Sample Planning Principles

• Design for the Future
  An institution's financial operations and information architecture should be designed for the future, and should exemplify the goals of simplification, localization of decision-making, customer service, innovation, and evaluation of outcomes.

• Design for Effective and Efficient Internal Control
  Internal control is broadly defined as "a process, effected by an entity's Board of Directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following categories: (1) effectiveness and efficiency of operations; (2) compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and (3) reliability of financial reporting."³ While an institution's underlying control objectives may not change, there is a significant change in how colleges and universities are implementing such controls. To enhance the flexibility, agility, and service orientation of administrative operations and to leverage the full capacities of employees and new technologies, "management should no longer attempt to control processes but must focus on controlling exposure to risk."⁴

• Leverage Existing Investments in the Financial Management Infrastructure
  As an institution's operating and technology environments become increasingly complex and as administrative resources become more scarce, investments to support financial management must be leveraged to the greatest extent possible. Through the 1980s, when mainframe-based transaction processing investment provided the infrastructure for many campus financial systems, leverage was a function either of scale or of commonality. No institution can afford to simply throw out the investment in personal computers, networks, and many other subsidiary and auxiliary systems; it must decide what it can keep and what it must discard.

• Design for Ease of Use by the Primary Stakeholders
  Campus users' expectations for financial systems have gone beyond unfriendly terminal emulation screens and unreadable reports and ledgers. Primary stakeholders will expect the new campus financial system to be easy to use and intuitive in its "look and feel,"to integrate well with other application programs on their desktop, and to require minimal training. Stakeholders also know that today's technology allows for these characteristics, and therefore will not accept a system that doesn't offer significant improvements over their current system.

Endnotes:

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⁴Higher Education Management Newsletter (Coopers & Lybrand, August 1993), 13.

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