Financial Administration Adapts to New Technology

Although its results may not be obvious to undergraduates, Harvard has nearly completed a computerization program that will revolutionize the way it does business.

Project ADAPT, a five-year project designed to put nearly all of Harvard's financial administration into the same on-line system, will be partially finished by July of this year.

Its aim is to decrease red tape and paper work, but this massive undertaking continues to create headaches for the designers charged with unifying Harvard's massive bureaucracy.

"It's doing things in a new way, an efficient way, a more accurate way," says Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67, who is responsible for the project.

By the end of March, administrators across the University will be able to file expense and travel reimbursements on-line. Eventually, they will also be able to pay vendors via computer and access budget reports through the computer system.

Next year's budget will be accessible through the ADAPT system to those with security clearance.

"Employees will be using less paper forms for a whole set of administrative processes," says Peter J. Segall, executive director of ADAPT.

During the spring Harvard will put into effect the "core financial" programs. This means that accounting policies and basic grant reporting will be made uniform across the University. Harvard will also then have a comprehensive Chart of Accounts, a listing of all of its asset accounts across the various schools.

Segall says he expects these core financial programs to be in place by the summer but adds that it will take several months to work out the bugs of the integration.

Over the next year, ADAPT officials will continue their effort to train all University administrators--about 2,500 in total--to effectively use the system, Segall says.

Currenty, training is being provided by ABLE, an on-line training program available to members of the Harvard community.

"The sheer size makes it a management challenge," Segall says.

ADAPT's human resources functions, including personnel and payroll records, will not be completed for another few years.