For over 25 years, it’s been used by business officers to keep track of annual salary commitments. Now, U of T is working to replace its planning and budgeting application to support a more comprehensive compensation planning process.

U of T’s Planning and Budget Office, in partnership with Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI), is currently assessing alternative software applications to make the annual compensation planning process more informative and efficient.

“The existing home-grown application, called the B6, was developed at a time when the University’s budget was a much more centrally-managed process,” says Trevor Rodgers, assistant vice-president of the Planning and Budget Office. “Divisions and departments now have greater responsibility for long term planning, and the new tool will provide them with the information they need to operate in the current environment.”

The new tool will provide finance partners with an opportunity to generate detailed five-year compensation forecasts, and allow managers to create “what if” scenarios to make accurate projections. It will have an intuitive interface, multi-year analysis and reporting, monthly data downloads and a detailed, multi-step workflow for reviews and approvals.

So, how will the new system be selected?

The request for proposals was issued on February 2, 2018, and four vendors were selected to present their systems to the core project team, comprised of 15 participants from across all three campuses. The selections were then narrowed down to two and those vendors presented a proof of concept on May 22 and 23.

“We’re really happy with how the proof of concept presentations went,” says Darshan Harrinanan, project manager at EASI. “Both vendors demonstrated an excellent understanding of the University’s needs. Attendees were fully engaged and excited about the possibilities – we’re confident that the solution we choose will provide the University with all of the tools it needs.”

The core project team and 15 additional evaluators will use the systems for 20 business days and then the team will reconvene to make a final decision on June 18.  Development is scheduled to begin shortly after.

”We envision a more robust tool that will meet divisional and departmental needs for accurate multi-year resource planning,” says Rodgers. “It will also better support the University’s long range budgeting process.”

Stay tuned for more updates!