Kuali Test Drive
Indianapolis, IND – The Kuali Project (www.kuali.org) today announced the availability of the Kuali Test Drive (http://kualitestdrive.org), which enables institutions to explore the emerging Kuali Financial Systems (KFS) software with live transactions and data. KFS is the Project’s initial software product, designed for college and university enterprise fiscal management. This announcement, which marks the first release of KFS, was made at the Kuali Days Workshop in Indianapolis, Indiana, with over 130 fiscal and IT officers, managers and senior staff from around the country in attendance. Several corporate representatives were also in attendance.
“Choosing enterprise financial systems represents a major decision for most colleges and universities -- one that requires considerable time and analysis,” said Kuali Project Board Chairman Brad Wheeler, who is also chief information officer at Indiana University. This first release makes KFS available for demonstration and review to institutions considering their administrative systems path. More importantly, this system is not a transplant from a corporate financial system -- its design and construction is of, by, and for the specific needs of finance in higher education.”
The 27-month Kuali Project was co-funded in March 2005, by a $2.5M grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the University of Arizona, Cornell University, the University of Hawaii, Indiana University, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College, and The rSmart Group, in collaboration with colleagues from NACUBO (www.nacubo.org). “Like the Sakai Project, Kuali is aggregating institutional resources to develop and sustain open source software together as we all strive to do more with less,” noted Wheeler.
“The elements contained in this first release of KFS represent core elements without which no institution could manage their fiscal affairs,” stated David Lyons, NACUBO Liaison to Kuali. “The Kuali design embodies best business practices and is designed to be scalable over a wide range of institutions -- from community colleges and liberal arts colleges to research universities.” Lyons has served in numerous roles for the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and works closely with the Kuali Functional Requirements Team.
The Kuali Financial System is based on the proven financial system design used for over ten years at Indiana University. The Kuali Test Drive contains the base modules, such as Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Transactions, Reporting, and Workflow. Additional modules, to be released in two subsequent phases, will include
• Accounts Receivable • Budgeting • Capital Assets Management • Endowment • Enhanced Decision Support/Reporting • Labor Distribution • Purchasing/Accounts Payable • Pre- and Post-Award Research Administration
“Kuali represents an important third option for colleges and universities beyond ‘build’ or ‘buy,’” observed Barry Walsh, executive director for Kuali Financial Systems. “Using J2EE and a services-oriented architecture, Kuali facilitates blending modules with home grown and commercial software. For example, adds Walsh, “Indiana University recently integrated an early release of the Kuali Financial Systems Procurement module into its legacy financial system, on which Kuali is based. Additionally, IU has integrated other early parts of Kuali with the university’s recently implemented PeopleSoft student and human resources systems.”
“From a private institution’s perspective, we have thoroughly reviewed the functional design and feel that Kuali is the best option for Cornell and closest meets our business needs,” said Cornell Vice President for Financial Affairs Joanne DeStafano. “While we estimate there will be some customizations for Kuali, we believe the amount of customizations will be reduced by two-thirds from an ERP solution.”
“What the Kuali team is building is truly historic for higher education,” said Mike Allred, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance/Controller, University of California, Davis. “Kuali will soon be a serious option for those colleges and universities looking to replace their financial information systems. For UCD and potentially other UC Campuses, Kuali represents a great opportunity to collaborate and combine resources to meet our accounting and financial reporting responsibilities.”
Kuali also uses Kuali Enterprise Workflow, a key enabling technology that provides comprehensive workflow functionality for higher education needs. All software and materials will be available under the Educational Community License and can be adopted by colleges and universities without licensing fees. The open licensing approach provides opportunities for support and implementation assistance from commercial providers. Wheeler anticipates a partner’s organization similar to the Sakai Educational Partners Program and a Commercial Affiliates organization as the Kuali Project matures.
About Kuali Days
Kuali Days is a semi-annual event offering in-depth opportunities for prospective Kuali users to engage with functional and technical experts on Kuali Financial Systems. See link at http://kuali.org/.
Media Contacts:
- Brad Wheeler , Kuali Project Chairman of the Board, Assoc VP and Dean of IT, Indiana University, bwheeler@indiana.edu 812.855.3478
- Bruce Alexander , Associate Director of Information Services, Michigan State University, alexan24@msu.edu
- Lee Belarmino , Associate Vice President for Information Technology, San Joaquin Delta College, lbelarmino@deltacollege.edu
- Joanne DeStefano , Vice President for Financial Affairs, Cornell University, jmd11@cornell.edu
- Charles Ingram , Assistant Vice President, Financial Services, University of Arizona, cingram@arizona.edu
- David Lassner , Chief Information Officer, University of Hawaii, david@hawaii.edu
- David Lyons , NACUBO Liaison to Kuali, djlyons@msn.com
- James Morley , President, NACUBO, james.morley@nacubo.org
- Barry Walsh , Senior Director for e-Business Services, Indiana University, walsh@indiana.edu
- Tom Chapman, Chief Financial Officer, The rSmart Group, tom.chapman@rsmart.com