June 7,
2005
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Contact us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu
Or via the UIS Helpdesk, 6-2001

The Administrative Systems e-News is a monthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard's financial, human resources, and reporting systems.

Click the links below to learn more about ...
Upcoming Financial and Reporting system outages
CREW application enhancements
Legacy AWS/IU reports released to CREW on June 27
Sponsored research systems update
Important changes to format of University ID cards
About the e-News

Upcoming Financial and Reporting system outages      top

Financial applications outage: Friday, June 10 through Monday, June 13

The Harvard University financial systems will be unavailable from 6 p.m. on Friday, June 10 through 6 a.m. on Monday, June 13 to accommodate regularly scheduled maintenance. Affected systems include Web Voucher/Web Reimbursement, PCard, General Ledger, Web ADI, Budget Tool, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Chart-Security Maintenance Application (CSMA), Cash Management (CMRA), CoA Validator, Bottomline, and Windstar.

Financial reporting systems outage: Friday, June 10 through Tuesday, June 14

The AWS2, HUDINI, and CREW reporting applications, as well as the financial ad hoc reporting database, will be unavailable so that patches, fixes, and enhancements can be installed, as follows:

  • The AWS2 and HUDINI reporting applications and the HDWPROD, HDWUTS, and FinStar ad hoc reporting environments will be unavailable from 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 to 6 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14.

  • CREW will be unavailable between 6 p.m. on Friday, June 10 and 6 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the planned outages, please contact the UIS Help Desk at 6-2001.

CREW application enhancements     top

New application functionality supporting multiple parameter sets for reports will become available on Tuesday, June 14. From that point on, you will be able to save more that just the My Default set of parameters per report. As you do today when you want to create a My Default set, to create your new parameter set, you will navigate to the report for which you want to save a set of parameters, enter your parameters as if you were going to submit the report, type in your parameter set name, and click the button.

Check the updated CREW tutorial on ABLE beginning on June 14 for further details.

Legacy AWS/IU Reports Released to CREW on June 27     top

Effective Monday, June 27, financial account summary, transaction detail reports, and ad hoc views from the legacy Administrators' Workstation (AWS) Application and Information Utility (IU) database will be migrated to CREW. The reports and views are used to report on balances for legacy 14-digit accounts in the years prior to the Oracle Financials implementation (FY95-FY99 for transaction details; FY88-FY99 for summary). Here is the schedule for the release.

Date

Event
June 27

Legacy financial data as well as the CREW application enhancements (security, IU zones, and ad hoc views) released into CREW production.

The following reports released into CREW:

  • Monthly Expense Report (MER)
  • Legacy Account Detail
  • Legacy Account Summary

User access to the old AWS application and the ad hoc views shut off.

June 30 or
soon thereafter

Old AWS application, ad hoc views, and data decommissioned.

Access to the reports and views will be granted based on a special HDW-IU responsibility assigned to the user in the Oracle Financials source system. Tub Authorized Security Requestors have provided lists of HDW-IU responsibilities and the HUIDs of users who will get access to them to University Business Systems Services. Questions related to access to the reports or views should be directed to your tub's security authorized requestor.

Sponsored Research Systems Update      top

The sponsored research systems team has announced a set of enhancements as part of GMAS's quarterly release cycle. Please make note of the following outage relating to the release. For more information about the release, please visit http://oas.harvard.edu/gmas/.

GMAS will be unavailable from 7-10 p.m. on Friday, June 10, 2005.

GMAS Enhancements

Action Memo

  • The email subject line of the action memo has been altered to include the Principal Investigator name and Fund number. It will now read: GMAS Notification: PI: nnnnnnnn Fund: nnnnnn Action Memo.

  • The comments/remarks section has been moved to the bottom of the first page to allow quicker reference to the purpose of the action memo.

  • A page header noting the main account org and fund numbers has been added to the first page of the action memo for filling purposes.

Segment Revision
  • Disabled account allocations can now be reallocated in a segment revision. This will allow central users to carryforward funds from disabled subactivities. Note: This will not change the GL amounts, only GMAS amounts.

  • Carryforward "current" and "total" columns have been added to the budget categorization screen, allowing users to better track carry forward within a project.

CREW Grants Management Enhancements

Period Expense Report (PER)
  • Account Group has been added as a parameter, allowing users to select a specific year (account group) for yearlogic subactivities. Users will have the ability to select multiple account groups or leave this parameter unselected to return all relevant account groups.

  • The report run date has been added in the footer to all pages of the PER.

Sponsored Invalid Code Combinations

The transaction date of the invalid charge has been added, allowing users the ability to easily separate those newer invalid charges from the older.

Please note: In the case of multiple invalid charges to the same tub, org, object, fund and activity combination, the transaction date appearing will be based on the most recent invalid charge.

Important changes to format of University ID cards      top

Effective May 27, the University eliminated the designation on University ID cards of "Staff," "Officer," "Retiree," and "Emeritus" to simplify the ID card process. Going forward, Harvard employee IDs and those of future retirees will not include any designation on the card; student ID cards will continue to denote "Student" on the card. The rollout of the new card will be phased over the following timeline:

  • May 27, 2005: All newly issued cards will reflect the change. This includes cards for new employees and replacement cards for current employees (due to loss, theft, etc.).

  • July 1: All Longwood Medical Area employees with continuing term appointments will be issued new cards before July 1.

  • Oct. 1: All other employees will start to get new cards. New cards will be mailed to employees holding "staff" cards, which expire in October 2005. Those holding "officer" cards, which expire in 2006, will need to exchange their cards for new ones. More information will be provided over the summer about the procedure to follow to “swap out” old for new cards.

  • Oct. 31: All old (unexchanged) cards become invalid.

The modification of ID cards reflects philosophical and technological changes. Primarily, the change supports the idea of Harvard as "one community of employees," breaking down status divisions implicit in the old designation. Additionally, the change will reduce costs, since cards need not be reissued when employees are promoted or retire, and will also simplify the variety of cards Harvard must issue. Current technology allows Harvard to use a combination of the card's features (magnetic strip and barcode) with underlying databases, so there is no need for a visual designation in order to gain access to facilities, O&I, etc.

In addition, the University is eliminating the gold ID card formerly given at one's 15-year service anniversary. The perks associated with achieving 15 years of service, such as a free subscription to the Harvard Health Letter , free admission to athletic facilities, discounted classes from Harvard Health & Fitness and free Harvard courses through TAP, will not change.

For more information, contact: mark_ford@harvard.edu or karen_davis@harvard.edu. Mark is the Manager of Harvard ID Services; Karen is the Director of Total Compensation and Employment Services.

About the e-News   top

The Office of Human Resources publishes this monthly electronic newsletter for users of Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on or around the 15th of each month.

It contains:

  • updates on projects underway to build or improve University administrative systems;
  • information about new University policies, procedures, and forms;
  • reminders about upcoming deadlines and cut-over dates;
  • tips and tricks for working more easily or productively.

We welcome questions and suggestions for improvement from readers. If your questions are of general interest, we will answer them in future issues.

Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu