IVAC Begins Piloting MiCORES Later this Month

Beginning later this month, ULAM's In-Vivo Animal Core (IVAC) will start piloting its services in MiCORES, the U-M’s internal core facility management system built on Agilent’s iLab software platform.

Many in the U-M research community may already be familiar with MiCORES, which is currently used by over 40 core research facilities across campus to manage service requests, track the status of projects, and process billing inquiries.

At this time, IVAC customers are not required to take any action.

What to Expect During the Pilot Phase

• During the pilot phase, the IVAC team will enter all paper (PDF) requests they receive into MiCORES to ensure that the system has been appropriately set up to best meet the needs of customers. IVAC anticipates maintaining this dual system – both a paper and electronic data entry record – for approximately one month to complete workflow testing.
• Please continue to submit all requests for IVAC services using paper (PDF) submission forms. Requests for sample drop-off appointments should also continue to be submitted via the IVAC website (or by pasting animalcare.umich.edu/ivac-drop-off into your web browser).
• During beta testing, customers may receive additional notifications from MiCORES as the IVAC team enters data from the paper (PDF) submission form(s). Service requests and charges may also appear in the system. Please note that this will NOT result in any duplicate billing for services, and NO invoices will be sent from MiCORES.

How Billing Will Be Handled

• Billing for IVAC services will continue to be processed through eRAM, not MiCORES. This will not change even after IVAC has fully transitioned to MiCORES.
• Customers will be able to view cost estimates in MiCORES, but billing processes via eRAM will remain the same (i.e., notifications from eRAM will still be sent regarding monthly ULAM billing statements).

Next Steps

A separate email notification will be sent to all IVAC customers once the pilot phase has been completed and IVAC is ready to begin accepting service requests in MiCORES. At that time, the use of all paper (PDF) submission forms will be discontinued.

This notification email will also include more detailed instructions about how to submit service requests in the system.

Questions?

Please contact the IVAC team at ulam-ivac@umich.edu. Thank you for your patience as we work to improve efficiencies and provide greater transparency in how your samples are managed and processed.