Strategic Financial & Research Analysis Reporting

Project Overview

Research excellence is a key component of the University of New England's strategic plan. The
University has a proud history and reputation for producing high quality research, and is
committed to maintaining this reputation, as high quality research forms the foundation for
providing high quality education.

At present, UNE researchers are required to deal with various University departments to obtain
the information they require as part of the administration and management of their research
related activities. Requests have been received from the research community for improved
information and facilities to assist them in this area, as well as calls for more streamlined
administrative processes that reduce resources spent in this area.

In order to better support research activity, the Strategic Financial & Research Analysis &
Reporting project has been initiated, which is designed to improve the provision of financial and
research information services to the UNE research community. Funding has been received from
the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (previously known as
Department of Education, Science & Training) under the Workplace Productivity Programme. The
programme is designed to encourage higher education providers to progress workplace reform
which strengthens their capability to manage and implement workplace change. WPP is intended
to encourage flexible working arrangements, direct relationships between employers and
employees and improved productivity and performance.

The Strategic Financial & Research Analysis & Reporting project would see the design and
establishment of a centralised source of research, financial and human resource information, in
order to achieve:

• Improved reporting options, to enhance the value/usefulness of information
• Improved quality of information
• Improved timeliness of the delivery of information\
• Improved customer (research community) satisfaction
• Indirectly, increased time and resources devoted to research, and reduced time and
  resources spent on administrative activities

Project Phase 1

The initial phase of this project will be to improve the financial administration and management
component of research, or more specifically, the areas of financial budgeting and reporting. This
will include the improvement of management of research grants, key milestone reporting,
invoicing and budget management.

This phase will include an investigation of how the Finance and Human Resources information
systems can be fully utilised or enhanced to improve and expand the information provided, and
implementing changes as per the investigation outcomes. The numbers, types and effectiveness
of reports will be reviewed, and further developed to improve budget management facilities.

A web interface, such as the interface the University of Newcastle has made available to their
research community, is one option being considered in providing a centralised source of
information, and streamlining the research-related administrative processes.

Project Phase 2

The second phase of the project will be to improve the provision of research and administrative
information. This will include, but will not be limited to, the provision of information relating to
Higher Degree Research supervision, research publications, and research ethics.

This phase will involve extracting information from the Research information systems, and
making them available for viewing/editing through the centralised information source
implemented in Phase 1 of the project.

Therefore, upon completion of this phase, researchers will be able to access all research-related
information specific to them in the one location, in a timely manner, with assurance of
information quality and usefulness.

Where are we up to now?

Currently we are working toward identifying customer requirements. An online survey form has
recently been sent out to the UNE research community, which is designed to:

• Obtain the customer's evaluation of UNE's current performance in this area
• Identify which areas should be improved, as perceived by the customer
• Identify a baseline, from which appropriate improvement objectives can be determined,
  and against which to measure improvement in the post-implementation stage

In-depth interviews will be conducted with a proportion of the research community, which will
allow the identification of the customer requirements of to be met in the delivery of project
outcomes.

In mid February, members of the UNE Research Services and the Financial Services Directorates
will be visiting fellow universities to discuss and understand the way in which financial
information is provided within these different institutions. The chosen institutions have similar
areas of research excellence; therefore it would be of interest to understand their approach to
meeting the needs of a similar end user. This information will be extremely beneficial to the
review of our existing process and product/service, and the development of new measures.
Preliminary investigation has been undertaken into the use of Human Resource & Finance
Information Systems budget modules within other universities using the same systems as UNE.

The team is exploring how the budget modules are used to improve financial information and
budget management facilities, as well as how the modules have been implemented and
configured to best suit the specific institution.

Existing business services have been analysed and documented, for the purposes of
understanding the service we currently provide to the research community, and to identify and
map areas of concern.

For further Information please contact Grahame Pearson , University of New England.