operational excellence in effort reporting conference call: september 12, 2012 vision statement:...

Operational Excellence in Effort ReportingConference Call: September 12, 2012

Vision Statement:Implement a compliant, streamlined, electronic effort reporting process that reduces administrative burden.

AgendaTopic

Individuals with nonfederal activity

Nonexempt employees

User acceptance testing (UAT) objectives

UAT status

Understanding the environment

UAT timeline

E-mail testing during UAT

Training Update

2

Individuals with Nonfederal Activity

Current effort statement set up:

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Award Type Location on Effort Statement

Requirement How Certified

Federal Sponsored section Required Effort statement created,PI certifies

Federal flow-through Sponsored section Required Effort statement created,PI certifies

Nonfederal Sponsored section Not required Effort statement created,PI certifies even if they only have nonfederal activity

Other institutional activities, voluntary uncommitted cost share awards

Nonsponsored section Not required Effort statement created,Automatically processed by ecrt if only nonsponsored activity

Individuals with Nonfederal Activity

Issue: Individuals with effort on nonfederal awards only will be prompted to certify an effort statement—these are not automatically processed by ecrt

Options to discuss:1. Change the effort reporting policy to require certification for all

sponsored activity2. Campus effort reporting administrators would change the status of

each effort statement to “No Certification Required” as part of the pre-review process

3. Change the data feed to flag nonfederal activityi. A “Non Federal” section would be added to all effort statementsii. Effort statements with only nonfederal and nonsponsored activity would

be automatically processed

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Individuals with Nonfederal Activity

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Campus Count

CNSE 228

University at Albany 484

Binghamton University 300

University at Buffalo 525

Stony Brook University 627

SUNY Downstate Medical Center 134

Upstate Medical University 238

SUNY ESF 145

SUNY New Paltz 28

Buffalo State College 267

All other campuses 550

Total 3,526

Number of Certifiers with 100% Nonfederal ActivitySpring 2012 data for academic semester campusesFirst half of 2012 for half-year campusesNonexempt employees were eliminated

Individuals with Nonfederal Activity

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Nonexempt Employees

Continue your current campus effort reporting process Effort statements will be automatically processed in ecrt Will show up on a principal investigator’s Work List but no

action by PI needed

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UAT Objectives

1. Gain confidence that ecrt meets previously defined business requirements Overall process that is streamlined, compliant and understandable

2. Final test of critical success factors Accurate data Electronic tool with appropriate e-mail and workflow functionality Appropriate training materials by audience

3. Final opportunity to uncover any issues not previously identified

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UAT Status

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Central office is preparing the environment Brand new environment for UAT

We are not reusing the Phase 3 environment All new files will be uploaded

Ready for campus testers the week of September 17

Item UATEnvironment

Effort Statement Statuses

Fall 2011 Will not be in the UAT environment

Spring 2012 Certified

Summer 2012 Ready to be Certified

Fall 2012 Building, Not Ready for Certification

UAT Status

Each campus will receive an information package when their environment is ready We anticipate sending this package next week You will have 3 weeks for user acceptance testing

The information package will include: URL needed to access environment Usernames

The usernames are the individual’s RF portal ID for UAT The password will be the individual’s RF portal ID password

Campus effort reporting periods of performance Test scenarios and testing summary document

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Understanding the Environment

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Oracle data from January 1 - August 31, 2012File Name Definition/What’s New

Department File The campus organizational hierarchy.

Sponsor File Designation of federal, nonfederal and nonsponsored award types.

Award File Sponsored programs information, e.g., award names, start and end dates, award PI, cost share award information, etc. •Voluntary uncommitted cost share awards are included in the nonsponsored section of the ecrt effort statement because regulations do not require it to be certified•You cannot use the ecrt Look Up page to view awards that ended before the current date. Instead you will need to view those awards by opening the Department Dashboard for the department that “owns” the award

Certifier File Information about SUNY and RF employees. Will include:•SUNY and RF employees with an active assignment as of December 31, 2010

o Note: SUNY employees no longer at your campus will be in ecrt if you did not terminate their status

•E-mail addresses, actual department name/job title information entered as of August 31.•RF portal IDs for SUNY and RF employees

Understanding the Environment

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Oracle data from January 1 - August 31, 2012File Name Definition/What’s New

Payroll File Payroll data for the following employee types will be included:•SUNY employees: Payroll data as of August 2012•RF employees: Payroll data as of August 24, 2012•Distribution adjustments made as of August 31, 2012

Commitment File Committed effort data for PIs, co-PIs and other key personnel. Any updates made in Oracle as of August 31 will be included

UAT Timeline

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September 2012

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

October 2012

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

UAT September 17 – October 5

Estimated timeframe Pre-review activities

Week 1 Certification activities

Week 2 Post certification activities

Week 3 Weekly WebEx meetings:

September 19 September 26 October 3

E-mail Testing during UAT

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E-mail testing will occur during the second half of UAT How:

Controlled environment Impact approximately five people at each campus

We will test all e-mail functionality during UAT Start of certification Reopening of an effort statement On hold functionality “Get Help” e-mails (from effort statement)

Sample certification e-mail will be sent to the project team for review Can be customized by campus

PI Training

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PI training curriculum: Effort Reporting Essentials for PIs Introduction to the Effort Reporting Electronic Tool

Will be changed based on today’s discussion Certify My Effort Certify My Effort and the Effort of My Staff

Both updated on project Web page to reflect new effort statement statuses

Campus feedback: Content Sufficient materials to meet your needs

Additional Training

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Proxy certifier training curriculum Certify Effort as a Proxy Certifier: Video in process “How to” document

Administrator training curriculum What do you need?

Summary

Minutes from this meeting will be posted on the

Operational Excellence in Effort Reporting Web page

Direct questions to: effort@rfsuny.org Anne ConnollyProject Manageranne.connolly@rfsuny.org(518) 434-7240

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