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| Vol. 18, No. 12 | Nov. 19, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 12 | Nov. 19, 1998 |
This is Mr. Mainframe," Carl Jacobson said Nov. 5 as he displayed a plastic bucket of Lego® blocks during a meeting of UD employees and students working to improve payroll and human resources technologies.
Under the University's current system, all payroll, employment and personnel information is centrally housed on one large mainframe, explained Jacobson, Information Technologies/Management Information Services. The mainframe is secure, he said, but it is old, expensive and overloaded.
Over the next 10 weeks, a campuswide committee will begin prototyping a more efficient, decentralized system for processing human resources information. By July 2000, the committee expects to roll out similar new systems to better manage benefits, payroll and time and labor functions.
The technology, known as the PeopleSoft Human Resources Management System, will allow employees to access their human resources information via the World Wide Web, Jacobson said. Centralized databases will be secured within a large, central server, he said, and the information will be "scraped and displayed on the web, where employees can use and maintain their own files."
The goal of the new PeopleSoft system, according to committee leader Tory Windley, Purchasing, is to move toward "a more paperless system" while simplifying key tasks, eliminating duplication among different offices and improving efficiency. "Our whole focus is customer satisfaction," Windley said, referring to the UD employees and students who will use the PeopleSoft system.
When more than one administrative office handles the same task, she noted, this duplication of effort slows service to the employee, resulting in a loss of productivity. The PeopleSoft system would boost efficiency, in part, "by giving employees the option of self-service," and by streamlining administrative processes.
Toward that end, a group of PeopleSoft committee members recently completed an exhaustive analysis of human resource processes to determine their "business benefits" and other features, Anna Bloch, Personnel Records, said.
That effort, part of an initial "scope" phase of the PeopleSoft implementation project, also involved surveying "customers" or users representing a broad range of departments and campus sectors, Jeffrey Quirico, provost's office, said.
"We're building a foundation for the future of the University and its infrastructure for supporting human resources, benefits and payroll," Quirico said. "Because we don't have any Year 2000 computer problems to solve, we have an excellent opportunity to do it right. We're trying to improve the way employee information is collected and managed."
Patricia Davis, Information Technologies/Management Information Services, noted that the PeopleSoft committee has generated participation from a broad spectrum of individuals.
"This is an exciting time for us," she said. "It's the first time we've launched a project of this magnitude, and we have so many different people involved, we believe this will be a very successful effort."
-Ginger Pinholster
