The more than 40 interviews conducted for this coverage show that Wofsy is not the only one complaining.

In one faculty, a senior administrator got so fed up that he circulated a memo proposing to send a dozen roses a day to central administrators until the systems were finally fixed.

Users complain that the new systems force them to regularly use dozens of 33-digit financial codes. The same codes used to be only 14 digits long.

They also say that with so many users accessing the system at once, it has often been slow and it sometimes crashes.

The new System for Travel and Reimbursement (STAR), which business travelers must use if they want their money back, is a common sore spot. Travelers, or their assistants, must answer dozens of sometimes unrelated questions just to log a simple expense.

STAR was so problematic that it is now being completely rebuilt--from scratch.

While users run the gamut in enthusiasm for the new systems, some schools, like FAS, have been harder hit and are more vocal in their complaints.

"Of over 100 departments, I would be very surprised if there are 10 that are having an easy time," said Geoffrey M. Peters, FAS associate dean of administrative resources, following a presentation to the Faculty Council last fall.

The Faculty Council devoted several meetings over the fall and winter to discuss what is wrong with the system. FAS even hired its own consultant to independently confirm its assessment.

But in his annual February letter to the Faculty, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles reiterated FAS' commitment to making the project work.

"The rewards will, I trust, be worth the patience that will surely be demanded of us all, as bugs are eliminated and as we master the new systems," Knowles wrote.

A Project To Please Everyone

When Harvard administrators first considered replacing the University's aging financial databases in 1993, everyone thought the project was a good idea.

Based on designs from the 1940s, the systems then in place were old and unwieldy, unreliable and uncoordinated.

They were "teetering," says Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67.

They were "tottering," says Assistant Provost Daniel D. Moriarty.