Steering Committee Meeting
Notes - April 26, 2005
Communication with Campus (Requests for Assistance)
Kathy Hamperian announced that the IRIS Project leadership plans to use a focused approach when asking for help from the campus community. All requests for assistance or information will go to the University’s Area Security Officers: Lisa Wilson, Provost; Penny Cox, Information Technology; Dan Wentz, Research; Kristin Cheser, Finance and Administration; and Teresa Centers, Hospital/Clinical Enterprise. These individuals will reach down as needed in order to respond to requests. As an example of a project request, the Area Security Officers soon will be asked to identify employees to help with some of the upcoming testing.
- Team Updates
Financials: Dale Austin reported on recent accomplishments such as completion of the chart of accounts, development of document types and number ranges, and baseline unit testing. Work currently underway includes the development of Business Process Procedures (BPPs), org structure (academic units), attribute data mapping, the KMSF component, prioritization of reports, interface transaction testing, and final configuration. Upcoming efforts will cover editing the BPPs, testing, interface development/testing, data conversion testing, and work on the faculty effort and endowment system replacements.
Materials Management: Kevin Stevens updated everyone on MM progress. Baseline configuration and testing for campus are finished, as are the configuration and testing of release strategies and tolerance limits. Auto Account Determination for Inventory also is configured. The MM Team has begun its BPP work. Kevin shared information on the move from the hospital’s ESI system to SAP in January 2006 and hospital inventory for Go Live. Kevin’s report included procurement card news: the requirements are finished and a consultant is expected to begin programming soon.
HR/Payroll: Michelle Bliffen next offered the group an update on her team’s progress. Baseline configuration for all submodules is to be finished this Friday or early next week. Unit testing concludes May 15 and integration testing is scheduled for June 20-July 29. In the Personnel Administration area, the team is refining personnel actions, fine-tuning methods for handling administrative payments for faculty members, and developing a demonstration for the Compensation Office. The team continues to work on Organizational Management, having identified a strategy for creating org structure for academic units. Other effort is focused on relationships identified for reporting purposes. In the Benefits area, the team continues to work on the challenges of retirement plans, deduction of premiums in advance, and the direct bill enhancement.
Campus Management: The Steering Committee learned of progress in Student Accounting, Student Administration, and Financial Aid. Michelle Nordin reported on numerous tasks in Student Accounting that are being addressed in order to stay on target for the accelerated timeline of this part of CM. The configuration for Student Accounting is 90 percent complete and work on BPPs is scheduled to begin soon and be finished by May 20. Student Billing Services and the Office of the Controller and Treasurer have attended recent demonstrations of Cash Desk functionality. The Student Payment and Accounting Issues Committee has drafted its report of recommendations and work on a communication plan for Student Accounting is underway.
In the area of Student Administration, team members are working on baseline configuration (70 percent complete), Visitor Center documentation, data mapping, and prototyping of programs of study, modules, and event types. Some members will be traveling to the University of Mississippi for training and others have been invited to Germany for SAP’s upcoming CM 6.0 acceptance testing program.
Lynda George provided the update on Financial Aid: ProSAM Development installation is done, as is the Sigma pre-configuration, and the Sandbox environment for ProSAM is nearly finished (80 percent). Lynda expects to complete configuration and testing on the modules for data load, tracking, needs analysis, and ISIR correction within the next two weeks. Work on the budget and financial aid awarding modules will be initiated soon.
Training Team: Diana Sage reported that most of the project team training was completed, with only BW, portal, and some CM classes remaining on the schedule. Some additional training for FI and HR team members is anticipated post-Go Live.
For end-user training, Diana has received proposals from two potential training coaches who have assessed the current state of training, identified gaps, and offered suggestions for next steps.
The Area Security Officers will assist with the identification of end-users in specific roles. Once identified, end-users will receive custom training maps built on their specific role(s) in the new system.
As previously reported, teams are beginning to record BPPs, using the RWD InfoPak Suite software. The Training Team will edit those recorded BPPs and from them develop material for instructor-led courses, simulations, work instructions, and cue cards.
Technical Team: Kathy Hamperian next provided an update on the technical side of the project. The University of Mississippi has been gracious in offering valuable technical training and insight to IRIS Technical Team members who’ve traveled to Oxford for instruction.
Regarding the R.I.C.E. list, Kathy noted that current focus is on conversions for which data mapping is critical to success. Consultants are working on-site on enhancements/solutions for procurement card, endowments, and direct billing.
Production hardware is ordered and the installation is being planned.
Single Sign-on through the Enterprise Portal represents an important breakthrough for the project, as UK has succeeded where other institutions have failed.
Project Management: Lee Nelson announced that UK has been invited to present at Sapphire 2005 (to be held in Boston in May).
Lee reported that the project in general continues to be on schedule. From his project management point of view, the Faculty Effort System (FES) solution needs to be jump-started and BPPs require special attention, which should come with the selection of a consultant-coach.
- HR Payroll Testing
Lee presented the plan for HR/Payroll Testing to be carried out over the next few months. The plan includes unit testing, integration testing, comparison testing, and production simulation. After explaining unit and integration testing purposes, Lee then described Comparison Testing (HRS and SAP), which is slated for August and September.
The final portion of the HR/Payroll Testing program involves a production simulation. After describing its purpose and importance, Lee posed the question of population size to test: 100 percent of the population or a representative sample. He outlined considerations and touched upon benefits, costs, and disadvantages of both approaches. Lee concluded by offering a recommendation to use a representative sample. He took the Steering Committee through the process and noted that this methodology had worked well at other implementation sites.
The IRIS Steering Committee meets next on May 24, 2005.
