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The PeopleSoft Human Resources module went live as scheduled on June 26, 2000. A "go live" party was held on June 27th in the UBS (University Business Systems) conference room to recognize the efforts of the HR Implementation Team, which was led by Rod Mason and Denise Szelest from HR and Tom Jones from UBS. Other key contributing staff from UBS included Sharon Palmateer, Shahnaz Sadeghi and Carol Vega, who teamed up to program all of the conversion, migration, interface, leave accrual/usage, and budget savings programs. Marilyn Lucarelli and Liz Medvetz from UBS are providing training to end-users.
Initially, the HR module is being primarily deployed in the HR office with a total of 34 end-users. Additionally, there are also end-users in Academic Computing, Affirmative Action, Facilities Management, Financial Management and Budget, Institutional Research, LAN Management, Provost's Office and the Office of the Vice President for Research. It is expected that the Dean's Office in the School of Education will be added as an end-user during July with other offices to follow as quickly as the necessary training and security arrangements can be completed. Because of the robust security provided by the PeopleSoft product, it will be possible to limit department's access to employee data in only their own department. This was not possible under the old Personnel Data System (PDS) system and was one of the main reasons for its limited deployment. The records for approximately 4500 employees, including retired faculty (i.e. emeritus/emerita), have been converted to the PeopleSoft system and it will allow the HR office to maintain all the personnel data on our employees, including demographic, work location, education, appointment, salary, benefits, leave and performance evaluation information.
Although PeopleSoft provided leave accrual functionality, it did not provide a mechanism to record leave usage that was compatible with our procedures. A custom "add-on" was written to allow the Time Records Office to enter leave usage including date information which was not possible under PDS. Web entry of leave usage will be available for the professional staff and faculty in the fall. In addition, another add-on was built to support the budget functions such as line item maintenance and PSR vacancy saving reporting. One of the most frequently used features of the current PDS system is for the production of mailing labels. The implementation of PeopleSoft will also provide increased options for bulk mailings, including e-mail and mail merge files that will eliminate the need to put labels on paper documents.
Going live does not end the work of the HR implementation team. Over the summer, the team will be working on the Web entry of leave usage implementation as well as other self-service features. The team also will be working on various " mass change" features such as the ability to automatically update salaries on the system to reflect negotiated salary increases. Additionally, we want to deploy the system out to as many departments as possible to facilitate use of the system for electronic processing of recruitment and appointment activities. We also expect that PeopleSoft version 8.0 will be available in the 2nd quarter of next year so it will be a year after that before we go live on 8.0. This new version is expected to be totally Web-based which will further facilitate our efforts to deploy the system as widely as possible while maintaining the necessary security of the data.
Data Resources Converted to PeopleSoft
Sharon Palmateer, UBS Developer
Timing is everything and, for Human Resources, a truer word has never been spoken. On June 26, 2000, Human Resources went live on their 'new' PeopleSoft system at the University at Albany. And, the efforts to get there were dramatic.
The 'home-grown' Personnel Data System (PDS) that the University has used for 15 years needed to be analyzed to determine what information was available and, precisely, where it would go on PeopleSoft's database. Several months were spent accessing set up tables that would be required to convert existing translation tables and interlocking this information with individual data. This process was handled by Rod Mason and Denise Szelest because of the need for familiarity with the data. Sharon was responsible for writing the programs which would extract the data from PDS and writing the import definitions that would load the converted data into PeopleSoft.
In the end, forty set up tables were loaded which would service drop down selections and editing functions for the primary system. Fifty data-related tables were extracted from PDS and converted to PeopleSoft for over 4400 employees and 2500 positions.
Human Resources Interfaces - Legacy to PeopleSoft
Carol Vega, UBS Developer
Human Resources data interacts with several internal and external agencies. Providing for the interfaces in the new PeopleSoft system was a large task for which Carol Vega, UBS Developer, was responsible. The initial step was to analyze the legacy Personnel Data System (PDS) via documentation and software to identify all existing interfaces. Batch and online interfaces were identified for the following systems or departments: Student, Traffic, SUNY Card, Tuition assistance program, Student Public Access, Student Assistant and College Workstudy payroll, University Graphics, Research, Student Accounts, Library, Academic Computing, LAN Management, Telephone systems, as well as SUNY Central's HR Management system and payroll.
The IAS Human Resources project will be implemented in two phases. The first phase is all non-student employees, faculty, staff, and emeriti. The second phase will encompass student employees (graduate, teaching, and residence assistants.) Phase 1 interfaces were further analyzed identifying and contacting the end users, narrowed down to 9, and programming work began. Additionally, new interfaces were identified with the 2 sub groups residing on separate systems: faculty/staff/emeriti on PeopleSoft HR system on UNIX, and GA/TA/RA on legacy PDS system on IBM.
The data mapping of old data fields to the new was required at this juncture. It was a major and critical task for the whole HR team. Interfaces were written and tested. The cut-over date from the legacy system to the IAS PeopleSoft was determined with consideration of interface run dates and frequencies. Dates were determined for starting new, stopping old, and modifying existing interfaces, all with different run schedules from daily to yearly. The interfaces are now scheduled and running in PeopleSoft's process scheduler.
The HR Phase 1 interfaces are for: the University's Library, Telephone Systems and directory, Central's Leave Accrual and HR system, Academic Computing, LAN Management, SIRS' PIN number maintenance for employees, and Traffic's online system.
Phase 2 NEXT!!!
PeopleSoft Leave Accrual and Usage Add-On
Shahnaz Sadeghi, UBS Developer
PeopleSoft Accrual and Usage software will function only for agencies that also use the PeopleSoft Payroll subsystem. As a New York State agency, the University at Albany is required to use the Office of the State Comptroller's payroll system that does not tie into the leave accrual process. In addition, the University is a unionized agency with 14 different bargaining units. Each bargaining unit has its own set of rules defining accrual and usage of leave in hours or days.
A project was created as an add-on to the PeopleSoft HR software to decrease the upgrade and maintenance issues with the future releases of the HR software. This process started in May 1999 and was completed by April 2000. Three PeopleSoft setup panels for the accrual schedules were duplicated and modified. 200 new objects (fields, records, panels, etc.) were created. The system is designed to work with the existing PeopleSoft benefit rules.
The system allows the HR/Benefit staff to inquire on an employee's leave balances and enter detail usage for each employee. This usage can later be tracked for future audits. Detailed and summary panels are designed to assist the staff in trouble shooting problems with employee's accrual and usage balances.
Initially each employee is enrolled in all the applicable leave plans (vacation, sick, personnel, regular comp and Holiday comp) with an enrollment date. Two SQR programs are the heart of this system. The accrual SQR is designed to automatically process the leave accrual for each bargaining unit. It calculates the accrual amount based on the service length and anniversary date and updates the employee's balances with the correct accrual amount. It checks the employee's leave balances against the maximum allowed (this amount varies based on the bargaining unit and the time of processing) and adjusts the balances accordingly. The usage SQR is designed to process all usage entered since the previous run and update the employee's balances. The usage entry panel provides an easy entry grid for input of the leave usage, accrual, adjustment, vacation bought and sold.
In the near future, the leave usage entry process will be designed for the web allowing the faculty and professional staff to inquire on their leave balances and enter their own leave usage.
PeopleSoft Vacancy Savings Add-On
The vacancy savings project was also created as an add-on to the PeopleSoft HR Software for the same reasons. This project was developed concurrently with the Time accrual system. 150 new objects were created in addition to two SQR programs. This system provides an easy access to the vacancy savings data for the Budget department. The SQR calculates the savings for each pay period for each organizational unit. This data can then be accessed via the inquiry panels on PeopleSoft or brought in to an Excel spread sheet for additional tasks, or emailed to the departments for their viewing. This process eliminates the printing of this information on a biweekly basis and is accessible to the departments online.
End-User Training
Liz Medvetz, UBS Trainer
End User Training & Support Team went into high gear with their preparation for the Human Resources roll-out on June 26th .
As the Human Resources implementation neared their "go-live" target date, training focused on key operational staff in the Office of Human Resources Management learning the skills needed to perform their primary HR transactions using PeopleSoft. This included the processes of hiring employees, enrolling them in benefit programs, updating employee records, recording leave accruals and usage as well as terminating and/or retiring employees. While the initial training of personnel in these areas is nearly complete, additional training for other HR staff as well as other University personnel will continue over the next few weeks.
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| The Celebration |
  
(l. to r.) Paul Stec, Vice President for Finance and Business and the IAS Executive Sponsor, Stephen Beditz, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources, and Marybeth Salmon, Director of University Business Systems and Project Manager for the IAS Project give praise and congratulations to the IAS Project team and all others who worked so diligently to bring about this "Go Live' moment.
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Marybeth Salmon cuts the "Go Live' cake as Rod Mason, Functional Implementation Leader for the Human Resources Project, looks on.
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The 'Go Live' celebration was well attended. |
And Marybeth thought Steve was pleased with the implementation!!!
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| The Team |
Tom Jones (UBS), Technical Implementation Leader for the Human Resources Project, Rod Mason (HR) and Denise Szelest (HR), Functional Implementation Leaders.
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Tom Jones, and University Business Systems Developers Carol Vega, Sharon Palmateer, and Shahnaz Sadeghi. |
(Front l. to r.) Liz Medvetz, Lead Trainer and Curriculum Developer, Shahnaz Sadeghi, Denise Szelest, and Rod Mason. (Back l. to r.) Steve Murphy and Ron Cetnar, Database Management and Specialists, Tom Jones, Carol Vega, and Sharon Palmateer.
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| The Work |
Tom has come up with something Sharon can't quite believe!! |
Denise has a point Sharon can't quite believe. This is not Sharon's day!!
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Shahnaz and Rod discuss Leave accruals. |
Liz, Denise, and Rod review training issues.
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Carol and Sharon review data conversions required for the interfaces.
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| The Training |
Lisa Maxwell, HR Data Entry specialist, trains intensely with Liz. |
Liz trains one on one with HR keyboard specialist, Linda Novello. |
Liz Medvetz (standing) group trains in HR processing for (l. to r.) Lisa Maxwell, HR, Beverly Ellis, Associate Director of Affirmative Action, and Diane Cardone, Affirmative Action Secretary. |
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