What is CAPS?

In October 2006, the HRES Capital Project Services (CAPS) Office, the Office of Administrative Systems (OAS) and FAD Systems Solutions (FSS) rolled out a web-based approval workflow system for capital construction projects to address the inefficiencies of the prior manual process with regards to approvals, data collection and reporting. Many from the user community were actively involved with the functional and technical teams in designing, developing and testing the new system.

The CAPS Office supports Schools/units that are responsible for capital spending on Harvard's buildings and infrastructure. Services include: project approvals; capital project, building, and land data and reporting; deferred maintenance prevention (building assessments); construction coordination/mitigation; construction procurement initiatives; standard construction contracts; and, construction best practices. All Harvard Schools or units planning a capital project with costs of $100,000 or more must get the project approved prior to beginning the planning and/or construction. CAPS project sponsors typically include the client executive (administrative dean, facility dean, other administrative officer or faculty member initiating the project), project manager, financial officer, or other designated individual from the School or unit.

Features of CAPS

• Reduces the time in which capital projects are approved
• Provides more user-friendly forms
• Captures more relevant and accurate construction data
• Houses construction and building information in the Harvard Data Warehouse
• Provides robust standard CREW reports

The system utilizes the existing Oracle Applications infrastructure and scope including security, data table structure, data entry screens, operational reports, workflow (routing, approvals and notifications), conversion of existing data, warehouse views and warehouse reports (CREW).