Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Management Reporting Project
265 Massachusetts Ave.
Office N52-473
Cambridge MA 02139-4307
617-258-7312

The Management Reporting Project

The Management Reporting Project, started in March 1995, was given a charge to facilitate decision making at MIT by providing consistent data and administrative processes throughout the Institute, direct access to appropriate management information, and relevant analysis tools. A major part of our work involves the replacement of many existing MIT computer and paper-based administrative procedures with a new integrated computer system SAP R/3. We expect our work will streamline and simplify processes, and make administrative jobs broader and more challenging at MIT.

Table of Contents
What is Management Reporting?	Rollout98	Background on the Project
Objectives and Goals What is SAP R/3? Benefits of using SAP Glossary of SAP Terms	Description Training Preparation	The History of Management Reporting Management Reporting Teams Additional Management Reporting Information

Objectives and Goals

New administrative processes are simple and cost-effective.

Duplicate data entry is eliminated and the use of shadow systems is reduced by 95%.

The indirect cost rate is lowered.

Targeted savings in the areas of purchasing and administrative staffing are achieved.

Processes deliver timely, accurate, relevant, consistent, accessible management information.

The frequency of data feeds from external systems is increased.
Whenever possible, data input is changed from batch process to real-time input by users.
Reconciliation effort is reduced by 90%.
Central systems are sufficiently flexible to capture any data considered relevant by users.
Users are given direct access to data, and the tools to derive and analyze management information.
Data definitions are consistent.

The new processes facilitate and improve management decisions.

Data can be summarized consistently at all levels.
Decision making focuses on the substance of the decision rather than the quality or consistency of the data.
Incentives for good management are built into the process.
Information is available to all units and managers to measure performance against goals.
Quantifiable performance goals are part of operational units' planning process.
Full financial impact of decisions (cost and revenues) are analyzed before program and staffing decisions are made.

The MIT community perceives real and tangible advantages of the new processes

Benefits of the financial system flow directly to the "real" endures of MIT business processes -- faculty, students, and researchers.
Administrative staff are able to maximize their skills and abilities, and fully and effectively utilize all available tools (especially SAP R/3).
Financial control and reporting on all MIT-administered accounts is improved.
A "culture of service" is supported and enhanced within the administrative support areas.
"Best business practice" is used wherever appropriate and possible.

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What is SAP R/3?

SAP is a cutting edge business software package designed by the German-based software company SAP AG. It is a financial information system used by major corporations in more than 50 countries for financial reporting.

SAP is an abbreviation for "Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing." In R/3 - the most current version of SAP - the R signifies "real time." The SAP system will help MIT organize and, most importantly, simplify the way it tracks and records financial transactions. "The power of SAP R/3 is twofold," said James D. Bruce, Vice President for Information Systems. "Its integrated nature allows detailed data searches from the most general of reports down to a specific transaction. Also, its real-time processing generates up-to-date reports at a moment's notice. With SAP R/3, reports are easier to compile, and transactions are easier to complete."

MIT was the first institution of higher learning in the US to implement SAP. (The University of Toronto went live with the system in October 1995.) MIT and the University of Toronto are part of the SAP Higher Education and Research User Group, a world-wide group of universities and research organizations that have implemented, or are about to implement, SAP.

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Benefits of using SAP

The availability of "real time" information.
Flexible approach to departmental reporting.
Supports multi-platforms: Mac, PC, Unix.
A common Graphic User Interface (GUI) across platforms.
Unlimited account numbers.
Ability to plan separately from budgeting and compare on-line.
Ability to create reports from available data fields and produce graphs on-line.
Unlimited parent and child project structures.
Planning and monitoring across the life of the project, over several years.

Eventually, people in all of MIT's departments, labs, and centers will use the new software for planning and budgeting, purchasing and requisitioning, journal vouchers, billing, revenue accounting, property tracking, year-end close-outs, and labor distribution.

Extensive on-line documentation covering the use of SAP at MIT is available on-line at the Project's operational web site, located at http://web.mit.edu/sapr3/.

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The History of Management Reporting

In 1994 a decision was made to review MIT's management systems. It had become evident that timely and accurate management information had become difficult to obtain. This was because MIT had many different information processing systems that did not communicate with each other, resulting in unnecessary duplication of data and work.

In November of 1994 the Management Reporting Process Redesign Team presented its recommendations to the Reengineering Steering Committee. The team's recommendations included:

Integrating processes and systems to provide real-time financial information across the Institute;
Reducing administrative activities connected with the procurement process;
Streamlining the Institute's planning and budgeting processes; and
Adopting non-financial performance measures for MIT.

In March 1995, the Management Reporting and Financial Operations Project was created as a result of these recommendations. A major focus of the project has been the implementation of the SAP R/3 financial system. The first phase of the implementation was completed in September 1996 when SAP became the system of record at MIT. At that time the central financial offices (CAO, Purchasing, OSP, etc.) began to use the software. The second phase - now called Rollout98 - will be completed when SAP has been distributed to all MIT departments, labs, centers and offices, and users have been trained and given access full functionality of the system.

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