Update on effects of move to Shared Services Centre PPUAC 21 October 2009

Introduction  STFC (and the other Research Councils) is moving many of its administrative procedures to the new RCUK Shared Services Centre  This is an update of present status and developments expected over the next few months  Focus is on aspects relevant to UK University collaborators, particularly: –Travel claims –Budget reports –Procurements  If questions arise during the talk they can be addressed to me or Anne-Marie Bromley (RAL retained Finance)

Schedule  Initial “Go-live” within STFC this week –But initial scope now reduced to HR functions  i.e. relevant to employees but not external users  “Go-live” for most Finance functions now rescheduled for December –iExpenses (Claims + GPC) –iProcurement, Budget reports, etc  Precise date to be confirmed, but expect a freeze of ~3 weeks in financial processes at switch over

Travel Claims  Some evolution in proposed submission mechanisms  For most claims you should not see any difference compared to the current system. –i.e. claimant sends to RAL-PPD:  A “paper” visit notice prior to any foreign trips  After the trip a paper claim, together with any required receipts  The claim will be checked at RAL against the visit notice  If there are issues they will be raised with the claimant/budget holder as necessary  The claim will then be forwarded to SSC for payment –This step will use a special secure courier service  SSC will then pay the claim

Travel Claims - 2  Hopefully the checking at RAL will pick up most problems  But before payment SSC check that the claim conforms to their guidelines –appropriate rate claimed, all required original receipts attached, etc  If a problem is found the claim will not be paid until the issues are resolved.  Mechanisms for this not yet defined – may be handled directly between SSC and claimant, but may involve RAL as an intermediary –RAL staff will be available if needed  Claims normally paid in GBP to a UK bank account  However, exceptions to this should continue as now

Budget Reports/Procurements  Accessing Budget Reports and/or raising STFC Procurements will need access to the SSC Oracle system. This requires: –a VPN connection into an STFC site (RAL or Swindon) –Web browser (IE validated, but others should be OK) –a specific SSC userid/password  Will move later to a single sign-on so that RAL federal-id/password will be enough  Procurements normally via an extensive “catalogue”, but there is procurement team at SSC to handle purchases not in the catalogue  System contains various tools to generate standard and custom budget reports –But quite a lot of changes in terminology, structure and details

Training  Training has just started for iProcurement and Projects (covers Finance) – at all of the STFC sites  A very few PPD staff have attended, initial feed-back –iProcurement – appropriate for people who place significant orders (in number or value) –Projects – current courses focus too much on internal details, not yet appropriate for typical PP user who just needs to monitor/control spend on a budget  This will evolve, but recommend that you do not sign up yet even if invited  Please contact if you believe you will need

Questions ?