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We launched new business systems in PeopleSoft nine months ago understanding that this process would involve significant change and challenges. The process has been more challenging than expected. Early technical problems associated with integrating human resources and finance data led to a false start, resulting in data errors and shifting, confusing instructions about business processes. Everyone involved with making this project succeed has faced serious challenges, and these challenges have occasionally created tensions and strained patience. We appreciate the hard work and commitment of both the project team and departmental staff. We know that this process has been frustrating for everyone. Resolving PeopleSoft implementation issues continues to be the University’s top administrative priority. As the executive committee for the PeopleSoft implementation, we want to provide the campus with this status report on the project and plans for moving forward. Thanks to the efforts of both project and departmental staff, the initial technical problems have been fixed. Ninety-five percent of the system is up and running transactions, though much work remains before the system produces all necessary reports. Now we must provide the campus with additional training and documentation to support the improved processes and work closely with departmental experts to correct human resource and finance data errors introduced during the start-up period. These implementation steps are being actively addressed by a management team including Mark Behm, Jack Suess, Assistant Vice President for Finance Tom Vogler, Director of Human Resources Valerie Bell, Assistant Vice President for Administrative Services Clolita Williams, and Director of IT Business Systems Joe Kirby.
During the next few months, a collective effort involving everyone on campus will be necessary to achieve the accuracy and training necessary to reach three critical milestones before the end of the fiscal year. Our ability to achieve these milestones depends on our mutual commitment, accountability, respect, and civility. Beginning next week, we will meet with division and departmental leaders and experts to discuss the necessary steps to correct data errors, achieve accurate financial reporting, and make PeopleSoft our sole payroll system. The campus’s success depends on even greater community effort, with everyone supporting one another and taking responsibility for sharing information and addressing issues respectfully. We are committed to providing better support, and we appreciate your continued partnership in this challenging transition. People, processes, and technology are the key elements of enterprise-wide business systems. An overview of the major implementation issues and plans to resolve them follows. The detailed timelines above outline commitments and responsibilities. Those who work with business processes in academic and administrative departments and in Human Resources and Finance have been severely challenged by the implementation process. Despite everyone’s best efforts, training and support have not always met the needs of the campus. The need to adjust processes after the system went “live” resulted in confusing and inadequate training and documentation. Communication has been inconsistent and incomplete as the project team worked to address initial software and process-related issues. Our plans for moving forward address these issues. Communications and support for users will be increased beginning immediately. A work group led by Dot Weller from Finance, Rochelle Sanders from Human Resources, and John Fritz from OIT will work with divisional support coordinators to identify and address support issues. The following people serve as divisional support coordinators:
Peer mentors serving as the front-line resource for user support will receive additional training and will be matched with an appropriate support resource in their division. A new PeopleSoft website (www.umbc.edu/peoplesoft) provides a central source of information about business processes and support resources. In addition, project information and updates will be shared with the campus at least every other week through August. Information of specific interest to groups of system users will be shared promptly, and directors and chairs will receive timely communication about implementation steps affecting their staff. Training that reflects the changes in the system’s operation will begin after spring break, and will be supported by documentation. The first training will focus on the improved time-entry process. Staff in Finance and Human Resources are now responsible for systems operation previously handled by the consultants. Recently vacated positions in Finance are now being filled to support systems operations previously handled by finance consultants. In preparation for the shift of payroll production responsibility from UMCP to the campus, three staff positions will be added to Human Resources to support payroll processing. Back to Top Early difficulties integrating human resources and finance information caused a significant delay in recording payroll information in the finance system. Additional errors were created by problems with conversion of prior-year payroll and finance data. We know that efforts to work around these problems led to changes in business processes that heightened user stress and frustration. Human Resources and Finance staff are working with department experts to address these issues: Payroll errors are being assessed by a project team which includes staff from the Deans’ offices. Working collaboratively with departmental information experts, they expect to identify and correct these errors for all departments by the end of April. Departmental staff’s knowledge of positions and accounts is crucial to this process. Financial reports have been shared with individuals who are responsible for monitoring expenditures. These initial reports contain many errors, including some unrelated to payroll. Again, departmental experts will continue to play a crucial role by identifying errors and helping the team understand what led to the errors. This will enable Finance staff to correct the errors and improve the reliability of the system and the accuracy of reports. Parallel payroll elimination is being approached through a three-step process. The PeopleSoft and USM payrolls are now being processed and recorded in Finance on identical schedules, enabling departments to check the accuracy of financial reports and make adjustments in a more timely manner . A new version of the PeopleSoft time-entry system has been developed to address shortcomings identified by users and support online supervisor approvals. Payroll preparers and approvers will be trained in the new process on March 29 and 30. We plan to conduct the final parallel payroll on April 14. The April 21 payroll will be submitted in PeopleSoft only, and this data will be used by Human Resources to complete a manual parallel process still required by the USM Payroll Office. Once parallel testing satisfies USM requirements, PeopleSoft will become the single payroll system for the campus. Special payroll issues have been anticipated. The Human Resources office is working with the Division of Professional Education and Training and academic departments on summer payrolls. Human Resources, Finance, and OIT staff are working with the UMCP Payroll Office on fiscal year payroll conversion and plans for implementing the proposed cost-of-living increase. Plans for addressing these issues will be shared with the campus by May 1. Other fiscal year transition issues are a current focus of the Human Resources and Finance staff. During the next several months, Human Resources and Finance staff will work with departmental experts on closing instructions and ways that PeopleSoft will simplify FY 05 salary adjustments and budget preparation. Effort reporting capability has been added to the system so that the campus complies with regulations requiring verification that researchers meet grant effort requirements. Once the payroll information that drives this system is correct, training in this function will begin. Initially, several key systems functions were not fully implemented or were implemented with errors. Now, 95 percent of these systems are up and running transactions. Moving forward, OIT will be working with Finance and Human Resources to improve the performance of processes that run slowly and to work with groups to automate and schedule business tasks on a regular basis. Improved communications and support activities noted above will provide more options for users having difficulty with the system. The timelines above describe the necessary steps to reach our three critical milestones by June 30. We deeply appreciate the campus’s commitment to the implementation process and the efforts everyone will make in the next few months to assure success.
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