ERP
New enterprise resource planning system well underway
On Monday 7 February, the new enterprise resource planning system (ERP) will go live and all financial staff from departments and units can start using it. The system provides the basic platform for modernising and streamlining financial and accounting processes. Since 10 January it has not been possible to receive or send invoices, so the opening is anticipated and the invoices are ready to be processed in the new system.
The project has been underway for almost two years and has been on target since the summer of 2021. The financial system (ERP) is linked to the new HR system (HCM) which went live in June 2021, and it creates a joint platform for organising staff and financial data.
In the first phase, the ERP system will primarily deal with accounting tasks - invoice processing on procurement and sale, as well as internal trade and account re-entry. SDU will continue using the current solutions for procurement, travel, budgeting, projects and time recording. It may sound simple but the new financial system has about 20 integrations with other systems - banking, STADS, procurement system, travel reimbursement, salary etc. SDU also changes the chart of accounts at the same time as the transition to the new system, which is also a significant task.
In total, over 40 SDU employees have been involved in the project over the last six months. The project is made in collaboration with Aalborg University and DTU, which are also switching to the same system. The three universities work together on several of the difficult integrations, but each university has its own solution, so there is also the possibility of adaptation to SDU's financial management.
Although the project has been in the testing phase since May 2021, the launch won't necessarily be a smooth ride. With such a complex solution, there's always bound to be some starting trouble. The system moves from a sandbox environment, test data and specialised users to production environment, real data, and a much wider user group. The project will therefore also be receiving 'hyper care' for the first five weeks, where suppliers, developers and specialists are standing by to fix any priority bugs.
During these five weeks, the system will be phased in. The first week focuses on processing purchase invoices. There's a big pile waiting after the four-week closure, where SDU has been unable to pay invoices. The coming weeks will see the opening of sales invoice processing, and in early March, QlikView will be launched with the new data.
Nicolai Sørensen, CFO at SDU, says: 'We're really looking forward to getting started. We've been in the starting block for a long time and I believe we're thoroughly prepared. Now we're excited about the next phase where we get to see the system up and running. Fortunately, we have competent financial staff from all over the organisation on board, and I'm sure that together we'll get the new system off to a good start.'
If you would like to know more, a page has been created on SDUnet featuring
an introductory video, guides, FAQ etc.
https://sdunet.dk/servicesider/oekonomi/erp