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Regents discover software problem

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by Cassie Kornblau

Monday, March 5, 2007

The University of Wisconsin System neglected to inform the Board of Regents of a failed $28.4 million software project until the system canceled it, according to a report released Friday.

Despite repeated notifications, the project — which deals with the payroll and benefits information system — was in danger since 2004, but the Board of Regents never received any formal reports indicating problems.

"In hindsight, they should have come to us earlier, and we should have made some recommendations — but they didn't," Board of Regents President David Walsh told The Associated Press. "We shouldn't let large problems get out of hand or go unreported."

According to the report, the Appointment, Payroll, and Benefits System began in 2001 and was the only project that was not implemented as planned.

The implementation of APBS was then reviewed by the Common Systems Review Group, an organization which has an oversight role with regards to information technology projects.

On three separate occasions, the organization found problems with the APBS system.

However, as indicated in the report, although the UW Board of Regents has received IT-related information since 1998, a systematic review process was never in place that required the UW System to report IT programs.

The UW System's APBS began in 2001, but was halted in 2006 by UW System President Kevin Reilly, the report stated.

The purpose of the APBS program was to replace the system from the 1970s and combine payroll, benefits and human resource information.

The report also said the APBS project cost a total of $28.4 million between 1996 and 2006 and used $2.1 million of the total expense for salaries and fringes for UW staff who transferred within the UW System — higher than the projected total of $26.4 million.

While the regents were aware of the development of the APBS system, they were never given consistent updates once it was implemented, according to the report.

But after the APBS failure, The Associated Press said the Board of Regents requested the help of auditors to review the project and the Board's oversight role of IT initiatives.

"Looking back in hindsight, our Board of Regents were not routinely informed about this project," UW System spokesperson David Giroux said. "Internal auditors recommend that we set up a threshold that requires reports to regents every so many months."

Giroux said the report included an analysis of what other states' regents boards do at other universities, helping to provide ways the UW System can learn from other states' experiences.

Nonetheless, the report refused to recommend that regents should approve major projects or unify a system-wide IT plan, despite what is carried out at other universities.

The report suggested UW System management should provide the Board of Regents with an inventory of major IT projects scheduled for implementation in the system and also provide regular status reports to the board on project implementation.

"We learned many lessons," Giroux said. "The purpose of this report is to fulfill the request of what role the regents should have in reviewing IT projects."

The Board of Regents will discuss the report this week when the regents meet Thursday and Friday at UW-Parkside.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Anonymous (March 5, 2007 @ 10:23am):

Well look at the bright-side at least the Regents can't be overthrown by Student Government...or can they?
- Germain E. Stemme

Anonymous (March 19, 2007 @ 8:00pm):

This is yet another example of why the legislature needs to increase its oversight of the UW. Where did the $28 million go? How do they plan to fix this? What safeguards will be added to prevent a repeat of this fiasco? UW has many questions to answer here.

Anonymous (March 21, 2007 @ 7:46pm):

I agree. The Barrows, Hong, Barrett, Cohen, and Kaplan disasters are further evidence that UW badly need more legislative oversight.

Anonymous (March 22, 2007 @ 4:00pm):

......and a new chancellor at UW-Madison.

Anonymous (March 25, 2007 @ 6:10pm):

UW certainly needs more legislative oversight, but the collapse of leadership at Bascom Hall must be remedied first. Wiley and Farrell must be replaced for their grotesque behavior, especially in the Barrows case.

Anonymous (March 26, 2007 @ 7:35pm):

Wiley has been a total disaster. Why don't the Regents replace him?

Anonymous (April 1, 2007 @ 8:52pm):

Good point.

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