Small token of appreciation and celebration for ESUP team

At the end of the day on August 20, ESUP hosted an internal staff social event at the West Bank Office Building. This “Ice Cream Social” was to celebrate the completion of program milestones and connect with ESUP staff throughout the program.

Clockwise from upper left: Associate Vice President Mike Volna enjoying a sundae; a poster for ESUP staff to write down Program "wins"; sprinkles for the sundaes; Executive Program Director Dennis Wenzel and Communications Project Director Tricia Conway serving ice cream; IT Intern Mohamoud Egal's sundae work of art

ESUP staff including Dennis Wenzel, Tricia Conway, Mark Powell, Carolyn Chase, Todd Toupal, and Amy Winkel took turns dishing bowls of ice cream while participants enjoyed building their own sundaes with cherries, strawberries, caramel, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and yes… sprinkles! 

A poster was available for guests to record Program “wins” for the summer of 2014 including included President Kaler’s support, the program being on time, and MyU usability going very well.

Teaming Up with ESUP - Finance Work Stream

According to Gina Danyluk, an Academic Health Center cluster director and ESUP Finance Functional Steering Committee member, an effective team is one that, "has a common goal with well-defined expectations of team members and an organized approach to achieving the goal.” Gina’s co-lead on the Expenses Workgroup for Finance is Lisa Luhman Bass, a business analyst on the Module Support Team. Lisa described an effective team as one where, “it's important to listen to everyone's point of view and to be respectful. As a member of a team no one person is greater than the others.”

Gina and Lisa make a great team on Finance because they’re able to appreciate what the other person brings to the table, along with the ability to see differing points of view. This ability came into play when the issue of pcard purchase approvals arose. The current process includes a forced reconciliation process, which will not exist once My Wallet is introduced. The exclusion of forced reconciliation was a concern for both Central and local managers. Gina and Lisa’s hard work, and the determination of their team, allowed them to come up with a proposed solution: notifications and reporting to different constituencies related to pcard transactions. For example, alerts will go to cardholders of pending transactions to be reconciled, while reports will be created for unposted transactions and sent to department managers.

Gina and Lisa make great co-leads, but they want to make sure that credit is given to their dedicated team members.

Work Streams team up to improve the student refunds process

Collaboration between work streams has made certain that in the future, the University will spend less time and money maintaining PeopleSoft while still offering the same high level of service to students. The Student and Finance ESUP work streams have been cooperating to ensure that the University can retire several costly modifications to the Student Refunds process. Their work will allow the University to adopt Oracle’s off-the-shelf solution using the Accounts Payable module in Finance (EFS) for refunds rather than the current process of using the Payroll module in HRMS. Despite this change, students will continue receiving refunds quickly through direct deposit; checks will also be available on-demand when a student is granted an exception to the University’s direct deposit requirement. 

Lisa Luhmann Bass, Business Analyst for the Enterprise Financial System (EFS) Module Support area, has provided guidance as the Student Financials team learns more about the Accounts Payable processes. "The Student and Finance work streams work well together to ensure the University leverages delivered PeopleSoft functionality instead of relying on expensive customization,” says Luhmann Bass. “Our collaboration will also help ease the testing and implementation process." 

The groundwork for improving this process was started five years ago. From 2009 to 2011, Carolee Cohen from Academic Support Resources (ASR) chaired the Student Financials Product Advisory Group (PAG). These advisory groups work with other Universities and Oracle to resolve issues and determine improvements for PeopleSoft. Jack Kimmes, also from ASR, participated in a working group in 2010 that defined development requirements for the refund process. This included allowing students to use direct deposit to receive their refund and a method for University staff to create a refund check on-demand. 

“Participation in the PAG definitely helped ensure that necessary improvements were included in PeopleSoft 9.0. It’s nice to see our work pay off for the University,” said Cohen. Had those improvements not been made by Oracle, the University likely would have had to bring several modifications forward. 

Using the off-the-shelf Oracle process will involve some changes for both staff and students, but ESUP staff is hard at work creating training materials that will guide staff and students through those changes. Those interested in some of the specific changes that will be happening around refunding can check out “What’s Changing - Refunding.”

ESUP thanks its unsung heroes

Last month ESUP hosted a recognition event for its staff to thank them for their effort to make the program a success. One of the highlights of the event was the acknowledgement of ESUP’s “Unsung Heroes.” ESUP employees nominated their co-workers who go above and beyond. According to Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez, ESUP director of change management, “We wanted to give staff members a way to recognize our colleagues for doing things that motivate and engage us to be our best selves in the workplace.” 

Staff nominated their colleagues expressing admiration and appreciation for the things they do. The unsung heroes were recognized for reasons ranging from upbeat positive attitudes to waking up at 4 a.m. every Wednesday to get to the Twin Cities from Duluth.

Three of the four "Unsung Hereos" recognized at the "Celebrate" event. From left to right: Aileen Lively, Holly Santiago, and Debbie Wing, not pictured Erin Schaffer.

The four unsung heroes recognized at the January event represented nearly 40 of their colleagues nominated among the ESUP staff. Fernandez-Gimenez put it best when he said, “The fact that we had so many staff members named as unsung heroes is a testament to the great collegiality and teamwork that ESUP is fostering here at the University.”

Teaming Up with ESUP: Finance and OHR staff exhibit great team work on challenging topic

Wills and Oliveira kept users and the ‘greater good’ in mind while working on Payroll Accounting 

In our last edition of Teaming Up with ESUP, we defined a team as: “a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project” (taken from dictionary.com). Like the last team, this definition also fits Carlson School of Management’s Finance Director Michelle Wills and Office of Human Resources Business Analyst Silas Oliveira who, with their colleagues, worked to streamline business processes and leverage the new Payroll Accounting functionality coming with ESUP.

Silas Oliveira and Michelle Wills

Payroll Accounting processes are complex, and the delivered PeopleSoft solution didn’t entirely meet the University’s needs. During the Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) sessions, there were some rough patches where previous decisions had to be revisited and changed, which led to more IDP sessions and in some cases, significant changes. Silas and Michelle guided the whole effort as the team worked through these challenges together to find acceptable solutions.

When asked what they appreciated about the other, Michelle valued Silas’s ability to keep the users in mind and his “incredible amount of institutional knowledge.” In return, Silas admired Michelle’s ability to take on others’ perspectives and keep “the greater good in mind when weighing decisions.”

Silas and Michelle agreed that it takes diverse perspectives and a willingness to engage and get involved for a team to be effective. Their colleagues noticed. Instructional Designer and  System Campus Training Lead Pattie Samberg said, “They could readily see the other’s perspective … they made it seem easy to discuss topics and arrive at solutions.” 

According to Silas, this ability to take on each other’s point of view helped the team achieve “a much needed understanding of how central business practices impact departments differently,” along with a more user-friendly Distribution Entry process. 

The cross-functional collaboration between Silas, Michelle, and the HRMS and Finance work streams--as well as countless collaborations--continue to be a vital part of ESUP’s success. Please submit names of people you think demonstrate outstanding teamwork as part of ESUP to esup@umn.edu and look for your colleagues in future articles as the program continues to move forward.

To learn more about what’s changing with Payroll Accounting, click here.

ESUP Update 10-07-13 to 10-20-13

Three weeks later with Dennis Wenzel

Tricia Conway (TC): It’s been three weeks since Dennis Wenzel joined the ESUP team as the new Program Director. If you missed our first Q&A with Dennis, you can read it here. Now that he has his bearings, we asked Dennis to give us his impressions. Click here to read more.

A Dynamic Duo
Effective teamwork is foundational to the success of ESUP. Whether it’s the teams formed by the Program’s governance structure like the Project Leadership Team (PLT) or those formed around the University’s business processes in IDPs, strong teamwork is a key factor for the Program to reach its goals. Click here for more information.

New Approach to Appointment Data will Transform HRMS

It’s mid-afternoon, and HRMS business owner Kelly Krattiger is presenting a proposal to restructure the U’s appointment data to a full conference room. The discussion could be dry and technical -- a bad combination after lunch -- but Krattiger begins by clicking through a simple model of the current system, built in PowerPoint. Click here to read more.

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Get each new blog post delivered to your inbox by entering your email address in the Subscribe by Email window at upgrade.umn.edu and following the instructions. Once your subscription is activated, you will receive an email alerting you to new ESUP posts late in the afternoon the day they are published. If there is no post, you receive no email -- simple as that!

A Dynamic Duo

Effective teamwork is foundational to the success of ESUP. Whether it’s the teams formed by the Program’s governance structure like the Project Leadership Team (PLT) or those formed around the University’s business processes in IDPs, strong teamwork is a key factor for the Program to reach its goals.

According to businessdictionary.com, a team is “a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project”. With that definition in mind, Richard Toetschinger and Mary Gilbertson make a great team. Richard is a University employee for the Student work stream and Mary is his counterpart from CedarCrestone Inc (CCI).  Their job is to “plan for the financial aid team and to make sure [they] report [their] progress to project managers and the financial aid steering committee,” says Richard. Mary also stresses the importance of “making sure all of the campuses are heard and that they all have a voice.”

Richard Toetschinger and Mary Gilbertson

This collaboration between CCI and the University is essential. Richard illustrates this when he says that the project would have gone poorly without an expert like Mary on board, “It’s very nice having Mary here because she’s gone through this before at other schools, so she brings that knowledge. There’s a trust that she knows what she’s doing.” It’s this trust that’s the foundation of teamwork and problem solving. For example, when scheduling their IDP sessions, Richard and Mary grouped the financial aid business processes in sets of two or three instead of serially. Richard explains this “helped the functional staff see the bigger picture and make some connections between processes.”

Richard and Mary continue to learn from each other during this process. They both say they’ve learned to hold back and not to take things personally. One thing Mary appreciates about Richard is a sense of calm he brings and his “understanding of how financial aid works. He knows the business analysts who work for him and their strengths.” Richard appreciates Mary’s “expertise, sense of humor and her fine baking skills.” Their humor helps keep things fun while spending nearly 40 hours a week together and their skills keep the team on track.

Weekly Update for the Week of 02/11/13

Images from the Portal Kickoff

Portal Kickoff Generates Statewide Buzz
With the Portal Project Kickoff now complete and the project moving forward, we are proud to report that there were over 420 attendees at seven system-wide locations, with every campus represented. The purpose of the event was to begin a University community conversation that could better shape the project direction, collect rich data, and develop a direction for next steps.  Some of the conversations took place via Twitter, which you can check out at #umnportal. A full report will be released next week.

The kickoff was a collaboration with the UMN Art of Hosting Conversations That Matter Community of Practice. This is the type of community investment that will be critical to the success of the portal. Stay connected at z.umn.edu/portal.

Change in Leadership for ESUP Communications
ESUP Program Director Andy Hill announced this week that Tricia Conway will lead program-wide communications for ESUP beginning Tuesday, Feb. 19. Conway has worked at the University since 2001, as an accountant, analyst, research center administrator, and communications professional. Jim Thorp, who has served as communications director for the program since last May, has taken a different communications role in the University’s Office of Human Resources. Thorp will continue to be engaged on ESUP in his new capacity by providing communications strategy and support for the HRMS work stream. His official last day on the program is Monday, Feb. 18.

Thorp and Conway have collaborated on internal program communications since last fall and will continue to work closely together to ensure a smooth transition. In her new role, Conway will lead strategic communications for ESUP and work with the University’s News Service on all ESUP-related media requests, in addition to other duties.

Quick Hits and Reminders From Across the Work Streams

• The HRMS work stream completed their Phase 1: Plan and Discover sessions last week, including sessions on the PeopleSoft Time and Labor and Absence Management modules, which the University does not currently use.  As a result of those discussions, the HRMS team is working on a request to move the implementation of Time and Labor and Absence Management earlier in the scope and timeline of the program.
• The Finance work stream is planning the Finance project kickoff and Phase 1: Plan and Discover activities, which are slated to begin this spring. 
• The Change Management, Communications and Training work stream is working on a strategic communications analysis to identify and create more targeted messages to ESUP’s diverse audience segments.
• The Portal work stream is looking ahead to Phase 1: Plan and Discover processes including Stakeholder Engagement and Design Thinking Workshops.

Subscribe to the ESUP Blog!
As ESUP progresses, you can expect more information to be shared more frequently on the ESUP blog. Get every post delivered to your inbox by entering your email address in the Subscribe by Email window at upgrade.umn.edu and following the instructions. Once your subscription is activated, you will receive an email alerting you to new ESUP posts late in the afternoon the day they are published. If there is no post, you receive no email -- simple as that!

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 01/28/13

Systemwide Collaboration a Challenge -- and a Top Priority -- for ESUP
One of the most challenging aspects of ESUP so far has been identifying effective ways for the ESUP team and system stakeholders to collaborate across functions, units and campuses. Phase 1: Plan & Discover requires the participation of hundreds of people from all five campuses of the University, many of whom have expertise in multiple work streams, as well as ongoing responsibilities to their home departments. In Phase 2: Analyze & Design, the need for consistent, well-equipped meeting space and reliable tele-conferencing and collaboration platforms becomes even more important, since Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) sessions will require continuous engagement from key stakeholders several hours a day for multiple weeks.

This is clearly not “business as usual” at the University -- which is why ESUP has made collaborative work spaces, facilities, and technology a top program priority. This effort has pushed existing platforms like Google and UMConnect further, in some cases, than they were meant to go -- as a result, we continue to test new equipment and software for affordable and effective solutions to keep our teams connected wherever their members are. The goal is to develop a technology “tool kit,” with multiple options for work streams and users based on their specific needs for each particular session. The program has also reserved space across the Twin Cities campuses for fit-gap validation sessions and IDP sessions (which begin in February for the Student work stream) and is building out new conference space to meet immediate and long-term needs. In fact, ESUP is helping to pilot the use of such flexible meeting and work space at the University of Minnesota, with the hope that the space, technology, and practices developed by the program will help the entire University community.

“ESUP is committed to changing culture and organizational practices, as well as upgrading technology,” said program director Andy Hill. “We are working to ensure new ways of broad engagement and participation, including new technologies, collaborative spaces, facilitated meeting techniques, and more.”

In a perfect world, an IDP session would convene in the same space from start to finish, with no need to reset the room for whomever is using it next, no equipment to transport, and dedicated technical support in case something goes wrong. The challenge of finding enough space on campus that can be used several hours a day, several days a week, for several months is tough enough -- ensuring that it is consistent space, equipped for intensive, collaborative, and creative work by colleagues in multiple locations across the state, is daunting indeed.

We need your input! If you have specific concerns or ideas for facilities, technologies, or techniques to improve collaboration and engagement as the ESUP work streams move into the IDP process, please contact Tricia Conway at conwa012@umn.edu.

It’s Still Early, But Changes Are Coming!
As more people across the University learn about ESUP, we hear the question more frequently: What will this mean for me and my work? Those who use the Student, HRMS, and Finance systems on a daily basis have specific questions about key features and processes that impact their jobs (positively or negatively).

Users haven’t heard a lot of specific changes announced yet, in part because of the nature of the methodology being used. The Student work stream, for example, is just finishing Phase 1: Plan & Discover (informally known as the “What, Not How” phase) -- which is concerned with comparing the off-the-shelf PeopleSoft product to our current processes in order to solidify the scope of the project. In Phase 2: Analyze & Design, the Student team will delve into how our system and business processes should work through the IDP process. It is during this process that more specific changes to the system and processes will be identified and described.

That said, the foundational work undertaken in Phase 1: Plan & Discover is yielding specific improvements already. The HRMS work stream, for example, announced last week that the team has identified 133 earnings codes that can be inactivated (approximately 40 of which the user community sees) due to infrequent use or opportunities for streamlining.  This reduction in earnings codes will simplify the entry of HR/Payroll for the user community and the Office of Human Resources.  These codes will be inactivated in March 2013; user communications will share the details of this change in the next several weeks. Meanwhile,  in the Student work stream, the five campuses have agreed to use a single, consistent set of classroom characteristics when the University moves to its new class scheduling system, Ad Astra. These classroom characteristics are used to determine whether a given space is equipped and appropriate for a particular class or activity. Agreeing to a consistent list across all campuses  eliminates a modification to the PeopleSoft system required to maintain campus-by-campus characteristics.

The ESUP team and leadership are committed to sharing information and specific changes as this process unfolds! If you have questions about the process or progress of ESUP, please email esup@umn.edu.

ESUP at the Legislature
As part of the University’s response to the Minnesota legislature regarding administrative efficiency at the University of Minnesota, President Eric Kaler asked the ESUP team to prepare a brief update on the program and its progress to date. The one-page update was reviewed by the ESUP Executive Oversight Committee and shared with the president last Wednesday. The update is also available online.

New Team Members In Williamson
Several members of the Technology team (Application Development and Testing) moved into Williamson 150 on Monday. If you see new colleagues, be sure to welcome them and introduce yourself!

Register by Wednesday for the Portal Kickoff!
Wikipedia defines a web portal as, "...a website that brings information together from diverse sources in a uniform way." But what does that really mean? The U of M has myU, One Stop, and any number of online tools. But something is missing. Figuring that out is not a simple task. The real question is: "What SHOULD the portal be at the U of M?" Help us answer that question by attending the portal kickoff event.   Register for the event by Wednesday, Jan. 30, and learn more at z.umn.edu/portal.  If you can’t make the event, follow it on Twitter (#umnportal).

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 01/21/13

Sign Up Now for the ESUP Portal Kickoff! 
The Portal Kickoff event will take place on Monday, Feb. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m., with locations on every campus. The kickoff begins a University-wide conversation about creating an easy-to-use interactive web tool for facilitating access to information and services that are of primary relevance and interest to you and the University community. The event will include a short overview of the portal project and then move into World Café small group conversations about opportunities this project offers to the University community and strategies for being part of creating a new portal that delights the people who use it. Register for the event by Wednesday, Jan. 30. Learn more at z.umn.edu/portal. 

Cross-Functional Work Streams Essential to ESUP Success 
With so much focus on the “big three” work streams and PeopleSoft systems impacted by ESUP (Student, HRMS, and Finance), it’s easy to overlook the important cross-functional work streams that are essential to adoption of the upgraded systems and to the long-term success of the program. The Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) work stream, the Portal work stream, and Technology teams focused on application development, identity management and security, infrastructure, integration, and testing are currently developing and socializing work stream-specific strategies and plans.

Each of these cross-functional teams has its own approach to coordinating with the other work streams. The EDMR team, for example, has been actively participating in Student and HRMS sessions to ensure that data management and reporting needs and concerns are surfaced to be addressed in the Analyze & Design phase. The Portal team includes representatives from each of the other work streams and will engage with those projects in coming months as the emphasis shifts from the business processes (the “what” of ESUP) in Phase 1: Plan & Discover to delivery (the “how” of ESUP) in Analyze & Design. And since ESUP is a business-led program, the Technology teams are developing strategies and plans to work in coordination and parallel to the other work streams, offering technical expertise and input when and where needed during the early phases of the program (before development begins).

All of these work streams are using CCI’s iterative Propel Methodology, adjusted to fit the scope and timeframe of their respective projects. Check back for more information on the ESUP Consolidated Program Plan and phase-by-phase timelines in the coming weeks! 

ESUP Quality Review Identifies Program Strengths, Needed Actions
In December, the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) team hosted CedarCrestone (CCI) quality manager Vickie Cleary for the first of several program quality reviews planned between now and December 2014. Her report identified a number of important program strengths and gave ESUP a “green” (positive) rating for Overall Project Status, Schedule, and Quality/Performance. The report also identified several challenges that, left unaddressed, could negatively impact the program going forward. For more information, access the complete story and related materials here.

Gagner Assumes New Role ESUP
Assistant Program Director for Technology Mark Powell announced this week that Tim Gagner will assume Mark’s former role as project director for infrastructure. The two will be working closely to facilitate this transition. Please congratulate Tim on his new position!

Quality Review Identifies Program Strengths, Needed Actions

In December, the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) team hosted CedarCrestone (CCI) quality manager Vickie Cleary for the first of several program quality reviews planned between now and December 2014. Her report identified a number of important program strengths and gave ESUP a “green” (positive) rating for Overall Project Status, Schedule, and Quality/Performance. The report also identified several challenges that, left unaddressed, could negatively impact the program going forward.

Program strengths (as summarized in the Executive Oversight Committee presentation below) include:

• Outstanding Staff. ESUP is currently staffed with individuals who possess the subject matter expertise required to effectively and efficiently address the business and technical needs for the program. They are committed and passionate.
• Remarkable Executive Support. Executive sponsorship is strong -- individuals have the support they require.
• Pre-ESUP Activities That Strengthened the Program. Results from the activities that occurred at UMN prior to ESUP’s initiation have positively influenced the program. Activities and deliverables focused on business processes aided quick take-off.

Primary program weaknesses included:

• Accessible Meeting Facilities. Convenient, available meeting space is scarce. Left unaddressed the situation could impact schedule. Action/Resolution: This issue is being addressed on an ongoing basis; ESUP meetings and sessions for January and February have been schedule in appropriate facilities.
• Change Management Resource. A UMN Change Management leader needs to be secured and come up-to-speed quickly to meet the demand. Left unaddressed the scope could be impacted. Action/Resolution: Long-time UMN staff member Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez has been hired and began working in his new role this week.
• Unmanaged Expectations. Individuals, to varying extents, are operating with different expectations about how the program, projects, and work streams will be managed. Action/Resolution: Program leaders are developing an action plan specifically to address this issue and other challenges identified by the quality review.
• Technical Versus Administrative: History’s Impact. Negative aspects of previous UMN projects combined with an unspoken concern that the ESUP will be either technically or administratively focused rather than technically and administratively focused appears to be clouding ability to foresee success for the ESUP. Action/Resolution: Program leaders are developing an action plan specifically to address this issue and other challenges identified by the quality review.

The quality review consisted of a series of targeted interviews with selected ESUP team members, a more broadly distributed survey, analysis of the interviews and survey results, and a thorough review of program documentation to date. (If you were not contacted or surveyed as part of this first quality review, do not be concerned -- not everyone will be targeted for every review.) 

The next review is slated for the February/March timeframe and will focus on project initiation and planning for the Portal work stream as well as Phase 1: Plan & Discover for Student and HRMS. 

For more information:

• ESUP Program Quality Review 1 Findings (PDF)
• ESUP Program Quality Review 1 Complete Report (PDF)
• ESUP Program Quality Review 1 Complete Survey Results (PDF)

Weekly Update and Key Messages for the Week of 01/07/13

ESUP Sessions Resume This Week
Happy New Year from ESUP! After a well-deserved break, the ESUP team resumes a full schedule of sessions, meetings, and activities this week. As always, you can see what’s on tap for all the work streams by viewing the ESUP Consolidated Calendar on the ESUP blog at upgrade.umn.edu.

New Leadership for Technology, Change Management Teams
The new year has brought new opportunities for University leaders involved with ESUP. On Friday, Dec. 21, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) Scott Studham announced that Sharon Ramallo will join his leadership team as associate CIO for enterprise systems, effective Jan. 3. Sharon has been leading the ESUP technology team as the University’s assistant program director for technology, alongside CCI’s Christopher Cameron. Mark Powell, who has been working as project director for infrastructure on the ESUP technology team, will take over as assistant program director with Christopher, and the three of them will work together over the next few weeks to manage the transition.

On Jan. 4, ESUP program director Andy Hill announced that Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez will become the ESUP’s assistant program director for change management, working with CCI’s Georgi Frye to lead ESUP change management, communications, and training efforts. A long-time University staff member, Fernández-Giménez believes that ESUP is an opportunity to build a strong foundation for future innovation, both technologically and socially. “I’m excited to jump into this challenging role,” he said. “I plan to reach out to the University community, try to ask insightful questions, surface differences of interest, and challenge us to find creative solutions that allow us to more fully leverage our enterprise infrastructure.”

Please congratulate Sharon, Mark, and Santiago on their new opportunities!

Mark Your Calendars for the Portal Kickoff!
With much of the project coordination underway, the Portal workstream is ready to introduce opportunities for the involvement of all University stakeholders. The Portal kickoff meeting will explain the portal project, identify ways that all interested parties can get involved, and be the start of creating the portal as a University collaborative effort.  This event will take place on Monday, Feb. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m. -- an email invitation with more details will come soon. There will be at least one location to attend on every campus. We hope you will join us!

Student Work Stream to Host IDP Orientation
The Student work stream will host a two-hour Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) orientation session this Thursday for its functional steering committee members. The session is similar in scope to the IDP training held for ESUP team members before the holiday break. Each work stream will hold similar training sessions as they get closer to IDPs and the Analyze & Design phase. For more information about IDPs, see this “What is IDP?” blog post.

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.

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 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.