software

Discussion understood to concern delayed SaaS transformation project

UCLA has entered pre-litigation discussions with Oracle, one of the suppliers underpinning its finance transformation project, which has been delayed by nearly six years.

The project has been on pause since August 2024 while the giant US university considers its options, including whether to continue using the vendor.

The Regents of the University of California's Compliance and Audit Committee recently listed a proposed settlement with Oracle America over an alleged contract breach as an action line on its meeting agenda. 

UCLA Faculty Association member Dan Mitchell noted the item “likely refers to the failed Ascend 2.0 matter”, referring to the project name for the university’s finance and procurement system transformation.

A spokesperson for UCLA said in a statement emailed to The Register: "UCLA does not comment on confidential pre-litigation matters or potential settlements. The university continues to evaluate the most effective path forward for financial systems modernization."

A report presented to the University Regents Finance and Capital Strategies Committee in March last year said that among the “Top Issues, Risks and Challenges” the UCLA project leadership faced was “Oracle’s lack of responsiveness — particularly regarding licensing costs and support.”

The report, based on data from up to December 2024, listed it among issues under ongoing evaluation. It shows the project's original $120 million budget was revised down to $98.9 million, with $13.5 million spent to date.

Oracle has so far declined the opportunity to comment.

The project started in April 2018 and was originally expected to end in July 2020. It is a “comprehensive business transformation initiative designed to modernize the University financial, budgetary, and research administration operations by migrating to the Oracle Cloud SaaS solution,” the document said. It also included retrofitting any systems which connected with the main finance system.

The procurement module, BruinBuy Plus went live in January 2024, but the main “Oracle Financials go-live has been paused since August 2 [2024] and is undergoing program assessment,” the document said.

Among the mitigation plans in the review was to “finalize the decision on whether to continue with the current vendor or explore alternatives” based on a reassessment of the tool and the provider.

The university is yet to announce the results of planned work to “determine the viability of the current software provider and explore alternatives if needed.”

According to a report from campus newspaper Daily Bruin, UCLA currently uses legacy financial systems software designed in the 1980s when the university’s operating budget was just 7 percent of its current size. It is a mainframe-based "ancient relic of a system" one interview said.

A presentation given during the May 2024 Ascend 2.0 quarterly town hall estimated the total cost was projected to be roughly $286 million, with around $213 million already spent, the report said. ®