François Degrave, Université de Namur, explique comment, grâce à la modularité d’OpenERP, les FUNDP (Universités de Namur, 6.000 étudiants) ont remplacé progressivement leur système de gestion en commençant par le back office (budgets, comptabilité, processus achats) sans perdre l’avantage de l’intégration.

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What are the benefits of OpenERP’s
modularity for the University of Namur?
François Degrave
PhD in Computer Science
Responsible for software architecture

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Context
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Finance: Software developed internally (80's)
– Last major changes in 1992
• Outdated technology, servers, architecture...
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Education: developed internally in 1999
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Plans for a merger of universities in 2008
– Freeze of any new development !
– Common projects with the other partners
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The merger failed in Dec. 2010
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Catch up on lost time !

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Requirements
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More integrated approach
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More participation of users
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Larger an extensible functional scope
– Accounting, purchases, sales, budgets
– Education management
– ...
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Short delay :
– 01/01/2013 for finance
– 2013/2014 academic year for education

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Why OpenERP?
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FOSS philosophy
– Control over our data
– Advanced adaptations for specific usages
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Major actor in open source ERP software
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Belgian editor
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Many active partners

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Timeline
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Education offer: 10/2012
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Accounting, sales, purchases: 01/2013
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Student registrations: 03/2013
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Budget monitoring: 04/2013
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Student registrations payments: 06/2013
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Student social funding: 07/2013
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Student careers: 09/2013
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...

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OpenERP modules
Shared objects
academic years, identities, entities...
noe_utils
LDAP, encryption
noe_login
Education management
Offer, registrations, student careers
noe_edu
Accounting and sales adaptations
noe_account
Purchases adaptations
noe_purchase
Financial aspects of education
noe_edu_account

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OpenERP modules
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Dependencies:
– OpenERP: account, purchase, l10n_be
– Noviat: CODA import, payments
– Syleam: JasperReport (for all reporting)
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No need to modify/patch the existing code
(server or modules)
– Except monkey patch :-)

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Finance
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Adaptations of existing modules
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Analysis with a partner
– Strong knowledge of standard processes and “best
practices” in finance and ERPs
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Implemented and deployed by us
Analysis Implementation Deployment

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Finance: main functionalities
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Budget management
– Use of budget accounts
– Actual vs committed amounts

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Finance: main functionalities
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Multiple business entities
– Budget responsibility
– Sales / Purchases approval process
– Different rights for budget/purchase
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Heavy adaptations of analytic accounts

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Finance: main functionalities
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VAT computation
– Deductible, not deductible, pro-rata, not taxable
– Can be different for each invoice line...
– Taxes are supported by the entities
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Advances on expenses
– Help for complex process
– Many moves, statements and reconciles involved
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Internal invoices
– Simplified invoices between departments
– Particular accounts for internal transfers

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Finance: success!
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Learning curve was fast
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Many improvements vs. legacy system
– Coda, payments
– Decentralized processes
– Much less file transfers between entities
– Real-time follow-up for budget managers
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Successfully revised by company auditors !!
– Approbation processes of documents
– Trustworthiness of the figures

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Finance: some figures
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~16,000 invoices, on avg. >600/week
– Students excluded (~10,000 a year)
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~150,000 journal items, on avg. >5700/week
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~2,000 purchase orders

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Education
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From scratch!
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Different development methodology
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Completely separated project, same OpenERP
instance
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All by ourselves
Analysis
Design
Implementation
Specific subject Validation
Customer's
requirements
Workshop

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Education: offer
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Many different objects
– Programs, reforms
– Courses, subjects groups, allocations
– Teachers ( Identity User)→ →
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Many different access rights
– Secretaries for each faculty
– Teachers (own courses only)
– Education administrators
– Assignment managers
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Multiple languages
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Web publication

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Education: offer

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Education: registrations
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Encoding of >6,000 applications / year (growing)
– Particular stress on speed and responsiveness!
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Track all the required documents to claim/produce
– Depending on each student profile
– >10 documents / student
– Parametric “ rule engine” for documents/claims
Growing use of e-mails
– 18,000 sheets of paper spared in the last 2 days !
– Uncountable hours spared...

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Education: registrations

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Edu.: registrations accounting
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~10,000 invoices (6,000 in Sept, 4,000 in July)
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Amount depends on
– Registration type
– Student profile
– Students funding
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Parametric “payment rules engine”
– Automatic generation of invoices
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Much time spared
– Invoices sent by e-mail
– Automatic reconciliations
noe_edu noe_account
noe_edu_account

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Edu.: registrations accounting

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Education: student career
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Students custom programs and exams
– Constraints
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Exam sessions and registrations
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Successes, failures, automatic re-registrations,...
– Very complex and time-consuming
– Automate everything possible !
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Ongoing developments, due in September 2013

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Education: student career

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Ongoing and future work
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Students fundings and loans
– Ongoing work, subcontracted to Audaxis
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Many requirements coming everyday!
– New functionalities in existing modules
– Points of sales
• Books stores
• Central store of office supplies
– Student housing management
– Assets management
– ...

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Ongoing and future work
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Technical stuff
– Testing framework
– Migrations...

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OpenERP modularity...
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...allowed us to:
– Work on different aspects with separated teams
– Start the applications at different moments in the
same instance
– Link the different aspects afterwards through new
modules
– Cleanly re-use and modify existing modules
– Subcontract the creation of new modules