Overview

Background

The Estates department currently utilise the heavily customised Archibus windows client and the EBIS system environment to manage all financial management aspects of the business activity related to stock control, purchase ordering, purchase/sales invoice creation/processing, recharges, project/programme financial management, which are all business critical to the management of financial activities within the Estates department .  Currently this equates to approximately £100m on capital expenditure and £40m on revenue.

Whilst the current system has proved to be successful in the past, the ever increasing reliance on external vendors and associated costs in maintaining / upgrading an ageing system is imposing unacceptable delays in implementing on-going business led change.

There is now the requirement to develop and implement a new integrated system that will provide the Estates department with the ability to manage the entire Purchase to Payment process relating to all purchases across the department whilst aligning with the new WebCentral based helpdesk, the central procurement and finance systems, and ensuring the necessary financial controls are in place. This approach will continue the revised strategy of returning to 'out of the box' solutions wherever  possible and supplemented by internally developed and supported system interfaces.

This project will utilise outputs from previous related projects and will;

• Verify the business requirements as initially determined through the project, EST075 -Estates and Buildings Department Financial Management Process Review  with the identified project stakeholders within Estates, Finance, Procurement  and selected customers of Estates and incorporate any required changes.
• Utilise the newly developed Purchase ordering process as developed as part of the project EST083 - Estates Financial Management Process Review Phase 2  

Scope

The development of the integrated Purchase to pay solution, including reporting  will be undertaken by UoE working in conjunction with our business partner

• developing the appropriate interfaces between the existing core applications; Archibus, eFinancials and SciQuest
• developing any appropriate business solutions outwith the functionality of the core systems required to support the Estates Purchase to Payment process
• identification and decommissioning of system processes no longer deemed necessary

Out of Scope

The following items are deemed out of scope for this project

• Any specified changes to any of the core systems should be classified as out of scope and will require authorisation from both the project board and business owners of eFinancial and/or SciQuest if appropriate
• The rationalisation and enablement of the current Estates suppliers within the SciQuest purchasing system

Objectives & Deliverables

Benefits

The project will deliver the following benefits through the implantation of the new Purchase to Payment solution,

1. A modular designed system that can integrate with current and potential future core systems
2. Streamlined business processes aligned to business requirements with regards to
   1. procurement
   2. goods receipting
   3. invoice processing
3. Enhanced control processes
4. Improved management reporting

Success Criteria

1. Management of the project is maintained according to the defined project governance
2. The production of a fully defined and approved set of business requirements with regards to the Purchase to Pay process
3. The production of an integrated system design that fully supports the Purchase to Pay process
4. The development and implementation of the integrated Purchase to Pay solution , including defined reporting requirements
5. Confidence in the effectiveness of the implementation is maintained throughout the project through
   1. effective project governance
   2. effective management of project risks
   3. effective change management
   4. effective stakeholder management
6. Business is well prepared for the implementation roll-out through
   1. system is fully tested according to the Purchase to Pay business requirements
   2. effective user training undertaken
   3. effective support material is available for system users
   4. effective support arrangements are in place during the roll-out and the post go-live period
   5. effective communication is maintained with the specified stakeholders

Project Milestones