Author: Richard Clayton, HE Lead, Namos Solutions
The latest 20C update, being rolled out from August 2020, provides some valuable upgrades and enhancements in Oracle Financials and HCM for both users and implementers. In this blog post our Higher Education Lead, Richard Clayton, highlights some of the features that Higher Education Oracle customers may find useful.
Key Enhancements for your Oracle Applications in 20C:
Redwood
Redwood is a new user experience design bringing an aesthetic designed to be more inviting, warm and global. For Higher Education customers worried about their accessibility obligations, rest assured that as with any Oracle user interface, it has been designed to meet the highest levels of accessibility compliance. If your Design and Publication, Web or Communications teams are worried, you can always create a custom theme to avoid taking this ‘seeded’ design theme. It would be a shame though, it looks rather nice!
Assign Predelinquent Strategies to Transactions
Given present circumstances, there has never been a more important time to help students manage debt and for University’s to proactively manage fees income.
By assigning appropriate strategies, Advanced Collections can now flag if a student’s record is about to go into delinquent status. This allows institutions to signpost to financial support services and also extends the window in the event of dispute. It may also mean that existing delinquent strategies do not need to be adjusted to convey messages that could be covered by predelinquency triggers.
Create Expense Items From Email Receipts
With Academics facing onerous administration of Virtual Learning Environments, you can remove one admin task by having the system automatically create expense items just be forwarding their email receipts.
Request Foreign Currency Cash Advances
The Academics who are travelling now are only doing so for the most urgent University business and research, in the event that they do need access to cash advances, they no longer have to worry about currency rate conversion. The system now enables staff to request advances in the currency of their choosing.
Time Cards Redesigned Self-Service
Time card adoption is notoriously difficult in HE given the autonomy of Academics and the transient nature of swathes of the workforce that are required to keep a University operating. However, 20C introduces a raft of self-service features designed to make the process as simple and pain free as possible. From greater configuration options to show and hide fields, to weekly team schedule enhancements, and detailed error reasons, even simple things like the ability to print time cards from self-service, these features should certainly help with adoption.
Grade Step Progression and Ladders
Anyone who has tried to administer University grade ladders can testify that it’s not a fun task. In a former life I developed bespoke HR and Payroll solutions, I would sympathise with my HR friends who would need to sync the publication between payroll cut off and layers of governance – sometimes in the face of union disputes! Well Oracle can do little to help in that regard, however, there are changes in 20C that should at least make the system administration easier. From new warning messages to allowing same day changes… every little helps!
Simplified Workflow Invoices Rules Configuration
Let’s face it, Higher Education governance is rarely straightforward! However, there are new features that you may find helpful. Simplified Workflow Rules Configuration means you can create rules for approval workflows using spreadsheets that can be downloaded, amended and uploaded. If nothing else, sharing the spreadsheet of approvals may help you make a case to simplify!
For more information, please connect with Richard on LinkedIn or via email here.
Namos Solutions in Higher Education
With an enviable and impressive wealth of industry knowledge, experience and expertise within the HE sector, Namos are helping many universities drive their digital transformation journeys forward, for the achievement of financial sustainability, increased productivity and a more engaging student and staff experience.
Our HE Clients
Our recent HE clients include the University of Greenwich, University of Worcester, Staffordshire University, Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Manchester.
Choose Namos and together we can help you address new challenges, keep costs low and deliver flexibility as modern education continues to evolve.
Namos and UCISA
Namos are delighted to be a corporate member of UCISA, showing real commitment to being at the forefront of delivering innovative solutions to Higher Education in addition to staying up-to-date with the unique business environment in which HE operates.
Visit us on the ucisa partner showcase portal here.
