One U PeopleSoft Finance Transformation Project

 Access the document in Box (login required)

Redesigning the COA will create a more efficient financial system to process transactions, support management reporting, and generate analytics. A central chart that is flexible and scalable will improve financial reporting for departments, colleges, schools, divisions, and business units, while still enabling external financial reporting. The COA subproject will also position the university to implement new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Oracle has continued to develop the PeopleSoft product by adding functionality and making technical and system improvements. While the university's PeopleSoft implementation has been consistently updated  technically, many functionality updates have not been adopted. This project includes researching, identifying, and recommending possible key improvements to leverage current up-to-date applications.

Many costly customizations have been made to PeopleSoft since the university implemented it as the institution's workforce management platform in the 1990s. Customizations are expensive and increase the time and effort required to implement upgrades and patches. Other changes, like reorganizing or adopting new ChartField accounts, are also more complex due to customizations.

For the duration of the project, there will be a moratorium on new PeopleSoft customization requests except in cases of legislative or regulatory mandate, or with the permission of project executive sponsors.

The overall project supports the university’s One U Strategy 2025 roadmap, specifically the theme "consolidate, develop and refresh technologies and centralize data and analytics to better serve our constituents."

Members of the U community may also access a PowerPoint version of the general ledger guiding principles document in Box (login required). If you'd like to provide feedback on the document, please contact Project Manager Piotr Pawlikowski at piotr.pawlikowski@utah.edu.

The primary focus will be on PeopleSoft Finance functionality, with in scope touchpoints that include payroll, payroll budgeting, and PeopleSoft HR (e.g., uBenefits and D-Jobs).

Applications considered out of scope include Human Capital Management (HCM) and Student applications, and third-party systems such as Jaggaer, Concur, and Lawson.

• Cathy Anderson, Chief Financial Officer, University of Utah
• Steve Hess, Chief Information Officer, University of Utah
  
• Mitzi Montoya, Sr. VP for Academic Affairs, University of Utah
• Charlton Park, Chief Financial Officer, University Hospitals and Clinics

• Theresa Ashman, Associate Vice President of Financial and Business Services, University of Utah
  
• Cynthia Best, Vice Dean of Finance and Administration, School of Medicine
  
• Brita Manzo, Associate Chief Financial Officer, University Hospitals and Clinics
• Ken Pink, Deputy Chief Information Officer, University of Utah
  

The advisory committee receives regular updates from the project leads, and provides guidance for project leads and executive sponsors. Members are charged with disseminating project updates to their home units, and gathering input to help leads in their decision-making.

• Rob Allen, Property Accounting
• Jason Atuaia, Academic Affairs
• Becca Baggett, OBIA
• Jennifer Aoyagi Bangerter, College of Pharmacy
• Jerry Basford, Student Affairs
• Aaron Bell, Internal Medicine
• Brent Brown, Office of Sponsored Projects
• Kevin Cheney, Huntsman Cancer Institute
• Nate Dickson, U Faculty Information & Support         
• Doug Finlinson, Health Plans Finance
• Sandy Hughes, Budget and Analysis
• Michael Kay, College of Engineering
• Josna Kotturappa, HR/Payroll
• Michael Lewis, DESB
• Paul Majnik, Development
• Tony Millet, Natural History Museum of Utah
• Wendy Petersen, Human Resources
• Rochelle Randazzo, Facilities
• Jennifer Reed, Auxiliary Services
• Clint Reid, Hospitals and Clinics
• Donna Roach, U of U Health Chief Information Officer
• Matt Thomson, Athletics
• Bryan Webster, Pathology Department
• Amanda White, Hospital HR
• Mark Winter, NHMU

• The Chart of Accounts team analyzes and makes recommendations for the redesign and future state of COA, considering the needs of all operations across the university. Team Lead: Steven Phillips.
• The PeopleSoft Finance team analyzes customizations and functionality, recommends changes, and evaluates opportunities to utilize native PeopleSoft functionality; and assesses touchpoints with HR/Payroll and Student applications. Team Lead: Gary Carter.
• The Data and Reporting team is instrumental in gathering, validating, and making data available for the purpose of new and improved PeopleSoft reports. They also assist project teams in discovering the impact of changes to reports and in the design and creation of the actual reports.

• GL/COA team
  • Steven Phillips (team lead)
  • Wei Hsiung
  • Sandy Hughes
  • Becky Schaefer
  • Rachel Staheli 
• PS Optimization team
  • Gary Carter (team lead)
  • John Alger
  • Kevon Balls
  • Doug Kenner
  • Carl Larson
  • Jason Moeller
  • Val Olds
  • James Steffen
• Data and Reporting Team
  • Brian Harris (team lead)
  • Becca Baggett
  • Timothy Busch
  • Candice Crawford
  • Jessica Hanson
  • Susan Schaefer
  • Kristine VanAusdal
  • Kip Williams