Sweatin Bullets: Upgrading to vs. 8.8 and Retraining End Users

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Sweatin Bullets Upgrading to vs. 8.8 and
Re-training End Users

• Session 10405 (M3)
• Monday 1150 1240
• HEUG 2004 Conference - Atlanta

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Presented By

Ami Hood Payroll Manager Clemson University
Lucy Arthur Director Database Records
Mgt Clemson University
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Ami Hood

• Ami came to Clemson University after the initial
  implementation of PeopleSoft in 1999.
• Ami was involved in the decision to go live with
  version 8.8.
• As the Payroll Manager, Ami was heavily involved
  with testing and implementation of version 8.8.
  

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Lucy Arthur

• Lucy was the head of the HR Implementation team,
  which began in 1998.
• Lucy has 31 years of experience in Human
  Resources.
• Lucy is the functional lead for HR in relation to
  Peoplesoft.
• She was involved in the decision process, testing
  and implementation of version 8.8.

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Clemson University Facts

• Land-grant institution Established in 1889
• 14,000 Undergraduate Students
• 3,000 Graduate Students
• 4,000 Full-time employees
• Named Time Magazines Public College of the Year
  (2001)
• Sponsored research funding of 104 million
• Campus is located on 17,000 acres of land along
  the shores of Lake Hartwell
• Research facilities are located throughout SC

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HR General Information

• Job Data entry is handled at the department level
  for most transactions.
• I-9s, W-4s, and Direct Deposit forms are all
  collected and verified at the department level.
• Payroll data entry is de-centralized and entered
  at the department level. Currently 240
  employees are trained either as primary or
  back-up for data entry.
• As of 12/21/01, all new hires (except 9 month
  contract employees) are paid on a 2 week lag,
  with direct deposit being mandatory. Salaried
  employees hired prior to the lag are paid current
  (through the Thursday before payday).

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Synopsis of Presentation
We plan to discuss how and why we decided to go
to version 8.8 We will also discuss changes in
delivered version 8.8 versus version 7.51, how
they impacted our processes and the impact on our
end users of going to the web.
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As of 7/1/03, CU would be out of compliance and
would no longer have Tax Updates. Question
What to do about YE?Upper Level Management was
not willing to pay for Extended
Support.Resolution Go Live before YE so we
could print W-2s in version 8.8.
To Go Live or Not to Go Live?
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Issues We Faced

• Upper Level Management had still not been sold on
  having to upgrade
• Technical and Functional Staff had to move
  forward with testing in order to meet YE W-2
  deadlines, with the hope Upper Level Management
  would come around
• Vs 8.8 had just been released. We had planned to
  go to 8.3. What to do?

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Pros of 8.8 versus 8.3

• Query ability to schedule, ability to preview
  without saving
• Better Performance
• Wizard Based
• Would not need to upgrade for awhile
• ABA verification

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Cons of 8.8 versus 8.3

• Would put us a little behind on Go Live.
• No 2 tier
• Would have to purchase additional COBOL

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Planning Stages of Upgrade

• Decision was made to go to version 8.8
• Weekly meetings held with leads from each area of
  Benefits, Recruitment, Training, Database
  Management, Payroll and Technical Staff
• Develop a Test Script for EVERY function
  processed in Peoplesoft. This included every
  type of data entry and every process run.

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• Each functional lead went back to their
  respective areas and asked HR staff to create the
  Test Scripts.
• Technical Support worked to create test database.
• Functional HR staff tested in the new version.
• Problems or needed changes were reported
  immediately to Technical Staff.

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Time Line
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Good Ideas

• Write down the path to the most used tasks,
  i.e., Job Data, Paycheck.
• With a handy list, it saved time searching.

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What we like about vs. 8.8

• Web Based we added 9 new end users located off
  campus to input Job Data as a result of being Web
  Based.
• One Direct Deposit Entry prior, DD had to be
  entered for each Employee Record Number. This
  helped save Data Entry time.
• One Check for Pay Period End Date.

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Things to Watch Out for

• HR consists of many areas, with each seeing a new
  impact of vs 8.8.
• The next set of screens will address vs 8.8 items
  by area.

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Database Management

• Navigation is a bear. Spent great deal of time
  finding where everything is now located and
  mapping the path out for testers and end-users.
• Citizenship information moved to a totally
  different location.

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• Citizenship Panel must be SAVED for Citizenship
  to be valid. This caused problems in Payroll
  where Citizenship Panel was used to verify FICA
  status.
• Drivers License and Emergency Contact pages in a
  totally different location.
• System refreshes screen every time you tab.
  End-users find this annoying.

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• Names on History page when converting from
  7.51, no way of splitting out Suffix and Middle
  Initial into correct place. Had to fix by hand.
• Recheck tables and translate values. Items
  inactivated in previous version were not
  necessarily inactivated in new version.
• Any front end forms designed to make input into
  Job easier for end-users had to be redone because
  of items moving from one page to another.

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Recruitment

• No ability to search by SSN. Major issue, as SSN
  is the only unique identifier for applicants.
• You can enter 3 pages of information on a new
  applicant, save data and not know a person has
  another record with a different name until you
  get to the eligibility page where SSN lives.

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• Without purchasing e-Recruit Manager, we cannot
  run our job list to the Web, clone/duplicate
  requisitions, or track the number of people
  routed to a requisition.
• Have to add current employee applicants. Big
  issue is you cannot change/edit certain pages,
  i.e., drivers license.
• Recruitment tables for set-up are under two
  different headings Product Related and Common
  Definitions under Setup HRMS.

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• System wanted e-mail address for all applicants.
  Had to modify.
• System wanted to specify a Job Function when not
  associating an application with a posted
  position/job requisition. Had to set-up an
  unknown job function.

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Benefits

• Had to add NID search to Benefits menu.
• Had to add Benefit Record Number to all Benefits
  Pages.
• Benefit number and Record Number did not always
  match. Caused problems with Benefits Deductions
  and Retirement Deductions until we made them
  match.

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• Problems encountered with Rehired employees and
  their primary job. System pulled previous
  deductions, and if they did not have an end date,
  payroll deducted them in error.
• Plan Type descriptions for savings plans plan
  types were displaying old descriptions.
  Technical staff had to fix translate tables
  behind the scenes.

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Payroll

• Employees now had one check code. If previously
  paid from multiple locations with multiple
  checks, they now only had one check.
• System did not know most accurate check code to
  bring forward. Caused much stress for
  departments and employees on first few paydays
  from new system.

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• 999 row was inserted upon conversion on
  individuals Direct Deposit records. Caused
  problems for those who pre-noted on row 0 and
  direct deposit went to 999 information.
• Savings Bonds moved from Savings Plans to General
  Deductions.

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• General Deductions no longer had Employee Record
  Number. Caused problems for those codes we had
  set-up for one record number but not another.
• Primary Job Indicator Flag from Benefits for new
  hires/re-hires is not being set automatically.
  We are having to run a process before we calc
  payroll. Error messages appear if Flag is not
  set for each job an employee has.

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Query

• Totally different look and feel.
• End Users were scared to even touch query without
  training.
• Information in tables had changed or new tables
  had been created that did not exist before.

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• Name moved from Personal_Data to Names table.
  Had to re-write queries previously using
  Personal_Data to grab name from new location.
• Must use Names Table to pull in future dated
  employees.
• Once used to the new Query, it seems more user
  friendly than vs 7.51.

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• When using Query to download to MS Access
  Database, the following had to be done
• File save as and change type to Excel Workbook
• Change name of any Excel or MS Access linked
  files to ..OLD, then re-link the file after
  query is generated and saved.
• May encounter issues with field names. Had to
  edit the field, choose text and save.
• Then, run queries, download to Excel and save
  over the previous files.

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FYIs

• Check, double check and triple check all reports
  to make sure you are getting what you expect from
  them.
• All documentation for training has to be re-done.

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Expectations

• Plan for problems Dont be caught off-guard
  when you find problems after you go live. Go
  ahead and expect you will find things you did not
  find in testing.

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Whats in the Future?

• ESS ability to view paystubs online. This will
  save us the cost of stock, printing/folding and
  sorting.
• ESS ability to enter Direct Deposit on-line.
  This will save us data entry, as well as allow
  employees to have direct deposit to more than one
  account, which is our current policy.

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• ESS ability for employees to enter W-4
  information into PeopleSoft.
• As Employees become more used to utilizing the
  Web and computers, we can start informing them of
  items via e-mail rather than paper copy.

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Featured before is some background on why Clemson
University decided to upgrade to vs 8.8. Also
discussed were issues encountered during both the
testing and roll-out process. http//www.heug.o
rg Attendees may download HEUG 2004
presentations from HEUG On-Line
Conclusion of Presentation
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Contact Information
Ami Hood Payroll Manager hooda_at_clemson.edu 864-656
-5585
Lucy Arthur Director Database Records
Mgt larthur_at_clemson.edu 864-656-3350
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Krissy Kaylor Benefits Manager kkaylor_at_clemson.edu
864-656-5597
Vivian Morris Recruitment vivian_at_clemson.edu 864-6
56-2723