The University of Colorado talked with Quest about their Selective Adoption strategy.

Key Takeaways

About the University of Colorado:

The University of Colorado runs multiple PeopleSoft enterprise systems including HCM, Campus Solutions, Financials, Interaction Hub and CRM. Their technology team is made up of 130 people internally and 8 permanent employees. The University is currently on HCM 9.2 PUM 23 and PeopleTools 8.55.

WHAT PEOPLESOFT PRODUCTS ARE YOU USING?

Within HCM 9.2 we are utilizing workforce administration, organizational development, benefits administration, payroll for North America, commitment accounting, employee and manager self-service and other customized modules that support time keeping and recruiting functions.

WHAT IS YOUR TECHNOLOGY FOOTPRINT?

Our technology footprint is moderate given our enterprise system is utilized by a 35,000-employee base. However, other business process or SaaS solutions are in use and are part of the HCM Systems suite.

WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY’S SELECTIVE ADOPTION STRATEGY LOOK LIKE?

• Quarterly for regulatory patching
• Twice per year for make me current PUM catch-ups (reactive strategy)

HOW DID YOU DEFINE YOUR SELECTIVE ADOPTION STRATEGY? DID YOU INVOLVE A PARTNER, OR DID YOU DEFINE YOUR STRATEGY IN-HOUSE?

Our Selective Adoption strategy was defined in-house with feedback from the Higher Ed industry.

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE TO DATE WITH PEOPLESOFT UPDATE MANAGER AND SELECTIVE ADOPTION?

PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) was a definite shift from bundles for our organization. We have experienced the usage of more technical resources and a need to properly allocate those resources given the number of enterprise systems live on PUM images. The usage of the tool (PUM) itself was a relatively easy learning curve for our technical teams; however, the challenge lied in defining the strategy and resource leveling given the change in the technical process.

HOW HAVE YOUR TECHNICAL (SYSTEM MAINTENANCE) BUSINESS PROCESSES CHANGED SINCE SELECTIVE ADOPTION?

We are using more technical resources across multiple technical teams to implement a Selective Adoption cycle. Because of this and given the risk of regulatory patching for payroll and benefits for HCM, our cycles are now part of our overall project portfolio to reduce the risk of not having available resources to meet time- sensitive business cycle deadlines.

HOW HAVE YOUR FUNCTIONAL (FEATURE ADOPTION) BUSINESS PROCESSES CHANGED SINCE SELECTIVE ADOPTION?

The functional process has been less impacted by PUM/Selective Adoption; however, the functional process has naturally matured given the structure needed around the technical process shift.

HOW, IF ANY, ARE YOUR TECHNICAL AND FUNCTIONAL TEAMS WORKING TOGETHER WITH SELECTIVE ADOPTION?

There is a tight connection between the functional and technical teams during the PUM/SA process. While this was true prior to PUM/SA, there is a more defined and matured method being used at this time.

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL A CUSTOMER THAT’S ABOUT TO BEGIN THE PROCESS OF SELECTIVE ADOPTION?

We would recommend that they use community sites such as Quest or HEUG.org to research information available about PUM and Selective Adoption best practices. We have shared CU’s experiences via presenting multiple times through the community’s setup to support Higher Education.

HOW ARE YOU ROLLING OUR NEW FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITIES TO YOUR END USERS?

Our strategy is to complete our make me current PUM catch-up cycle twice per year, however, the rollout of new functionality after it becomes part of our application base is muted via security until we can wrap change management around the feature or functionality. Of course, any changes to functionality that we are currently using and will receive via PUM image are managed early and often as part of the analysis phase of the catch-up cycle, so we have plenty of time to communicate and prepare for the change.

ARE YOU USING FLUID? IF SO, WHERE AND HOW ARE YOU USING FLUID?

Yes, HCM 9.2 is Fluid UI for navigation aspects such as the NavBar and Navigation Collections. We have also extended Fluid Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service components such as personal information and payroll self-service data.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE IN DEPLOYING FLUID? WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT OTHER CUSTOMERS COULD BENEFIT FROM?

Deploying Fluid brought about a handful of usability sticking points with our super users of the system. We continue to address those points through training and organization change management best practices. For our self-service users, the shift was less turbulent. Technically, we have learned that with each PeopleTools upgrade, Fluid becomes more prominent within the application. Therefore, we would recommend that organizations adopt a strategy to move to Fluid as soon as possible.

HOW INVOLVED WAS YOUR COMPANY IN UTILIZING THE QUEST COMMUNITY, OR ANY OTHER USER GROUP, DURING THE UPGRADE PROCESS?

The Quest community was heavily involved with Oracle Open World and our team participated in many user sessions facilitated by the Quest team.

DO YOU OR YOUR COMPANY PARTICIPATE IN FOCUS GROUPS FOR THE PEOPLESOFT PRODUCTS? IF SO, WHAT BENEFIT DOES THIS HAVE?

Yes, we participate in the Fluid UI for Benefits focus group.

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR COMPANY’S SOLUTION IN THE NEXT TWO TO THREE YEARS?

Our direction for the next 2-3 years is to continue utilizing as much delivered functionality of our HCM Systems as possible to position our organization to be in a cloud ready state.