Cora Systems:
High Level Brief for County & City
Managers, Director of Services
(Water & Waste Water & Financial
& Heads of Information Services )
regarding the Rollout of the WSIP
web-enabled PCS system
Customer:
WSTNG
Project:
ProjectVision: Web Enabled PCS
Solution
Document Control
Author
Creation Date
Last Updated
Document Reference
Version Control Number
Pat Henry
16th November 2006
04th May 2007
AL002_Service for the
Extraction of FMS
Data_V1.doc
Issue V2
Approvals
WSTNG Sponsor
WSTNG Project Manager
Cora Systems Managing Director
Cora Project Manager
Gerry Galvin
Richard Cronin
Philip Martin
Caroline Brennan
Document Control
Change Record
Date
16 Nov 2006
27 Nov 2006
28 Nov 2006
04 Dec 2006
Version
V1a
V1b
Issue V1
V1c
Edited By
Pat Henry
Caroline Brennan
Pat Henry
Pat Henry
05 Dec 2006
30-Apr-2006
Issue V1
V2 a
Pat Henry
Josselin Kerviche
30-Apr-2006
Issue V2
Pat Henry
Change Reference
Internal Cora Review
Issue 1 to WSNTG for review
Opened again for Internal Cora
Review
Final Issue V1 to Customer
Modification after LGCSB Meeting
– Simplification of FTP process
Final Issue V2 to Customer
Document Review
Name
Pat Henry
Philip Martin
Caroline Brennan
Justin Kellegher
Gerry Galvin
Richard Cronin
Eddie Martin
Josselin Kerviche
Position
Cora Systems – R&D Manager
Cora Systems – Managing Director
Cora Systems – Customer Support Manager
Cora Systems – Business Analyst
WSNTG Steering Group
WSNTG Steering Group / Project Manager
Local Authority IT – Fingal Co Co
Cora Systems – System Architect
Distribution
Name
Philip Martin
Caroline Brennan
Pat Henry
Josselin Kerviche
Justin Kellegher
Gerry Galvin
Richard Cronin
533561013
Position
Cora Systems – Managing Director
Cora Systems – Customer Support Manager
Cora Systems – R&D Manager
Cora Systems – System Architect
Cora Systems – Business Analyst
WSNTG Steering Group
WSNTG Steering Group / Project Manager
Local Authority County & City Managers
Local Authority Interface IT (via County & City
Managers)
Local Authority Heads of Information Services
Local Authority Financial Staff (via County & City
Managers)
Page 2
Table of Contents
Document Control ...................................................................................................... 1
Approvals ................................................................................................................... 1
Document Control ...................................................................................................... 2
Change Record ..................................................................................................... 2
Document Review.................................................................................................. 2
Distribution............................................................................................................. 2
1
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 4
1.1
Purpose ..................................................................................................... 4
1.2
Background................................................................................................ 4
1.3
Over-view Functional Specification Scope & Application ............................ 4
1.4
Related Documents ................................................................................... 4
1.5
Naming Conventions.................................................................................. 4
1.6
Privacy and Confidentiality Information ...................................................... 5
2
What is ProjectVision: Web Enabled PCS? .......................................................... 6
3
Functional Requirements ..................................................................................... 8
2 Extraction Process .............................................................................................. 8
3.1.1 Prerequisites Prior to Successful Extraction ........................................... 9
3.1.2 Extraction Operation Process............................................................... 10
3.1.3 Frequency of Extraction ....................................................................... 11
4
Functional Example ........................................................................................... 11
533561013
Page 3
1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this document, is to brief County and City Managers, Director of
Services (Water Services and Infrastructure), Heads of Finance and Heads of
Information Services at a high level, why they should encourage their staff to install a
unique set of Operational Codes (OpCodes) and a scheduled task to enable the
automatic creation of Water Service Investment Programme (WSIP) forms
1.2 Background
This document is an agreed follow-up from the presentation Cora Systems gave to
the CCMA meeting in the Tullamore Court Hotel on Wednesday 29th Nov 2006.
The WSNTG decided to further the development of the PCS into a web-based
solution using Cora Systems project management product “ProjectVision” with
national and local reporting capabilities.
The web-based solution will provide for the automated control of the PCS, project
management control and reporting and nationwide cost and progress reporting.
As part of this project it was agreed that a secure automated extraction process from
the local authority Financial Management Systems would be provided to enable the
automatic creation of WSIP payment claims forms, saving a lot of time and improving
the efficiency of Water Services personnel.
1.3 Over-view Functional Specification Scope & Application
The ProjectVision web enabled PCS system has a facility to create WSIP01, 02A/B
claim forms. To create these claim forms financial information which exists in the
local authority financial system must be extracted from a copy of the financial data
and copied to the PCS site.
1.4 Related Documents
1) AL003_Financial Data Extraction Technical Installation Guide_V1.doc
1.5 Naming Conventions
In the interests of brevity on project documents the Water Services National Training
Group will be referred to as “WSNTG” in the document body. The project Control
System will be referred to as the “Web-PCS” and the Department of the Environment,
Heritage and Local Government is referred to as the “Department”
533561013
Page 4
1.6 Privacy and Confidentiality Information
Cora Systems is committed to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of all data
generated by its Clients during their file storage and sharing process. Cora Systems
respects its Clients’ need for absolute confidentiality at all times and give complete
assurance that all privileged company information will be treated appropriately.
This document only applies to local authorities that have Agresso as their financial
management system. Other local authorities will receive relevant instructions for their
specific FMS.
533561013
Page 5
2 What is ProjectVision: Web-Enabled PCS?
The purpose of this project was to implement a web enabled Project Control System
(Web-PCS) incorporating existing procedures and new procedures with enhanced
financial reporting capabilities. The features for this project are:
 The existing PCS procedures are web enabled and fine tuned for better
usability. This means that the PCS procedures still exists and must be
completed and submitted by the Local Authority Staff to the DEHLG
(when required) as before. The existing PCS manuals and procedures
have been updated to reflect the relevant changes required.
 New procedures set out in the Circular L1/06 & L7/06 were captured and
web enabled.
These circulars set out the revised procedures in relation to the
advancement of individual schemes included in the WSIP (Water Services
Investment Programme 2005 – 2007). The new procedures in this
circular mean that the stages of individual schemes that require formal
Departmental approval will vary depending on the approved construction
budget of the Scheme for:
1. Projects costing more than €5m
2. Projects costing less than €5m
3. Design Build Operate Projects
Note: the construction budget of the scheme is the contract cost (including VAT) and the noncontract costs (i.e. fees, etc) (including VAT).
The budgets for all projects will be defined in two stages; a Project
Planning Stage Budget (to cover expenditure up to completion of the
Preliminary Report) and a Procurement/Construction Stage Budget these
will be approved with the Preliminary Report.
 Procedural changes brought about by Circulars L1/06 and L7/06:
o Reduced approval requirements for most schemes:
 All schemes with a construction budget < €5.0m
(Traditional and DBO schemes) – proceed to construction
once Preliminary Report and construction stage budget has
been approved.
 Bundled schemes
 All Traditional Contracts > €5.0m proceed to construction
once CDs approved (no report on tenders)
Full approval still required:
 for large schemes DBO & Traditional (> €5.0m)
 for small contracts on large schemes (non-bundled)
533561013
Page 6
 Summaries of financial expenditure at a local and national level are
available in the system. Interfaces will be built from the local authority
financial systems i.e. data will be taken from the financial management
systems to update the ProjectVision system with project related data.
One interface per financial system will be built. (Agresso, Integra, Oracle,
JD Edwards)
Project financial information at a summary level only as specified in the
current WSIP Forms will be interfaced.
When the user logs-on to the web-enabled PCS from their relevant Local
Authority they can import data from their Financial System Interface in
order to create WSIP claims as required.
 WSIP Reports: Six WSIP Reports can be created now in the Web-PCS
System as follows:
o WSIP 01 Form
o WSIP 02a Form
o WSIP 02b Form
o WSIP 05 Form
o WSIP 7A
o WSIP 7B
 Progress reporting by scheme category to exploit progress reporting
maximising the transparency across projects. The standard general
reports functionality within ProjectVision will be provided for this
requirement as listed below plus 2 customised Cost Reports located
under the Cost Reports section within the system
o
o
o
o
o
o
533561013
Progress on a weekly basis
Highlight report
Baselining the progress to date
Project summary
Project scope
Risk and Issues analysis
Page 7
3 Functional Requirements
3.1 Extraction Process
As agreed with the LGCSB, the full extraction solution will be contained in the secure
virtual Intranet network developed and maintained by the LGCSB for the Local
Authorities. Cora Systems will locate two servers on this network for provision of the
WEB-enabled PCS solution. Therefore, no access will be allowed to the web-PCS
site outside of the local authorities and the DEHLG. All financial data is contained
and secured between the boundaries of the LGCSB firewall.
The financial information will be made available to the Extraction Solution using a
replicated database. This will ensure that the Solution will only access data made
available by the local IT teams. This replication will be managed by the local
authorities.
Extractions will be taken from the four Financial Management Systems; Agresso, JDEdwards, Oracle and Integra. An encrypted file created by Cora Systems will extract
the necessary financial data using a peer-to-peer FTP process.
Figure 1 below displays the extraction method. The steps for the extraction process
are as follows:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
An extract file requesting the financial data is encrypted into XML.
The file is made available on the Web server and then transferred by
the Local Authorities extraction service via peer-to-peer FTP (file
transfer)
The information which is required will be extracted from 2 tables
located on a separate database maintained by the local IT team.
Those tables will contain only filtered data from the Agresso FMS
database based upon the Job Codes used for the Water Services
Capital Investment Program.
The financial data that will be extracted from the Agresso tables is defined below
 Agltransact
 Asuheader
The following fields will be extracted from the two tables above
Agltransact - Voucher_Date:
Agltransact - Period:
Agltransact - Dim_2:
Agltransact - Account:
Agltransact - Apar_id:
Agltransact - Description
Agltransact - Dim_3:
Agltransact - Dim_4:
Agltransact - Dim_5:
Agltransact - Dim_6:
Agltransact - Amount:
Agltransact - voucher_no
Agltransact - order_id
Asuheader - apar_name
533561013
Page 8
(The transaction date)
Period (200111 - 11 Month 2001)
Job Code
Account Element Id
Customer Code Numeric
Product Code
OpCode
Sub Analysis 1 Breakdown
Sub Analysis 2 Breakdown
Value in Euros
Supplier Name
Only the fields listed above will be extracted from these replicated tables.
A scheduled replication job can then be created to copy the latest information to this
new database
Step 4:
The financial data is encrypted into XML and sent from Local
Authorities firewall extraction service to the web server using peer-topeer FTP (file transfer). A copy of all the files transmitted will be kept
on the LA authority server.
Step 5:
The XML extract file is decrypted and imported into ProjectVision
Figure 1: Extraction Process Overview
3.1.1 Prerequisites Prior to Successful Extraction
3.1.1.1 Each County/City Council will be given an FTP client account on the
ProjectVision FTP server.
o
The site address required for this FTP account will be recorded
against its local authority on the ProjectVision PCS web site. The
access, update and maintenance of these addresses are an
administration only function.
o
The user name and password for access to the FTP site will be
distributed as part of the install procedure
3.1.1.2 Each County/City Council will install a service provided by Cora
Systems.
533561013
o
This service will require ftp client access to the ProjectVision FTP site
and also access to the Server hosting the copy of the financial
database from which the data will be extracted.
o
The server details (IP address/server name) will be required by the
LGCSB to allow access to the ProjectVision PCS server.
Page 9
o
It is assumed that this database will be a replication of the ‘Live’
Financial database as recommended in Section 2
o
A stored procedure will be installed on the replicated database
o
A new user will be created on the replicated database. This user
access will be restricted to execute rights on the stored procedure
referred to above.
o
A full install guide will be provided by Cora Systems for the install and
configuration of the service to all IT county/city council contacts
Note: Cora Systems will provide on-site technical assistance for the initial install of
this service.
3.1.1.3 Each Project requiring financial data from the county council financial
management system will need the following information set-up on the
web-enabled PCS system
o
A link to the county/city council name stored on the Web-PCS
(ProjectVision) site. Only one county/city council name can be linked
to a project
o
A valid ‘Job Code’. Only one job code can be associated with a project
3.1.1.4 Each user set-up will be associated with one County/City Council.
o
This association will be done prior to the user getting access to
ProjectVision. This association is an Administrator function and is not
available to normal users.
o
A user will only be able to link their county council to a project.
Note: this function is only available to users with the appropriate rights
to the project i.e. Project Leaders
3.1.2 Extraction Operation Process

A scheduled task will run on the Web-PCS server hosted by the LGCSB.

This will look at each project with valid job codes information as provided in
the Web-PCS System.

It will then create an encrypted file (128 bit encryption). This file will be made
available to the County Council in a predefined location on the FTP server
and will be pulled via FTP by its associated county/city council site.

The internal county/city council service will decrypt this file using the service
provided and extract the Job Codes and date range of data required.
Note: The first extraction on any “Job Code” will retrieve all the associated data up to
the day prior to the current date. Each subsequent extraction will be incremental from
the last date of a valid extraction
533561013
Page 10

All data returned from a successful query of the financial database will be
encrypted (128 bit encryption) by the service and then placed via FTP on the
ProjectVision server site. A copy of the file is kept for auditing purposes.

When the encrypted file is retrieved on the Web-PCS server it will be
decrypted and the data is then extracted and stored on the Web-PCS
(ProjectVision) database against the individual project.
Note: the most recent data the user can retrieve is up until the day before the
current date
3.1.3 Frequency of Extraction
3.1.3.1 Scheduled Extraction
 The scheduled task on the ProjectVision server will run on a monthly basis
 The date of this will be the 10th of each month
3.1.3.2 Requested Extraction
 A facility is also available for an individual project owner to request data on an
individual project up until the previous day.
 This request follows the same process as outlined above but for an individual
project.
4 Functional Example
Each county council will be able to use the financial data which has been extracted to
create their WSIP claim forms on line automatically.
Below are a number of screen shots showing the simple steps required to create the
claim form

First the Project Leader must enter the “Job code” for the project they wish to
extract the information for (See Fig 2)
Figure 2 Entering Project Specific Information on the WSIP Details Page on ProjectVision.
533561013
Page 11

Fig 3 below shows the initial page which allows the user to create a claim or
request FMS data from the local authority site
Figure 3 Initial page for creating a claim or requesting FMS data on ProjectVision.
533561013
Page 12

The data is extracted as part of the scheduled extraction and can be linked to
a claim form for a particular period. Fig 4 below shows unmapped data which
can be linked to an individual expenditure category
Figure 4 Unmapped FMS Data.

Figure 5 shows the a WSIP02A form as you can see from the picture the form
can be expanded to show the actual financial data which makes up the totals
against an expenditure category
Figure 5 WSIP02A with an expanded expenditures category.
533561013
Page 13

Figure 6 shows a WSIP01 form which contains the summary information
required by the DEHLG for the period selected
Figure 6 WSIP01 form.
533561013
Page 14