Scheduling Software Demo and Other Highlights
This week the meeting of the Scheduling System Advisory Group included a demonstration of 25Live, the new room and event scheduling software planned for the university. Sarah Comstock, assistant director of student activities for the Wheelock Student Center, was impressed with what she saw.
“25Live will make scheduling events so much easier for the campus community,” Sarah noted. “No more running around trying to figure out who schedules what – instead we’ll have a centralized process that works for everyone!”
The Human Resources team continued with design and configuration activities, focusing specifically on benefits, student employment, and payroll integration. The Project Management Office is collaborating with functional leads and the Office of Communications on the plan for informing campus members of the various changes we’ll see with the implementation of the HR module.
The Campus Solutions team reached an important milestone this week when Mattie Watts, student financial services systems manager, loaded the first College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile and Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) into the test database.
The Financials team tested the integration of PeopleSoft Financials with Payment Manager, an accounts payable automation system from Wells Fargo. The switch to this new product to manage all forms of payment from the university will be made once Wells Fargo validates the test file.
There was a delay in the rollout of the new budget tools planned for October 1. That update is now expected to be available for budget managers Monday, October 8. In preparation, PeopleSoft Financials will be unavailable Saturday, October 6, from 3:00 a.m. to noon.
Special thanks to the Data Standards Committee for supporting the various Optimize teams in determining appropriate standards for conversion. Great work, everyone, and enjoy the beautiful weekend!
Gold Stars for the Optimize Team
Jessica Ewald, MIS consultant for the Campus Solutions module, has been handing out virtual gold stars to the Puget Sound team for their work this week. In an email on Thursday, she wrote, “I know, I know….I haven’t stopped talking about it, but it really is a big deal….the first pass of the course catalog conversion was spectacular! There were no errors between parent and child tables which isn’t very easy to do when there are many effective date rows, multiple course offerings, and multiple components. Way to Go!!!”
Also in Campus Solutions, Mattie Watts from Student Financial Services received a round of applause for writing her first PeopleSoft query. Meanwhile, a gold star goes to the Human Resources team for successfully loading the initial set of bio/demo data (e.g., name, address, residency) into PeopleSoft. HR continues to enter base information for payroll and benefits and is focusing now on building data conversion spreadsheets.
The Financials team is anticipating the roll out of new budget administration tools on October 1 that will provide better access to needed information. And discovery sessions continue for Identity Management!
A Familiar Face in a New Role
Garrett Dieckmann
Congratulations to Garrett Dieckmann ’12, who has been a positive, productive member of the Optimize team since the project launched in Fall 2011. As a Puget Sound student, Garrett spent his senior year working as a project assistant. After graduation, he became a full-time developer involved in the Financials implementation. Effective September 16, Garrett takes on an exciting new role as the university’s first PeopleSoft administrator. According to Steve Renker, director of Enterprise Information Systems, Garrett has impressed the Optimize and EIS teams with his “can-do attitude and talent for quickly picking up new technology.”
This week the Human Resources team signed off on their fit-gap documents, so let the design phase begin! The Financials team announced that Budget Administration trainings will occur the last Thursday of each month through November. To register for this or purchasing training sessions, visit the Optimize Training page.
Identity and Scheduling Kick Off
Football season is underway, and while we cheer the Loggers on, we’re happy to report not all the great plays are on the field. This week, two new and exciting Optimize initiatives also kicked off!
First, discovery sessions commenced in order to lay the groundwork for implementing Oracle Identity Management, the platform that will allow us to manage user identities, including roles and permissions, across multiple systems.
Second, the Scheduling System Advisory Group held its inaugural meeting. This committee will help guide the implementation of a new, much-needed system to manage room and event scheduling for campus classrooms and non-academic spaces.
Work continued for the Human Resources, Campus Solutions, and technical teams this week. We appreciate the great effort and dedication everyone is putting into this important project. Go, Loggers! Go, Optimize Puget Sound!
A Busy Week in the Heat
As temperatures soared outside, the Optimize computer lab in Howarth 005 was literally the cool place to be this week. The technical team led by Stephen Phillips from MIS spent several days there in PeopleTools 2 training, gaining advanced knowledge on the creation of data conversions, interfaces, and add-ons. With this background, the team can now create views, write complex business logic, and add images and graphs.
The Human Resources team has been fully engaged in the Fit-Gap review process, starting with the HR section. Next they’ll cover Benefit and Payroll with a planned final review and sign-off by the end of next week. Time and Labor discovery is complete, and the review process for that will begin next week.
With the assistance of the Data Standards Committee, the Campus Solutions and HR teams have been reviewing common values and making decisions for standardization of values shared across the databases (examples include name type, address type, name prefixes, etc.). This will provide consistency for both data entry and reporting. Once these values are established, the technical team can finalize the specifications and requirements for conversion of person biographic and demographic (bio-demo) data.
Still basking in the glow of last week’s celebration, the Financials team had a four-hour internal training session on General Ledger reporting tools led remotely by Suresh Pandurangam from MIS.
Step-by-step handouts from this week’s purchasing training on submitting and approving requisitions are available on PSHelp or the Optimize Training Handouts page. Additionally, PSHelp now has purchasing videos and job aids!
Deciphering PeopleCode and Rocking Reps
Stephen Phillips from MIS led the Optimize technical team in training for PeopleCode this week. It sounds futuristic, but PeopleCode is the programming language used for PeopleSoft applications. The team focused on coding for interfaces, a significant part of the current implementation, and Stephen says they are “one step closer to being experts.”
The Campus Solutions team continued their discussions of registration and financial aid processes. Mattie Watts, systems manager for Student Financial Services, had high praise for the MIS reps involved, noting, “Our people rock.”
We’re working on getting recordings of the Campus Solutions discovery sessions posted on the Optimize SoundNet site. This will allow folks who missed sessions to catch up on the discussions and will help MIS review requirements as needed.
Work on Procurement and Campus Solutions Set to Begin
Things keep rolling along for Optimize Puget Sound! This week, the Financials team and the technical folks initiated touch-base meetings as an ongoing way to document recent accomplishments and plan for upcoming hurdles. The Financials team also conducted a phone interview with several new consultants coming on board from MIS, our implementation partner.
Seven representatives from MIS will be on campus next week to facilitate discovery sessions for Procurement, Hyperion (budgeting), and Academic Structure/Campus Community. Numerous campus members will be involved in these discussions to finalize requirements for the new system.
As an FYI for those of you involved in all this hard work, Travis has stocked up on yummy treats to help keep you going!
Optimize Update – Friday, February 10, 2012
It was another busy week, with Stephen Phillips from MIS on campus to finish up the development tools training that started in January. Staff from Technology Services are progressively learning the technical aspects of PeopleSoft applications. These sessions are critical in the development of preliminary and long-term maintenance strategies. As Stephen put it, “The idea is if you can make it, you can fix it.”
Project Advisor for Quality Assurance Jim Fleming of Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, was on campus today to become more familiar with the project environment. Jim is going to provide oversight and guidance based on his experience implementing PeopleSoft at an institution similar to Puget Sound.
Want to learn more about Optimize Puget Sound? Project Manager Travis Nation is available to join departmental meetings to answer questions and give a brief presentation on the project and what to expect over the next 24 months. To schedule, please contact Travis at 253-879-2710 or tnation@pugetsound.edu.