1. Mike Conlon Director of Data Infrastructure October 5, 2005
ERP at the University of Florida: Selection, Implementation and Implications
Mike Conlon
Director of Data Infrastructure
October 5, 2005
Talk about the vision process

2. Three reasons to implement ERP
Must replace finance systems (SAMAS/FLAIR) and payroll system provided by the state
Should improve operations – reduce administrative time and effort
Should Reduce operating costs
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3. University Vision
Integrated, on-line, secure, self-service processes for university business
Eliminate dependence on State of Florida Systems
Implement Vanilla – adopt the PeopleSoft processes
Eliminate costly mainframe technologies
Implement Finance, Human Resource, Student, Portal and Data Warehouse
The advisory group and ERP implementation team members will use the University Vision as the guiding principles in the installation effort we are all about to undertake.
Vanilla – means as delivered, unmodified. This reduces the total cost of ownership and makes upgrading much easier.
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4. Selection Process
Eleven evaluation teams – 2 technical, 1 support, 8 functional
Four vendors – SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and SCT/Banner (now SunGard SCT)
Four Schools – FAMU, FSU, UF, UNF
Eleven months
150 page RFI
Three 80 hour presentations – 40 hours technical, 40 hours functional
Eleven reports, 120 people for the read backs
The advisory group and ERP implementation team members will use the University Vision as the guiding principles in the installation effort we are all about to undertake.
Vanilla – means as delivered, unmodified. This reduces the total cost of ownership and makes upgrading much easier.
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5. From Selection to Contract
PeopleSoft selected July 2002
“Conference Room Pilot” – six weeks in Tallahassee mid-Aug to end of Sept 2002
Contract with PeopleSoft September 30, 2002
Project staffing Oct, Nov, Dec 2002
Development and portal Infrastructure in place, Dec 2002
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6. From Contract to Go-Live
Portal launched March 31, 2003
Data warehouse and Enterprise Reporting Cognos Business Intelligence launched August 8, 2003
HR and Finance pre-launch June 18, 2004
HR and Finance full-launch July 1, 2004
Eighteen PeopleSoft modules. Largest single launch in higher ed.
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7. Implementation
UF Bridges, a new organization to create new services, created off-site in October 2002.
Three-way staffing model:
Existing UF staff: 60%
Temporary UF staff 25%
Hourly Consultants 15%
Project Management Office – Fred Cantrell, Mike Conlon, Mike Corwin, Warren Curry
Matrixed teams
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8. Project Organization -- Matrix
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9. Methodology Overview Fit/Gap Design Development / Data Conversion
What must be done? What does PeopleSoft do?
Design
How to address gaps? Business Process? Mod? Bolt-on? Product?
Development / Data Conversion
All UF data must be accounted for; Millions of records; thousands of tables; paper documents; 100% accuracy expected
Testing
Unit, Integration, Load, Legacy
Training
Core users, end users. Modalities
Deployment
Conversion, stabilization
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10. Implementation Challenges Before Go-Live
Product Knowledge
Consultants know the product, or claim to know the product. UF staffers do not know the product
UF Knowledge
UF staffers know UF, or claim to know UF. Consultants do not know UF
“Keep it Vanilla”
Changing UF business processes. How much change can we handle?
Decision Making
Advisory committees, stakeholders, deans, vice presidents, executive sponsors
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11. Implementation Challenges After Go-Live
Some facts about UF
Very distributed processes. Ten times the number of Finance users expected by PeopleSoft
Very low staff turn over. Staff had no experience with other systems or processes
Very low management overhead. Staff members work independently. Managers are typically academic with other responsibilities
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12. Implementation Challenges After Go-Live: Training
Difficult to get people to training before launch. 48,000 seat-hours filled
Multiple modalities. In class, on-line, readings, web videos
Training environment and pilot environment
Discrepancies between training materials, environment and production
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13. Implementation Challenges After Go-Live: Change Management
PI needs to pay person from a grant
Staff not familiar with chart fields
Chart fields not populated for grant
Grant money not in appropriate accounts
Staff not familiar with payroll distribution
Administrators not authorized to perform functions
Bottom line – person does not get paid from the grant, person gets paid from other funds, must do transfers, sponsors not billed appropriately
Effort throughout each process to enable payroll distribution from grants. Improving each pay period
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14. Implementation – The Good News
On-time and On-budget
Project costs ($29 mill) were 1/6 that of peer schools, saving UF over $150 mill
All modules implemented
Payroll has run smoothly
Effort remains in grants, reporting
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15. Implications Operational improvements Operational savings
Payroll, grants, finance, hiring, benefits, self-service, portal, purchasing, expense, warehouse
Operational savings
Budget, warehouse, “shadow systems”, staff
Savings could be $50 mill per year
Position for future
E-commerce, system integration, scalable, supported platform
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16. Additional Info Bridges Web Site Web Portal
Status reports, presentations, AUC/Stakeholder minutes, training registration
Web Portal
News, PeopleBooks
PeopleSoft Customer Connection
Webcasts, white papers, technical docs
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