The Harvard Assets Project kicked-off in 2013 with the goal of transforming current business processes and implementing the Oracle Assets module of the E-Business Suite (EBS). This will better position the financial community to address the increasingly complex needs of a dynamic and asset intensive University.
The identified benefits of this project include:
- Integrating with other modules of Oracle E-Business Suite including Accounts Payable, HCOM, and General Ledger
- Replacing many existing Harvard manual processes and disparate systems into a single system
- Mitigating potential audit risks
- Capturing and tracking critical attributes of equipment and other assets to ensure compliance with terms and conditions for federal and non-federal awards
- Leveraging the implementation of Oracle iProcurement (“HCOM”) to transfer purchase detail automatically into the Oracle Assets module
- Creating standardized reports for quick and easy access to asset details
For the majority of the 2013 calendar year, the project team was hard at work gathering requirements, designing future state processes and customizing and configuring the application to meet Harvard’s needs. With the start of the 2014 calendar year, the focus has switched to implementation activities.
Oracle Assets is being rolled out in three phases:
- Phase 1 (Go Live: April 1, 2014 ): School of Divinity, School of Public Health, Graduate School of Education, Graduate School of Design, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, FAS Athletics, and FAS Division of Continuing Education
- Phase 2 (Go Live: July 1, 2014): Faculty of Arts & Sciences (remaining TUBs), Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and The Wyss Institute, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
- Phase 3 (Go Live: October 1): Harvard University IT, Campus Services, Allieds & Affiliates, Central Administration, and University Health Services
A pre-requisite for going live on the system will be the implementation of a new process for making coding changes to Construction in Process (CIP) and Equipment transactions after purchase. Going forward, adjustments to the coding of these transactions will no longer be made via journal entries. An electronic “AP Adjustment form” will be used to make invoice coding changes to coding strings after the initial purchase. The AP Adjustment Form will be rolled out University wide on April 1st, 2014.
As we approach the Phase 1 go-live, the project team is also working with TUB representatives to convert any existing asset data as well as training identified users of the new system. Please look out for future communications regarding training from CWD or your local tub’s financial office. Documentation relevant to the project will be made available in the Oracle Fixed Assets section on Eureka, the Center for Workplace Development's Learning Management System. Found under the Financials drop-down menu, the Oracle Fixed Assets section contains online simulations and job aids to be used for different business cases and scenarios.