Completion Report

Project Summary:

The University is required to upgrade our Corporate Planner (CP) software and its supporting infrastructure. The current system is experiencing issues with lack of server space and users are unable to fully access the required data. An upgrade would also allow the University to take advantage of the additional functionality delivered in the latest version of the Corporate Planner Enterprise product.

It is critical  that the project deliver the upgraded software and new LIVE infrastructure ready for the FEC / TRAC returns due in mid October 2012.

Delivered

• Corporate Planner upgraded to Corporate Planner Advanced
  • New LIVE infrastructure for Corporate Planner Advanced 
  • Migrated data from existing Corporate Planner database
  • Defined requirements for interface from eFin
  • Service Level Agreement established between Account-Ability and the University of Edinburgh for the service as part of agreement with the Management Accountant Team.
    • Joint notes have been produced
  • Service Level Agreement exstablished between Finance Office and IS Applications Division for the service - this already exists

  • Having spoken with David Smyth he has agreed that Corporate Planner raise issues with FIS, FIS then raise with Apps Management in order to progress any issue in the usual Finance agreement

• There are no  major issues. The speed issue regarding accessing the data has been resolved. It was done by tidy up the sql servers databases (indexes and statistics updates) 

• The application is working as any other management information tool. However the current license will not allowe more than 3 admin. I think the license cost will need to be investigated, is more licenses are required inn the future.

• Finally the server has been specified for a limited number of concurrent users to use the system,  if this requires expanded then:

• A better planning of the deployment will be required to see how to deploy either

  • the web access or

  • the client to all staff workstation.

•  Also we need to look at how the data is used by the software and backed up.

  • The current setup shows that it will be difficult for us to manage the growth and the disaster recovery scenario   .

After IS Apps had provided 

• support on site and providing and
• establishing any help with adding new users and
• performance

the project was stopped.

Project halted however some documentation required finished before the completion report was complete. This was done.

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 25 days

Staff Usage Actual: 46 days

Staff Usage Variance: 84%

Other Resource Estimate: 0 days

Other Resource Actual: 0 days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

Increase in estimates

1  Project estimate was amended to accommodate an increase in the requirement  in PICCL 5 :

 where https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/fin092/issues/5   detailed an increase of 11 days from 25 to 36 days

2  Project estimate was increased to accommodate suppplier support when on site, conclusion of the Pilot project where more detail can be found in  PICCL 9 :

where https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/fin092/issues/9   detailed an increase of 10 days from 36 to 46 days

.

Key Learning Points:

If next time Management Accounts requires a production service based on the pilot, then some more requirements will be necessary in order to support it for University Business.

•  A test environment will need created
• This will allow us to do the following:
  • Debug any problems that exist in the production system.
  • Having the ability to test an upgrade of corporate planner in Test before upgrading production.
    • This will provide a greater assurance

There are no known major issues.

• The speed issue regarding accessing the data has been fixed. This was done by tidying up the sql servers databases (indexes and statistics updates)
• The application is working as any other management information tool. However the current license will not allow more than 3 administrators. The license cost will need to be investigated if the admin numbers need increased
• Finally the server has been specified for a limited number of users to use the system.
• A better plan is required for future deployments and a decision on how best to deploy to either the web access or the client to all staff workstation.
•  Also there is a need to look at how the data is used by the software and backed up. The current setup shows that it will be difficult for us to manage the growth and the disaster recovery scenario

Outstanding issues:

.