Easier planning and better analysis at all levels for the University of Stockholm

The choice became Mercur 

When Stockholm University found that they needed a common system, the procurement followed the usual steps of specification of requirements, evaluation of alternative suppliers and decisions. It was felt that Mercur could best handle requirements and wishes and that the solution also stayed within the established cost framework.

A common solution for common working methods

Since Mercur was introduced a few years ago, it now has a common solution for all budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis for the University's 270 users. In addition to the central finance function, Mercur is mainly used by finance administrators at the institutions and by the university's faculty controllers.

Through connections to the financial system, the payroll system and the plant register, users have all the information they need for planning and monitoring. This means, for example, that users only need to supplement with staff changes and new investments when budgeting. 

Something that is also appreciated is the project database which, among other things, provides support for monitoring all active projects per researcher and analyzing outcomes against budget. Here you can also get other information such as how long you have the research funds available.

Time savings and improved analysis 

The benefits experienced since the introduction of Mercur are primarily about time savings at all levels. The University's faculty controllers save a lot of time in compiling and analyzing their institutions. 

They appreciate that the system is easy to understand and flexible, including that they can deep-analyze down to any level, including transactions, with drill-down in the reports. In this way, Mercur has clarified the organizational structure for the users, which was not supported in their previous solution.

All in all, it can be said that the common solution improved the analysis at all levels.

Continued development of Mercur 

The next step is to create more automation to allocate common costs and improve the elimination of internal trade. In addition, you will benefit from improved commenting capabilities and in-depth analysis of column totals, which is standard in the latest version. 

Much of the development can be done by the university itself, but they appreciate that they can quickly get help from Mercur's consultants when they need support.