Solution to extract financial data from AFAS costs UG 200,000 euros
Three-year contract with different company
Tool to extract financial data from AFAS costs 200,000 euros
Door Giulia Fabrizi
By Giulia Fabrizi
Giulia Fabrizi
Van uit de hand gelopen studentenfeestjes tot bezette universiteitsgebouwen en van kamertekorten tot dreigende bezuinigingen: Giulia houdt al het nieuws in de gaten. Ze praat graag met de mensen die het aangaat, schrijft erover en begeleidt freelancers bij het maken van nieuwsartikelen. Eerder werkte ze als stadsredacteur Groningen en gemeenteverslaggever Haren voor Dagblad van het Noorden.Last year, AFAS partner Salure and the UG agreed on a three-year contract to develop a tool to extract financial data from the system.
This option wasn’t available until September of last year, which frustrated business coordinators and administrative staff. In order to keep track of, among other things, project expenses, they were forced to use old-fashioned Excel sheets.
This new solution is costing the UG 6,000 euros a month for the next three years. This is in addition to the existing budget of 10.5 million euros.
Errant estimation
‘Initially, we wanted to do the reports in AFAS itself, or use our own tools’, programme manager Erwin Boelens explains. But after the AFAS implementation in January 2020, it quickly became clear that things were not working out the way the university wanted them to.
‘Making our own tools turned out to take up more time than we’d expected, so we had to come up with a different solution. That’s when we turned to Salure. They have tools that can be embedded into the AFAS system.’
Separate programme
Some sceptical staff members wonder if the addition of Salure doesn’t impinge on the university’s objective. After all, switching to a different operations system was supposed to merge all the outdated expense, payroll, HR, and purchasing systems in one single solution. This adds another separate tool to the mix, and it’s from an outside provider.
Boelens says that assessment is too simple; after all, the tool has been integrated into the AFAS system. Anyone accessing it needs to log into AFAS first, after which they’ll be directed to a page where they can consult and edit the financial data. That means it’s not a separate programme, but a necessary part of the new system.
Urgent solution
How long the UG will use Salure is unclear for now. ‘We can cancel the contract annually. Right now, we need to urgently publish the reports and make sure people have access to the system. Salure is our solution.’
In the future, AFAS might create a similar tool for the university, or the university does this in-house. ‘We’ll evaluate whether we’re on the right path over the course of the year.’