Read the April 2022 update from ATP’s Research Administration Strategy Team to learn about our work so far and see key implementation dates.
Workday
In March, the Research Admin Workday team conducted specific grants management discovery sessions, which introduced Workday delivered features, concepts, and terminology to shape the Foundation Tenant build, as well as prepare the team to move into the Architect Stage. This included three sessions:
- Grants Management #1: Award Setup and Award Maintenance – March 14
- Grants Management #2: Sponsored Billing and Closeout – March 21
- Effort Reporting (for the UW comprehensive campuses) – March 29
In April the team will focus on conducting additional analysis and preparing for the Architect (Design) Stage of the Workday implementation; the Architect Stage begins in May. During this time, we will be assessing and providing data for the initial tenant (environment) build, which will occur in April. This initial Workday tenant will be used during the Architect Stage to facilitate detailed design sessions. In addition, the team is starting to conduct analysis on critical functionality, such as RSP’s Wisconsin Tickler (WiT) system, to identify what can or can’t be replicated in the future state of Workday.
The Workday implementation has an expected go-live of July 2024.
Team Lead: Crystal Jones, Research Admin Functional Lead
RAMP
Grants & Agreements (Systemwide)
The Huron Grants and Agreements modules seek to replace functionality provided by WISPER and Cayuse 424 into one system, while adding additional features. Since the last update, the team transitioned into a nine-month design stage to conduct the deep-dive design of the business processes and system configurations. The design stage consists of:
- Multiple cycles of detailing requirements, planning, configuring, process testing, and acceptance tasks
- Prototype and mockup solutions as required
- User acceptance testing
Important Update: In the March update, it was mentioned that the expected go-live at UW–Madison would take place in February 2023. After uncovering the vast complexity of Madison’s research enterprise, the go-live for the Grants and Agreements modules has shifted to June 2023.
Conversations regarding the implementation timeline for the Grants and Agreements modules at UW-Milwaukee and the comprehensive campuses are ongoing. A final recommendation is expected to be delivered to the UW System Enterprise Directors Council for a decision at the May 2022 meeting.
Team Lead: Kate Mollen, Grants & Agreements Design Lead
Employee Compensation Compliance (Effort Reporting Changes – UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee)
UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee will upgrade the Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ECRT) system used now to the newer Huron Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) module. Coupled with the upgraded technology, the UW will transition away from the traditional effort reporting to a new project-based payroll confirmation approach.
Throughout March, the ECC team has worked to map data to fit the new method and software (ECC). Key decisions so far include:
- “Effort coordinators” will be called “compensation compliance coordinators (CCCs)” when ECC goes live in August.
- With the move away from traditional “effort” reporting, it was important to identify a title that removes any implications of “effort,” while reflecting the specifics of this process.
- Our new business process will include a “pre-review” period prior to certification by the PI.
- Instead of reviewing cards that have already been certified, compensation compliance coordinators will complete their review on the front end.
- Cards will have a much greater likelihood of being correct when presented to PIs — an important internal control.
- The “PI minimum 1% rule” will only be applied to federal projects.
- Applying a federal mandate to non-federal projects is unnecessary in a future state where non-federal pay doesn’t require certification.
- The commitment management process will be decoupled from the compensation compliance process.
- The team is actively discussing other options for helping campus manage commitments outside of ECC.
Important Note: This new approach to certification will not result in changes to how payroll is scheduled or set up. Primarily, it is a reorganization of data and a shift in certification focus. Changes to payroll procedures for individuals paid on sponsored programs are not associated with this approach.
The next big step is data validation. In the four to six weeks to come the Research Admin team will be seeking volunteers to help validate their department’s data in ECC. The expected go-live date for ECC is August 2022 — the next certification period.
Team Lead: Kelly Belshaw, ECC Design Lead
Financial Forecasting (UW–Madison)
The Huron Financial Forecasting module will be used primarily by the UW–Madison Budget Office. This provides financial and research-focused university leaders with the data and analytical capabilities to evaluate the performance of programs and investigators more accurately. The project team held a kickoff for this initiative in early March and is now working through the process to map current state data into this new tool.
Export Control (UW–Madison)
This implementation is not expected to start until September 2022, roughly. It’s anticipated that the rollout of this dedicated export control functionality will occur in conjunction with the Grants and Agreements modules.
In addition to the team leads mentioned above, none of this work could be done without the critical project support provided by the ATP Research Administration Team’s business systems analysts, Ben Biltz and Priya Rajani, and project manager, Betsey Kenyon, as well as ATP’s many subject matter experts.