Two-Year Journey Comes to Successful End

On January 25, UAccess Research (UAR) went live in a new Software and a Service (SaaS) environment. There was a cross campus collaboration and a UITS team of amazing talent and focus that made such a huge jump in platform happen with success. Read the reflections on UITS Principal Business Analyst / UAR SaaS Project Manager, Laura Lukomski.

Little did we know when we kicked off the UAccess Research (UAR) SaaS upgrade project in November 2019 that we'd be embarking on a little over two-year journey amid a global pandemic. When I think back, it's incredible that our team was able to shift to full remote work, juggle our children’s remote learning, laugh as our pet walks across our keyboard or barks for treats during Zoom meetings, and come to terms with the isolation during stay-at-home orders, all while working toward the upgrade of the Research Administration system.  In a way, the struggles of the last two years have made us work harder to support one another, as we were living in this strange new reality together. While a system upgrade seems like an easy-peasy feat, we ITers know, even under normal circumstances, this is not the case.  

The UAR upgrade was an opportunity for our Research, Innovation & Impact (RII) business partners to assess their business processes and from there, ensure the UAR steps were efficient and added value. The project consisted of 340 tasks in Microsoft Project, close to 1,000 JIRA tickets, 100 team meetings, 475 Analytics reports to verify, 5 data migration rounds, 800 tables migrated, 5 technical integrations, 4 rounds of business process testing, 4 rounds of user acceptance testing, 150 configurations, and 20 training sessions for campus partners. Each task, testing round, and technical configuration required thought, analysis, collaboration, and testing from the entire team. 

Together, our UITS team and RII business partners implemented UAR SaaS on January 25, 2022, supporting the University of Arizona to make the changes necessary to ensure the security and integrity of our data, maintain compliance with our regulatory agencies and sponsors, and move us closer to the Arizona Board of Regents’ goal of one billion dollars in research expenditures.

The UAccess Research team would like to acknowledge our UAR SaaS UITS team members and thank those not listed that we consulted with along the way. Congratulations on a successful implementation and thank you for your contribution to the team and University.  You make a difference, and we appreciate you!

UITS core team members:

• Eddie Caratachea
• Pavan Desireddy
• Rene Fimbres
• Rahat Helal
• Natalia Costea Ibanez
• Eric Lee
• Yvonne Lorch
• Laura Lukomski
• Jeff Schwarz
• Abraham Silva
• Tim Stafford

UITS support team members:

• Kakoli Basu
• Shiva Chidara
• Sarah Dasher
• Clancey Dollard
• David Drozd
• Julie Dupuy
• Mike Florian
• Tom Gostas
• Michael Verselle
• Matt Hohl
• Stella Le
• Heather Lo
• Teddy Lopez
• Misty McCormick
• Carol Miller
• DJ Parslow
• Tim Schwab
• Scott Skinner
• Kelly South
• Lori Swanson
• Mary Veres
• Greg Wessels