Endeavour Foundation has been using PeopleSoft since 2013, and recently upgraded to 9.2 and implemented the new features and functionality in PUM Image 27.

About Endeavour Foundation

Endeavour Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit charity that is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. It is one of the largest disability service providers in Australia—paying around 4,500 employees. The company was established in 1951 with a vision to support people with intellectual disability to live their best life—starting with equal access to education and life-skills learning.

The company started on PeopleSoft 9.1 in July 2013 and was on PeopleTools 8.52. In the past, Endeavour Foundation has only updated its PeopleSoft system with the must-haves, like legislative changes. However, a change in management last year led the company to shift its focus and bring its PeopleSoft system forward to utilize current functionality and improve the overall user experience.

Since then, Endeavour Foundation upgraded to PeopleSoft 9.2 PUM Image 27 and PeopleTools 8.56 in November 2018. Endeavour Foundation was looking to move away from the mindset of only implementing the must-have functionality and was excited to leverage new features in 9.2. As part of the 9.2 upgrade, Endeavour Foundation made the move to the new Fluid UI and leveraged exciting new features like Fluid Employee Timesheet, Employee Snapshot, Team Talent Profile, the latest Company Directory changes, and more.

Endeavour Foundation uses PeopleSoft for HCM including HR, Global Payroll, Time and Labor, Absence Management, and Self Service.

Visit Endeavour Foundation’s Website

What were the drivers to leverage new features like Fluid?

Endeavour Foundation embarked on a large program of work to increase the user experience across all areas of the business. This was an organization-wide initiative, and the PeopleSoft HCM system was a key enabler for delivering some of these improvements. The new functionality that Oracle delivers has not been deployed at Endeavour Foundation for many years, so this provided a key area of opportunity to increase functionality—particularly around Fluid and self-service in the last few years.

Key leaders within Endeavour Foundation identified that delivering these new features to the business was of high importance, so a true position review was completed and PUM Image updates and enhancements that needed to be deployed were planned.

What was the experience like when deploying Fluid?

Overall, it was a very positive experience. The new features were embraced easily and required limited change management. Testing was reasonably straightforward. However, the first rollouts for some key functionality, like TL reported time Fluid approvals, were not available yet. This meant that the first rollout required some customizations to streamline the user experience.

As subsequent Image updates were rolled out, the customizations were dropped, and the delivered functionality was embraced. Fluid timesheets for employees with quick fill were a big win that helped reduce data entry for employees.

Is Fluid being leveraged as it was delivered, or has it been configured?

The approach was to stay as delivered as possible. The only time a customization was made was to either to meet required compliance, remove a major pain point, or remove a step in the process that would create more work for end users.

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter when deploying Fluid?

As mentioned before, some of the functionality that Endeavour Foundation wanted to leverage wasn’t deployed yet when the initial rollout took place. This meant that some customizations had to be made, but they were later dropped when the functionality was released.

Additionally, adopting functionality soon after its release does mean that bugs are often identified during the early stages. However, if these bugs are showstoppers, there are quickly identified and resolved by Oracle.

Was an implementation partner utilized during the upgrade?

Yes, Presence of IT helped with the 9.2 upgrade and the move to Fluid UI. Presence of IT initially implemented PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 at Endeavour Foundation in 2013, and Endeavour Foundation has been a hosted/managed customer of Presence of IT ever since. Specifically, Presence of IT assisted with fit-gap workshops, articulated the benefits of Fluid, and completed all configuration, unit testing, defect fixing, and deployment activities.

Endeavour Foundation was responsible for providing business requirements, system integration, user acceptance testing, and employee change and communications.

What were the benefits of moving to Fluid UI?

Some of the benefits that Endeavour Foundation noticed after moving to Fluid UI include:

• Feedback from managers around greater visibility of employee details and ease of access
• The system is easier to navigate
• Time reduction in completing a timesheet
• Greater functionality for completing timesheets with the quick fill option
• All users have visibility of everyone in the company via company directory—viewing direct and indirect reports details gives managers better access to details
• Information is easily accessible
• Approval functionality is quick and user-friendly
• Mobile functionality means that employees can view, complete and lodge information anywhere at anytime
• Updating of personal details including bank has meant a time reduction and processing by the payroll team
• A more modern look and feel

What tips could be shared with other customers who are wanting to leverage Fluid UI?

Endeavour Foundation came up with a list of tips and tricks for other customers who are wanting to upgrade or leverage Fluid UI:

• Showcase the functionality up front and get end user buy-in early on. For Endeavour Foundation, this was particularly useful with timesheets because users were entering times every week, and that needed to be included in feedback and UAT.
• Ensure openness to change. Moving to Fluid seemed like a big change at first but given the increase in usability from Classic to Fluid, it was embraced at Endeavour Foundation more easily than expected.
• Include pre- and post-implementation surveys to determine key pain points and ensure that they are focus areas during implementation. Assessing the user experience post-implementation is essential because it displays a commitment to the workforce and ensures that the expected efficiencies have been realized.
• Be open to altering business processes and thinking outside of the box.