Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 01 Apr 2014
UNIT4, the global leader in software that supports business change, announced today a significant contract with Monash University, the largest university in Australia and one of the world's most global universities. Monash University has chosen the Agresso research management solution to support its global research practice, handling grants and contracts today of around $300 million annually.
Based in Melbourne, Monash enrolls 63 000 students every year, with 16 000 staff based across campuses in Australia, Malaysia and South Africa. It has significant research ambitions, with a wide network of research and teaching collaborations, and involvement in more than 150 fields of research studies. Over the next 10 years, Monash plans to cement its reputation as one of the best universities within the Asia-Pacific; to be a truly global university, both physically and intellectually; and to be among the strongest research universities in the world.
In partnership with its Australian distributor and implementation partner, S1 Consulting, UNIT4 was chosen ahead of all other leading research management solution providers. It is the first signing outside the UK for its new Agresso Research Costing and Pricing application, developed with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Together with Agresso Award Management and Agresso Project Costing and Billing, the solution will meet Monash's end-to-end requirement for software to manage the full spectrum of research-related processes.
"Controlled research management practices are crucial for universities with ambitions in this area," said Dr Ian Tebbett, CIO, Monash University. "Research-intensive institutions have historically struggled with the complexity of proper management processes. Few solutions exist on the market that can meet requirements end-to-end. State-of-the-art IT systems that draw the best out of our professional staff and engage them in delivering on our institutional goals are essential. UNIT4's research management solution, including the unique Research Costing and Pricing, along with the company's experience in the sector, promises the control universities like Monash require to be world leading in the field of research."
Monash University has selected a suite of applications that together deliver an integrated end-to-end research management solution:
* Agresso Research Costing and Pricing is a flexible, full Economic Costing (fEC), pricing and approval tool that enables the production of accurate cost estimations and agreement on appropriate prices for grant applications and research contracts. Available either in the cloud, or on-premises, it provides a consistent approach to research costing, including data input, output and interpretation, evidenced by clear audit trails through a single system shared across the institution. It is a multilingual, multi-currency solution enabling any organisation to cost and price international projects no matter where they are located.
* Agresso Project Costing and Billing enables optimal use of resources and tight management for all processes in a project from project initiation through to resourcing and costing, to billing, reporting, and analysis.
* Agresso Award Management enables the capture of non-financial information to support the bid/application process.
"Monash University is a highly respected institution globally and a flagship customer for UNIT4, as we continue on our quest to become the leading provider of education and research management solutions globally," said Ab van Marion, Chief Operating Officer, UNIT4 Group. "Globally, research is becoming a strategic activity and differentiator for universities and those that manage it well are seeing rewards. Together with our Australian Education and Research partner, S1 Consulting, we adopt a pragmatic approach to helping universities leverage their knowledge, infrastructure and expertise to help drive successful adoption of UNIT4's research management technology. S1 Consulting and UNIT4 have been successful because of our joint comprehensive technical and business expertise and our ability to merge the two virtues seamlessly. Our team will provide direct actionable strategic advice, domain expertise, technology and thought leadership to Monash.
UNIT4 already provides software solutions to more than 400 education and research institutions, making it the leading supplier to the sector in the UK and Scandinavia, with an emerging presence in North America, France and other countries worldwide.
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