Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 12/24/12

ESUP Forums at UMR, CLA
ESUP Program Director Andy Hill and UMN Director of Academic Support Resources Sue Van Voorhis traveled to the University of Minnesota Rochester campus on Tuesday, Dec. 18,  for a UMR campus kickoff event. According to Hill, UMR Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle spent more than four hours with the two of them and key UMR leaders; additionally, an open forum on the program was attended by approximately 40 members of the the UMR community, who expressed strong support and enthusiasm for the program and its goals.

Hill also gave an ESUP overview presentation to staff and stakeholders from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Liberal Arts (CLA) on Wednesday, Dec. 19. According to CLA Finance Director Brent Gustafson, the audience numbered approximately 50 people, including most of the college’s Finance and HRMS user community and a number of key stakeholders from the academic side.

Other colleges interested in planning an ESUP forum should contact communications director Jim Thorp at (612) 624-8942 or jthorp@umn.edu.

Changes in ESUP Leadership
College of Biological Sciences Dean Robert Elde will be taking over as chair of the ESUP Executive Oversight Committee following Vice President for Research Tim Mulcahy’s retirement at the end of this month. (Read the full announcement here.)  Also, please welcome Sherwood Daniels to the ESUP Leadership Team, as project director for the Portal work stream and Susan Geller’s CCI counterpart.

HCM Rocks!
Last week’s demos of the latest versions of the HRMS system (PeopleSoft HCM version 9.1 and 9.2) earned rave reviews from HRMS project directors Kris Hause (UMN) and others in attendance. Among the system highlights, stakeholders were wowed by the Manager’s Dashboard, loved Forms and Approvals functionality, and saw great opportunities in the Life Events functionality for the Benefits module. Enthusiasm for the new system is high going into the final weeks of Phase 1 for HRMS.

Staggered Scheduling for ESUP Work Streams
Coordinating the several work stream-specific projects that comprise ESUP is no small task. Each is starting from a very different point, with its own unique scope and objectives, but with the need for a shared roll-out and successful cross-functional integration.

The Student and HRMS work streams, for example, are undertaking significant system and business-process changes, and as a result, are the first two work streams out of the gate. (In fact, Student is approximately four to six weeks ahead of HRMS, as planned, and is effectively piloting ESUP governance processes and methodologies for the rest of the program.)

Since EFS was implemented relatively recently, changes in the Finance work stream are less substantial, and Phase 1 for Finance has not yet begun in earnest. This is the reason that Finance system stakeholders have heard relatively little about the project in recent weeks. Rest assured, you will hear more about the Finance project in the new year, as the EFS upgrade gets underway and integration points with the Student and HRMS systems are discussed in detail.

The Portal and Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) work streams are also still ramping up. The scope of these cross-functional projects touches each of the other work streams and requires both a high level of coordination and extensive stakeholder engagement to be successful. We will be reporting more frequently on the progress of these projects in the coming year, as well.

Upgrade Lab On Track for Early January
The CCI Upgrade Lab is on track to deliver the development and test environments for PeopleSoft CS version 9.0 (the new Student system) in early January, as planned.

ESUP Meetings and Communications Schedule for the Holidays
There are no ESUP sessions and few standing meetings scheduled after this week due to the winter holidays and break. If you have meetings scheduled, please take a moment to confirm them with your colleagues. Sessions will resume on Monday, Jan. 7.

This is the weekly update for Monday, Dec. 24, and there will be no ESUP messages on Monday, Dec. 31. Beginning on Monday, Jan. 7, the ESUP weekly update and key messages will resume the regular release time of Monday afternoons.

What is Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) and Why Do We Need to Do It?

When upgrading to a new version of software, there’s always a change in how specific tasks are accomplished. You likely have experienced this with programs you use daily; new buttons are available, some options move to another area, some tasks are accomplished in another way. Since the software was designed for a wide base of users, you likely find some things to be the same, some things to be easier, and some things to be more difficult. Some tasks may not even be possible in the new version.

When the software being upgraded is your word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word) or web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Chrome), these differences may be frustrating at first, but over time, you develop new habits. When the software is an enterprise resource planning system, a more methodical approach to addressing the differences is needed. For the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP), this approach is called Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP).

The first phase of ESUP is a fit/gap analysis. This involves a comparison of our current business processes with the upgraded version of PeopleSoft to see where there are “fits” and where there are differences, or “gaps,” between how we do things now and the functionality provided within the off-the-shelf (or “vanilla”) version of PeopleSoft.

The off-the-shelf versions of the HR and student PeopleSoft systems implemented in the 1990s were not yet sophisticated enough for our operations. Over the years, these systems have been heavily customized with groundbreaking applications to deliver functionality that PeopleSoft originally could not provide. Today, however, the off-the-shelf capabilities of PeopleSoft exceed those of many of our customizations, but they may work differently. Those differences are addressed in IDP.

The IDP process focuses on the business requirements of the institution and how the new functionality of the software will meet those requirements when the upgraded system goes live.  The approach ESUP is taking for IDP is process-centric. This means that technological gaps between current practice and how the new version of PeopleSoft works will be approached in the context of an entire business process (e.g., financial aid application processing, grade entry, hiring an employee, changing a job appointment). This process-centric approach helps identify opportunities to facilitate best practices, enhances the knowledge of both business and technological experts, and aids in knowledge transfer.

In order to be successful, it is critical that the right people participate in IDP. In addition to consultants from implementation partner, CedarCrestone, there will be University business analysts, subject matter experts, and members of functional steering committees (or their designees). These key decision makers will work together to make design decisions quickly and effectively by identifying business process requirements, reviewing the functionality available in the new version of PeopleSoft, and prototyping business processes to identify issues.
When the off-the-shelf version of PeopleSoft does not meet all of the business requirements, a gap in functionality is identified. The team will then work together to develop solutions for bridging the gaps and recommend their approval by the governance of ESUP. In addition to these solutions, the IDP process will also identify requirements for training, security, testing, and change management.

The IDP process is intensive and time-consuming--one business process may take several weeks of day-long work sessions. Sessions will run concurrently for approximately six months. At the end, solutions for how to move forward will be finalized and developers will have the information they need to complete the technological upgrade.

While ESUP is a multi-year project and most changes will not take effect until 2014 or later, how we operate in the future will be decided in IDP. These highly interactive and participative sessions are designed to gather the best collective ideas of system users and stakeholders. They should be intense, but very rewarding.

Elde to Chair ESUP Executive Oversight CommitteeFollowing Mulcahy Retirement

College of Biological Sciences Dean Robert Elde has agreed to chair the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) Executive Oversight Committee when the current chair, Vice President for Research Tim Mulcahy, retires this month.

The Executive Oversight Committee includes the leaders of the functional areas directly impacted by ESUP: Vice President Kathy Brown (Human Resources), Vice Provost Bob McMaster (Student), Vice President Richard Pfutzenreuter (Finance) and Vice President Scott Studham (Information Technology). As chair, Mulcahy was charged with bringing a more independent and enterprise-wide perspective to the group, ensuring that ESUP succeeds as more than three independent projects and more than a technological upgrade.

“If we do this the way we’re trying to, the institution will change its operational culture,” Mulcahy said. “This is the next step for survival: we need to evolve a central nervous system. We have a lot of smart people -- nerves all over the place -- but we need better coordination. If I have a stake in this, it’s to change the culture to take an enterprise view and be more collaborative.”

Vice President Mulcahy has led the Executive Oversight Committee at the request of President Eric Kaler since the committee was charged in October of 2011. Elde will continue in this role, bringing an enterprise perspective with the University’s academic mission at the forefront. Mulcahy and Elde are working together through the end of the month to facilitate the transition.

“I’m delighted that Dean Elde has agreed to take over and bring his leadership skills to this challenging and necessary system-wide effort,” said University President Eric Kaler. “I’d like to thank Tim for all of his innovative and hard work in leading this important culture change.”

“Tim Mulcahy has provided excellent leadership and I look forward to continuing on the same trajectory,” Elde said. “This is a valuable opportunity to improve the University’s operational excellence by coordinating and simplifying administrative processes in key areas.”

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 12/17/12

Progress Across All ESUP Work Streams 
The Student and HRMS work streams announced last week that they have scheduled the remainder of their Plan and Discover sessions and are beginning to look toward the Analyze and Design phase of the program. While the focus of Plan and Discover has been the careful review and verification of Student and HRMS fit-gaps (confirming what the systems and business processes need to be able to do, but not how they do it), the focus of Analyze and Design will be Interactive Design and Prototype (IDP) sessions -- hands-on sessions in which participants will help to design how the systems and processes should work together. These highly interactive and participative sessions are designed to gather the best collective ideas of system users and stakeholders. They should be intense, but very rewarding. This Thursday morning, Dec. 20, CCI will lead UMN program and project directors and lead business analysts from across all of the work streams through a half-day of IDP training in preparation for the second phase of the program. This “train the trainer” session will enable each work stream to prepare its respective team and stakeholders to conduct productive IDPs.

The Finance, Reporting, Portal and Technology work streams continue to meet with stakeholders, define their respective strategies, and form teams and working groups to address the challenges of their projects. It is important to note that these ESUP projects are proceeding as planned and on schedule. Because the starting point, scope and scale of these projects differ significantly from Student and HRMS, they are ramping up at their own pace and will have more to report as they progress. Users and stakeholders in these areas should expect more communication and engagement in the coming weeks, and the rollout of new systems and processes will still happen in a coordinated and timely manner as ESUP moves toward completion in 2014.

First ESUP Quality Review Wraps Up This Week
CCI quality manager Vickie Cleary is completing a series of interviews with selected ESUP team members this week and will issue a draft report for review by the end of the month. Once finalized, this independent report will be shared more broadly with program leadership to address recommended changes and ensure continuous improvement. If you have not been contacted or surveyed as part of this first quality review, do not be concerned -- not everyone will be targeted for every review.

Early Results of Stakeholder Assessment Look Positive
The response to the initial ESUP Stakeholder Assessment Survey was strong, with 30 percent of those invited to take the survey responding. While the survey showed significant areas of opportunity to increase understanding about the scope and rationale for the upgrade program, overall support for and confidence in the program are high across all stakeholder groups surveyed. Respondents were vocal with regard to their expectations and concerns regarding ESUP -- the Change Partners team, a cross-functional group of ESUP representatives, communicators and change professionals, is now reviewing the quantitative results and pages of comments from each work stream, looking for emerging themes. A comprehensive report on the survey results will be released in January.

ESUP Downshifts for the Holidays
There are no ESUP sessions and few standing meetings scheduled after this week due to the winter holidays and break. If you have meetings scheduled next week or the first week of January, please take a moment to confirm them with your colleagues. Sessions will resume on Monday, Jan. 7.

 Happy holidays!

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 12/10/12

Please Welcome the Tech Team! 
As of this morning, the ESUP technology teams are officially moved into 150 Williamson. Please stop by and say hello -- they will be working in Williamson until the WBOB renovation is completed. 

Momentum Growing Across All Work Streams
Plan and Discover sessions for the Student and HRMS work streams continue at a brisk pace. Student has completed its Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and Admissions sessions last week and is beginning to plan the Analyze and Design phase, which will launch in early 2013. HRMS is resuming its Benefits sessions following the close of open enrollment and will host two days of PeopleSoft demos on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. (See the ESUP Consolidated Calendar for details.)

The Finance work stream is preparing to launch three new work groups -- Accounts Payable, Billing, and Commitment Accounting -- and our e-Procurement vendor, SciQuest, is hosting its first user focus group this Thursday. Our two cross-functional work streams, Portal and Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR), continue to assemble their project teams and strategies in preparation for sessions beginning after the first of the year.

On the technology side of the program, the Identity Management and Security (IdM) work stream met with the University of Minnesota Foundation, Office of Information Technology IdM, and the ESUP Student and HRMS teams to discuss IdM requirements and integration points. These meetings will continue next week and include the Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester campuses, as well as University Libraries and Google.

Finally, the ESUP leadership team also continues to develop. Please welcome Portal project director Sherwood Daniels, who will serve as Susan Geller’s counterpart from CedarCrestone (CCI), and Jacqueline (Jac) Campbell, project manager for metrics, who will be working to develop executive, internal and external metrics for ESUP.

ESUP Quality Review Process Begins This Week
As mentioned last week, CCI will conduct our first Program Quality Review to ensure that the appropriate leadership, structures, processes and documentation are in place for quality assurance. Vickie Cleary, a quality manager in CCI’s higher education practice, will be interviewing selected team members and surveying a larger group this week. Please understand that the purpose of this review is strictly quality assurance, so your honest feedback is requested and encouraged. If you are not contacted or surveyed, do not be concerned -- not everyone will be targeted in this or future quality reviews.

REMINDER: Stakeholder Assessment Survey Closes Tuesday
If you received an email invitation to take the ESUP Stakeholder Assessment Survey, please complete the survey by tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 11. We have had a strong response so far, but would like to hear from everyone targeted with this assessment! If you did not receive the survey, please keep in mind that this is only the first of many opportunities for users and stakeholders to engage with ESUP and make their opinions heard. If you would like to be included in future assessments, please email esup@umn.edu.

ESUP Expanding Across the U System
Following a successful kickoff event at the University of Minnesota Duluth and conversations and visits to the other University campuses, we are strengthening connections and scheduling forums at the University of Minnesota Rochester next week, and in Crookston and Morris in early 2013.

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 12/3/12

ESUP Continues to Move Forward, Reach Milestones
Last week the Student work stream reached Upgrade Workbook Checkpoint #1, another milestone in the Student upgrade project. Essentially, this means that the extensive fit-gap documentation we have at this time has been compiled for preliminary review, first by the business analysts, then by the functional steering committees. Once reviewed and approved, this iterative Plan and Discover “workbook” will serve as the foundation for the next round of sessions in the Analyze and Design phase. Since the fit-gap validation sessions are not quite completed yet, the current workbook may be subject to revision if new information surfaces in the remaining sessions.

Also last week, the Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) work stream invited a group of college and central-unit data warehouse users to demonstrate their systems for the ESUP Integration team in order to provide CCI with a better understanding of how the data warehouse is currently being used. Users representing Institutional Research, Graduate Education, Academic Support Resources, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Education, the Academic Health Center, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Carlson School of Management, and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs all participated in the demonstration.

Finally, the Upgrade Lab is currently ahead of schedule with upgrading the Student and HRMS systems to version 9.0. This initial upgrade is the first step in the process of splitting the Student and HRMS shared database into two separate databases, enabling the two systems to be upgraded and maintained independently going forward.

Williamson Hall Is Bustling!
A number of HRMS and EDMR team members moved into the Williamson space last week, and despite a network outage on Tuesday, began to settle into their new surroundings. Additionally, ESUP team members from WBOB will be moving to the Williamson space while work on the WBOB space continues. Adjusting to more communal/shared office space, new technologies, and new ways of working together is certainly easier with the support of your colleagues, so please take the time to introduce yourself to new team members and pitch in when needed!

Stakeholder Assessment Survey Launches This Week
The ESUP Change Partners Team is sending a stakeholder assessment survey to roughly 5,000 people across the University’s five campuses this week. The purpose of this survey is to gather baseline information on ESUP awareness, knowledge, concerns, expectations, and engagement. Most of the respondents will be University staff -- we started with a baseline list of ESUP team members and stakeholders, then asked each work stream to add their own list of key stakeholders, users, and influencers, as well as people who have self-identified as wanting to stay informed or engaged in ESUP.

If you received the email invitation to take this survey, please complete the survey by Tuesday, Dec. 11. If you did not receive the survey, please keep in mind that this is only the first of many opportunities for users and stakeholders to engage with ESUP and make their opinions heard. If you would like to be included in future assessments, please email esup@umn.edu.

First ESUP Quality Review on the Horizon
In the coming weeks, an independent consultant from CCI will be conducting our first Program Quality Review to ensure that the appropriate leadership, structures, processes and documentation are in place for quality assurance. This independent reviewer may reach out to certain ESUP members to ask about certain aspects of how the program is being administered. Please understand that the purpose of this review is strictly quality assurance, so your honest feedback is requested and encouraged.

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 11/26/12

Sessions Back In Full Swing 
After a short and relatively quiet Thanksgiving week, ESUP sessions are in full swing again this week. Topics, schedules and locations are available online at upgrade.umn.edu/p/calendar.html. For more information, please contact the person listed in the event details or your work stream project manager. 

ESUP Internal Site to Launch This Week 
Later this week we will launch an ESUP program management web site, including internal program communications and tools pertaining to program norms and resources, onboarding materials, space and equipment information, and more. The ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu will still be the primary source of up-to-date program news and information about the upgrade, however, the new site will enable us to communicate information and updates pertaining specifically to ESUP team members in a more targeted manner. Of course, anyone interested in ESUP will be able to access both sites whether they are an ESUP team member or not.

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 11/19/12

• Last week, much of the ESUP Program repository on Google Drive was again removed from view, disrupting access and work for a number of ESUP team members.
• As a result, we are migrating the ESUP repository to NetFiles this week.
• NetFiles is an established and secure University system that was used for ESUP documentation before we migrated to Google.
• UMN project directors have been asked to populate the repository structure in NetFiles with additional work stream subfolders and files by Monday, Nov. 26.
• If there are still missing folders or files at that time, we will discuss how best to retrieve or rebuild them.
• Like any system, NetFiles will require training and familiarization for some users, as well as clear conventions for file naming, version control and permissions.
• We will share instructions and processes for accessing and using NetFiles within the week.
• For more information on using NetFiles, go to http://www.oit.umn.edu/netfiles/. 
• Google Drive, Mail, Chat and Hangouts will continue to be used and encouraged for collaborative purposes.
• Thank you for your work and patience during this transition.

• We have reached another early ESUP milestone in the past week: All chapter 1 pre-upgrade functional activities have been completed and the Upgrade Lab has completed the compare reports for the University to review.

• The Analytics Collaborative (AC) hosted a successful day-long retreat on Nov. 15 , with the purpose of clarifying, defining and co-creating a shared plan to advance the work of the AC across the University. 

Analytics Collaborative Retreat

• Participants left the retreat energized to advance a vision of shared tools, shared data, shared understanding and a shared development environment.
• The Analytics Collaborative and the Data Governance Team are tactical committees under the umbrella of the Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) strategy. 
• The AC is comprised of a network of collegiate reporting professionals and representatives from each of the central business units who advance reporting projects for central and local reporting efforts.
• With the new governance structure in place, the time to operationalize and socialize the EDMR strategy is now. 
• Throughout ESUP, the EDMR project team will look to align with this new EDMR governance structure. 
• For more information on EDMR, visit IT News for November 2012 at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/oit/news/2012/11/.

• We continue to have strong participation in ESUP sessions from all five University of Minnesota campuses.
• We recognize that, in some cases, participation is limited by the seating configuration and available technology in our meeting rooms.
• This will be an increasingly important concern as we move into the Analyze and Design phase and sessions become more frequent and more intensive.
• We are working to compile a more detailed directory of meeting rooms, both on and off campus, that will better support the number of participants, technology needs, and schedules of our upcoming sessions.
• We also will have several “go bags” available to check out for session use, containing extension cords, power strips, and other meeting supplies -- the first of these bags should be available the week of Nov. 26-30.
• Thank you again for your engagement in these important discussions!

• Please welcome Bill Nelson, who will be consulting on the Identity Management and Security work stream with UMN project director Arash Forouhari during the Plan and Discover phase.

• The ESUP Consolidated Calendar is now available online by clicking Calendar on the ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu.

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 11/12/12

• The program and project directors want to thank the hundreds of subject-matter experts, end-users, and stakeholders from across the University of Minnesota system who have participated in the first few weeks of ESUP sessions.
• Project directors report that participants have been engaged, open to change, and embracing of the principle of reducing system customization.
• All five campuses have been well-represented, and despite occasional technical challenges, thus far everyone seems willing to take the time to do this right.
• Thank you, colleagues, for your time and effort so far!

• Last Wednesday, much of the ESUP Program repository on Google Drive were removed from view, disrupting access and work for a number of ESUP team members.
• The problem may have been triggered by a team member who had moved the ESUP Program folder to “My Drive,” then later decided to remove it from their personal drive.
• This action in itself should not have caused the more significant access problems that resulted, and the University has opened a ticket with Google to investigate these issues.
• Until the remaining repository folders and files are recovered and we understand exactly what happened, please do not remove the folder “ESUP Program” from your personal “My Drive.”

• Access to the ESUP Program repository on Google Drive is managed by the work stream project directors.
• If you are using Google but do not have access to the repository, please contact your project director.
• If you cannot use Google mail because of the nature of your work at the University, please let your project director know -- we need to know the scope of this problem so we can provide alternative access.
• Please do not rely on personal Gmail accounts to access ESUP folders and files.

• The ESUP Consolidated Calendar is now available online by clicking Calendar on the ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu.
• This calendar features all scheduled sessions across all work streams (primarily Student and HRMS at this point), plus blackout dates and other key events.
• For more information about these sessions, please contact the appropriate work stream project director.
• If you are a part of the University of Minnesota community and are unable to view these calendars, please email us at esup@umn.edu to report the issue.

• Approximately 180 people attended the University of Minnesota Duluth’s ESUP Kickoff Brown-Bag last Wednesday, Nov. 7, in Kirby Ballroom on UMD’s campus. 
• For more information, check out this brief overview of the event, including presentations.
• We hope to schedule similar forums on the other campuses in the next several weeks, and are looking into scheduling additional forums on the Twin Cities campus, as well.

• The Student work stream held its ESUP project kick-off on Thursday, Nov. 8. 
• More than 80 people, representing all five campuses, attended either in-person or online. 
• The purpose of the event was to create a shared understanding of project operations, project roles, and next steps for everyone involved with the project.
• The presentation can be found at z.umn.edu/studentkickoff. 
• The videos are not embedded in this version, but can be viewed using the following links:
• Bob McMaster: mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/html5/176355 
• Sue Van Voorhis: mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/html5/176361
• The Student work stream has also launched an informational web page with additional work stream-specific information at z.umn.edu/esupstudent.

• The current ESUP team roster, including both University of Minnesota (UMN) and CedarCrestone (CCI) team members, is now available online.
• This listing will continue to be updated regularly as the team composition changes.
• Please introduce yourself to those team members you don’t know when you have the chance!

UMD Holds ESUP Campus Kickoff

UMD ESUP 2014: Together Everyone Achieves More

Approximately 180 people attended the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) ESUP Campus Kickoff Brown-Bag on Wednesday, Nov. 7, in the Kirby Ballroom. Chancellor Lendley Black offered opening remarks, in which he anticipated the transformative impact of the effort – as well as the challenging work ahead.

“We are here to celebrate the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program and the incredible impact it is going to have on our HR, Finance, and Student operations,” Black said. “We are taking a team approach, and the vice chancellors and myself are all committed to the process. … We are behind you and supporting the staff the whole way.”

Program Director Andy Hill offered an overview of ESUP, including the scope, rationale, and governance structure. Sue Bosell (Finance), Linda Kinnear (HRMS), Carla Boyd (Student), and Steve Patterson (IT) provided a more detailed look at the ways in which UMD has engaged in the program and opportunities for end-user involvement. The presentations were followed by a brief Q&A with all the presenters.

• UMD ESUP Kickoff Overview Presentation (PDF)
• UMD ESUP Kickoff TEAM Presentation (PDF)

Key Messages for the Week of 11/05/12

• ESUP work continues to gain momentum across all work streams, and weekly work stream status meetings are underway to keep the program on track and on schedule.

• HRMS Fit-Gap Validation Sessions begin this week.
• The purpose of these sessions is to validate and build upon the fit-gap analyses conducted previously by Oracle.
• For more information about these sessions, check the Google Calendar “ESUP - HRMS Meetings” or contact the HRMS project directors.

• University of Minnesota Duluth will hold an ESUP Campus Kickoff Brown-Bag on Wednesday, Nov. 7, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Kirby Ballroom.
• The kickoff will include a brief welcome from UMD’s senior leadership; an overview of the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) from Program Director Andy Hill; and a more detailed look at the impact of ESUP at UMD and the role of UMD stakeholders in the initiative -- as well as an opportunity for questions and answers.
• For more information, please contact Sue Bosell on the UMD campus.
• We hope to schedule similar forums on the other campuses in the next several weeks, and are looking into scheduling additional forums on the Twin Cities campus, as well.

• The portal project is now starting project initiation phase and will be working on a project charter and other foundation processes.

• Please welcome Tricia Conway (UMN) as our latest addition to the Program Management Office.

Key Messages for the Week of 10/29/12

• Following the ESUP Kickoff on Oct. 16, we are hearing lots of stakeholder interest in learning more about and engaging in the upgrade program.
• We definitely want broad engagement from stakeholders and users from all UMN campuses and units.
• We will provide multiple opportunities to get involved in the coming months, including Interactive Design Prototyping (IDP) sessions, focus groups, “town halls,” and more.
• We are committed to sharing plans, schedules and opportunities to engage as they are finalized.
• To help ensure that you receive information about these opportunities, please email esup@umn.edu and ask to be included on future ESUP stakeholder communications. 

• It’s important to remember that we just kicked off the Plan and Discover phase.
• This phase reaffirms and builds upon our preliminary fit-gap analyses and planning and will set the scope and schedule for ESUP going forward.
• At the end of Plan and Discover, we should be able to share a more definitive ESUP timeline. 
• The dates for important milestones and “go-live” have not been set.
• Please rest assured that we will work closely with the work streams to minimize disruption to mission-critical activities.

• Finance has made significant progress on e-Procurement.
• A contract with SciQuest has been approved.
• We are in the process of defining requirements and reviewing vendors.
• SciQuest will be coming into town for the initial eProcurement kickoff on Nov. 13

• In the Student work stream, the Campus Community Fit-Gap Verification sessions are underway, and active participation by session attendees is providing key information about current UMN business processes.

• Our ESUP leadership team continues to grow -- when you have the chance, please introduce yourselves to the two newest ESUP project directors:
• Testing Project Director: Alex Ryan (UMN)
• Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) Project Director: Jennifer McCord (CCI’s counterpart to Amy Winkel; arriving Nov. 5)

• Finally, we are working intentionally to connect ESUP team members and stakeholders with each other and the information they need to make this project a success.
• The entire ESUP project team should have access to our online document repository, the structure of which is summarized here:
• This will be the home of all ESUP documentation, including meeting and session agendas and minutes; planning documents; and status reports.
• If you are on the project team and cannot access the repository, please let your project director know.
• The ESUP blog, online at upgrade.umn.edu, will continue to expand to include a glossary of ESUP terms and acronyms, a calendar listing upcoming sessions and forums for interested stakeholders, and more.
• We are also in the process of establishing ESUP Google Groups to help target our communications appropriately to the ESUP team, work stream teams, ESUP governance groups, and other audiences.

Key Messages for the Week of 10/22/2012

• The Enterprise System Upgrade Program (ESUP) Kickoff drew more than 300 participants (in person, via ITV, and online) on Tuesday afternoon. 
• A number of online resources are available if you missed the kickoff or would like to share more information with others in your organization.
• ESUP Kickoff Session 1: Overview 
• Download PDF of Session 1 presentation
• Watch Session 1 (with slides) online
• Download Session 1 video (with slides)
• ESUP Kickoff Session 2: Deeper Dive
• Download PDF of Session 2 presentation
• Watch Session 2 (with slides) online
• Download Session 2 video (with slides)
• Reminder: If you attended the Kickoff in person or online and have not turned in an evaluation, please take a moment to complete our brief online survey.

• As part of the kickoff agenda, program directors Andy Hill and Rebecca Collings introduced the project leaders from the University of Minnesota (UMN) and CedarCrestone (CCI).
• The organizational chart they shared can be found online on the Management page of the ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu.
• Please be sure to introduce yourselves to the ESUP project directors when you see them!

• The Student and HRMS work streams began hosting ESUP Personal Information Sessions last Wednesday, Oct. 17.
• These biographic/demographic (or bio/demo) sessions address shared data and processes pertaining to personal information in the enterprise systems, e.g., name, birthdate, addresses, etc.
• Project directors from Student and HRMS reported strong interest and attendance and productive discussions. 
• Feedback from attendees has been positive, as well.

• The ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu will continue to expand and will be a primary communication tool with the broader University community; an internal project management web site will be launched in the next few weeks.

Kickoff Session Videos Now Posted

Videos from last Tuesday's Enterprise System Upgrade Program (ESUP) Kickoff are now available at the links below. The videos include all speakers and slides and can be watched in your web browser or downloaded as Quicktime video files.

Session 1: Overview

• Watch video online
• Download video

Session 2: Deeper Dive

• Watch video online
• Download video

Reminder: If you attended the Kickoff in person or online and have not turned in an evaluation, please consider taking a moment to complete our brief online survey.

ESUP Kickoff Presentations Now Available Online!

The Enterprise System Upgrade Program (ESUP) Kickoff drew more than 300 participants (in person, via ITV, and online) on Tuesday afternoon. Session 1 and Session 2 presentations are available in PDF format at the links below:

• ESUP Kickoff Session 1: Overview
• ESUP Kickoff Session 2: Deeper Dive

Video of the sessions should be posted in the next day or two, and online evaluations for coordinate campus participants will be distributed tomorrow. If you have feedback on the kickoff, please send it to esup@umn.edu.

Key Messages for the Week of 10/08/12

• Don’t forget to RSVP online for the ESUP Kickoff Event next Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m., Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union.
• President Kaler will be welcoming the ESUP team and talking about the importance of this effort to the University of Minnesota.
• This is also a great opportunity for ESUP team members to meet their project directors from the U and CedarCrestone (CCI), as well as a couple hundred of their new ESUP teammates!
• We would like you to participate either in person or via ITV from the coordinate campuses, if possible.
• Anyone who is interested can follow the kickoff online at www.livestream.com/umntv.

• The project directors will be meeting with their ESUP teams separately following the kickoff to delve more deeply into roles and responsibilities, expectations, next steps and to begin the work of the project.

• The ESUP Kickoff marks the official beginning of the first phase of the project, called Plan and Discover.
• This phase reaffirms and builds upon the preliminary fit-gap analyses and planning that has already occurred and will set the scope and schedule for ESUP going forward.
• The full schedule of the Plan and Discover phase is being worked on and should be complete by Oct. 26.
• We should know in the next few weeks how long we expect Plan and Discover to last before moving to Analyze and Design.
• At the end of Plan and Discover, we will be able to share a targeted “go-live” date.

• ESUP work is already underway!
• The Upgrade Lab statement of work has been completed.
• We are also beginning discussions about shared Person/Bio-demo data on Oct. 17, 18, 24 and 25 (if needed). 
• Invites for these sessions will be going out by the end of the week, and the sessions will be streamed via UMConnect.  

• The ESUP team welcomed a number of new people from CedarCrestone this week -- be sure to introduce yourselves to:
• Technology Project Director: Chris Cameron
• Campus Community/Recruiting/Admissions Lead: Greg Patterson
• Financial Aid Lead: Mary Gilbertson
• Student Financials Lead: Jeff Johnson
• HR Lead: James Ellis
• Benefits Lead: Cheri Kitchens
• HRMS Technology Lead: Vijay Javvadi
• Training Specialist: Tammy Staneart
• We plan to share a list of current University of Minnesota team members following the ESUP Kick-Off next week.

• Work continues on the ESUP space in Williamson Hall and the West Bank Office Building (WBOB), and the Space Transition team is beginning to test space and equipment.

Enterprise System Upgrade Program Kickoff slated for Oct. 16

Between now and December 2014, the University of Minnesota system is upgrading its essential human resources (HR), student and financial systems and re-examining related business processes to improve operational efficiency and user experience. The Enterprise System Upgrade Program (ESUP) Kickoff is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Coffman Memorial Union’s Great Hall.

ESUP team members and targeted leaders and stakeholders who should attend this event in person, if possible, will receive an electronic invitation with an RSVP included. All project team members are expected to attend; team members from the coordinate campuses will be able to participate in the event and ask questions remotely from the following designated ITV locations on their campuses:

• UMM:  HFA #7
• UMC:  116 Kiehle
• UMD:  173 Kirby Plaza
• UMR:  Rm #397

The agenda is as follows:

• Registration (12:30 to 1 p.m.) and light refreshments; program begins promptly at 1.
• Session 1 (1 to 2 p.m.) including a welcome from University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, as well as an overview of the motivation, scope and goals for this important initiative for all ESUP team members, University leadership and key stakeholders. Invitees who are not assigned to a specific project team or role can leave following Session 1 if they choose.
• Break (2 to 2:15 p.m.), including light refreshments.
• Session 2 (2:15 to 4 p.m.) including a deeper dive into project methodology, norms and expectations, etc., specifically for ESUP team members. 

Both sessions will also be streamed live at livestream.com/umntv and recorded for viewing after the event, so other interested faculty, staff, and students can watch the kickoff online. We will also have additional opportunities for system users and the broader University community to learn more about and engage in this important effort.

Key Messages for the Week of 10/01/2012

• The Enterprise System Upgrade Program (ESUP) Kickoff is confirmed for Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m. in Coffman Memorial Union’s Great Hall.
• ESUP team members and stakeholders from the coordinate campuses will be able to attend in designated ITV rooms on their campuses; those arrangements are being finalized.
• The Kickoff will consist of two sessions:
• Session 1 (1 p.m. to 2 p.m.) will be an ESUP overview for all team members, University leadership and key stakeholders.
• Session 2 (2:30 to 4 p.m.) will be a deeper dive into project methodology, norms and expectations, etc., specifically for ESUP team members.
• We will take a break from 2 to 2:30 p.m. to get to know each other, enjoy refreshments, and so those who are not ESUP team members can leave if they choose.
• Both sessions will also be streamed live and recorded for viewing after the event.
• A more formal invitation with a detailed agenda to team members will go out shortly.
• The ESUP team welcomed a number of new people from CedarCrestone this week -- be sure to introduce yourselves to:
• Integration Lead: Bill Collings
• Payroll Lead: Greg Marks
• Student Records Lead: Dan Doremus
• Student Tech Lead: Dan Croce
• Account Manager: Kirk Bertram
• Work continues on the ESUP space in Williamson Hall and the West Bank Office Building (WBOB), and the Space Transition team that will be “piloting” the space and testing its systems should move in next week.
• Wireless internet connectivity has been improved, printers are accessible, and chairs and desktop monitors will be arriving within the week.
• Card-reader access is also being finalized this week.
• Project laptops are being configured, and delivery to ESUP team members is being planned for kick-off week and afterward as team members join the project.
• Cellular service is not yet available on the lower level of Williamson or WBOB, however, headsets for use with “soft phone” technology (phone software for your project laptop that enables you to forward and answer your office phone remotely) have arrived.
• Your project director is your go-to person for questions, concerns, resources and training needs.

Key Messages for the Week of 09/24/2012

• ESUP team members are moving to the project during the next several weeks. 
• We continue to renovate and equip the ESUP office space in Williamson and WBOB. 
• Renovations will continue through the end of the month. 
• Between now and Nov. 1, ESUP team members can work in any space reserved for project use. Your project director will help identify team work space during this period.
• ESUP team members will receive their project laptops and other necessary equipment and software delivered directly to them as close to their starting date as possible.
• We will schedule training and provide support for the use of the Google application suite and “soft phone” technology, as needed. Other training will be scheduled by your project director as these needs are identified.
• The ongoing renovation of the workspace will NOT delay the overall project timeline.
• During this initial period, our high-level project plans and schedules are developing and evolving on a daily basis.
• It isn’t practical at this point to engage all ESUP team members in all aspects of project planning, however, your areas are appropriately represented in these planning meetings.
• We are committed to sharing project plans, schedules and information as they are finalized.
• Your project director is your go-to person for questions, concerns, resources and training needs.

Save the Date: ESUP Kickoff on 10/16

Please save the date: the Enterprise System Upgrade Project (ESUP) Kickoff Event has been scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 16.

• The event is slated to begin at 1 p.m. with an opening session that provides an overview of the project for ESUP team members, as well as managers, University leadership, and other key stakeholders.
• This will be followed by more detailed sessions specifically for ESUP team members, discussing methodology, roles and responsibilities, and more. 

Kickoff planning is underway, and we will share more details about the location and agenda as it is finalized. For now, ESUP team members should plan to attend from 1 to 5 p.m. University leaders and others not formally on the project team can plan to leave after the opening session or follow the discussions online via streaming video.

We hope you are as excited as we are to get this project underway, and we look forward to seeing you Oct. 16!

Andy Hill, Program Director, University of Minnesota
Rebecca Collings, Program Director, CedarCrestone

Update From the Program Directors

The following message was shared with the ESUP Integration Steering Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012:


FROM: Andy Hill and Rebecca Collings, ESUP Program Directors
TO: Integration Steering Committee

Dear Colleagues,

We wanted to take a moment to recognize the important progress we’ve made on the Enterprise System Upgrade Project (ESUP) in recent weeks. As you may know, earlier this month a number of key stakeholders met to work through our options regarding the required split of the current shared database for the University’s human resources (HR) and student systems. The benefits of creating two independent databases are several, including improved functionality and the ability to maintain and upgrade the HR and student systems independently.

Separating HR and student data is no small task. We want to congratulate and thank the project team members and stakeholders who made time, on very short notice, to work through the options and recommend a workable plan that provides increased flexibility and reduced risk for the University. The plan was approved by the Integration Steering Committee at its meeting last Thursday and is a milestone: the first critical decision point for work on the project. We are officially underway!

For an overview of the database planning discussion, please see CedarCrestone’s presentation, available online. If you have questions or concerns about the split, the decision, or its impact on your work, please share them with your respective project managers, and we will do our best to answer them for you.

ESUP project leadership, change management, and communications teams are meeting regularly to plan the move to assigned project space in Williamson Hall and West Bank Office Building and an official kickoff event for the project. The targeted date for these spaces to be ready for occupancy is Monday, Oct. 1, and the project kickoff event is tentatively slated for the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 16. More details about space and kickoff planning will be available in next few weeks.

Thank you again for your great work!

Andy Hill, Program Director, University of Minnesota
Rebecca Collings, Program Director, CedarCrestone

Upgrade Coverage by the Minnesota Daily

Wednesday's edition of the Minnesota Daily included a front-page story on the Enterprise System Upgrade Project (ESUP), including comments from ESUP program director Andy Hill, Board of Regents chair Linda Cohen and William Dana, lead business analyst for Academic Support Resources.

The story's lead referred to the project as an upgrade of the Enterprise Financial System (EFS) software. EFS was actually upgraded four years ago and comprises a relatively small piece of the current $83.5 million project. The University's human resources and student services systems will undergo much more substantial transformations.