National City’s Journey To PeopleSoft 8

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National Citys Journey To PeopleSoft 8

• Migration to a Self-Service Future

Todd Saporito Ed Walters
Session 4609
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Agenda

• National City Overview/Background
• Planning Scope
• Staffing
• Analysis, Design Development
• Architecture
• Testing
• Training
• Implementation Current State
• QA

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National City Corporation

• Founded in 1845.
• NYSENCC.
• Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Financial holding company with assets approaching
  106 billion.
• Operates more than 1,100 branch banking offices
  and over 1,600 automated teller machines (ATMs)
  in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky,
  Illinois and Michigan.
• Company Website www.nationalcity.com.

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National City Corporation (cont.)

• Approximately 34,000 active employees.
• PeopleSoft history
• Implemented V3.22 in 1995.
• Upgraded to V5 in 1997.
• Upgraded to V7 in 1998.

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Background Configuration before 8

• HR and Payroll V7.
• Ben Admin outsourced to Hewitt Assoc.
• Shared Services Center outsourced to IBM.
• Oracle database.
• Sun Solaris database server.
• Managers completed employee merit process using a
  custom access database and excel spreadsheets.
• Moderately customized.

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Planning

• Planning began in 2000 when we evaluated whether
  we do nothing, upgrade, outsource, or migrate to
  a new vendor.
• Decided upgrade to V8 was correct path to lay
  foundation for self service direction.
• Began V8 planning beginning of 2001.
• Focused on defining scope.
• Began identifying resource requirements and
  developing staffing strategies.

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Scope

• Included the removal of all non-essential
  customizations.
• Made the decision to move forward with self
  service but needed to decide which application to
  move to first.
• Decision was made to utilize the eCompensation
  and parts of eProfile for the Managers desktop
  as our first attempt.
• Additional Scope items included
• Eliminating custom hierarchy and utilize dept
  security.
• Misc list of new functionality to implement.

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Staffing

• Staffing the Project
• Worked with business leaders to obtain qualified
  resources for each process area.
• Brought in PeopleSoft resources for short
  duration to target a particular process.
• Staffed external resources on project in
  positions where they were working closely with
  internal counterpart when possible.
• Tried to utilize production support resources to
  minimize transition impacts.
• Team consisted of approximately 23 dedicated
  functional resources and 15 technical resources.

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Analysis Design

• Created process teams to focus on the following
• Identify customizations to be removed.
• Understand how new functionality will impact
  their process and begin process reengineering.
• Start identifying material for training.
• Created an object repository to assist with
  customization evaluation. Huge effort but huge
  payback.
• For critical areas we created SWAT teams to
  review options and recommend solutions.

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Development

• Utilized PeopleSoft Upgrade Lab to perform
  database upgrade.
• Assigned 2 resources to handle upgrade process
• Supported upgrade lab.
• Performed migration steps for database builds.
• Migrated code to each database.
• Used PS Change Control Feature and Harvest for
  SQRs, scripts.
• Plan to have multiple databases during
  development to support development, testing, demo
  and training.

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Development Challenges

• Overwhelmed by the number of patches/fixes to
  review (over 250).
• The technology change from V7 to V8 including the
  additional components challenged the staff. A lot
  to learn.
• The initial cutover scripts ran for days instead
  of minutes.
• Struggled to find Variable Comp experienced
  resources within PeopleSoft.
• eCompensation and eProfile modules required more
  customization than anticipated.

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Architecture

• Physical N-tier running PeopleTools 8.14.12.
• Designed to support 250 concurrent users.
• Web Server - Two W2k servers running weblogic.
• Application Server - Solaris Server w/ 10Gb Mem.
• Oracle Database Server - Solaris Server w/ 8Gb
  Mem.
• Process Schedulers - One W2k server and one
  running on database server.
• Database is 60 Gig.
• Windows client still distributed to small user
  group.

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Architecture (cont.)

• Items to consider
• Stress test!!! architecture was new in our
  organization.
• Identify your concurrent user population (needed
  for sizing).
• If purchasing new hardware, move into a quiet
  production prior to implementation.
• Make sure your information protection group is
  onboard especially if you have never used SSL
  before.
• Read PeopleSofts current desktop requirements
  and understand your end user population.
• Develop a cache maintenance strategy for app
  servers and process schedulers.

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Architecture (cont.)

• Items to consider (cont.)
• Understand usage limits and develop a process to
  maintain them. (e.g. Shutdown process schedulers
  during batch, or bounce web server every night _at_
  9 pm.)
• Understand how Query/Reporting tools need to be
  used in your organization. (Tools 8.14.12
  required us to still distribute windows client
  for query users due to limitations in web
  interface.)
• Include process scheduler training for end users
  especially if you have a NT process scheduler and
  Unix process scheduler.
• Stay on top of all patches/releases besides just
  PeopleTools. (e.g. Weblogic, Tuxedo, etc.)

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Testing

• Completed Unit, System/Integration, Stress and
  User Acceptance Testing.
• Assigned a test team manager who created testing
  plan.
• 2 months for System/Integration Testing 2
  months for User Acceptance Testing.
• Version control processes were critical during
  the testing phases to ensure proper object
  migration.
• Utilized a problem log database to log and track
  all testing issues.

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Testing Stress Testing

• Very critical in V8 due to the architecture
  advancements from V7.
• Utilized Mercury Interactive tool.
• Stress testing conducted on hardware slated for
  Production.
• Identified concurrent users and broke out into
  specific transaction types to replicate a true
  stress test. (e.g.. Data entry, reporting, online
  lookup, updates, queries.)
• Uncovered some performance issues which we were
  able to correct.

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Testing

• Items to consider
• Plan to have both technical and functional
  resources assigned to testing support and
  execution.
• Ensure issue tracking tools and resolution
  processes are in place and communicated.
• Develop a solid interface testing strategy.
• Stress Test so many new components in V8.
• Ensure batch testing is completed within testing
  cycle and full schedule runs occur.

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Training

• Consisted of 3 Phases
• Train the Team
• Train the Trainer
• Train the End User

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Training Train the Team

• Majority of project team resources had little to
  no V8 exposure. Utilized different methods
• Approximately 46 people received training.
• Brought PeopleSoft onsite for large group delta
  classes.
• Sent resources externally for specific PeopleSoft
  classes.(Security, App Engine, etc.)
• Utilized PSAdvisor and customer connection.
• Conducted multiple brown bag/knowledge transfer
  sessions amongst the team.

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Training Train the Trainer

• Needed to develop an internal program that could
  be repeatable
• Created 18 trainers.
• Identified process experts in the field.
• Hired a training consultant to work with internal
  staff to develop training program.
• Process experts contributed to developing the
  training material for their area.
• Trainers brought onsite to learn material and
  training techniques.

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Training Train the End User

• The Self Service foundation and new GUI created a
  demand for additional training of our end users
• Approximately 320 HR professionals and 1200
  Managers.
• NCC trainers conducted sessions in the field.
• Purchased and customized PeopleSofts Web-Based
  Learning Assistant for self help.
• Created a command center specifically designed as
  a PeopleSoft hotline outside of normal IS help
  desk.

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Implementation

• Planning was essential reviewed plan with
  entire team.
• Performed multiple practice cutovers and one
  formal dress rehearsal.
• Created a hotline and voicemail recording for
  team to obtain updates.
• Created a command center to focus team.
• New Years Eve 2001 Party Started Friday, Dec
  28, 2001 and brought system backup Jan 02, 2002.
• Overall very smooth transition.

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Post Implementation Support

• To address problems quickly we developed a
  PeopleSoft command center to log problems and
  work directly with team. (Duration 120 days of
  operation after implementation.)
• Technical Functional teams held daily flash
  meetings in the morning to review problem status
  and progress.
• Utilized the intranet home page to post hints as
  problem trends were identified to assist users.
• The support process was identified and
  communicated to team prior to implementation.

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Post Implementation Support (cont.)

• Problem areas after implementation
• General usage questions or confusion
• The PeopleSoft Command Center quickly answered
  user questions which minimized confusion in the
  field. Center was staffed with the process
  experts from the project team.
• Some existing interfaces began to have problems
• Determined some 3rd parties tested interface load
  but didnt fully validate data values (eg. Some
  xlat values changed).
• PSQuery users were impacting performance
• Lowered query timeouts and amount of data they
  could return. Also capped the amount of
  concurrent queries that could be run.

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Post Implementation Support (cont.)

• Resource Transition preventing knowledge from
  walking out the door when resources roll off
  (internal and external)
• Maintained critical resources on team through
  first month of support.
• Created a resource skill set matrix for technical
  resources to identify gaps in the internal
  knowledge and develop a transition plan.
• Assigned each departing resource a knowledge area
  where they were responsible for insuring it was
  properly documented. Also required them to
  conduct a knowledge transfer session on that
  topic.

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Current State

• Operating on V8 since January 2002.
• System has been stable and meeting end user
  performance requirements.
• Command Center has been shut down
• General process knowledge questions now handled
  by generalists and SMEs in the field.
• Technical problems now addressed through
  corporate IS help desk.
• Positioned for a self service foundation.

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Critical Success Factors

• Strong Sponsor support.
• Staffing, Staffing, Staffing!!! Obtained the
  best qualified resource whenever possible.
• Solid Training strategy from team to end users.
• Stress Testing provided valuable input on
  finalizing the architecture configuration.
• Practice mini cutovers and full dress rehearsals
  helped ensure a smooth cutover.
• Creation of Command Center after implementation
  prevented small problems from becoming disasters.

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Q/A

• Todd Saporito National City Corporation
• SVP, Corporate Human Resources
• Director, HR Project Management Technology
  Services
• todd.saporito_at_nationalcity.com
• Ed Walters Right Team, Inc.
• Senior Manager
• ewalters_at_rightteam.com