Skip to content

UCM Plan Enhancement

Improving financial systems efficiencies and data delivery

The university has partnered with Solejar, a premier consultant on Enterprise Performance Management systems, to enhance the campus financial planning and budgeting module (UCM Plan).  This project has been a collaboration between several Division of Finance and Administration teams and OIT. ​​​

  • Drill-through capabilities for Actuals (both in the GL and PPM module).  
  • Improved functionality and reduced touchpoints for retrieving data.  
  • Improved Canned Reports to supplement the SmartView reporting option (e.g. Budget vs. Actuals report by org, fund, or project). 
  • The introduction of encumbrance tracking to reduce reliability on shadow systems. 
  • Implementing workforce cube to streamline financial management related to personnel costs.  This will also include the ability to drill-through on personnel details to view DOPE report data. 
  • Expanded system structure to allow for further optimization. 

Project Timeline

  • September 2024 - DFA staff only (In-person) trainings
  • October 2024 - Campus-User SmartView (In-person) & Specialized (Remote) trainings 
  • November - December 2024 - Continued trainings
  • Spring 2025 - UCM Plan Enhancement Launch

Training

General SmartView Training 

Overview 

This 3-hour training is required for users to be provisioned access to the new UCM Plan environment. The session will walk you through the enhanced SmartView Ad Hoc reporting capabilities and give an overview of some of the forms designed to streamline business processes.  
 
The following are mandatory in order to maximize your training experience:  
  • A laptop with SmartView add-on installed prior to the session (submit installation requests HERE).
  • Review the following videos prior to the training to familiarize yourself with the UCM Plan Enhancement project and get the most out of the SmartView training:

To request access to SmartView training, contact dofa@ucmerced.edu for further assistance.  

Additional Training Sessions

Additional training on specialized topics will be offered the week of November 18th. These sessions will be based on current system access roles, and invites will be sent out individually as applicable. Unless noted otherwise, participation in all sessions for which you receive an invitation is required.     

SmartView Installation Information

Windows Users

Users with a Windows operating system can submit a ServiceNow ticket request HERE.

Mac Users

Mac users can install SmartView using one of the following two methods:

  • Parallels - on a Mac using Parallels.  Submit a ServiceNow ticket request HERE.
  • Mac OS - To run SmartView in the native OS, submit a ServiceNow ticket request.

Videos

Reference Resources & Guides

  • Excel and Financial Analysis Enrichment Series (via LinkedIn Learning): click HERE (SSO Required)
    • LinkedIn Learning Intructions: click HERE

Addiitonal resources and guides to be added in November 2024

Contact

Please reach out to dofa@ucmerced.edu with any questions, and a member of the project team will be in touch.