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April 2018

FINDINI 4.0.13 Release - Upcoming May System Outages for Oracle Financials Systems

April 12, 2018

Please Review Important Java Web Start Information.

This SPRING 2018 FINDINI 4.0.13 release will be available to users on Monday May 21, 2018.

Please continue to review updated release messages and outage information in the next several Monthly e-News articles and web pages as we continue to finalize our details. Also, please be aware that outage information is subject to change.

Short Summary:

The focus of this release is for the implementation of Java Web Start so Oracle Financial Form applications can continue to work with Firefox v60 (and greater) and other modern web browsers that are ending support for the Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) which is required to open Oracle Forms. Several Oracle software patches are being applied to make Oracle Financials compatible with the new Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus 2016 rollout. We are also rolling out 3 new key Fixed Asset reports needed for this year’s fiscal year end audit requirements. Several important CAPs enhancements will be implemented including an automation process for CIP funding journals which will decrease the turnaround time for approvals and accuracy of journals.

Oracle Financials Outage - 6:00 p.m. on Friday, May 18th until 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 21st to accommodate the installation of this release. CPATH (Capital Planning at Harvard), DMS Financial Data Warehouse, & OBI Reporting will also be offline during this outage window. CPATH & DMS Financial Data Warehouse are also having a release during this weekend.

Please review the Detailed Summary for much more pertinent information regarding what this release may mean to you.

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PeopleSoft Absence Requests and Approvals Going Mobile on May 14th

April 12, 2018

We are excited to announce that Absence requests and approvals will be available on mobile devices! The new pages are easy to use and we hope this will be a significant improvement for our user experience.

Transition Information:

Due to this upcoming changes, managers will need to approve ALL requested absences prior to Friday, May 12th. The mobile approval page will not display absences requested prior to May 12th. The administrator or adjuster will however be able to approve old requests using the administrator pages.

To ease the transition, the Friday weekly Absence Management reminder email sent to Managers will include current and future requests from the end of April until Friday, May 11th.

Analytics and Reporting (Human Resources) News and Updates

April 12, 2018

New functionality and enhancements to the suite of HR QlikView applications are now available.  

Position Management Planning and Readiness

The My Costing and University Costing applications may help with your HR and Financial reporting needs.

The University Costing application is an open zone application and presents workforce effort associated with distributed financial costing and is based on the DEFAULT costing for all active, paid appointments as recorded in PeopleSoft.

 

My Costing is restricted by the PeopleSoft DPL and includes salary information.    

 

To learn more about what’s available in the Costing applications, go to the Harvard Training Portal to see the latest HR QlikView jobs aids.

University Costing

What's NEW!

Self Service Enhancements

Enhancements were made to Self Service in the My Person Profile, My Workforce and University Workforce applications.

Updates include the labeling of specific dimension groups so that users know which set of attributes are always current. 

While we strive to reduce user impact, user bookmarks may be impacted with this change.  We apologize for any inconvenience.

My Workforce - Self Service

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OBIEE Update

April 12, 2018

OBI “By the Numbers” for March 2018

  • 97.4%: Percentage of queries that completed in 1 minute or under
  • 180: Number of distinct users of the Transaction Listing All-Lite dashboard (for more info on this dashboard see below)
  • 1,362: Number of distinct users in OBI for ALL subject areas
  • 132,823: Number of distinct requests made in ALL subject areas, more than half of which were from the “Transaction Listing All” dashboard (72,966 requests)

Announcing the “Name our Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Contest”

Are you creative?  Have some fun, share your creative genius, and win a pizza party for your team!  Enter our “Name our Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Contest” by Friday, April 27th.  To enter, simply email Alison Wellman Smith with your suggested name.

Help us name and brand our OBI suite.  Currently, HUIT has two different OBI environments: one based on the Student Data Warehouse, and one based on the Harvard Data Warehouse.  The second one (and the one we need named!) includes the dashboards for the non-student Accounts Receivables, CAPS, Cash Management, Chart of Accounts, CSMA, Financials, Grants Management, Procure to Pay, Travel & Expense, and User Security folders. 

There is no limit to the number of entries a person can make.  Entry closes at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 27th.  The co-chairs of the 4 non-student OBI Working Groups (CAPS, Procure to Pay, Financial, and Grants Management) will narrow down the selections to the top 5.  We will then send out the top 5 names to all OBI users in this community for a vote.  The name with the most votes wins!

The winner will receive:

  • A pizza party for their department/unit/center up to a $150 value
  • Gratitude from Data Management Services – Thanks a $Million$!!
  • Endless acclaim, renown and fame for you and your team – Priceless!

Enter today!

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GMAS Release Schedule

April 12, 2018

GMAS has successfully released the first wave of enhancements for the FIRST project on April 9, 2018. This release was the first of 5 that were scheduled to focus on enhancements specific to this project. GMAS usually has releases on a quarterly basis, but the next 4 releases are scheduled as follows:

  • April 19, 2018
  • May 17, 2018
  • June 14, 2018
  • July 19, 2018

These releases will all take place on Thursday evenings. None of them will require a system outage, which means that there will be a seamless transition from one release to the next. In addition to continuing to focus on FIRST, these releases may include bug fixes and minor enhancements to other areas of the application. The dates listed are subject to change. For up to date information on release dates and content, please check the GMAS Releases page on the GMAS website, sign up for our Blog, and check the News section of the GMAS homepage.

For questions about these upcoming releases, please contact contactgmas@harvard.edu.

Temporary Shutdown of CAPS System for FINDINI Enhancements: May 11 - 21

April 12, 2018
CAPS will disable CAPS workflow at the end of day on Friday, May 11th.  Projects in workflow not approved by the 18th will be Returned for Edit to CAPS Requestors.  This is necessary to properly deploy the enhancements to the CAPS system for the automated CAPS funding and close processes.  CAPS will re-enable workflow on May 22nd so that projects can be submitted to CADM before the year-end deadline.

HUBS Release 3.11 Available May 21

April 12, 2018

HUBS will be unavailable during the installation of Release 3.11.  The installation will begin during the evening of Friday, May 18th (exact time to be determined) and continue through the weekend of Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th. HUBS will become available again at the start of business on Monday, May 21st. Please note that HUBS includes Smart View, MYFP, Interim Reporting and TEFA, and these applications will also be unavailable during the release installation.

Release 3.11 is mostly a technical release and the Release Notes will be made available in the HUBS wiki as the release date nears: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/FSSHUBS/Releases.