The Finance Technology Team is responsible for managing the changes made to Columbia University’s Financial Systems as well as their operational support. As a facilitator between the Controller’s Office and Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT), our team represents the business perspective on efforts affecting the Financial Systems pre-, during and post-implementation. These efforts range from a simple report request to implementing complex software functionality.

 
Areas of Focus:

• Analysis:  Technology alignment with Finance objectives
  
• In this phase, we help answer the question: How does a proposed system change affect and support the goals of the organization?
  
• Defining and prioritizing projects and enhancements
• Providing Financial Software Evaluation and recommendation
• Business Process Analysis
• Development: Business framework for software development  
• Once a systems change is to be implemented, we provide the framework to manage and document the change.  Our responsibilities are:
• Project Management
• Requirements Analysis and Definition (specifications)
• Implementation:  Business Framework for Organizational Change
• When the systems change is ready for the organization to use, we also provide the framework to ensure the change meets requirements and is implemented as smoothly and seamlessly as possible.Test Plans (perform prelim testing – end user must test and sign-off)
• Implementation Plans
• Communication to user community
  
  

Providing Operational Support 

The Fin-Tech team provides third-level support for FAS/FFE/Finsys, DARTS, and the Data warehouse applications. First level support is provided by the help-desk and second level is provided by CUIT.

BJ Murray Data Entry/Support/Maintenance etc.

Analysis and Resolution of Data Quality or Consistency issues (often this requires cross-organizational teamwork  i.e. CUIT/Business Users/Fin-Tech) 

Providing Financial Data/Reports

Need data? With the many systems that make up the fabric of Columbia’s Financial Systems, it can be challenging to find reports. In development is a Reports section that will include a listing and categorization of most commonly used financial reports. For custom needs, we provide ad hoc reporting for General Accounting, Restricted Funds and others.