Rutgers modernizes financial processes with Oracle EPM

Established in 1766, Rutgers University is the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the U.S. and a leading national research university located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The university is home to more than 150 undergraduate majors, more than 400 graduate programs, 70,000 students, and 25,000 staff members.

In 2013, the New Jersey state legislature passed the NJ Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act, in which Rutgers merged with most of the units of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. As a result, the size and scale of the newly combined schools presented significant challenges. For example, while Rutgers had been using Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft, the University of Medicine and Dentistry had been using Banner, which created doubles of key systems including payroll and student portals.

As part of its strategy to streamline technology use and invest for the future, Rutgers began exploring a move to the cloud and away from on-premises applications. The university needed greater scalability and vendor-managed disaster recovery. Rutgers also wanted to be able to upgrade to new features without reimplementation, and to transform its processes to reflect modern best practices embedded in the software.

Rutgers University needed to produce a consolidated financial statement with mappings from the two separate general ledger systems. Based on scalability and the breadth of capabilities, the university selected Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Oracle Cloud EPM has not only improved the reliability of Rutgers’ financial data but also has expedited the university’s yearly audit process. Rutgers moved from an annual close process to a monthly close, enabled by tools in Oracle EPM’s Financial Consolidation and Close module, including Close Manager.

Meanwhile, Oracle EPM Account Reconciliation has allowed Rutgers to centralize more than 1,000 university balance sheet accounts, and eventually rationalize and eliminate over 300 balance sheet accounts. Another key module is Narrative Reporting, which has helped the university manage the production of its annual financial report.

In addition, the Oracle EPM Planning module has allowed Rutgers to manage workforce planning and employee compensation and expenses, which make up 65% of Rutgers’ operating expense base.

Rutgers also used Oracle Cloud EPM and ERP during the COVID-19 pandemic to tackle challenges such as moving to remote operations and managing student refunds and budget cuts. Oracle EPM enabled Rutgers to have dependable financial data and more accurate forecasting and scenario planning. The university used Oracle tools to analyze millions of dollars in refunds for housing and dining issued to students and their families, and to understand the impact this had on its bottom line. Importantly, Rutgers was able to access the tools remotely.

Ultimately, Oracle Cloud EPM and ERP helped Rutgers manage funds more effectively and improve collaboration across various campuses and units.