Submitted by lhua on Jun. 22, 2020
Answer:
There are a variety of benefits that the newly formed PPFM group, business unit within the Division of Finance and Administration (in partnership with others across campus) will deliver to UC Merced. Those anticipated benefits include;
- Improved service to faculty in the Contracts & Grants lifecycle through development of a newly created communication and overall partnership framework with Contract & Grant Administration (CGA). That envisioned framework is partially included in diagram 1 below but is very much a work in progress as CGA and DFA develop a common vision of the future.
- Better partnership with other DFA units by providing higher quality data in a timelier manner, seamlessly. This will help with standard monthly, quarterly and year-end close, as well as to better position the campus for current and future regulatory compliance at the local, county, state and federal levels
- Creation of Faculty Portfolio View/Project Portfolio Reporting, including
- having one reliable source for data through the Project Portfolio Module (PPM)
- improving collaboration and transparency across multiple stakeholders
- easier to use tools with built-in automation
- single-click access to reports and dashboards including automatic monthly reporting to PIs on all awards (i.e. the comprehensive faculty portfolio view)
- support for Monthly Close, reconciliation and reporting
- management of awards from funding to closeout with control cost charges and the prevention of budgetary overspend, in line with sponsor/policy requirements
In addition to the many benefits above, the PPFM unit has been created out of a requirement to comply with UCOP policy, which mandates that the Accounting function must own the Oracle Project Portfolio Module (PPM) within the new system, and the related projects/grants tasks. More information regarding role-based policies can be found in diagram 2.
