Cloud

San Francisco State U Taps Cloud Tech for Financial Planning

• By Rhea Kelly
• 01/13/21

San Francisco State University has moved its financial reporting, analytics, budgeting and forecasting to Oracle's Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management solution. Goals for the implementation included increased transparency and agility, improved insights and enhanced decision-making across the institution.

Oracle Cloud EPM's reporting and analytics capabilities eliminate tedious manual processes and allow SFSU's budget office to adapt quickly to changing economic conditions, drill down to position-level detail, and more effectively manage employees and optimize budgets, according to a news announcement. In addition, the solution's scenario modeling feature allows administrators to test various scenarios, assess potential responses, and use those insights to inform a 10-year strategic plan.  

"The foundation we've built with Oracle Cloud EPM for our budget processes has enabled us to quickly adapt to unexpected conditions, especially when building budgets and financial plans for the coming years," said Bernice Yeh, senior budget analyst for San Francisco State University, in a statement. "We have been able to model scenarios to increase efficiency, reduce risk, and provide our school leaders with the correct information to allow them to make informed decisions."

"San Francisco State University has been able to take advantage of Oracle's Scenario Modeling, especially in coordination with the rest of the solution," commented Tyler Feddersen, EPM director for technology consulting company Performance Architects, which assisted with the implementation. "SFSU continues to model out scenarios to present to school leaders. Once a path has been decided, the budget process serves as a user-driven answer to the updated target(s)."

"Higher education organizations are facing a unique challenge, navigating complete or partial campus closures while trying to retain students in an online business model," said Hari Sankar, group vice president of EPM product management for Oracle. "With Oracle Cloud EPM, SFSU's finance team can rapidly report, gain real-time business insights, and accurately forecast revenues and liquidity to make better business decisions. While highly relevant in the current business environment, these capabilities will also improve productivity and ensure the university can quickly respond to future challenges, whatever they may be."