‘Community source’ project helps colleges tackle enterprise systems - Page 4 of 5

Human-resources software

The Kuali People Management for the Enterprise (KPME) software aims to do for HR and payroll what its KFS software does for financials. Iowa State and Indiana are now implementing phase one of the software. KPME is made up of several stand-alone and integrated modules; the Time and Attendance and Leave Management modules are being developed first.

Because KPME is designed by universities, for universities, it addresses concerns that other HR/payroll systems commonly overlook.

“There’s a lot of specific situations that universities have to deal with that the typical HR system doesn’t address—or if they address it, they don’t address it as their primary function,” said Maury Hope, associate chief information officer at Iowa State University.

KPME’s primary focus is to recognize an educator’s ability to fulfill multiple roles within a single institution, and manage these roles and the payroll that goes with them.

“Our goal is to develop a comprehensive human resource and payroll system that is tailored for a higher-ed environment, and the aspects that are a little different for higher [education] deal with faculty [who] have multiple roles within an institution,” said Hope. “They are a teacher, administrator, researcher, consultant, and they have multiple sources of revenues that pay for a salary as well as their staff—and it’s quite a bit different from a company.”

He added: “In a company, when you put together an organization chart, usually a person can draw a straight line to whom they can report to. That doesn’t work in higher ed, because a faculty member can be a faculty member in more than one college or department, [and] they can be associated with a research project [at multiple institutions].”

Kuali Mobile Enterprise

The Kuali Foundation’s latest venture is a joint project with Vivantech, the Vivantech Kuali DVQE (Disbursement Voucher Quick Expense) Mobile App. The app simplifies the management and reimbursement of higher-ed professionals’ travel and non-travel expenses.