Technion Israel Institute of Technology Budget a research

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Budget @ a research university Which way? Adam Shwartz HERUG 2005 3/2005

Technion Israel Institute of Technology 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Technion basic facts: • Age: 81 (first university in Israel). • Departments (Science, Engineering, Medicine) 18 • Research institutes and centers 40 • Faculty: full time 700 part time 700 • Staff (professionals and admin): • Undergraduates • Graduate students 3/2003 1400 10000 3500

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The issue: What are the (future) requirements (back-office IT) of a research university? Comparison with present/near future SAP capabilities. But why budget? The key: Where are we unique, How is this addressed in the business processes. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Breakdown of requirements from ERP - By role: • Administrators • Central admin: Logistics, finance, HR • Central admin: Research, Students = the business • Central admin: Alumni, Donors, partners • Local admin: faculty, department, center, laboratory • Research staff and other professionals • Students • Others (HR, external) Will argue: Reasonable support for all but researchers. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Breakdown of requirements from ERP - By process: • Vertical processes: • Logistics, finance, HR, Sales • Research, Students • Budget, donations, construction and maintenance • Cross – application requirements Will argue: Reasonable support for vertical processes Deficiencies in Budget integration (GM/FM/CO/FI/MM/PM) Deficiencies in Authorization tools Useability issues 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology A Personal (Technion) experience with SAP: 9 -month implementation, as of 1/2004 live with Logistics, finance, grants (MM PM PS FI CO FM GM SD) (also small BW, mini-HR, starting Portal). About 1000 users (central/faculty admin, research) Over 10, 000 research grants of various types: Research grants (many types) Donations (permanent funds/projects) Internal grants. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology A Personal (Technion) experience with SAP (overview): Logistics (MM: Purchasing, warehouse): Mostly standard processes (except import). Issues: Budget, authorization. Construction and maintenance (PM, PS): Mostly standard processes. Issues in construction. Issues with budget, authorization and useability. Finance (FI): mostly standard processes. Sales (SD): mostly simple, standard processes. Budget – operations (CO FM): some non-standard processes, including overhead, reporting, authorizations. Budget – research (CO FM GM): Many non-standard processes as above, useability. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Before going into detail: Goals and Vision We are a research-oriented university • Research (creating knowledge) • Disseminating knowledge (teaching and otherwise). Technion Business card: • Two 2004 Nobels (Chemistry) • New material (Shechtmanite – Physics) • The compression algorithm (Lempel-Ziv: winzip et al) • Leading research, technology leaders (e. g. Agassi, Intel Senior VP, Applied Materials CEO, etc). 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Research-oriented university Research is the clear top priority. Ergo: • Obtain the best researchers • Keep the researchers (transparent administration, efficient support of research, minimal restrictions or interference, individualists). Keep researchers happy • Make sure funding support increases • Comply with grantors management/reporting rules (such as: buy US first, use grantor exchange rate) • Invest in academia, not administrators 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Trends (personal view): • Support will not increase: • government and state (tuition? ) • funding agencies, donations • Auditing will increase • Government agencies, funding agencies, Donors • The public/Press • Research is increasingly competitive, interdisciplinary, without national borders (e. g. physics). 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology These dictates: • Thin administration---self service: reservations, orders, budget. SAP approach: Portal, EBP, BW • Real-time, accurate Availability Control for budget: • Multi currency, Flexible periods: GM • Integration throughout the system • Reporting tools (for grantors, donors) by grantor rules: GM This requires budget integration 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The research (experimental) operation • Project/experiment: • Run by subteams, including students/postdocs/staff • Many unique/small/urgent/special items/services e. g. biological experiments • Joint acquisitions across grants But the researcher is not a manager! In more detail: 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The research (experimental) operation: example • Project/experiment: computation of cell properties • Run by Cho from CS, Boris from Biology, Ben-Ph. D. student from Bio-Engineering, Bo-staff from biology. • Joint grant of Cho and Boris, lab budget from Biology • Need different permissions for each team member • Buy equipment together with another team---split costs including operating costs. • Conclusion: Authorizations are neither HR nor grant based. Too many roles to create/handle! But the researcher is not an administrator! 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Options: • Hire research administrators (large overhead) • Self service: • Make those operations friendly, fool-proof: • Authorizations with local maintenance • User-friendly transactions and reports • Availability control and reporting are critical. • Technion Solution for authorization – will discuss below. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology A business analogue: • A research grant is like a small business (5 -500 K$/year): • Includes manager and partners, all may be on several very different businesses, all run on one system • Deals with purchasing, production, budget, CRM, sometimes sales, sometimes joint ventures • Is subject to strict auditing, • Manager is expert only in production, not in management • Is subject to unique rules (grant, department) • Stakeholders need to enforce compliance, without much effort/expense, and without hands-on supervision. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology People services: Relation to SAP solution/vision • Useability: netweaver is coming • At present: portal is a solution, requires much effort • Authorization: need additional tools. • Technion solution for grant authorizations (below): Does a good job, requires more tools • Administrators use SAP standard • Special solution for research staff 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Technion solution for authorizations: Research staff • Grant carries an authorization table: user/allowed actions • Relevant transactions check against the grant. • Drawbacks: • not in the hands of the end user (owner): • Authorizations for authorizations… • Interface • Not flexible enough (parameters per user) • Requires work within each transaction, administration Conclusion: need better tools. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology MM PM Processes and budget: lack of tools • Reservations: authorization, workflow • Restrict access to e. g. PO information (research) Budget: no solution • Allow joint grants/departments purchasing • No solution: e. g. split shipping costs split maintenance costs • Export for repair/upgrade: no process • Authorization and restricted access in warehouse reservation • Budget approval process: workflow 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology FI CO FM vs GM Compatible processes/data/reports on activities (budget) Example: exchange rates and on-line information • Budget reservation with PO • Need actuals in FI at GR (Goods Receipt) • But GR information in Grant not relevant (cannot avoid!) • Invoice exchange rate does not correct GM budget! • Result: incorrect GM budget, not compatible with FI. 3/2005

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Conclusions: Unique vertical University solutions are given attention Campus management, Grants Problems: at integration w/budget, cross-application tools: Universities cover a wide range of business processes Need better tools in • People interface • Authorization and data access • User interface • Need more flexible budget tools and integration 3/2005