Vanderbilt University Integrates Huron's ECC Solution With Oracle Cloud

Vanderbilt University (VU) is a private research university with several premier research centers. In light of complex new Uniform Guidance requirements related to effort reporting, the university was laser-focused on modernizing its enterprise systems while strengthening compliance and exploring alternative methodologies for documenting employee compensation.

The concern for VU was not so much that its current systems for employee compensation and effort reporting were insufficient but that they would not integrate with Oracle Cloud, which the institution was planning to implement. Leaders recognized there was a need to align their systems to ensure compatibility that would allow each system to communicate with the other to streamline processes and reduce administrative burden.

VU chose to collaborate with Huron on this project because of the organization’s experience implementing Oracle in higher education and research institutions along with its Employee Compensation Compliance (ECC) solution, which integrates with financial, payroll and research administration applications to maximize compliance with documentation standards for personnel compensation.

As part of its larger SkyVU initiative, VU realized it needed a more robust effort reporting system that would be compatible with the new enterprise platforms.

Huron collaborated with VU to implement Oracle, integrating the system with Huron’s ECC solution, a web-based tool that manages personnel compensation compliance, effort commitments, cost sharing and cost transfers.

The approach went beyond a mere technology implementation, incorporating principles of change management to ensure the transformation was sustainable long term. The six-month project involved six phases of execution — planning, designing, configuring and building, testing, training and deploying.

As part of the project and in an effort to align to Uniform Guidance, VU also moved to a hybrid effort reporting approach that incorporates a standard principal investigator effort report and an alternative, project-based staff effort report.