PROJECT OFFICE
CMS Steering Committee
Steering Committee Representatives
Robert Palmer (Chair)
Margaret Atwell
Bill Barrett
Dick Bednar
Nancy Dority
Amir Dabirian
David Fromson
Lea Jarnagin
Brian Jenkins
Susan Kachner
Susan Lasswell
John Lynn
Chris Manriquez
Harry Norman
Chris Manriquez
Daniel Ramsey (Student Rep.)
Karen Wall
Cailin White (Student Rep.)
Responsibilities
The CMS Steering Committee is composed primarily of members from each functional area providing resources to the project as well as key representation from the campus at large. Members meet regularly to discuss issues, review progress, provide resources and make key decisions.
Implementation, Upgrade & Production responsibilities include:
- Allocating staff resources
- Overall planning
- Involvements
- Resolving policy issues
- Business practice endorsement
- Changing advocates
- Managing expectations
- Communication/outreach
- Budget planning
Key Decisions and Recommendations
2006 Key Decisions and Recommendations
Updates
November 13, 2007
Chair Bob Palmer welcomed members, secured approval of the August meeting minutes and turned the next part of the meeting over to Amir Dabirian. Amir presented an overview of the CMS budget, noting a baseline increase of $700K and pointing out that an anticipated one time allocation of $1.8M had been deferred to 2008-09. Meanwhile, loan payment obligations continue, with a payment of $2.4M due this year. The project challenged by a need for approximately $3M this academic year, is faced with limiting deliverables and staffing expenses.
Susan Kachner provided a status update for the Campus Solutions (Student Administration) system. Options for payments via CashNet currently are being reviewed by the CFO. Another issue under review by PAB is student assistant access to CMS. Campus discussion of consolidation of fees continues to elicit pros and cons, although the CSU currently allows no changes to student fees. The Darwin interface to SIS+ has been problematic and a solution may not be possible, leaving the team to move directly to an interface with PeopleSoft.
Susan presented several factors considered in a possible shift from a Summer registration/fee payment go-live to a Fall go-live. There was consensus for presenting a recommendation to PAB for this shift. On track are March implementations for Admissions, Financial Aid (for the 2008/2009 award year) and DarWin interfaced with PeopleSoft.
Amir presented the portal update that includes implementing selected features of the PeopleSoft portal in March 2008. The infrastructure is in place and the campus has the appropriate resources available to create a common page across the existing .net portal and PS application sets. Preliminary CMS SA and HR pages will be designed soon with documentation /training to follow.
Chris reminded the committee that HR is operational. Sandra Sobel presented HR priorities, among them post-Labor Cost Distribution implementation review and reports. The CSU continues the debate about what features are core. Recruiting Solutions is part of the HR core. Our team will consult with campuses who use this feature before committing to the module. The state’s 21st Century project will go live in October 2009; Glenda Hart is the campus liaison for the project. This project uses SAP and will require a direct CMS interface and common practices from all the CSU campuses.
Chris summarized the Finance project by reporting that after 3 months of post-production operations, FRS is gone and PeopleSoft is running. Allyson Bates provided updates on the 9.1 upgrade (“mostly cosmetic”); CSU data warehouse, student refunds and revenue management program.
Follow this link to view the project timeline.
August 14, 2007
Bob Palmer convened the meeting and quickly turned it over to Chris Manriquez who gave an overview of important dates from CMS Central at the CSU. By October 2008, all campuses must be live on all baseline PeopleSoft applications in HR , FIS, and CS. This schedule gives our campus some breathing room and opportunities to fix bugs between upgrading again. March 2009 is the tentative deadline for the FIS 9.0 upgrade.
June 2009 will see all campuses go live with the SCO 21st Century Project; this will have a big impact on the CSU because it changes how paychecks are processed. HR and CS will skip the 9.0 upgrade and instead target 9.1 or 9x.
Chris reviewed the CMS projects that have gone live: HR/HCM 8.9; FIS 8.4 and Hobson’s EMT (Recruiting application).
Top CMS Priorities for the fall include:
1. Ongoing operations and break fix support of live modules;
2. Identifying gaps in production applications;
3. Clarifying service extensions for units and modifications; and
4. New university-wide systems development (limited).
Additional implementation activities that will impact the project include:
1. PeopleSoft Portal;
2. Data Warehouse/Hyperion;
3. FileNet;
4. E-Forms,
5. Security Processing; and
6. Roles/Accounts for Student Workers.
There were no changes to the proposed CMS Modification Approval and Design Request Form. Chris noted that modifications will be developed to meet campus accessibility goals.
Sandra Sobel provided an update on Labor Cost Distribution and Temporary Faculty Processing. She reported that over 600 contracts were processed to date through the new system, which is working well. Allyson Bates indicated that the several go-lives in Finance were going well and that the data conversion from FRS is underway. She noted that reports are being finalized.
Susan Kachner provided the Campus Solutions update. SIS+ data is being cleaned up; necessary modifications have been identified and are in development and testing stages. Preparation is underway for the initial go-lives, the first of which is Academic Structure for course inventory and class schedule, planned for September. Campus leaders have been discussing the consolidation of A&R fees and wait-listing options.
July 10, 2007
Bob Palmer opened the July 7 meeting and turned it over to Chris Manriquez for a report on the June 12 action item on department re-organizations. The best practice recommendations document for department reorganizations suggesting standardization of dates is ready for Bob and Amir to take to President’s Advisory Board for discussion and approval. Chris continued with comments regarding the need to address roles and security for student workers in Campus Solutions. As an important part of the university work force, student workers have access to selected screens in SIS+ and will need access to the same data in CMS. Chris gave a brief update from the other committees. The Forms Committee is preparing a timeline for forms template conversion into FileNet E-Forms. The Reports Committee will reconvene this summer for an overall update and demonstration.
Chris reviewed the CMS Project funding model which includes only funds necessary for operational expenses and for hardware and software purchases on a one-time basis. He announced that all funding from the project for staff positions ends three months after the go live date for all applications. Thereafter, positions will be funded from the appropriate division or department where an evaluation of the position will need to occur, working with the CMS Project Office to identify existing and oncoming areas of impact. Bob indicated that allocations of non-CMS project funds should be a fall agenda item for Planning Resource Budget Committee.
At present, funding has not been allocated for project upgrade periods. Chris is in conversations around campus to determine timelines for upgrades. Our strategy is to push upgrades out as much as possible and consider skipping versions if a newer one is already available. In addition to upgrades, there are new, required modules, some complex, that require considerable resources. These include Academic Advisement, Absence Management, Benefits Administration, Recruit Solutions and others.
Chris assured the committee that the project was making progress on each of the key goals of the campus implementation:
- Resolve long standing or currently identified business functions issues through process or technical developments
- Map business processes and facilitate change in business operations
- Provide all campus users sufficient tools and applications to limit the number of systems on campus used to perform business functions or those that house protected data
- Provide all campus users (central and distributed) an opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions for process improvement
The committee was asked to review the updated CMS Modification Approval and Design Request Form which is to be used for incoming implementations and modifications. Business analysts will provide advice and assistance to individuals requesting modifications to meet new business requirements.
Activities are underway to meet three significant backend operational objectives:
- Strengthen security practices;
- Establish a routine for patches, fixes and repairs;
- Establish fixed environments for development and support.
Phase II of the HRIS project is now live, with conversion to Labor Cost Distribution (LCD) complete, although it is expected that, because the concept of LCD is completely new to the campus, it will take several months for the campus to adjust. New chart field and position numbers are beginning to be used but additional communication is needed to expand utilization.
Allyson Bates reported that Phase II of Finance is also live and that Accounts Payable is now out of FRS.
Susan Kachner provided an update on the go-live timetable for the Campus Solutions system, beginning with the course catalog this September. Most of the processes will go-live between March and April of 2008, with all but Financial Aid processing due to go live in June 2008. Her team has nearly completed several data conversions and also has determined a conversion timetable for the remainder. The DARS to DARwin implementation has been moved from June to September; this is anticipated to be seamless for students, although much more user-friendly and easier to read. Use of the DARwin degree audit will streamline the graduation checkout process for undergraduates, thanks to a recent decision by campus administrators. Several other decisions are in progress, including those affecting wait-listing, wish-listing, and consolidation of Admissions &Records fees (as many campuses already have approved). The technical team has developed 46 system modifications (as of 6-15-07), including nine complex modifications in Admissions & Records that will replicate current SIS+ functionality. Improvements will be made for email accounts for new students, including a single-use password and access process that includes phasing out PINs.
The meeting was adjourned by Bob Palmer.
March 27, 2007
Chair Bob Palmer opened the meeting. Chris commented on the attendance at the four CMS sessions at IT’s Technology Day in February. Each CMS session was attended by about 25 people and each session had lots of questions and feedback.
Chris reminded the group that the campus has experienced a major milestone with the migration to HCM 8.9 on March 19. He recognized the efforts of the technical team and business analysts who made concentrated efforts for over three weeks to make this happen. Amir reported that the CO CMS office was happy with our upgrade process. Communication to campus users was part of the upgrade plan, and training continues to be essential for staff who will use the new system. Labor Cost Distribution will be launched in July; during intervening months, integration between FIS and HR will be accomplished. Payroll and Finance staff members are collaborating to determine the campus process. User teams will review the design of LCD in mid-April. This application also incorporates new methodology for position management. A CMS HR reports sub-committee, chaired by Lisa Kopecky, has been formed to identify the kinds of data that people will need from the system.
Chris revealed that the Finance go-live date of July 1 is just 95 days away. Brian Jenkins provided status reports on several facets of the project. The FY 06/07 year-end close guidelines were released; work on department IDs/ trees is underway; conversion of vendor data is in the works in preparation for this year’s encumbrances going into CMS. Meetings regarding department chart of accounts will be held in next two weeks. A CMS Finance reports sub-committee has been assembled, with Lisa Kopecky serving as chair. This group will draft the layout for six critical “Day 1” reports.
Susan Kachner brought the committee up to date regarding Campus Solutions. Her team is evaluating products for room scheduling software. The hardware for the DARS to DARWin implementation has arrived and the software contract has been finalized. Staff have been trained. Amir and Susan both reported hearing that CSUN is extremely happy with DARWin. The CS management team is developing white papers on major issues to enable informed decision making by Academic Affairs leaders and others. There was a lengthy discussion regarding alternatives to Sevis; third party product alternatives are being explored because vendor support for Sevis ends at the end of 2007. Susan announced that the CashNet.com upgrade was fully in production at 8 a.m. on March 28, as scheduled.
Among key decisions made by CS team, are those to modify PeopleSoft to continue weighting graduate units at 1.5 their unit value; and to code specific GE requirements effective Summer 2008. Several data conversions are in progress. Ten members of the CS technical staff begin training August 2 through mid-June.
Amir, Chris, Susan and others attended the annual national PeopleSoft user meeting where they learned that Fusion is delayed until 2008. Fusion will be created from the top four Oracle products.
February 13, 2007
Bob Palmer opened the meeting, turning it over to Susan Kachner who discussed decisions made on the Portal. Once Campus Solutions goes live, students, faculty and staff will continue to utilize the existing .Net portal. Within the .Net portal, when TITAN Online is selected, the PeopleSoft portal will launch to provide self-service access to Campus Solutions for students and faculty. Authentication to the student portal will change once Campus Solutions goes live. Since PeopleSoft will no longer store PIN numbers for students/applicants, we had to devise a different approach to authentication. Applicants will authenticate to the student portal each time using CWID, last name and one other piece of data such as zip code or birth date. Students will authenticate to the portal the first time using that same information, but at first logon they will "register" for the portal and select a username, password and hint question/answer in case they forget their password.
Chris Manriquez announced upcoming communications efforts regarding the HR upgrade and CMS presentations for IT’s February 22 Technology Day. Michelle Totten announced that Lisa Kopecky has succeeded Susan Kachner as chair of the Reports Committee. That group has been expanded for wider campus representation, with the larger group meeting on February 12. New goals for the committee focus on the coordinating campus information / report needs for CMS, formalizing process for future requests, establishing tool to track and communicate delivery progress and a catalog of all reports. Two subcommittees, for HR and Financial reports, were established.
Chris gave a brief overview of the 10-day upgrade process planned for the HRIS move to version 8.9 beginning March 9. Several interim processes will be operational beginning March 9; those will be communicated at a later date. The technical team is reviewing potential infrastructure changes that may be needed to HCM 8.9. Those most impacted by the upgrade will be timekeepers and student worker processors. This population of around 140 employees will receive a series of targeted emails inviting them to mandatory training sessions to be completed by April 6. Post go live analysis of the Time Entry module reveals that some 22 departments consistently have late attendance processing. The payroll team is undertaking an analysis in hopes of working with the campus to facilitate more on time processing.
Michelle updated the committee on key Finance project objectives, which include configuration and development, to be followed by training and testing by users. Bi-monthly calls with the team and CMS Central are proving to be valuable in planning for the July 1 go live. Divisional finance coordinators continue to meet to give input to key decisions involving COA mapping, labor cost distribution, year-end conversion and more. A year-end close guidelines memo will be distributed to divisional HR and finance managers; these will include deadlines for budget transfers, deposit of checks, OfficeMax orders, petty cash transactions, requisitions, travel expense claims and other items. Efforts are underway to ensure smooth year-end close and successful conversion from FRS to CMS. Susan Kachner noted that the conversion from CashNet to CashNet.com is underway, with a go live date of March 28, 2007.
Susan Kachner concluded the meeting with an update on Campus Solutions. She reported that the DARwin project (for advising) is moving forward. Vendor presentations for 3rd party Room Scheduling software have concluded and at this point price quotes are being requested from the two vendors (Ad Astra and Resource 25). Ease of use of this software is a primary criteria given that room scheduling is decentralized on our campus.
January 23, 2007
Bob Palmer called the meeting to order and Chris led the group through another full agenda that included updates on the Hyperion (Brio) project, with hardware and software scheduled to be installed by mid-February. The File Net upgrade has a similar timeframe. Both products will support the campus data warehouse project. CMS Central (CO) has a new system-wide plan using new a new tool set with Oracle EPM software. Classroom scheduling software is under review and Hopson EMT for student applicant outreach and recruiting is scheduled to go live May 1. The Division of Administration and Finance is leading the campus transition from CashNet to CashNet.com for online financial transactions. Work is underway to identify interface needs from CMS, TitanCard and other campus applications. CashNet.com is an ASP model which, like CMS, runs off an off-site data center. Amir reported that the product has passed our security audit. Installation is targeted for the last week in March, during spring break.
Chris announced that IT’s Spring Technology Day will feature four sessions on CMS; an overview of the project and one session each for HCM, FIS and CS, focusing on functionality. More details will be available on the CMS website, where visits have increased 65%. Chris asked the committee for input on the CMS goals statement and project structure roadmap, final versions of which will be posted to the CMS site.
Moving on to project status updates, Chris and John Lynn provided details about the HCM (HR) move to production in March. During the period of March 9 to approximately March 13, the current system will be available for view access only, allowing staff time to test and verify data before bringing up the new version. More information will be forthcoming to those impacted by the down time. The CSU is requiring conversion to the Absence Management module and Cal State Fullerton is planning a phased conversion from Leave Accounting to Absence Management. Phase 1 will see Leave Accounting modifications effective March 19. In Phase II (probably in early June) the campus will convert from Leave Accounting to Absence management, with parallel processing until Absence Management is scheduled to go live in October as Leave Accounting is decommissioned (Phase III).
The Finance (FIS) project continues with fit gap sessions and technical development. Administration and Finance personnel are determining those functions to be affected for fiscal year-end and are planning appropriate communications to the campus later this semester.
Chris reminded the group of the magnitude of the Campus Solutions (CS) project, saying that the scope HR is 17% of the scope of CS and that Finance is 23%. Susan Kachner reported that all modules of the Campus Solutions system are undergoing IDP (Interactive Design & Prototype) sessions. Recruiting of qualified staff continues to be a problem for this part of the project. Amir described a change in the conversion plan for our campus advising application, DARS. Departing from the original plan, project leaders recommended and campus leaders approved the proposal to convert DARS to DARWIN in 2007-08, and then convert DARWIN to PeopleSoft’s Academic Advisement module in 2009. This plan reduces risk by allowing Cal State Fullerton to follow five other CSU campuses on an established path and DARWIN provides more functionality in the short run. Assuming approval from CMS Central, we will start the DARS to DARWIN conversion next month. Susan noted that campus leaders have prioritized several key modifications and functionality gaps. Her team is determining costs to maintain existing functionality of SIS+. Their goal is to avoid modifications if, instead, it makes sense to change business processes.
