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!
Training Opportunities Available
Many training opportunities are available for those using the new PeopleSoft Financials system. Sessions are scheduled on the following topics:
- Submitting Requisitions (also covers ordering supplies with the new Complete Office Punchout)
- Approving Requisitions
- Purchasing Help (providing advice, answers to your questions, and individual tips)
See the Optimize Puget Sound Training page for the full schedule and description of these and other classes!
Orientation Week Highlights
It’s Orientation week, and as the Class of 2016 roamed the campus learning about their new home for the next four years, they had no idea what amazing and important activities were taking place in the depths of Howarth Hall!
First, there were training sessions on budget administration 1 and 2 and on purchasing requisitions and approvals. Janet Hallman, associate vice president for accounting and budget services, had kind words for Peter Ho of MIS who led the budget training, saying, “We couldn’t have done it without him.”
The Financials team plans to offer monthly opportunities for budget administration training, and Procurement Director Ed Barber will schedule purchasing classes each week over the next few months. Contact optimizetraining@pugetsound.edu for more information on training.
The Human Resources team was also busy reviewing Fit-Gap documents, while the Campus Solutions team continued with their design work. And the Project Management Office finalized a contract with Integral Business Solutions to implement Oracle Identity Management, a platform to “effectively manage the end-to-end life cycle of user identities.”
The management of user identities, which includes roles and permissions, is key to the successful implementation of an enterprise resource planning system like PeopleSoft. Oracle Identity Management will replace similar functionality in Cascade but will also extend capabilities, allowing the audit of permissions across multiple systems to further ensure synchronization and security. It may not be glamorous, but implementing strong identity management is the kind of behind-the-scenes work needed to keep the whole system running smoothly!
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!
A Time to Celebrate!
Jody Putman signs the Optimize wall.
Meanwhile, the Human Resources team participated in some final discovery sessions on core HR functionality, time and labor, benefits, and payroll. They are looking forward to their first Fit-Gap sessions next week.
Training on purchasing and budget administration continued this week as well. We greatly appreciate the good feedback we’ve gotten from participants in training sessions. Such comments and suggestions are very helpful as we plan and conduct future sessions.
The Financials celebration this week marked a significant milestone in this important project. We happily anticipate more celebrations as the Human Resources and Campus Solutions teams move forward with their work!
Budget Administration 2 Training
Budget Administration 2 training sessions this week solidified concepts introduced in Budget Administration 1 and provided attendees with the natural next step in becoming comfortable in the new system. People were most excited to learn how to export budget details into Excel, which will let them construct graphs, add columns to track purchases, and more. As MIS instructor Peter Ho (pictured) explained, “Excel allows you to perform ‘what if’ scenarios—What if I buy these items? How much money will I have left?” Attendees left training confident in their abilities to code financial transactions, save advanced searches, and review budget specifics.
Budget Administration 2 training provides tools that give users more flexibility and assurance when coding purchases and reviewing budgets. Optimize staff members can assist you in determining which training sessions make sense for your position. Please email optimizetraining@pugetsound.edu to ask for help evaluating your training needs. If you have questions about PeopleSoft access and technical concerns, please continue to contact the Service Desk at 253.879.8585.
August training sessions include Budget Administration 1, Budget Administration 2, Submitting Requisitions, and Approving Requisitions. Register now!
Optimize: In Full Swing
Financials presented another round of training to the campus community this week. Procurement Director Ed Barber taught classes on submitting and approving requisitions to staff members from across campus. Ed highlighted the university’s new policies around purchasing and approvals, showing classes common tasks, such as adding routinely ordered items to favorites lists and requesting new vendors.
Still need training? Classes are available for Budget Administration 2 training next week! If you participated in Budget Administration 1 and want to dive deeper into budget inquiry and learn about processing non-PO disbursements, please register for Budget Administration 2. There are other opportunities to take Budget Administration 1 and 2, Submitting Requisitions, and Approving Requisitions classes in August for anyone that was unable to attend July’s sessions. You may review the entire class schedule on the Optimize Training page and sign up today!
Then the Human Resources team is in the midst of numerous Discovery sessions regarding benefits and payroll. The team looks forward to even more sessions next week, as MIS consultants will be on campus to incorporate several design discussions into the discovery phase.
The Campus Solutions team is incredibly busy in one-on-one sessions with MIS consultants who are teaching staff members how to enter data into PeopleSoft. The team will go live with demographic data first, and each day the team gets one step closer to that goal. This data is the foundation for the way the university operates and will be shared between the Human Resources and Financial systems. Behind the scenes, the team is also building its calendar of “firsts” (the first time registration will happen in PeopleSoft, the first time financial aid will be incorporated into PeopleSoft, etc.), which helps ensure that all operational tasks get done on time in both the old and new systems.
PeopleSoft Financials Training Update
Budget Administration 1 training was a success this week, led by professional instructor Peter Ho from MIS. Staff and faculty members said they enjoyed the hands-on experience and illustrative handouts. This was the first time that many of the participants signed into PeopleSoft and began looking up new department and account codes using the crosswalk created especially for the university by the Optimize project team. After mapping old account codes to new ones, the classes practiced searching for budget information and saving it to their PeopleSoft profiles so that they can easily refer to it later. The project team encourages people that participated in Budget Administration 1 to sign up for Budget Administration 2, which will expand on the budget inquiry feature and talk about processing non-PO disbursement requests.
You may register for classes by visiting the Optimize training page. If you are unable to attend training, help videos are available through PS Help on PeopleSoft navigation, budget administration, and using the crosswalk tool. You may watch step-by-step instructions, try the process out yourself, and print a hard copy of the instructions to keep as a reference. The help videos are a great resource if you haven’t yet gone through training or if you need to refresh your classroom lessons.
Remember that classroom training is offered for: Budget Administration 1, Budget Administration 2, Submitting Requisitions, and Approving Requisitions. Register today!
Welcome to PeopleSoft Financials
“PeopleSoft’s purchasing system has been a cinch! I find it to be very user friendly, and some of the information I need when working with the system is easily accessible. It also helps that the system is aesthetically well laid out.”
Sunil Kukreja, professor of comparative sociology and associate dean for 2012–13 academic year
“After all the hoopla, it is easier to use that I anticipated. Pretty straightforward and Ed Barber is great in answering questions. The new system will make it much easier for Puget Sound to know exactly how it is spending money and where to save. I also like it because it relieves me of having to be the money enforcer for grants. Much better!”
Michal Morrison-Kerr, biology stores coordinator
It was a superb week for Financials as the team worked in the live PeopleSoft environment, which is accessible from the Cascade menu. Members of the campus community submitted several requisitions to the purchasing office, and the Accounting and Budget Services team created journal entries. From Dining and Conference Services and the biology department to Facilities Services and athletics, campus members banded together to serve the university efficiently while learning this new system. Puget Sound now has a state-of-the-art platform for continual improvement on day-to-day practices.
The Campus Solutions team is in the midst of reviewing its processes and configuring PeopleSoft to fit its needs in one-on-one sessions with MIS consultants.
Human Resources is progressing through the discovery phase. Team members are exploring and recording best practices for accessing and interacting with personnel data.
Purchasing and budget administration training times are now updated. If you preregistered for a training session, you will be contacted soon by a member of the project team.
Finally PeopleSoft Mission Headquarters wants YOU! (To visit!) Visitors are welcome and encouraged. Stop by Howarth 003/005 to chat with the project team and see the computer lab.