- The University
- 16/02/2022
TU/e says goodbye to Orca at the end of 2022
The software companies Unit4 and Proactis will provide the new financial system and new procurement system for the TU/e. These two systems will be the basis for the financial administration, planning and control of the university. In January 2023 the two systems will go live and with that the TU/e will say goodbye to the Orca system of supplier Oracle after a period of 26 years.
Last year Unit4 emerged as the winner of the European tender for the new financial system of TU/e, and Proactis did the same for the new procurement system. Since 1997 the Orca system of Oracle is in use within the university for all matters relating to finance and procurement.
In the bi-weekly newsletter that mentioned this a week ago, it is said that the Orca system ‘has been in use for 25 years now’ and that the system ‘is facing technical obsolescence’. According to the newsletter the current system is laborious (a lot of manual work) and is no longer able to implement complex changes.
Standardization
With the implementation of these two new systems in 2023, a transition is made from customization to standardization, so is being said. Because according to the Strategy 2030 the starting point is to standardize where possible. It must lead to ‘a future-proof system that is sufficiently flexible, has a lower management burden, with fewer different working methods, less manual work, fewer separate work documents and more manageable processes’. It must also raise the level of service provided by Finance & Control.
A project team is at work with the preparations for implementing both systems and pays a lot of attention to the quality and user-friendliness of the system. The team also looks at the impact these changes will cause. Therefore, a change manager was appointed, and end users will be involved in testing. Besides that, information sessions will be organized in 2022 for managers and secretaries.
Who has questions or suggestions can mail them to this address.
Painful double-counting
Four years after the Orca system was implemented at the TU/e, at the end of 2001, an incorrect double-counting in the system played an important role in an administrative crisis that occurred in relation to the budget. Willem te Beest, at that time the third member of the Executive Board and responsible for finance, did eventually resign. Three student members of the University Council had found out that thanks to that incorrect double-counting the budget deficit for 2002 was about a million guilders more than originally was budgeted.
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