Kuali Test Drives the Kuali Financial Systems

Kuali Test Drives

The Kuali Financial Systems (KFS) are a select grouping of software applications that are financially-based to meet the needs of all Carnegie Class Institutions (colleges, universities, and organizations that share a vision for open source-based software solutions.) It is based on Indiana University's Financial Information Systems and is unique because, like some open source software, it is a collaborative effort and approach to financial needs, design, and reporting of financial documents. The software is free, in use by institutions of all sizes, has been proven in the marketplace to comply with professional auditing standards, and may be implemented and supported by various commercial partners. The key concepts for the overriding software paradigm, eDocs and Workflow, transcend into the entire model from initial data entry (general ledger, receivables, payables, reporting, etc.). (Kuali Foundation, 2011).

An important element of the software is the way that it is built in a modular fashion. This allows greater flexibility from the institution as well as the way that each user base can only implement the functions most appropriate for their needs. For instance, the KFS can be used for small community colleges of under 1,000 students, as well as complex or multi-campus universities, large research-based institutions, or anything in between. The fact that it is an open architecture platform operating in a web-based environment further allows it to be more easily integrated into numerous divergent environments.

One of the more interesting things about the KFS is the different modules that are available that make the system so flexible:

Kuali Coeus (KC) -- helps the researcher to systematically build and manage the complexities of research administration: grants, funding, tracking, design, etc. This helps the researcher not only devote less time to the bureaucracy and paperwork aspects, but also keeps the project in Federal compliance and can import and export to other software modules.

Kuali Student (KS) -- In development to help manage curriculum, enrollment, student financials, scheduling, and financial aid. This will go beyond academic advising, and be a powerful tool for student questions, program changes, double majors, areas of concentration, choices of programs and classes, and repercussions of workload, time off, etc.

Kuali People Management is a Human Resource a payroll suite designed for higher education. This suite has several modules that may be used independently or integrated into a larger, more comprehensive knowledge-based platform. Human Resource management has changed from using people to employ people, develop people, and track the utilization and compensation of their services. Instead, a newer system has evolved using computers, database management, and data mining to provide more optimal ways in with the Human Resources department can move to more of a Personnel Department, playing a major role in staffing, training, and helping to manage people within the organization in order to strategically recruit, train, and retain the best people who will work towards the organizations medium and long-term goals.

Kuali Read is an organization and continuity planning guide that allows for collection of data, instructional design, research, support, administration, and clinical modules. In general terms, this is a risk management process that allows the institution to be proactive in improving places or processes within an academic organization that may have risks based on environment or other causes. The point of the software package is to help minimize those risks.

Kuali Mobility - Over the last few decades, the extraordinary developments in technology have had a similar extraordinary influence on education, particularly that of the internet, online learning, and interactive computer-based learning curriculum. In fact, as early as the mid-1990s educators were receiving reports from the Department of Education that using mobile devices could change learning, information and data gathering and analysis and the communication of that data. Kuali mobility is a great set of continually evolving tools that allow the user's mobile device to be connected to a number of campus systems (library, administration, learning centers, schedules, curriculum, blackboards, etc.).

Kuali Rice -- Kuali would not work as well nor be as powerful without a module that would allow for integration of applications so that users can customize end-user applications quickly and efficiently. The old adage about reinventing the wheel fits very well with Rice because it is a Service Oriented Object platform that has both a service and client side. For instance, the modular architecture is built so that each module performs a specific function that integrates services to applications in a way that reminds one of the way biological actions work: notification and management (the brain), the nervous system, workflow (arms and legs), rules management (chemical messages) and even a new module called Rapid Application Development that "learns and senses" when other modules are combined.

Analysis- Overall, the Kuali system is both powerful and relatively easy to use. Some of the applications are more usable that others -- the mobile applications are very easy as an interface, but some of the accounting functions (debits/credits, receivables, payables, etc.) would need at least a rudimentary knowledge at the level of say, Quick Books or Quicken. The power, though, to use an automotive metaphor, is "under the hood." There are certainly more powerful systems on the market, but as was found during an audit by the University of Arizona, "the functional advantages that KFS offers, especially those related to eDocs, Workflow and Effort Reporting, outweigh the technical advantages that PSF offers, as well as any risks associated with a KFS implementation" (University of Arizona, 2011). In addition, few other systems evolve so rapidly and so seamlessly that have such potential power at a lower cost.