About the FST Program
What is the FST Program?
Financial Systems Transformation (FST): A multi-year initiative to replace the University’s legacy, mainframe-based Financial Accounting System (FAS) and related finance and operations systems such as ACCTS, PETS, and BuySite with Oracle Cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
FST will transform the finance and administrative areas at UChicago, including projects and grants, budgeting and planning, and financial processes. The program will mitigate the risk of failure of a 40-year-old mainframe system and provide “software-as-a-service,” which will enable continuous improvement with ongoing quarterly product releases. In addition, the new system enables real-time reporting with an intuitive interface, replacing the need to manually input information in multiple systems. The FST’s benefit for faculty and others engaged with research across campus is streamlined procurement for research, a modern grants management system, and increased financial visibility for grants forecasting.
The program will launch over three phases in 2024, starting in February. This phased approach is designed to support a smooth transition as users learn and adopt the new system. Platforms used extensively across campus today, such as the Financial Accounting System (FAS) and BuySite, will no longer be available once the University’s financial operations are upgraded to Oracle.
Phase 1—Planning: February 2024
Oracle’s Planning module supports budget managers and others in the management of the annual budget planning and development process. Training in the Planning module began in January with the limited number of staff members involved in budget planning so they can develop the fiscal year 2025 budget efficiently in the new system.
Phase 2—Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning: July 2024
This phase will implement the majority of the new Oracle system, which will be used by thousands of employees across the University to manage research awards, grants, faculty funds, financial operations, procurement, reporting, and more. Training for Phase 2 system users will begin in April and continue through go-live and beyond.
Phase 3—Financial Close: August 2024
The new system’s account reconciliation and financial close and consolidation functions will be implemented in the final phase. Training for Phase 3 will begin in mid-July and continue beyond go-live.
FST Timeline
- 2019: Program Inception: Pre-implementation began with an analysis of the current state of the financial system followed by an analysis of the future system, and planning the transition implementation process.
- 2019-2020: Value Study: Sessions and workshops were conducted to uncover process synergies and pain points between UChicago and UChicago Medicine. A shared future vision and value proposition was established, as well as items to be addressed through the FST initiative.
- 2021: University systems rationalization: A preliminary analysis of University systems was conducted and dispositioned (retain/integrate vs. retire/replace), along with determination of projected savings.
- April-June: Pre-implementation Phase Begins Huron Consulting Group was selected as the system implementation consulting group. Business planning continued in preparation for the implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP.
- October: Implementation Phase Begins Wave 1 of the implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP began.
- November-December: System Familiarization Business process leads work with Huron consultants to become familiar with the functionality of Oracle Cloud ERP.
- January 2022–October 2022: Oracle ERP System Design University business process leaders work with Huron consultants to configure and test the future Oracle Cloud ERP through three iterations of pilot testing.
- November 2022–May 2024: System Integration Testing and Mock Data Conversion Validation University business process leaders work with Huron consultants to test if the data extracted from UChicago’s current, mainframe-based financial accounting system can be positioned in Oracle Cloud ERP, and to test key integrations between Oracle Cloud and other systems.
- May 2023–December 2023: Oracle Planning Module (EPM) System Design, Build, and Test University business process leaders work with Huron consultants to configure and test the future Oracle Cloud Budgeting and Planning Module.
- January 2024: Phase 1—Training for Oracle Planning Module (EPM) Depending on the end-user’s role and usage of EPM, training begins one to two months prior to EPM launch.
- February 2024: Phase 1—Deploy Oracle Planning Module (EPM) The program team launches the first element of UChicago’s financial systems transformation. Required end-users work in EPM to prepare budgets for fiscal year '25, beginning July 2024.
- March–June 2024: Phase 2—Training for Oracle Cloud ERP and Orbit Reporting Depending on the end-user’s role and usage of Oracle ERP and Orbit Reporting, training begins three to four months prior to go-live.
- July 2024: Phase 2—Deploy Oracle Cloud ERP and Orbit Reporting The financial systems transformation concludes with launch of Oracle Cloud ERP, enabling users to conduct related work in projects and grants, core finance, and manage supply chain, or procure-to-pay activities, in Oracle. Orbit Reporting, the new data warehouse, will also be implemented in this phase.
- August 2024: Phase 3—Deploy Oracle Financial Close The final module to go live in UChicago's financial systems transformation, Phase 3 will implement Accounts Reconciliation and Financial Close Consolidation functions.
University of Chicago and University of Chicago Medicine's Points of Intersection
The University and UChicago Medicine have prioritized four points of intersection out of their more than 20 financial needs. The image below outlines the four key focus areas.
With a shorter timeline than the University to implement Oracle Cloud ERP, UChicago Medicine’s transition was successfully completed on October 1, 2022.