Financial Systems & Solutions
Financial Systems & Solutions (FSS) provides end-to-end business technology solutions and related services to various units across the Finance Division to help better support GW departments, increasingly leveraging information and technology to deliver better products and services, manage costs, and mitigate risks.
Guiding Principles of Financial Systems & Solutions
- Customer Centricity - Service and value to our customers in everything we do
- Solution Innovation – Creatively solving business problems by effectively leverage information and technology
- Operational Excellence – Infuse excellence in everything we do
- Succinct Communication – Define and articulate problems and analytical solutions in business friendly language
Services
We work with our various customers to solve business and systems needs in the most efficient and effective way. Our assignments vary but involve the following components.
- Financial Systems Roadmap - We work with customers to understand systems, analytics and insights needs and help to prioritize such needs by taking into account business importance, readiness of data and ease of development. The result is a financial systems roadmap that lays out a number of priorities in Finance with key milestones and deliverables.
- Solution Design and Development - We work with business in rapid prototyping of business solutions. Financial Systems & Solutions' pilot workshops are geared toward defining the business need, articulating requirements, mocking up visualizations, and assessing data (availability, quality, integration, conceptualization and certification).
- Technology Collaboration - Financial Systems & Solutions works closely with the GW Division of Information Technology to select the right technology solution to solve the business problem. This includes assessing enterprise architectural fit, vendor selection, and other scenario-specific variables.
Staff
- Jeff Pearson, Director, Financial Systems & Solutions
- Chris Gravis
- Maurice Goode
Customers
Financial Systems & Solutions exists to provide systems support to various processes within the Finance Division at GW and serve our internal customers who perform those processes.
Financial Reporting
About the Office
Within the Finance Division, the Office of the University Controller is responsible for management of the university's administrative financial operations. Financial Reporting Services, as part of the Office of the University Controller, is responsible for providing timely and accurate financial information for external reporting and analysis to support decision-making throughout the university. External reporting includes managing the annual audit process as well as responding to various surveys common to institutions of higher education.
Our Role
To facilitate these processes Financial Systems & Solutions identifies business intelligence and other business process needs then designs and develops solutions to those needs.
Treasury Management
About the Office
GW’s Finance Division is responsible for the overall integrity of the university's fiscal activities. As part of that team, Treasury Management is responsible for the management of the university’s financial resources. This includes investment of cash and the administration of debt to ensure resources are available to meet the operating and capital needs of the university, credit card processing, and lockbox services.
Our Role
Financial Systems & Solutions facilitates the Treasury Management department through its support of Treasury’s two-year systems roadmap and other analytic needs, including cash forecasting and other reports. This includes working with Treasury to analyze and prioritize identified reporting requirements, developing analytic solutions including data warehousing tools, and performing quality assurance during implementations.
Tax Department
About the Office
The Finance Division is responsible for the overall integrity of the university's fiscal activities, committed to providing exceptional customer service while performing several core functions.
- Tax Department: Responsible for compliance with federal and state reporting requirements by the entire university, protection of the university’s tax-exempt status, and for providing guidance concerning tax withholding and reporting of payments made to international students, scholars and visitors to GW.
Our Role
Financial Systems & Solutions facilitates Tax through its support of their systems roadmaps and other operational and analytic needs.