June 18, 1999

MEMORANDUM

To: PeopleSoft users

From: Roberta Armstrong, Student 2000 Project Director

Miriam Ward, HRMS Project Director

Re: Upgrade to version 7.5 scheduled for Friday evening, July 16 through Sunday, July 25

Most of you have heard that the University will be upgrading the PeopleSoft Enterprise system to the newest release of the PeopleSoft product soon. The upgrade includes both HRMS and Student Administration applications currently implemented. All future implementation points (e.g., payroll and benefits) will be developed using the latest release of the product.

We have looked closely at University business processes on all campuses and concluded that we have only one realistic window to accomplish this upgrade—the end of July. The upgrade is needed for critical Student Administration and HRMS business processes that are in development for rollout in late summer and on into next year.

What does this mean for you? At the time of the actual upgrade, the "live" system (HEPCOM) will not be available for probably a full week. We expect to have the upgraded PeopleSoft ready for your use on Monday, July 26. This means you will be without access to HRMS and Student Administration or Web Registration from end of day Friday July 16 through Sunday July 25. Depending on other duties of your position, you may want to discuss alternative tasks with your supervisor, including for vacation that week since you will not be able to access PeopleSoft during the actual upgrade process.

Your offices will also need to think through how to handle phone and in-person service requests during this time.

Although several months of effort are going into the planning and preparation necessary for the upgrade, we cannot guarantee the timing of the upgrade. There is always the possibility it could be completed in less than the week and the system would be available before July 26; however, it is also possible that the upgrade will take longer and we find ourselves on July 26 with a few more days required. We will keep you posted using the HRMS and student listservs.

What about training? The project teams are now analyzing the degree of change in the system and planning the best ways to communicate about it. Many of the changes are "under the hood" and don’t impact what you see or do in your daily work. Others are more substantial. Expect more information about training from the project teams and Training Services over the next month or so.

Installation of Version 7.5 on your desktop. The technical staff who originally installed PeopleSoft on your desktop will also install the upgrade. You need not be present for the installation, but you will know that it's occurred if "PeopleSoft HE 7.5" is listed on your computer's Program Menu.

For HRMS users. Given the volume of work you have to do and the importance of keeping data in HRMS current with Payroll, you may want to spend extra effort to have entry up-to-date prior to the upgrade. Then, when the system is again available you will not have so much catch up work to get entered. Please note that Management Reporting and data warehouse will continue to be available during this time.

For Student Administration users. Since we are not yet fully converted to PeopleSoft, we will be able to continue some work on the legacy systems during the upgrade. The table below gives you a brief idea of what is available. Knowing what you can and can’t do on the system will help you plan for handling phone and walk-in service (e.g., will you take time stamped requests for overrides?).

Please feel free to contact us with your questions: r-arms@tc.umn.edu, wardx022@tc.umn.edu.

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