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.

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.

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