll Payment Finance & Procurement CODA BACS Albacs 14, Payroll Changes 16, Task Requests 1, Payment Requests 17, Payment Data CDR 3, Grant Progress Data 4, Contact Changes Task Centre ORBIS Je-S Custom Grants only AHEAD 8, Contact Information 7, Grant Proposals etc. 5,Award Information 6, Mail Merge Data External Systems AHRC Website Other Local Systems (Incl. AHEAD non-grants) ? 10, Archive Requests 2, Applicant Details Mail Request Email Exchange, Mail Relay EDRMS SharePoint, Viewdirect 9, Record Archiving

6. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External Note: A more comprehensive suite of diagrams exists in a separate presentation An example from the John Innes Centre is attached 3 x Payroll 2 x Paysolve & 1 x Midland Delphi (S.O.) As-Is Systems Map - BBSRC HR Delphi & Perwest Employee Data Payment Data Pay Data Employee Data External Systems Payment Data Employee Data 8 x Finance & Procurement Great Plains BACS Albacs Contract Management ProTrak Employee, Cost Centre, Project Data Payment Data Many Foreign Payments Many Local Business Warehouses /MIS Employee, Cost Centre, Project Phone Recharge, Planon Orders & Vehicle Usage Data EDRMS SharePoint & Meridio Grant Proposals etc. Many Grant Data Grant Progress Data GOTW Custom Je-S & CDR Custom Other Local & Institute Systems

7. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map - ESRC HR As EPSRC Flexi Web, TMS etc Payroll As EPSRC Ceridian Centrefile Other Local Systems External Systems Grant Awards RALI Finance & Procurement Sun Accounts BACS Albacs Electronic Application Recording Syst EARS Grant Proposals RAPUP EDRMS Objective Post Grad Award Payments PAPA Studentship Applications ASPA Je-S & CDR Custom

8. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map - EPSRC Purchasing RCPO HR Flexi Web, TMS etc Payroll Ceridian Centrefile External Systems Time Recording MyTime Finance & Procurement SmartStream BACS Masterline Finance Info Syst (FIS) Custom Performance & Risk Mgt Grants NEXUS EDRMS SharePoint MIS Other Local Systems Je-S & CDR Custom

9. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map – CCLRC (STFC) HR Empower Corp Data Repository ORACLE Payroll Northgate External Systems Workflow Finance & Procurement ORACLE BACS Albacs Activity Tracking StoP EDRMS SharePoint Other Local Systems

10. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External 19, Payments 17, Personnel 18, Personnel 20, Personnel As-Is Systems Map – NERC Mail/DatabaseGroupwise (Multiple Interfaces) HR PeopleSoft E Directory Novell (Multiple Interfaces) Payroll Delphi 28, Change Conf 24, User ID External Systems 25, User ID 34, Starters & Leavers 14, Personnel 15, Payments 9, Time Records Resource/Time & Project Mgt ChangepointRMS/ TARS/PMS Finance, Procurement etc. Oracle BACS Incl Foreign Payments 16, Payments 12, Project Data 8, Payment Req 40 & 41 Payments 2, Finance Data 3, Payment Ack 11, Master Data . 26 Letter Requests 22 & 23, Client 29, Starters/ Leavers MIS Oracle Discoverer 46 Grant Data 1, Grant Data Grants Mantra (GMG), CDR EDRMS Objective 25, User ID 5, Grant Proposals etc. 6, Grant Progress Data 27, Print Data Other Local Systems With multiple interfaces GOTW Custom Je-S & CDR Custom Internet Reporting Custom ,

11. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map – MRC v1.5 HR Oracle (SAP after July 2007) Portal Plumtree Payroll Rebus (SAP after July 2007) External Systems After July 2007 BO Universes Business Objects SAP Portal SAP Finance & Procurement SAP (FAMIS) BACS ? EBP Procurement SAP BIW Data Warehouse SAP BIW Grants Inform EDRMS Objective EAA Grants Portal RACS (Research Activities Categorisation System) RDW (Research Data Warehouse)

12. To Be Clarified Within Scope SSC Retained Common Retained Local External As-Is Systems Map PPARC (STFC) HR HR Classic Personnel Support HR Workforce Reporting Vision Payroll Northgate External Systems Project Costing Plantime Finance & Procurement SUN, Earnie BACS Albacs Payment of Peer Reviewers Earnie Grants Mantra (GMG) GOTW Custom Grants MIS MS Reporting EDRMS Objective Other Local Systems, Includes Web Servic’s & Intranet Finance Overseas (ING & JAC) SUN People GMG Je-S & CDR Custom

13. STRUCTURE • UK Research Councils Grants Systems • SSC Project • Grants Design Process • Current State and Future

14. SSC Project Project Team system requirements SSC Ltd Research Councils in scope staff

15. Project Team • Streams working on Finance, HR (and payroll), Procurement, Grants • RC expert users, project team manager • Also Personnel transfer RCs to SSC Ltd • Also IS/IT infrastructure and support • Also migration and change

16. SSC Project Software • Decided through competitive dialogue on Oracle EBS (e-Business suite) for Finance, HR (including payroll) and Procurement • Decided on Siebel CRM (Customer Relationship Management) for Grants • Decided on Fujitsu as System Integrator

17. SSC Project Design • Used Oracle AIM method with refining of processes in 3 stages (CRP 1-3) before user acceptance and operational acceptance • CRP1: 200709-200712 • CRP2: 200712-200802 • CRP3: 200802-200803 • Design Authority set up November 2007 with user representatives and project team representatives to control design by approving any changes (configuration, customisation)

18. SSC Project Design: Finance,HR,Procurement • DAG set up as CRP1 ending, CRP2 starting and identified problems in areas: • non-functional requirements (performance, security) • cross-functional (eg management information) • user provisioning (eg security, authority) • overall document management • data migration (as is  to be) • many gaps (between requirement and solution) outstanding • CRP2: 2180 gaps identified, resolution agreed for > 98% of them by 20080707 • CRP3 now scheduled 200809-200811

19. Lessons Learnt • Design takes longer then planned • Especially if harmonising data and processes of 7 organisations • CRP1 not well-controlled at exit • CRP2 well-controlled – but took 6 months instead of 2 • CRP3 now well-planned

20. STRUCTURE • UK Research Councils Grants Systems • SSC Project • Grants Design Process • Current State and Future

21. Agreed Overall Service Architecture

22. SSC Project Design: Grants • Prototype built using Siebel CRM • Aided harmonisation of processes • Popular with RC staff managing front-end grants process (pre-award) • However, finance staff involved in back-end grants (post-award: payments, deliverables) not consulted fully • DAG suggested could prototype also Oracle EBS for Grants • This was not done but Oracle Consulting agreed best to use Oracle EBS as well as Siebel CRM • Eventual decision to use both Siebel CRM (front) and Oracle EBS (back) • The use of Siebel CRM supports good customer (supplier) relations • Siebel CRM has great flexibility • The use of EBS ensures Grants financial information is integrated with other RC financial information • EBS Opens possibility of B2B communication with research institutions

23. STRUCTURE • UK Research Councils Grants Systems • SSC Project • Grants Design Process • Current State and Future

24. SSC Project Schedule • First ‘go-live’ 200902 • Then migrate Finance, HR (&payroll), Procurement in groups of RCs until end-2009 • Overlap with Grants migration end-2009-end 2010

25. Migration • Migration is ‘as is’ to ‘to be’ data structures • Finance: migrate monthly balances and live transactions • HR: migrate current employees and history for past years (assignment data, absence data) • Payroll: migrate current and hold history of pay advices, tax, pensions etc • Procurement: suppliers used in last 2 years plus live transactions • Grants: all grants at application and live states; all history for limited set of attributes (discussion on using CERIF) • Considerations • What is required legally • What is required for MI (especially longitudinal and horizontal queries) • What is feasible

26. End-State Pj Pr F H G Network services Portal services Security services Application & Integration services Business Logic services Database services Infrastructure services

27. Final Thoughts • From RC point of view Grants is procurement – like supply chain management • From research institute point of view Grants is like a project • From innovator point of view Grants output is a knowledge base