Unit4 ends support for research costing tool used to plan the Covid vaccine
- Reference: 1721644454
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/22/unit4_ends_support_for_research/
- Source link:
The Research Costing and Pricing (RCP) solution, used by as many as 35 UK universities, was first conceived by Oxford and Cambridge Universities before being developed commercially.
One insider told The Register some users had spent as much as £1 million ($1.29 million) deploying and supporting the system, and customizing it to their own requirements.
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Unit4 announced the decision in April, saying it would not support the product after the end of 2026, angering many users. Users face a migration to alternative products including Worktribe and GrantsNow, with which Unit4 has established a strategic partnership.
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In a statement, a Unit4 spokesperson said: "We have not taken the decision lightly to implement our Cloud Migration strategy and Unit4 is committed to working with all our customers on their journey to the cloud. We recognize this is not something that will happen overnight, which is why we have laid out clear options for customers to manage the transition."
The spokesperson said Unit4 was offering a free Cloud Migration Assessment service to help customers "identify the appropriate journey to the cloud based on their current levels of customization and complexity." This would map out the migration path, they said.
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"Long term, we believe this approach, and the move to the cloud, will deliver benefits to our customers as they look to transform services to compete in much more dynamic and unpredictable market conditions," the spokesperson added.
In a communication seen by The Register , Unit4 told customers that following its Special Interest Group conference in June 2023, it had announced it would "continue to support RCP around statutory changes, but would not be delivering any new innovation within the product."
The April missive said: "Following a strategic review of the RCP product, we are announcing the end-of-life for RCP with effect from 31st December, 2026, which includes all on-premises and cloud versions of RCP."
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It said some ERP customers in higher education had already moved to, or were in talks with, Worktribe and GrantsNow. "With our cloud platform integration capabilities, Unit4 has decided to focus on integration with these specialist providers who are solely focused on driving innovation within the higher education research space," the communication said.
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One insider said that as well as the migration costs and efforts to recreate customization in the new products, users might have to deploy tools that fail to produce the accuracy and granularity of research costing afforded by RCP. The outcome would either be to risk footing the bill if the bid is too low for grants, or missing out on funding money if the bid is too high.
RCP was created more than 10 years ago with the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. The Register understands that Cambridge has now moved off the product, but Oxford remains dependent on it.
We understand the planning for Oxford University's research supporting the development of the first licensed vaccine for Covid-19 with AstraZeneca was performed using Unit 4's RCP solution. We have approached the university for comment. ®
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Re: Gone, and hopefully forgotten
Worktribe (one of the alternatives mentioned, used here) does the calculations for you, but does require some training to use, and a knowledgeable eye to make sure nonsense doesn't get out of the University. However there is a hell of a lot of work involved in setting up the costings to start with and keeping them up to date, and I guess RCP is probably the same. The fact that Cambridge has moved on might be an indication it's not the best fit now. Costing applications is one of the more tedious bits of academic life.
We don't use Agresso for costings but it is the main finance system. I found the only way to conceptualize it is as a made over 70s green screen terminal app, so "lipstick on a pig" territory. Once you understand that, it's a bit easier to work out how to poke it.
What happens when you hang a large part of your operation on a specialist tool.
You don't own the tool.
It owns you. *
*And if it's a "cloud solution" whoever runs that cloud owns you as well.
EOL is not death.
If your software is standalone and works in isolation from the public internet, it should keep on trucking. If it worked on data last week, it should work next week and next year, when it enters an afterlife.
It won't if it is dependent upon vendor server calls, or cloud storage, which is a good reason for avoiding both. Anything web-based is like marrying into the mob.
You really should not put your financial balls on the chopping block for third parties to bring down the knife when they wish. Use less software, use simpler software, use standalone software that doesn't need a net connection. It is time to start using software more selectively, and getting bespoke software produced for your needs, so you control it. And cost this stuff. Some of the sums involved are eye-watering. Paying for this stuff, often on subscription, or for a short period until EOL is declared, makes no sense if you can do it with something simpler, in Excel or on paper. Don't automatically assume that a fully fledged digital solution is the best solution. Most tech players are just after your cash. Service provision is merely a means to an end. It's not so much customer and service provider, as predator and prey. Consider an internet connection to be a security risk and an internet dependency a financial risk.
Gone, and hopefully forgotten
This article is written as though the software was helpful and useful to the team at Oxford.
The researchers have to do all of the actual calculations and estimations manually (how many person months for each staff position, the equipment budgets, the travel budgets, etc). Based on the full economic costing rules you can whip up the cost to within a couple of percent in 5 mins on the back of an envelope (or in a spreadsheet if no envelopes are available).
You then go into Agresso (which should really be named Agressor, based on the state of mind it leaves the user in), load up what ever your university calls this system. Then you battle with the atrocious UI for some time to enter the data into the system to get the "exact number". You then contact your Research Services team to tell them the exact number and they tell you that the system is currently calculating it wrong because it doesn't take account for XYZ. The then give you a bunch of ways to mangle the input data so that the output is correct, we know when it is correct because it agrees with the back of an envelope. Someone then gives it the rubber stamp of approval, and you are able to start actually asking for money.
I think Unit4 are probably doing the world a favour by getting rid of it. However, I am sure someone will create a slower, flatter yet equally obtuse interface that can incorrectly calculate research costs very soon.