Author: Joanna Kelly, Planning Practice Lead – EPM, Namos Solutions
Research projects rely on careful management of funding, resources and people. For organisations delivering research programmes, understanding future staffing commitments is an important part of ensuring funding is used effectively and projects remain appropriately resourced.
A Project Staff Costing Solution developed using Oracle EPM brings together people and project data to automatically calculate the costs of existing staff charged to a project. By reducing manual effort, improving accuracy and enabling users to model different staffing scenarios, the solution provides additional insight to support workforce and funding decisions.
Why Visibility Matters
Effective research funding relies on understanding both current staffing commitments and future workforce requirements. Greater visibility of future costs can help inform hiring decisions, support workforce planning and ensure available funding is utilised effectively.
Visibility of future staffing costs can support decisions around contract extensions, new hires and workforce planning. Having access to projected costs and future commitments provides a stronger evidence base for assessing affordability and resourcing requirements.
Bringing People, Projects and Funding Together
The solution combines project, workforce and financial information within a single planning environment. Data relating to projects, people and project costings is extracted from source systems and integrated into Oracle EPM, creating a consolidated view of staffing commitments and project funding.
The platform enables users to view project information including funding, expenditure and staffing commitments while also providing projections of future costs. This allows users to understand not only where funding has been spent, but also how future commitments may impact remaining budgets.
Supporting More Informed Staffing Decisions
One of the key capabilities of the solution is the ability to model different staffing scenarios.
Users can assess the impact of extending existing assignments, adjusting resource allocations or introducing new roles. By calculating the expected financial impact of proposed changes, the solution helps users understand how staffing decisions affect available project funding before formal approval processes begin.
This provides a clearer evidence base for workforce planning decisions and gives greater visibility of future commitments across projects.
Moving Away from Manual Forecasting
In many organisations, staff cost forecasting relies on spreadsheets, manual data gathering and ongoing maintenance. Automating these activities can reduce administrative effort, improve consistency and minimise the risk of manual error.
Automating staff cost calculations within Oracle EPM reduces administrative overhead, improves consistency and helps minimise the risk of manual error. It also creates a more sustainable and scalable approach to forecasting future staffing costs.
Improving Visibility Across Projects and Awards
A consolidated view across projects and funding awards provides greater visibility of future workforce requirements and funding commitments, supporting more effective planning and resource allocation.
By bringing this information together, the solution provides a broader view of staffing forecasts and project funding, helping users assess commitments across a wider portfolio of activity.
From Connected Data to Connected Decisions
Modern planning is most effective when information from across the organisation can be brought together into a single view.
By combining project, workforce and financial data within Oracle EPM, organisations can create a more connected view of staffing commitments, project funding and future costs. Rather than relying on information held across multiple systems, users can access a clearer picture of current commitments and explore future staffing scenarios within the same planning environment.
This connected approach to planning brings people, projects and funding together, helping organisations better understand future commitments, assess funding requirements and evaluate the impact of staffing decisions with greater confidence.
Looking Ahead
As organisations seek greater visibility of project funding, workforce commitments and future costs, connected planning can help bring people, projects and financial data together within a single planning environment. By connecting these areas, organisations can support more informed decision-making, improve forecasting accuracy and gain a clearer understanding of future commitments.
To learn more about how Namos supports organisations in connecting planning, finance and workforce processes through Oracle Cloud technologies, get in touch with our team.
