Coeus

The Princeton ERA system monthly blog has a new home.  Please check it out on the PrincetonERA News page.

As Barbara Walters said, “This is 2020.”  Moving into 2020 means we will be deploying our new system this year!  As we work toward the go-live date of the project, we have achieved another milestone.  In accordance with the SAGIT proposal, we have convened our Steering Committee. 

What is the Steering Committee? 

The Steering Committee is comprised of key University stake-holders who represent the interests and needs of our campus community on this project.   The Committee will provide assistance with the evaluation and resolution of major project issues and risks as well as provide feedback on project milestones, deliverables, policy recommendations and decisions.

The Steering Committee members include:

• Elizabeth Adams – ORPA
• Todd Bristol – WWS
• Albana Cejne – OAC
• Steven Gill – OCAP
• Janet Gruschow  - CHM
• Martin Harrison – PATCO
• Donna Lawrence - OIT
• Stuart Leland – RIA
• Glynis Sherard – SRA
• Annette Tate – DFR
• Tim Tayler – PNI
• Roger Weisenberg – F & T - Technology

The Steering Committee kick-off meeting was held on January 7^th.  At this meeting, Elizabeth reviewed the objectives and guiding principles of the project, including:

• The use of modern technology to bring greater productivity and lower administrative burden
• The utilization of out of the box functionality to minimize customizations, and the alignment our business processes to accommodate the new system
• Help the business of research become more data driven by providing the ability to deliver proposal and non-funded agreement analytics

Elizabeth also reviewed what is included in the scope of work (Grants module, Agreements module and Research profile - RCR tracking), as well as what is not included (Awards module, Subaward module and historical data conversion from Coeus.)  She familiarized the group with the names of the members of the Core Project team as well as the Project Champions. 

Our Steering Committee is committed to advocating for our project and we look forward to our future engagements with them. Welcome aboard!

As the project team grows, please know that all voices in our community are valuable to us.  Please feel free to reach out to the Core team members with any ideas or questions you may have.  There is always more room under our tent and we welcome your feedback.

As a reminder, our next full community outreach is our January 23^rd Coffee with ORPA.  It is focused on an update on the project and we look forward to sharing it with you.  As always, registration for CWO can be found on putrain.learn.com.

Champions – what does this have to do with the Coeus replacement project?  Well, Huron defines Project Champions as key influencers in the research community who will be affected by the new system.  They are thoughtful individuals who care about the challenges faced by their peers.  The best champions are often known as constructive critics.

For our Core Project, the Champions represent a cross-section of our research administration community from the four academic divisions, Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering.  The Champions work in academic units, centers and institutes as well as in shared services and ORPA. The ORPA definition of Project Champion builds on the Huron version and adds that they are stakeholders in our project implementation who will help the Core Project team develop a robust system that will modernize our proposal preparation and non-funded agreement processes in an effort to ease our administrative burden.

Without further ado . . . our Core Project Champions are:

• Drew Allen – Data Driven Social Science Initiative
• Raphael Aryeetey – PRISM
• Vesna Bacic – Molecular Biology
• Mike Checkovage – Chemistry
• Barbara Chinery – Lewis Sigler Institute  - Genomics
• Kara Dolinski – LSI – Genome Databases Group
• Mona Hall – ORPA Shared Services
• Zack Kaado – PEI
• Courtney Kohut – ORPA – GCA
• Sarah McGovern – Statistics and Machine Learning
• Robin Pispecky – Office of Population Research
• Stephanie Rumphrey – Physics

Francine Taylor and Maureen Thompson-Siegel are the co-chairs for the Project Champions group.  Some of the tasks they will lead the Champions through shall include:

• guided tours of the new cloud-based Grants and Agreements system,
• soliciting thoughtful feedback on system functionality
• discussion of business process improvements
• developing a streamlined approach to the requirements for proposal and non-funded agreement preparation and submission 

If you’re not listed as a Champion – fear not!  We are very fortunate to have a vibrant and involved research administration community.  We will continue to engage this entire community as we have during the planning phase of this project.  There will be ample opportunity for our colleagues from across campus to see the system and provide feedback. 

Our next full community outreach is our January 23^rd Coffee with ORPA session.  This session will be dedicated to the project and will share the latest and greatest with everyone in attendance.  As always, registration for CWO can be found on putrain.learn.com.

As this will be our last post of the 2019 calendar year, we want to extend our warm wishes for a joyful and peaceful holiday season.  We look forward to great things in 2020!

Did you miss us?  While you were getting the academic year up and running, the Core Team has been very busy onboarding with Huron.  Who is the Core Team?  What is onboarding?  

The Core Team includes Kyle Burkhardt, Paula Looney, Francine Taylor and Maureen Thompson-Siegel from ORPA.  It also includes some friends from OIT - Donna Lawrence and Ian Finch from OIT’s Office of Software and Application Services (SAS) as well as Larry Jurak and Martin Harrison from the Project and Technology Consulting Office (PATCO).  We also rely on the services of Marlo Cordio, our Huron Business Analyst, to help us document all of our thoughts, questions and aspirations.  

So, what is onboarding?  Onboarding is an intensive nine week process (plus two weeks of pre-requisite work) where the Core Team has been reviewing the software’s capabilities screen-by-screen and field-by-field, learning its functionality and identifying items or business processes that may need tweaking to enable this new tool to support research proposal submissions, negotiation of non-funded agreements with a research component, and RCR tracking on our campus.  The Team has been intensely working together in a room on the first floor of 87 Prospect led by our Huron Delivery Director, Project Manager, and Subject Matter Expert Tim Schleicher.  The team has also completed homework assigned by Huron individually and collectively.

The Team is excited that the onboarding process is running on time and is scheduled to end on November 15th.  As we move into the next phase of the software implementation, called Iteration, we will update you on our next steps, interesting finds and more.  We plan to provide you with monthly communications on the project so you can plan accordingly.  We look forward to sharing with you again soon.

After a 13 month process including focus groups, writing an RFP, reviewing 8 RFP responses, onsite demos by 3 vendors, sandboxing and user experience testing with 2 vendors, 2 community updates, 20 reference calls, and countless meetings, the Coeus Replacement Team is excited to announce that SAGIT (Princeton’s Strategic Advisory Group on IT) has funded our proposal to replace Coeus proposal functionality with Huron Grants and Agreements! 

Implementation is now officially scheduled to begin in September with a targeted go-live date of Summer 2020. 

Thank you for being rock stars with your input and participation on this journey with us!  More information to come.  We look forward to implementing this new proposal system.

14 sessions  * 22 hours * 66 participants * gobs of useful feedback

We’re bowled over by your overwhelming response to our sandbox invitations—taking time to test drive the systems.  Since then, we have compiled your feedback and scoring from sandboxing, and worked with OIT and Internal Audit on the Architecture and Security Review process.  Now we are entering the next phase of the project, Usability Testing, with a small group of users guided by Princeton’s User Experience Office.  All of these inputs inform our negotiations in partnership with Procurement.   We plan to convene our user community later this spring to review the overall findings and celebrate our progress.

Until then, many thanks for being a fantastic and responsive user community dedicated to finding the best solution for Princeton!   Thank you!

You never cease to amaze us -- you attended vendor demos, asked probing questions, and submitted your feedback.  You did all of this around the busy holiday season.  Wow!  Thank you.  We’re energized by your dedication to find the best electronic research administration software for Princeton.  Stay the course and join us in the next phase of the Coeus Replacement Project: sandbox sessions.

What are sandbox sessions?  Sandboxes offer a chance for everyone to “test drive” a software application in a generic environment and share experience-based impressions of its functionality. 

Please sign up for sandbox sessions.   All sessions are held in Friend Center 007 (one level down from the Convocation Room).  Kyle and Sue will lead participants through the process of entering fictitious and common proposal-based scenarios into the system, followed by discussion about the experience.  Sessions with low registration may be cancelled.  We may increase the number of participants per session with sufficient interest, so even if a session is full, please sign up for the wait list.  Register today on the Princeton training site (under “Training by Department”, select “ORPA/Coeus”).

Eight vendors have responded to the Coeus Replacement RFP.  Based on your focus group feedback, we’ve narrowed down the list to the top contenders and need your expertise to critically evaluate their software.  Your indispensable insight directly impacts the decision-making process, ultimately pointing us to the best solution for our community.  We are grateful for your continued partnership as we embark on a rigorous selection process and encourage everyone’s participation.

To accommodate busy schedules, we’re offering the choice of two identical sessions per vendor—please register for one session per vendor.  If you cannot attend the entire session for a vendor, please come to the first half of the session and feel free to leave at the break.

Timing: Demo sessions begin in December and tie up in January, allowing for a break during the holiday season

Sign Up: To reserve a seat at the demos, register at the Princeton Training site.  Click on “Training by Department” and then select “ORPA/Coeus”

Feedback: You’ll have a chance to provide immediate demo feedback via a Google Survey.

Sandbox sessions will begin in January.  Stay tuned for more information.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Coeus Replacement Detailed Feedback review session on 10/23.  If you weren’t able to attend, a PDF of the PowerPoint slides is here.

An Online Survey is now available for you to submit any feedback we missed or misstated in the feedback review, or any feedback that you thought of after your focus group or that was inspired by the detailed feedback review session.  We are also looking for suggestions about how to best engage the community during the vendor demos and sandbox phase of the project.

Also we are collecting suggestions for naming the Coeus replacement!  Our first suggestion is from Ian Finch, Coeus programmer:  TRAX (Tiger Research Administration eXcellence).  Please think it over and let us know your suggestions through this online survey link.

Thanks again for your feedback about what you’re looking for in a Coeus replacement!  Your feedback from the focus groups and online survey was incorporated into the Coeus Replacement RFP which was released to 8 vendors on Wednesday Sept 26.  Vendors have 3 weeks to respond to the RFP.  

We look forward to seeing you at the detailed feedback review session on Oct 23.   Attending this session will help us validate your feedback while we review the responses to the RFP.  Please register for the session on the Princeton training site if you haven’t already.

This summer, ORPA held a series of focus groups with Coeus central administrative and department users to find out what Coeus users want in a replacement product.   There was also an online survey for users who could not attend a focus group or who wished to remain anonymous.  A summary of this feedback was provided at the September Coffee with ORPA but this session, to be held on Oct 23 at 9:30am in the Friend Center Convocation Room,  will go into more detail.  Find out everything users had to say about Coeus likes, dislikes, and areas for improvement.  We want to make sure that we heard you, so please register for this session on the Princeton training site and validate our understanding of your feedback.    For those unable to attend, materials will be available on this page after the session.

Coeus, our grants database, is approaching its end of life.  While some of us may be sad to see our old friend retire, we are also excited to see what the new kids on the block can offer to make grants administration more efficient.

Stay tuned for regular updates on this exciting project!