eServices@KFUPM: Status & Challenges eServices@KFUPM: Status & Challenges

Sadiq M. Sait

Director, Information TechnologyKing Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia26 February 2008

Agenda• Mission & Vision• Old Legacy Platform• ERP (eBusiness Suite, Banner, BI)• Other Related Services • Role of ITC• Current Issues• The Future

Mission & Vision

Mission: To improve, enable, and integrate academic and administrative processes of the University

Vision: To adopt and sustain the best IT enabled business processes in order to support the most productive environment for learning, innovation, and research

Old Legacy System

In-house developed or licensed individual applications

Multiple databases

Minimal automation, no integration and no workflow

Scattered servers

Paper/Pencil for form filling

ERP Systems

Administrative Systems (Oracle eBusiness Suite)

Student Systems (SunGard Banner)

Business Intelligence (ETL, Reporting, Analytics)

What is an ERP System?

Set of application software that brings financial, distribution, manufacturing, and other business functions into balance. It extends horizontally across the company’s business functions and vertically throughout the company’s supply chain.

Source: Gartner

Goals

Improve effectiveness and efficiency of processes

Improve support for decision making

Enhance availability and access to timely and reliable information

Enhance professional capabilities of human resources

Improve quality of services for all stakeholders

Enhance accountability of personnel, and integrity of processes and information

Accomplishing Goals: How? Selecting and implementing an ERP system that meets all

documented functional requirements to complete all transactions, integrate functional systems

Reducing transactional cost and cycle time of transactions Providing easy to use bilingual interfaces Training (especially end users) Developing user-defined reports Implementing a performance management system Implementing ISO 17799 standard for information security Improving transparency and traceability of transactions

Benefits of an ERP SystemBenefits must go beyond repairing the current state to address the Benefits must go beyond repairing the current state to address the future needs of the organization across several dimensionsfuture needs of the organization across several dimensions

Strategic

Operational

Technical

Financial

BenefitsStrategic: Alignment with business strategy, Improved responsiveness, Enhanced organizational flexibility, Improved decision-making capabilities, Support for “IS Governance”

Operational: Leveraging global leading practices, Increase in capacity/utilization, Improved cycle time/accuracy, Integration, Visibility of process

Technical: Integrated package forces a process focus approach to implementation, reduces cost required to maintain/enhance systems, centralised application security, reduced ‘programming’ – more ‘customisation’

Financial: Savings in inventories, personnel, total logistics costs, procurement costs

Scope: Administrative System

Administrative Systems (Oracle eBusiness Suite) HR & Payroll (recruiting, exit/re-entry visas, evaluation,

salaries, overtime, per-diems for business trips, etc Finance (GL, AP, AR, B&P, cash management) Materials (purchasing, storehouse, inventory, IRs …) Projects (Research, Industry, and Internal Projects:

proposals, tracking, closing, overtime …)

Scope: Administrative System (contd)

Services Processes Maintenance requests (telephone, electrical,

carpentry, plumbing  services)Administrative affairs (cars, bills, …)Food servicesSecurity (stickers, permissions, …)Housing & OfficePR

Scope: Academic System

Student Systems (SunGard Banner)Admission RegistrationStudent affairs self servicesGraduate studies

Enterprise Portal (Luminis)

A framework for integrating information, people and processes across organizational boundaries

Provides for students, faculty and staff with single sign-on to all university eServices, (including email, personal schedules, calendaring, etc)

Currently, the portal provides faculty and staff with over 160 administrative and business services

eServices for FacultyeRecruitment

Faculty-student relationship

Self-services for chairmen and deans

Online research proposals & projects

Online faculty information

eServices for Faculty & StaffHR Self Services

eProcurement

WebCT

Online request processing Office Services Housing Maintenance Food Services Medical Services Transportation

eServices for StudentsOnline admission for graduate students

Admissions tracking for under-graduate students

Online registration

Student Affairs: self-services (stipend, student fund, advising and counseling, loans, training/coop jobs, housing, etc)

eServices for External Stakeholders

Alumni Services

Continuing Education

BI Systems

It refers to technologies, applications, and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information

The purpose of BI is to support better business decision making.

Three Main Layers ETL (Extraction, Transformation & Loading: EWB) Reporting and Information Delivery (Cognos)

dashboards, KPIs, score cards

Advanced Analytics (SAS)

Role of ITC

Provision of robust infrastructure (connectivity, portal, database, servers, etc)

Technical resources (programmers or system administrators) for implementation of functional requirements

Training for key and end users

Security of access

Operational support, maintenance and enhancing of the system.

Current Issues

Shortage of consultants and other technical resources

Internal inertia to change

Competency and lack of desire to learn from users

Unforeseen errors/bugs

Acceptance

Future

Internal consolidation of processes

Collaboration with other educational institutions to allow use of internal services

Collaboration with external organizations (MoF, MoI, etc)

Extension to other services (renewal of licenses, iqama, etc., evisa already available)

Data sharing and integration with other governmental organizations

Conclusions

User perception improving slowly

Most processes work end to end, being refined

Early wins in BI indicate that the entire thing was worth the money/effort

Other non-ERP applications also to be offered as services via portal

Thank You