Moeller gives update on PeopleSoft upgrades

For the past 18 months, the University Support Services (USS) group has been playing catch-up with PeopleSoft and its many required upgrades – but they’re finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s a lot of work, and there’s a lot of coordination and project management that goes into it, and it involves more than just the USS teams,” said Jason Moeller, USS associate director for engineering. USS works closely with key members of the Business, Identity and Access Management, Common Infrastructure Services, and Strategic Communication teams to ensure successful implementation of each upgrade.

There are actually two types of upgrades Moeller and his team are responsible for: PeopleTools, which is the backend framework components of the application, and PeopleSoft Applications, which generally include front-facing customer applications like HR, Financial, Campus Solutions, and so on.

The biggest round of upgrades USS has completed thus far is PeopleTools, bringing everything up to version 8.5.4. And in summer 2015, the team completed one Application upgrade, bringing PeopleSoft HR up to version 9.2.

“Right now, we’re just starting the 9.2 Financials upgrade,” said Moeller. “So that’ll likely be another 8 month endeavor.”

The catalyst for upgrading has always been to stay under vendor support, but there are other benefits to upgrading as well.

“That’s the nice thing about the upgrades,” said Moeller. “You’ve got bug fixes, security fixes, and overall enhancements.”

“PeopleSoft is doing a lot of new cool things,” he added – things like PeopleSoft’s “fluid technology,” which provides a responsive design for its applications.

So what’s the vision going forward?

“The overall strategy is to try to keep up-to-date on the maintenance. PeopleSoft did deliver some tools that should provide some additional flexibility to upgrades going forward,” said Moeller. “But I think it’ll be a continual effort of maintenance.”

Overall, the success of each upgrade has been thanks to an extensive effort led by USS and in collaboration with many dedicated IT and business professionals on campus. 

“A huge thanks to all those that have been involved in the upgrade process,” said Moeller. “It’s not an easy thing. It does take a lot of effort and a lot of coordination, and there’s no way any one team could get it done.

 

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