Summary
The present work shows a proposal of Computerization for the financial economic management (GEF) and the assurance of the University of Havana. It addresses the prototype of an infrastructure for management through the Web, which will guarantee easy access to the information integrated by each of the levels of interest, a higher level of security, a more efficient economic activity, and more decision-making. accurate on the economic plane.
With the proposal presented, a tool will be made available to the University of Havana that, making use of information and communication technologies, will allow the streamlining of processes with a high level of efficiency and a more rational use of human resources..
Abstract
This work shows a proposed economic Computerization financial management (GEF) and the assurance of the University of Havana. It addresses the prototype of a management infrastructure through the Web, which will ensure easy access to integrated information for each of the levels of interest, greater security, economic activity more efficient, and more decision-making certainty in the economic sphere.
With the proposal will be made available at the University of Havana a tool that, using information technology and communications, streamlining permit processes with high efficiency and a more rational use of human resources.
Introduction
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play an increasingly important role in managing the information of an organization. Among the areas of greatest importance in the operation of any entity, and where the safe and agile handling of information is vital, the economic areas stand out, in which a large volume of accounting, statistical, financial data is entered and managed. etc., whose analysis allows to base decision making at different levels of the organization.
Universities, whose fundamental mission in society is the training of professionals, manage, like any other institution, material and financial resources that ensure that they fulfill this mission adequately, and for this, they must carry out their economic and financial management of effectively and efficiently.
Currently, you cannot think of any activity related to management, and even less so, with economic-financial management, which does not require the introduction of ICT. The integration of university processes, as well as the organization's knowledge management, cannot be conceived without a wide use of technology.
The use of ICT in the processes of the organizations has given rise to new trends and concepts that have served as the basis for the design of new management models, which must be exploited in the economic-financial areas of the universities.
The University of Havana (UH) is the largest Higher Education Center in the country, and its performance in national and international events has determined its excellence and prestige. It is one of the centers that needs and manages the most resources within the System of Higher Education in Cuba, for which the computerization of the processes associated with economic and financial management is of great importance.
However, currently there are limitations in the computerization infrastructure of the UH, characterized by the technological backwardness of the equipment used, the absence of powerful servers, the insufficient capacity of its networks, as well as the partial use of limited software solutions. effectiveness.
At the same time, it must be said that the information is managed in a fragmented way, which means that it cannot be made available for viewing by the university community and for decision-making without physically moving to the economic areas. Proper information management in an organization is an essential factor for its success. Every day, the uncertainty of managers is more common due to the dispersion of data and information that duplicates tasks and makes recovery impossible for those who need them at the right time to make decisions.
Characterization of the University of Havana
The University of Havana (UH), Alma Mater of Cuban Higher Education, is the largest and oldest study house in Cuba and one of the first in our continent. It was founded on January 5, 1728, and since then it has been an indisputable bulwark for the country as a center for the development of scientific, political and social thought. For its academic excellence maintained throughout the years, it is distinguished from other universities in the country and from the rest of the world.
The purpose of the UH is to carry out the comprehensive training of university students in the branches of Social, Economic, Humanistic, Natural and Exact Sciences and to guarantee continuous education and academic postgraduate studies, as well as to develop scientific research as an essential element of higher education.
For being an outstanding center in the integrity, consecration and feeling of belonging of its members, it promotes excellence in all spheres of its activity and sets out as its mission: “To be a space for reflection, creation of scientific and technological knowledge and training for values, to contribute to the historical continuity of the Cuban Revolution and to the cultural enrichment of society, playing a leading role in the development, dissemination and application of the social, natural, economic and exact sciences and in the integral and continuous training of professionals with scientific and political leadership capacity, identified with the Revolution and Socialism ”.
The University of Havana has 18 Faculties in which 32 careers are taught, 20 research centers and 5 territorial university affiliates, in addition to being in charge of the training program for Chinese students in the Spanish language, and the preparation of students 12th grade for selected careers in university classrooms.
It owns an important physical plant, which is distributed throughout Havana and includes classrooms, laboratories, libraries, offices, warehouses, workshops, production devices, processing centers, accommodation facilities, etc.
It has numerous cultural institutions, such as museums and galleries, and owns an important historical heritage, both in terms of its buildings and the documentary wealth it treasures.
More than 23,000 people study in undergraduate courses and more than 3,000 in postgraduate courses, and more than 4,000 professors, researchers, technicians and numerous support staff work. Its impact on society, the product of its research and university extension work, its wide and ever-growing international relations, among other particularities.
The activities associated with it are:
Fundamental activities: Pre and postgraduate teaching, scientific technical research and university extension.
Support Activities: accommodation, scholarships, food, transportation, telematic, information, communication, economic and financial management services, as well as repairs and maintenance of construction and equipment
Eventual activities: constructive investments, events and attention to foreigners.
Structure of the Financial Economic Management of the UH
The UH in the economic aspect is a system of budgeted units, subordinated to the Ministry of Higher Education and all attached to the University of Havana. The economic structure of the UH is made up of four budgeted units (UP): UP Botanical Garden (JBN), UP Institute of Pharmacy and Food (IFAL); the UP University of Havana (UH) and the UP of University Insurance (UPA-UH). Each of these entities has its own economic activity and specific corporate purpose, but all are governed by university operating and development policies. They are subordinate to the Rector and their budgets and investments are approved by the UH management.
The faculties and research centers that are not located in the IFAL or the JBN, the university headquarters and the central administration devices carry out their accounting and financial activities through the UP University of Havana, and Assurance to the University of Havana, with its Accounting and Financial Management Centers or Expense Centers.
Budgeted Unit University of Havana:
Center for Accounting and Financial Management of Economics (Directorate of UH Economics):
Serves the activity of the central administration devices, the faculties, study and research centers and the university subsidiaries
International Cooperation Expense Center:
It attends the activity of donations and international projects Budgeted Unit of Assurance University of Havana:
Accounting and Financial Management Center for Services:
Serves the activity of workshops, independent dining rooms, processing center, printing, contracted general services, gardening, correspondence, transport and transport warehouses.
Accounting and Financial Management Center of Assurance:
It attends the activity of insurance, centralized purchase, storage and distribution of products and merchandise, which ensure all university operations, as well as the University Protocol House.
Circumstances that originated the Financial Economic Management website
Since mid-2003, changes and modifications have been taking place by the governing bodies of the Cuban economy. Consequently, it was necessary, opportune and convenient to adapt the economic activities in the Ministry of Higher Education (MES), and in turn those of the universities attached to it, which was included in the New Model of Economic-Financial Management (NMGEF), as a comprehensive and systematic solution to the deficiencies and insufficiencies of management so far.
The NMGEF presupposes an improved form of performance in financial economic activity in the MES, in constant evolution and transformation. It is nothing more than a process of systematization and reordering that takes into account in its design all the guidelines, indications and resolutions of the governing bodies of the Cuban economy. It is made up of systems and subsystems that bring together all the techniques and knowledge required to carry out the tasks that are intended to fulfill the mission of the economic areas in our universities.
This new model established the following systems and subsystems: Accounting System
Planning System
Marketing System Price System Statistical Subsystem Informational Subsystem Control Subsystem Organizational Subsystem
Human Resources Subsystem
Computing and Automation Subsystem
The Computerization and Automation Subsystem has as its general objective “the elevation of efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness in the planning, allocation and control of financial, human and material resources, as well as in the various decision-making processes in the sphere of the economic activity and assurance of Cuban Higher Education, through the design and application of a new model of economic information management, based on the computerization of the processes of generation, communication, processing and storage of information ".
From the first moments in which work began on the Improvement Program, vitally important tasks related to the computerization of the entities' economic-accounting process were undertaken, always within the framework of the Master Computerization Strategy of the Ministry of Higher Education, which raises among its goals the following:
- Raise the culture of computerization at all levels. Assimilate, introduce, and update the best computer, equipment, information and communication technologies at the lowest possible cost. Apply information and communication technologies (ICT) in all the main activities. of Higher Education and promote nodes of excellence. Generate new computer, information and communication technologies, achieve greater incorporation of teachers, researchers and students for this purpose.
In Cuba, few public administration institutions have achieved management developments that link computerization beyond the use of accounting and financial management systems.
Achieving online management of all UH support processes would undoubtedly have a far-reaching impact. This would imply that, permanently, the university community could demand procedures or resources from different devices, and the directors could make the corresponding decisions to respond to such demands. Doing so would imply immediacy in the information, as well as response levels that have nothing to do with current ones. Eliminating waiting, achieving multiple use of time, having the possibility of knowing the status of each administration at all times, would put the University one step higher than any result in the current administration of public administration.
The central areas of the University (Expenditure Units), demand for all the steps that economic services carry out, but there was no other way to carry them out than to move towards the economic directions, in most cases more than once, the same was true if they required any information. This made the possibility of improving and computerizing the processes had a high impact result in the university community.
There was no link on the UH intranet that would provide information on the economic and insurance areas and their functions. The information that was managed was not taken from an official site and could be altered and therefore unreliable.
In order to improve the efficiency in financial economic management -which has a high impact on the organizational one-, make it more transparent, as well as optimize the use of the time of university managers, it was necessary to: Develop and implement a website to manage, manipulate and obtain Information in an integrated manner of the Financial Economic Management of the University of Havana, thus satisfying the needs of the University Community.
The Web for Financial Economic Management
For the development of the application, the phases proposed by Gil Álvarez in his methodology were taken into account:
1. Analysis Phase:
Before starting to develop a website, a specific group of questions must be answered to clarify and basically define the existing expectations regarding the application and interaction that will be generated. Some of the questions we asked ourselves were:
- Is the website needed? What is the website needed for? What will users look for in it? What services will the website provide? What resources are available? How much time should be invested in creating it? What impact will it cause on users?
In order to answer these questions, various actions were carried out such as: meeting with the Economic Council. (Economic Vice-rector and Area Directors of the Vice-rectory), review of the Financial Economic Management and Assurance Information existing on the Intranet and the UH website, compilation and analysis of the information to be shown on the Web. appraisal of the applications for their development, also reviewing the existing databases of the accounting systems used and also interviews to find out what is needed and expected from the site.
We were then able to detect that the site would resolve the following:
- There would be a space on the Intranet for the Economic Vice-Rectory. The necessary information for their work related to economic management and insurance would be available to university areas. Easy access to integrated information. More efficient management. It would favor decision-making at the level economic
2. Selection of objectives:
Every project must have defined objectives against which the effectiveness of the actions carried out can be measured.
In particular, the General Objective was defined: To develop a website that guarantees easy access to integrated information, more efficient economic management and that contributes to decision-making at the economic level.
3. Selection of users:
Users are that part of the population that is intended to reach or influence the site.
Knowing the type of user will serve to establish part of the criteria for content design, language, aesthetics, among others.
Table 1. Definition of user profiles and levels of access to information
| R o les Access to information |
| Re ct o r All information and management |
| Vice-rector, Information and management regarding your vice-rectory and the Subordinate Directorates |
| Directors The information and management of your address |
| Deans Information and management of your faculty |
| Administrators The information and management of the area they administer |
| Is pecialistas information and management of the services provided, reports. |
4. Software selection:
The tools used for the development of this computer system are Deploying the platform on a dedicated server with Windows Server 2008
Apache Web Server (v2.2.21)
MySQL Database Engine (v5.5.16)
The platform will be linked to various databases on SQL Server 2008 from which it frequently extracts data following the single information source principle defined in the previous stage.
PHP as a server-side programming language.
CodeIgniter (v2.1) as a development framework using the MVC design pattern.
jQuery and jQueryUI for better handling of JavaScript syntax and to improve the user experience by showing advanced controls to interact with the application.
GIT will be used as a version control system throughout the platform development phase.
5. Selection of content.
Basically the success of a website is due to its content. It is convenient to present a content according to the objectives set to develop the site and that the information to be captured covers the needs and interests of the public to whom it is addressed.
A survey of information needs regarding financial economic management and insurance by university areas was carried out, which yielded the following results:
- general structure of the economic management areas of the university, its mission, vision, functions, its managers, statistical reports, procedures to carry out operations with the economic directorates, normative and methodological documents by organizations that regulate and guide the work of administration. of fixed assets, annual count of fixed assets, 10% AFT count, request for materials, travel advances) statistical models of fixed asset controls by area, library funds, payroll of stipends and warehouse inventories, plan and budget, distribution of resources material and financial economic analysis
Web design involves extensive and detailed work, since it encompasses not only the visual presentation but also integration with a logical structure based on the purpose of the site. When designing, it is necessary to take into account aspects such as usability and accessibility.
In this work we will use the most extended definition of usability, which is the one offered by the ISO (1998).
Usability: it is the "degree of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specific users can achieve specific objectives, in specific contexts of use"
In the definition we can see that usability is made up of two types of attributes:
Objectively quantifiable attributes: such as the effectiveness or number of errors made by the user during the performance of a task, and the efficiency or time spent by the user to achieve a task.
Subjectively quantifiable attributes: such as use satisfaction, measurable through questioning the user, and which is closely related to the concept of Perceived Usability. As indicated in the definition, the usability of an application must always be understood in relation to the form and conditions of use by its users, as well as the characteristics and needs of these users. A design is not in itself usable: »it is for specific users in specific contexts of use».
According to Nielsen (1994), usability reflects the ease with which a user can learn to operate the system, the simplicity to memorize basic functions, the degree of efficiency with which the site has been designed, the flexibility during interaction and, in general, the evaluation of the user regarding his own aptitude to manage it.
Model Satisfaction and No frustration.
In the following Hassan (2006) model, he describes the influence relationships between factors; essential information to understand the true impact of each of them on the satisfaction of use.
Model Satisfaction and No frustration.
Fig. 1 Model Satisfaction and Non-frustration. Source: Hassan, Y. (2006). Spanish Journal of Scientific Documentation 29.
The factors identified as hygienic are accessibility, functionality and findability, while the motivators are utility, aesthetic quality and credibility. The seventh factor, usability, due to its double dimension (objective and subjective), is characterized as hygienic and motivating at the same time, in addition to fulfilling the function of vertebral factor, relating the rest of the design factors.
Usefulness: It is the extent to which the website serves the user –use, benefit and interest that it produces– that we can define as an affective attitude relationship with the website. It should be clarified that this factor refers to subjective or perceived usefulness, not objective or technical.
Accessibility: It is a quality attribute that refers to the possibility that the website can be accessed and used by as many people as possible, regardless of the user's own limitations or those derived from the context of use.
Functionality: Refers to the correct technical operation of the website. Aside from the fact that a site - such as a webmail application - is accessible and easy to use, if it does not carry out its function without errors - such as sending an email to its recipient - it will not be of any value to the user.
Findability: The measure of the user's ability to find the information sought in a reasonable time. It is a factor that refers to the possibility of easily finding or retrieving the information needed, the result of a correct information architecture (structuring, description and classification of content).
Aesthetics: This quality refers to a beautiful, pleasant and attractive appearance. An aesthetic design is one that is pleasing, either for the senses, for the imagination, or for our understanding.
Credibility: It is a perceived quality, made up of two key elements: reliability and professionalism.
“Hygienic factors –functionality, accessibility and findability– are interrelated with the unnoticed or objective dimension of usability, while the motivating factors - utility, aesthetics and credibility - with their perceived or subjective dimension”. (Hassan, 2006)
Adding two other extremely important criteria:
Institutional Identity: It is understood as the quality of the website to successfully project the image of the institution.
Operation and Security: It is the ability of the website to guarantee the privacy of personal data and carry out secure transactions when using the services offered on the site.
6. Navigation Structure. Design.
It was taken into account that the structure of a set of web pages is very important, since
It will allow the reader to view content easily and clearly (good structure) or provoke the reader a feeling of being lost, so that he will not quickly find what he is looking for and will end up leaving the site (bad structure).
Web application for the processes of Financial Economic Management and Insurance of the UH
Fig. 2 Web Application for the UH Financial Financial Management and Assurance processes.
On the site a radial structure is used in which all the pages are related to each other, allowing the user to navigate freely and without limitations, its map is not complex and it is quite intuitive which allows users to easily reach the desired information which is shown to the user only by loading the page without having to scroll repeatedly on the same page and the text does not occupy more than 30% of the space, which ensures a pleasant reading.
The visual identity of the UH was taken into account, there is homogeneity in the labeling and the style of the page, making it more familiar and easy to use. The composition of potential users and its limited equipment and bandwidth possibilities were analyzed, as well as the diversity of browsers, so it was established as a design requirement for the site to be minimalist, giving priority to ease of use, that is, those elements that are not of great relevance to users have been removed, for example excessive animations or graphics, multimedia or flash clips, as well as heavy images, Nielsen (1994)
The site has a search engine that allows you to quickly find minutes, models and information contained on the site.
Through surveys, the functionalities and information displayed by the site are improved or added, with which the user experience is used and reused.
Conclusions
A web application for financial economic management processes that meets the terms of usability, utility, functionality, accessibility, findability, aesthetics, institutional identity, credibility, operation and security, mentioned in the work development. This ensures easy access to the information integrated by each of the interest levels and more efficient economic management in all the Expense Units, obtaining a higher level of information security and integrity and favoring decision-making in the economic plane.
Bibliographic references
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