MFR “By the Numbers” – October 2017
- 1,098: Number of distinct users that ran financial dashboards in OBI (~300 more than September!)
- 64,939: Number of distinct requests made using the financial dashboards, over a third of which were made of the “Transaction Listing All” dashboard (24,931 requests).
- 79: Number of individuals registered for the Introduction to OBI Financial Dashboard training
- 1,204: Number of users who have completed training
- 62%: Percentage of target audience who is trained on OBI. If you are one of the other 38%, register for OBI training today!
CREW Decommissioning Deadline: December 15
The Modernization of Financial Reporting (MFR) Project Team has been working diligently with business leadership in the schools (specifically, the Financial Deans), its partners within the Data Management Services team and HUIT to improve the quality of the OBIEE (OBI) dashboards. After almost 18 years in service to the Harvard community, CREW will be decommissioned on December 15 of this year. At that time, all access to CREW will discontinue and users will need to access other systems for work they have been doing in CREW.
Until December 15, financial reports will be available in both CREW and OBI. As of the morning of December 15, OBI will serve as the sole source for financial reporting and users will be unable to logon and retrieve any previously run reports in CREW.
Please note that there will be no changes to the desktop version of Interactive Reporting (also known as BRIO or Hyperion Interactive Reporting Studio) at this time. Users of IR/BRIO will be still be able to use the desktop version for their ad hoc reporting needs.
Cancelling CREW Scheduled Reports
In an effort to encourage users to transition from CREW reports to the OBI dashboards, all scheduled CREW reports will be cancelled on the evening of Friday, December 1st. As of Saturday, December 2nd, CREW users will not see any reports scheduled in CREW. This decision was reviewed and supported by the school/unit Local Implementation Managers and Engagement Councils.
If you are interested in formatting your OBI dashboards to match your current CREW reports in advance of this change, we recommend that you attend an OBI Drop-In Hour either on Friday, November 17 or on Monday, November 27. Please see the OBI Training Calendar for details on the Drop In Hours.
November Monthly Release
The next OBI release will begin on Thursday, November 30th at 6pm. All changes will be implemented and the release complete by 9am on Friday, December 1st. This release will address all remaining showstoppers – those items that must be completed prior to the decommissioning of CREW. Keep an eye on the OBI Release Notes wiki page for details of dashboard changes in this release.
The next monthly Sprint Review will be on Friday, 12/1 from 11:00am – 11:30am and will be open to all CREW and OBI users. Users can join the Sprint Review WebEx by clicking this link and by calling 866-890-3820, with a participant passcode of 65323888#.
Financial Dashboards Instructor Led Training
The MFR Project Team continues to deliver Instructor Led Training (ILT) on the OBI Financials dashboards to schools and departments. Users can view availability of training sessions through the Harvard Training Portal or the OBI Training Calendar. University-wide trainings are available in November and December. The Project Team recommends attending training as soon as possible to ensure users are prepared for when CREW is no longer available (December 15th).
- Friday, November 17: 1:00pm – 3:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
- Tuesday, December 12: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
- Wednesday, December 13: 9:30am – 11:30am, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kresge Building, Room LL6
- Thursday, December 14: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
- Wednesday, January 10, 2018: 9:30am – 11:30am, Harvard Medical School, Countway Library, Room L2-025
- Thursday, January 11, 2018: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
- Thursday, February 8, 2018: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
Additional Resources
- OBI Financials ILT will also be supported by readily accessible online simulations and job aids on the OBI wiki pages.
- OBI Drop-In Hours are held twice a month through December. See the OBI Training Calendar for details.
MFR Project Questions
If you have questions about the MFR Project, please visit the MFR Wiki or reach out to your Local Implementation Manager.