Northern Arizona University converted their accounting system to an
on-line system using CUFS (College and University Financial System) by AMS
(Sorry, I cannot find an address quickly) effective 7/1/91.  I will offer a
quick reaction & then invite anyone interested to contact me directly.
There are many others "out there" who can offer thoughts as well - it is a
widely-used product.

 1. It requires substantial training to use it as intended; hence PIs
generally will not commit the required time to become knowledgeable about
the system.

 2. There was no great "uproar" when the conversion occurred; thereby
indicating general success.

 3.  The system does provide great on-line utility, but seems to
require substantial "tending".  ASU also uses CUFS, but my understanding is
that they modified it so much that it becomes difficult to fully implement
newere versions as they become available.  My impression is that we wanted
to be able to implement upgrades; thereby going with generic solutions
which are not always perfect.  I cannot offer a judgement as to which is a
better approach.

 4.  The "grants subsystem" is mostly useful for postaward considerations.

 5.  Our greatest problem at this point is that our payroll system was,
and still is, on a different system.  Therefore, we see collective totals
on CUFS, but with no ##s for individual lines or employees.  Payroll
generates a document called the "Position Control Report" which itemizes
salary & benefits by person, but only for the current FY.  In order to
fully account for salaries on a multi-year account, we must keep the
closing "Position Control Report" for each FY the project account is in
existence & add all the ##s manually - therefore, look closely at how your
payroll system will interface.  I do not see a "fix" on our horizon.

 Otherwise, I think CUFS is a fine system & would serve most well!  We
also use a PC-based preaward system (using RBase System V) to track
proposals & awards but obviously rely on our mainframe for financial
records and reporting!

Terry A. May, Ph.D.                       Voice:    602-523-6788
  Director of Research Administration     FAX:      602-523-1075
  Office of Grant & Contract Services     INTERNET: xxxxxx@nauvax.ucc.nau.edu
  100 Babbitt Admin. Ctr., Box 4130
  Northern Arizona University
  Flagstaff, AZ  86011-4130