Message from Miriam Ward:

Because of PeopleSoft and Web performance issues, we are hearing questions and concerns from some of you about the payroll implementation planned for the end of June 2000.

We understand and share concerns regarding performance. Performance must improve before we add payroll applications and additional users, or we will only increase the problem.

That said, however, we continue to work hard toward the scheduled implementation date, staying in close touch with the Performance Team working on system performance improvements.

Performance and system capacity issues are being investigated. Technical and functional staff are aggressively addressing performance issues and enlisting the support of PeopleSoft and other vendors. As part of this effort the University has a three-week contract with Andersen Consulting, to determine the capacity of our current infrastructure to handle the load and estimate the additional capacity needed for payroll and benefits applications.

Andersen staff, who have worked with several large PeopleSoft implementations, including a 200,000 employee implementation for New York state, are on campus now. The result of their work will be a report that addresses these capacity issues, recommends methodologies to improve performance they have seen work in other organizations, and more clearly delineates what PeopleSoft can do to help and what we can do on our own to improve performance. The report will be available in about two weeks.

In addition we are working directly with PeopleSoft to identify the most problematic processes and develop "fixes" we can apply to similar processes. Most of this work will be with student processes, but will provide significant insight into problems with Campus Community and many similar HR processes.

In the meantime our U technical staff is moving forward on a number of fixes. One fix, to be implemented January 18, is the first of several which will result in improvement of the Web.

January 18 is also the date of a meeting between PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway and the Big Ten universities implementing PeopleSoft to discuss common concerns and problems. Vice Presidents Bruininks, Kvavik, and Cawley will attend.

With so much energy being devoted to these various performance improvement strategies, we continue to move forward anticipating payroll implementation in late June.

As the work of the Performance Team, PeopleSoft, Andersen Consulting, and the Big Ten schools continues, we will continually monitor and assess the results as they impact the payroll implementation. We will continue to make you aware of progress as we test the methodologies suggested by the various groups.

Vice President, Carol Carrier, and I urge all colleges and administrative units to continue planning and preparation toward a June payroll implementation.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with your questions and concerns at wardx022@umn.edu.