Need for a New System

The College and University Financial System (CUFS) was installed at the University in 1991 and has survived for many years without support from the software vendor. While information and processing needs have increased tremendously over the past decade, the financial system abilities have not. Supplemental systems deployed to augment the functionality of CUFS have created redundancies of financial and administrative data and processes. These supplemental systems require specialized support and are not long-term solutions.

With a new financial system, the University can expect a reduction in manual efforts and reliance on redundant systems. Improvements in processes, quality, and quantity of information will also occur. The new system will better support staff at all levels of expertise in terms of ease of use, access, and navigation. It will also provide the University more flexibility in gathering data for increasingly complex and demanding internal and external reporting requirements. An overarching goal is to ensure that each financial business process, and by extension the financial system as a whole, supports a strong internal control environment.

CUFS is the fifth and last of the core administrative information systems to be replaced. The University has successfully installed human resources, libraries, grants management, and student systems.

In October 2005, the EFS Executive Steering Committee approved adding the PeopleSoft Grants, Projects, and Contracts modules in the EFS project.