Unit4 ERP Research, Costing & Pricing (RCP) Implementation

Client

The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management (DFØ) Logo

Location

Norway

Year

2019

Solutions used

Financial Management
Project Management
Research, Costing & Pricing (RCP)
Planner, Budgeting & Forecasting

Services used

Development & Reporting
Implementation
Integration
Project Management
Training

A group of four of Norway's leading universities; Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim and Tromso, made the decision to move to Unit4 Business World (Agresso) ERP 7.4/7.5 as part of a shared service agreement. For Tromso, who were existing Unit4 ERP users, this this was an upgrade, while for the other three universities it was a change of system.

The shared service is run by The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management (DFØ), who were not only responsible for the implementation/upgrade of Unit4 Business World (Agresso) ERP across the universities, but also the implementation of the Research, Costing & Pricing (RCP) module. As RCP experts, Integra Associates were introduced by Unit4 UK to work in collaboration with DFØ and Unit4 Norway to implement the module so that it could subsequently be rolled out to the universities.

Management

Range of expert services

We provided a project team comprising of consultants, project managers and technical developers for ARC reports to help ensure the success of the project. All the workshops and training were carried out in the offices in Oslo & Trondheim, while all the other work was carried out remotely, with weekly online meetings to track progress.

Tick

RCP development & implementation

The RCP module was integrated with the Project, Costing & Billing (PCB) module so that workflow could approve any research projects that had been awarded by research funders. This enabled the automatic creation of the correct work breakdown structure using project, work order and activity, project invoicing details and project/work order relations & flexi-fields.

Following on from the creation of PCB records, integration with the Planner, Budgeting & Forecasting module was automatically triggered, with RCP project costs and income creating the project budgets using the full combination of account, cost centre, project, resource, work order and activity. Numerous other integrations, suites of reports and ACT customisations were developed, all of which were fully documented.

Knowledge

RCP & university experts

With the RCP module having been developed in the UK, we have extensive experience of helping organisations make the most of the powerful functionality available through the solution.

We are widely regarded as the leading RCP consultant partner, while we are also renowned for our work within the higher education & university sector having worked on a number of high-profile successful projects.

About The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management

The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) is the expert body for financial management within the central government.

The main shared service centre for payroll and/or accounting services for 83% of all central government agencies
Responsible for the central government accounts and for the administration of the central government treasury single account system
456 employees divided between a central unit in Oslo, payroll services in Stavanger and accounting services in Trondheim.

“Through in-depth system knowledge and an open minded approach, the consultants from Integra Associates have contributed to making this project a success. Separate and complex demands from each university have been consolidated into one single solution. We are really satisfied with the effort provided by Integra Associates.”

Anders Særvoll – Project Manager. The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management (DFØ)

How have we helped The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management (DFØ)?

We delivered a range of expert services to The Norwegian Government Agency for Public & Financial Management (DFØ), all of which played a crucial part in the successful implementation of the Research, Costing & Pricing (RCP) module across the four universities.

RCP implementation

Integration with the Projects module.
Integration with the Planner module.
Several automatic procedures were added to keep the Common module in line with the RCP module
An integration routine was created to import SAP HR resources into the RCP module with the current pay grade and department
A suite of reports were developed using Information Objects and RERX Excelerators
A Norwegian research requirement of fixed price funding based on research project role and work effort, known as Rundsum, was developed as a customisation (ACT)
Full training was given to all staff
The solution design, module configuration and integration was documented in detail