Hi everyone,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) would like to update you on the latest major production releases and updates for U of T’s Administrative Management Systems and Enterprise Shared Services.

The following are major changes from November 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023:

Financial Information System

Retirement of Automatic Print for PO Workflow Users (December 13, 2022)
On December 13, 2022, EASI updated AMS printing to support more convenient, paperless processes for divisions and departments that used the Purchase Order (PO) Workflow. Through comprehensive consultations across all three campuses, EASI identified that users could print to PDF and subsequently retired the automatic printed copy of Purchase Orders in AMS.

Electronic Funds Transfer – Phase 2 (March 2, 2023) 
In August 2022, the University launched the first phase of the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) project to transition vendor payments by paper cheque to direct deposit. Phase 2 of the project, which launched on March 2, 2023, involved streamlining processes and notifying administrative staff about changes within AMS. This phase also includes an ongoing strategic onboarding of existing U of T vendors, and the EFT team is accepting additional vendor recommendations from the U of T community for future consideration.

Azure Billing (March 15, 2023)
On March 15, Information Technology Services and Financial Advisory Services and Training launched automated billing for Azure. Users can now view Azure billing details in AMS, providing greater reporting frequency, transparency and convenience.

Research Information System

My Research Suite (March 27, 2023)
My Research Applications Block Grant functionality was expanded to manage the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) program. This change will simplify departmental reporting and improve transparency.

Enterprise Shared Services

SharePoint+UTORGrouper (December 2022)
SharePoint can now leverage dynamic groups through UTORGrouper. UTORGrouper grants organizations the ability to manage security groups for access across multiple platforms with groups being made available in Azure. You can create your groups in one place (UTORGrouper) and access them across all O365 platforms, including SharePoint and Teams. In SharePoint, these groups will be accessible across multiple sites and memberships will automatically be updated. Visit the SharePoint Support Centre to get started.

AvePoint (February 2023)
EASI is now offering a third-party backup solution for SharePoint called AvePoint. While deleted items will be stored in SharePoint’s recycle bin for a maximum of 93 days, AvePoint will offer SharePoint admins the ability to backup their selected site data in SharePoint permanently. Charges for this service are based on the amount of storage requested and will be billed annually. Interested parties will have the ability to enroll into this service on a quarterly basis with the next enrollment period occurring in June 2023.

Human Resources Information System

Kronos (November 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023)
Kronos, a convenient, cloud-based time and attendance system, eliminates the use of paper timesheets and the need to forecast employee hours through online approval processes. EASI has implemented Kronos Timekeeper within the following areas: Department of Linguistics, the Faculty of Information, and New College.