The upgraded Umoja is live!

The Umoja EhP8 upgrade has successfully completed as planned at 23:00 EDT on 9 April 2024. This major upgrade of the Umoja system will enable the UN in its journey of digital transformation, supporting the Secretary-General’s vision of UN 2.0 and the Quintet of Change.  Furthermore, the upgrade provides a platform to significantly improve the user experience through the Umoja UX 2.0 project which will be deployed in the coming months and years.

The upgrade itself was the culmination of a long journey that began in early 2022, which involved the collaboration and partnership of many teams across the Secretariat.

Mandated to achieve the above objective, the technical architecture review group (TARG) within the Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Division (ERPSD) proposed the refresh of the entire Umoja stack, comprising hardware, database, and application software.  This multi-faceted upgrade was code-named EhP8.

The upgraded hardware comprising a faster CPU, an updated memory module, and high throughput storage disks along with the migration to an in-memory database will significantly improve performance for the users.  The new architecture reduces the database footprint by over 60%, lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO) and improving the business continuity.  The ERPSD Basis team, the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) and the UN Global Service Centre (GSC) accomplished this working in close collaboration.

On the application software front, the ERPSD’s HCM (HR, Payroll, Organisational Management, Benefits, Travel) team overhauled the architecture by migrating several custom-built functionalities to the standard solution, lowering the TCO.  This architecture improves the compatibility with the vendor’s other software components.  Furthermore, this also benefits the UN Common System as a whole, enabling the Agencies, Funds and Programmes to leverage the new functionality which would have been unavailable prior to this.  In addition, ERPSD’s development team ensured the compatibility of Umoja’s current configuration and custom-built functionalities with EhP8.

There were several stages of testing conducted by teams across the UN Secretariat to ensure correct functioning of the system.  Unit testing was done by ERPSD’s techno-functional teams of HCM, Finance, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Umoja Analytics.  This was followed by Product Integration Testing, which was a combined effort by ERPSD and the Umoja Functional Subgroups (FSG) of Human Resources, Finance, Property and Asset Management, Supply Chain Management, and Travel.  The testing was concluded with the User Validation Testing, with the participation of the extended business teams from entities across the Secretariat.

In addition, special care was taken to ensure correctness of staff and non-staff payroll payments by ERPSD and the Payroll teams across the Secretariat by conducting payroll parallel testing. This was followed by two dress rehearsals to ensure readiness for the go-live.

Several avenues including Umoja global information sessions, Heads of Administration conferences and Global HR conferences were leveraged to update stakeholders to ensure preparedness. 

The successful implementation of this large-scale and complex EhP8 upgrade was possible thanks to the collaborative efforts of all participating teams, including the steadfast support by the Procurement Division.  We are grateful to our leadership for their guidance, vision, and unwavering support.  

For any queries, users can use the existing channel (https://ineedservice.un.org) or contact their local ICT Service Desk.