Submitted by nl407 on Wed, 15/07/2020 - 15:15
A significant milestone has been reached in the University's financial systems landscape as the Planning and Resources Committee (PRC) recently approved the CUFS (Cambridge University Finance System) software upgrade from Oracle 12.1.3 to the latest version R12.2. This important work involved considerable effort and collaboration by University Information Services (UIS) and the Financial Systems Group (FSG).
Since CUFS was introduced in the year 2000, the system has been maintained via periodic software upgrades and the services support for the current version expires at the end of 2021. The development of a CUFS replacement is in consideration as part of the Finance Transformation Programme (FTP), which aims to shape and enhance Finance’s processes and tools of the future. However, as a replacement cannot be fully implemented by 2021 when the primary software support expires, securing the upgrade as an interim solution has been imperative to maintain finance business continuity.
This will be a like for like upgrade which will not to lead to any significant functionality change.
Early next year will see the teams testing, configuring and showing users the new software. Work will also happen with the training team to ensure any changes are incorporated into materials to support users. Testing will then follow where a selection of regular users will be chosen to use the software and identify any problems. It is hoped that the University will be able to go live around October next year (2021). This will allow the new software to be launched and gives time to iron out any potential technical problems before December 2021 when the primary support for 12.1.3 expires.