Future GUS Support, Development, and Training

DRAFT

Project Name:   Future GUS Support, Development, and Training

Project Implementers:  MSI, Accounting, current GUS users.

Project Beneficiaries:   MSI, Accounting, Chemistry, departments, and Organized Research Units that use GUS; departments and Organized Research Units currently interested in GUS that cannot afford the buy-in fee.

Overview/Problem Statement

This proposal aims to solve the problem of sustaining a locally developed shadow accounting system (GUS) by advocating for permanently supported, centrally located, developer and support personnel who are directed by an Executive Committee of users.

Academic departments and Organized Research Units (ORU) are required to maintain a separate "shadow accounting system" to track both expenditures and liens for their extramural funds. While this can be done in a spreadsheet program, this does not work well for large, complex grants. In conversations with Accounting and academic departments at UCSD, UCLA, UCB, and UC Davis, it has become clear that no single accounting solution exists across the University of California. Depending upon the complexity of department-level accounting allowed by their mainframes, the UCs mentioned above rely on shadow systems to a varying degree. Many of these shadow systems were developed in-house, as with UCSD, or they use Microsoft Excel.

GUS was developed by the Marine Science Institute (MSI) and Chemistry and Biochemistry as a replacement for the previous system ARCS (developed in the 1980’s) for a number of reasons, including: potential Y2K issues, lack of support/customization, and a desire to make use of newer hardware and software technology.

As GUS development progressed other departments became interested in using it, rather than the alternative of developing their own systems or to adopt some other existing one. A modest buy-in fee was instituted to partially offset the cost of development. However, the brunt of the financial support (i.e. FTE) continued to come directly from MSI and Chemistry.

In time, GUS has become the de facto shadow system standard among departments and ORUs at UCSB with extramural funds, although several other shadow systems do exist (e.g. updated ARCS in Biology, "Data" in IC). GUS is a relational database software package designed to integrate multiple departmental information processing needs into a single, cohesive system. GUS currently contains five major modules covering Budget/Accounting, Purchasing, Recharges, Contracts and Grants, and Personnel/Payroll. GUS was developed in 4D, a database system that can function either in a stand-alone or client-server configuration on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

One frequent point of confusion is that there are several other ancillary programs developed by various users that are not actually part of GUS, but may feed information into GUS. For example, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics use a 4D-based Storeroom program that can, but does not need to, import/export data to GUS. These types of programs were left out of GUS because of their specific nature. For example, only Chemistry needs a program to track the Glassblower shop charges, and only Biology would need a system to track for boat use. The Recharge module of GUS tracks the dollar values and creates financial journals for recharge, but it does not, nor was it intended to, track labor hours, differing rates, etc., that so many shops require.

Currently, a 70%-time developer at the MSI and a 20%-time developer in Chemistry and Biochemistry handle all support, development, and training of GUS, which is used in over 20 departments and ORUs which accounted for about 75% of UCSB's extramural funding in Fiscal Year 02-03. These resources cannot meet the continuing needs of departmental use. As more departments adopt GUS and campus research grows, support, development, and training resources will be overextended and system updates and revisions not utilized. Indeed, as Chemistry's computational research needs have grown, Chemistry's development of the Personnel module has slowed considerably.

GUS development progresses through close communication between the two developers and the end users. One of GUS's greatest strengths, thanks to the lead developer Allen Matlick and feedback from users, is its ability to address the specialized needs of UCSB. Every department that uses GUS understands the importance of continuing this collaborative development environment. Therefore a key facet of this proposal is to implement an Executive Committee of GUS users to address most, if not all, continuing support and development.

While GUS is providing a viable shadow accounting system for many departments, due to lack of continual training and limited user documentation it is not being fully utilized by the current users; and due to limited programmer time, it does not have all of the intended, high-impact features. Additionally, if MSI had to reduce its developer's time, or that developer were to leave UCSB, many departments would be left high and dry. UCSB has a unique opportunity to foster a unified shadow accounting system that serves a substantial and documented need on campus. While no department would be required to use GUS, such support as enumerated here would convince many departments to transition to GUS and eliminate their fear of not getting the help needed.

A well-documented shadow system with available training and support would save the campus time and money during staff transitions, audits, budgetary planning, reconciliation periods, and principal investigator queries. Continued development would allow for web-based account reporting and Data Warehouse integration.

The departments that use GUS praise it extensively. General Ledger (GLO) reconciliation processing time alone can be reduced to one-third of the time spent before using GUS. User departments have commented that GUS has saved significant departmental staff time and increased accuracy by decreasing the need for duplicate data entry. GUS links purchasing, payroll, and recharges to all accounts a department may have. It saves administrative time and dollars in executing payroll, purchasing, equipment tracking, and financial reporting transactions. Errors can be corrected in one-fourth the time. Taken together, these benefits bespeak a well-engineered application specifically tailored to the needs of our campus departments.

While it can be argued whether a shadow system should be built into any "New Business Architecture," or whether it should have been developed by another campus entity rather than at the department/ORU level, the reality of the current situation is that GUS has become the campus standard. While neither the developers nor the users see it as a permanent solution, it will likely remain the shadow system of choice until the development of a centralized service.

Project Summary

We propose to provide campus-wide GUS development, support, and training in a two-phase process.

In Phase One, an Executive Committee of GUS users will be formed. Accounting in conjunction with the Executive Committee will hire a CNT III as a developer. This new hire will attend 4D development training and begin working with MSI on GUS documentation and development.

Phase Two will begin after the Executive Committee creates a transition procedure for departments, adequate GUS documentation is in place, and resources are once again stretched thin. Accounting in conjunction with the Executive Committee will hire a training and support position. A centralized server will be purchased to assist smaller departments without IT staff to transition to GUS. Campus training classes will be initiated.

Phase One

An Executive Committee for the direction of GUS development will be created from GUS users and developers. The Executive Committee’s task is to provide direction and feedback to the developers in order to assure that the many different and complex shadow accounting functions of departmental users are being met. Allen Matlick, current GUS developer, will oversee development and, initially, Shanna Bowers, MSO of MSI, will chair the Executive Committee. The committee will be comprised of one representative from Accounting and two representatives apiece from the College of Letters and Science, the College of Engineering, and the Organized Research Units for two year staggered terms. In addition the GUS developers will be on the committee.

A CNT III FTE will be filled in Accounting. The Executive Committee will oversee the recruitment and hiring. Job duties will include GUS development (4D programming), GUS documentation, small server maintenance, and end-user support. The CNT III will undergo 4D training at the outset.

The Campus will provide financial support for Allen Matlick and continued GUS development at 70% of his FTE. The Executive Vice Chancellor (EVC) will retain ownership of this FTE.

The Campus will provide financial support for Paul Weakliem and continued GUS development of the Personnel and Storehouse Module until such time as the continued development and maintenance can be handed over to the CNT III FTE in Accounting. The Campus will provide 20% of Paul Weakliem’'s FTE. The EVC will retain ownership of this FTE.

The buy-in fee for GUS will be eliminated; however, departments will continue to incur the cost of 4D client-server software licensing.

A list of departments wishing to switch to GUS will be compiled. The Executive committee will create a transition procedure and timeline. Due to the expanded support and technical needs of departments transitioning to GUS, care must be taken to add new departments in an orderly fashion to prevent data loss or corruption and to maintain an adequate level of support for current users. "Opening the flood gates" to allow departments to switch to GUS immediately would inundate the current developers and potentially degrade the system.

Phase Two

A Training and Support CNT II FTE will be filled in Accounting. The Executive Committee will oversee recruitment and hiring. His or her job duties will include GUS training and support in the context of fund accounting principles. The Training and Support FTE will develop GUS classes and documentation. The EVC will retain ownership of this FTE.

The CNT III will focus his or her time on development, programming documentation, and server maintenance.

Departments interested in transitioning to GUS will begin the process as spelled out by the Executive Committee.

Small departments without IT staff will use a centralized 4D server located in Accounting and under the administration of the CNT III. The Campus will provide funding for the server hardware. Departments with IT staff will be required to house and administer their own 4D servers. All departments will pay for 4D client-server software licensing.

Campus Requirements

Accounting must be willing to take on additional responsibility with regard to shadow accounting systems and their support. An effort has been made to remove some workload to the Executive Committee and to the current developers. However, Accounting is being asked to perform duties outside their current mandate.

MSI must be willing to allow and encourage Allen Matlick to develop GUS as the Executive Committee sees fit for 70% of his time.

Diligence from GUS users is required for this proposal to succeed. Departments and ORUs must be willing to provide Executive Committee members time, and encourage direction for GUS development.

Departments and ORUs desirous of using GUS must be willing to wait until appropriate transitional support and training is in place before adopting GUS.

Costs

¹Salaries listed are approximate and do not include benefits.
²With a 4-year replacement cycle, the total for 4 departments ($2800) would be needed at the time of transition to GUS.

Project Priority

Based on the importance of shadow accounting systems and the already overextended nature of support, we rank this proposal as a high priority.

ADDENDUM

Departments and Organized Research Units that currently use GUS:

Organized Research Units

• Marine Science Institute
• National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
• Natural Reserve System
• Institute for Computational Earth System Science
• Institute for Crustal Studies
• Center for Chicano Studies

College of Letters & Science

• Chemistry & Biochemistry
• Geology
• Mathematics
• Psychology
• Physics
• Chicano Studies
• Religious Studies
• Geography

College of Engineering

• Computer Science
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Materials
• Mechanical and Environmental Engineering
• Engineering Computing Infrastructure
• Materials Research Laboratory

Other

• California NanoSystems Institute
• Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management

Departments Transitioning to GUS:

• Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies

Departments Interested in GUS:

• Art Studio
• Film Studies
• Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
• Office of Student Life
• Education Abroad Program
• Sociology
• Environmental Studies
• Linguistics
• Music
• Biological Sciences
• Media Arts and Technology
• Drama Dance
• Women's Studies

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