ABA Meeting
September 20, 2007
BEN Assets Project – Mission Statement
In Penn’s decentralized environment,
Schools and Centers are responsible for
property management.
The BEN Assets Project will replace and
enhance existing property management tools
and processes to support the Schools and
Centers in improving their operational
efficiency and safeguarding University assets.
2
BEN Assets Project – Mission Statement
(continued)
The new tools and processes will promote:
 Improved oversight and control over moveable equipment
assets to avoid loss or unauthorized disposal
 Reduction in Trustees’ concerns about management’s
ability to appropriately safeguard University assets
 Improved processing through better integration with other
systems, reduction in manual processing, and greater
transparency of equipment information for custodians
 Opportunities for greater indirect cost recovery from
research by better linkage of research equipment with
specific rooms
3
What Is BEN Assets?
Penn’s implementation of Oracle’s Asset
Management module as an additional
application within BEN Financials




BEN Buys – Internet Procurement/Purchasing
BEN Balances – General Ledger
BEN Pays – Accounts Payable
BEN Assets – Fixed Assets New
4
Definition of Capital or Property Asset
A property asset is any item for which all three
of these criteria apply:
 Item has a value of $5,000 or higher
 Item has a useful life of more than one year
 The University retains title of the item
5
BEN Assets – IP Enhancements
 BEN Buys property management form
changes
 For the requisitioning process for University
assets, the list of object codes that require
property management information will be
expanded:




Moveable Equipment - Object Codes1830-1833
Collectibles - Object Codes 1850-1852 NEW
Equipment in Process - Object Code1834 NEW
Internal Use Software - Object Code 1835 NEW
6
BEN Assets – IP Enhancements cont’d
 New required field to designate an item as a
“Component” of an asset
 Example – purchase of a $2,000 lens used to construct
the $10,000 microscope
 This is a required field that will default to a null value –
you must enter a “Y” or “N”
 Online validation of employee information
 Custodian and Tagging Contacts will be validated
against a list of all current employees
 Only faculty and staff will be eligible to be Custodians or
Tagging Contacts

i.e. research assistants or consultants will not be in the list
7
Property Management Form
8
BEN Assets – IP Enhancements cont’d
 Online validation of location
 Persons requesting purchases of capital equipment must
provide a valid location for housing the equipment
 Building-Floor-Room data will now be validated against the Facilities'
Space@Penn data
 BEN Requisitioner will need to know the location information as it is
represented in Space@Penn
 Example
– Building Number – 0155 = Franklin Building
– Floor Number – 1 = First Floor
– Room Number – 100A = Room number
Important: BEN Requisitioners are required to enter a valid
location combination (BLDG-FLR-RM) for the asset.
Requisitions cannot be completed without this information.
9
Property Management Form
10
IP Enhancement Support
 Need to Find a Location?
 Each School/Center will be required to designate a
go-to person within their respective areas for space
related questions
 School/Center Sr. BAs will be provided with an
electronic copy of the floor plans for their buildings
on CD
 Future maintenance of space will continue
according to the current processes within Facilities
11
IP Enhancement Support cont’d
 Questions regarding the Property
Management form or its functionality
 Call BEN HELPS (215) 746-4357
 Need to enter your 2 digit
School/Center code
12
BEN Assets Project Timeline
 IP Integration
(Software Release 1)
 BEN Assets - Central Rollout
(Software Release 2 )
 BEN Assets Training
OCT/NOV-07
FEB-08
MAR-08
 BEN Assets - School/Center Rollout
(Software Release 3)
MAR/APR-08
13
Questions / Comments
Please send additional questions to [email protected]
14