Steering Committee Notes

January 10
Chair Bob Palmer announced that following a short agenda, the meeting would be devoted to participation in the Student Administration system readiness assessment interview conducted by consultants from the CedarCrestone group, which had recently been contracted to perform the assessment.

Amir reported on the previous day’s meeting in San Jose with the CSU CMS Executive Committee where he and Chris successfully presented our campus case to delay implementation of Finance from 7/06 until 7/07. (See Message from Chris for details).

Chris presented the revised dates for the central Data Center migration of our campus data: 3/31-4/01 and 4/03-4/05. Phase 1 comes at the end of spring break and Phase 2 early enough to not impact Leave Accounting. He recapped the recent and upcoming HR releases which was followed by John Lynn’s commendation of the technical team, business analysts and trainers for their dedication to the success of these releases. Chris highlighted the benefits of the new Finance schedule, one being the earlier implementation of version 8.9, which will allow more resources to focus on the Student Administration (SA) implementation.

Amir reviewed the process that resulted in the selection of CedarCrestone as the campus readiness partner, their task being to assess and advise on critical items identified during the assessment process. There are 10 categories for which we hope to achieve “ideal” ratings, as in the HR/Finance readiness assessment. Several groups and individuals are participating in the assessment over the course of the week.

Members of the CedarCrestone group then identified their objectives for the interview with the Steering Committee as the following:

• Determine if members are able to devote time to guide and monitor throughout the implementation process and to identify what challenges they perceive may arise during the implementation.
• Determine if the committee will be able to address and resolve cross-functional issues that may arise during the design and configuration of the system;
• Assure that the committee has formalized a decision making process to address policy, resource, and change management issues.
  During the interview, the dialogue focused on the identification of challenges, benefits, opportunities, limitations, recommendations and success factors.
  

December 13
Chair Bob Palmer announced that, beginning in January, the committee will receive monthly budget overviews. Amir provided an update on the CMS data warehouse, noting that the campus selects and purchases its own hardware while the CO provides software. The system-wide data center has delayed the date for the migration of our campus data, based on experience with pilot groups. Our migration is rescheduled from February until late March and early April.

Susan Kachner indicated that the CMS Reporting Committee met in December, had a January meeting scheduled and was moving forward. Welson Badal reported on the proposed objectives and membership of the new CMS Forms Committee. Chris Manriquez reviewed the general release methodology, noting that not all applications allow pilot testing; for some, it’s all or nothing. In those cases, feedback from user groups is critical. Chris also summarized status of HR distributed releases including leave accounting, part-time faculty, and student worker. There was discussion about training attendance and the fact that security access requires some set up effort. Timely registration insures system access; late signups or drop-ins cannot be provided with system access in time for training. Training rooms have limited seating/computers and usually cannot accommodate individuals who decide to make last-minute plans to catch a class.

Chris reviewed the finance project status and announced that Joan Horn was recently hired as the purchasing business analyst. He informed the group that, according to a conversation at a recent meeting of system-wide CMS project directors, all campuses are challenged to fill CMS positions in the face of increasing demand for PeopleSoft/CMS skills. Other activities for the finance project include the formation of divisional support groups and expanded scheduling for fit gap sessions, targeting a go-live timeline of July 2007.

The Student project is preparing requirements to select a vendor for the readiness assessment and an RFP for an implementation partner.