On July 14 this year, a contract was signed with Simple SA for the supply and implementation of the Integrated Information System. The supplier has extensive experience in implementations in scientific units, which guarantees us a smooth and effective implementation. The planned modules to be implemented, in addition to those replacing Symfonia, include a module for Project Management from the financial and reporting side, a module for Electronic Document Workflow, an e-Employee module, a BI Portal for reports and analysis, and a module for Planning and Budgeting. The modules for Finance and Accounting, Fixed Assets, HR and Payroll, and Purchasing and Sales alone have a huge number of functions and automations that we could only dream of before. This will allow us to optimize and automate many processes, which will ultimately result in cost reduction in addition to streamlining work and improving its quality. The funds for the purchase were blocked in 2019, i.e. during the period of the change in funding, and could not be used for any other purpose than that planned at that time.
The need to purchase an advanced IT system in an era of ever-increasing number of projects and increasing complexity of settlements has been for a long time and has been growing every year. Work on the preparation of a requirements description and the search for funding sources began as early as 2014. Several times applications were submitted to the Ministry, twice we submitted applications under POPC. However, despite a positive evaluation at the level of the Committee acting under the Prime Minister and a positive recommendation, these applications did not receive funding. The opportunity arising in 2019 was the best solution to this situation. We immediately started bidding procedures. Several times, however, we had to modify our POZ and reduce modules and functionalities, as prices for services at that time began to rise sharply. We were able to finalize the purchase almost at the last moment, as the legal requirements facing us in the years to come are impossible to implement on the current system, which, as a reminder, was implemented at the Institute 22 years ago. In addition to the cost of purchase and implementation, the price includes a two-year warranty period and an eight-year support and upgrade period. This approach was dictated by justifiable caution – we know of cases when, after implementation, the annual support period was priced at a level equal to the cost of purchase and implementation. Thus, we are assured of working on this system for at least the next 10 years.
The Pre-Implementation Analysis is currently in progress. The first modules should take off from January 2023, i.e. accounting and HR and payroll modules. In the following months, we will implement the others. The contract provides for training for all users.