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Successful 'go-live' for PeopleSoft
student application processing

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The PeopleSoft Administrative Web-based System (PAWS) at Fresno State reached a milestone on Tuesday,

Feb. 19, when it began processing student applications in a live (production) environment. "This is a huge milestone," said Dr. Rafael Solis, Student Administration project director and professor in the Craig School of Business. "We've been working on this since February 2001."

Bernie Vinovrski, assistant vice president for enrollment services and executive sponsor for the project, said the achievement has nationwide significance.

"We are one of four universities in the country with the Web-based PeopleSoft Student Administration in place," said Vinovrski. "We are right on track with our 18-month implementation schedule that is half of the 36-month schedule that has been experienced elsewhere."

This milestone marks the first in a series of such stages that will culminate on with "Go-Live 6" on Sept. 30.

Solis credited the successful start of student application processing to the commitment and hard work of the Fresno State team along with a dedicated team working centrally at the CSU Chancellors Office. Both CSU teams were assisted by a group of consulting partners from Cedar Ltd., a firm specializing in PeopleSoft Student Administration software implementation projects. Many university constituents that have closely collaborated in building the system also contributed significantly, he said.

The PAWS project was launched in February 2001 and is expected to be completed in 18 months, which makes it an industry standard for this kind of software implementations, Solis said.

The PAWS project is part of the CSU-wide Common Management Systems project to implement the Student Administration, Human Resources and Financial modules of the PeopleSoft Enterprise Resource Planning software.

Fresno State, Sonoma State and California Maritime Academy were chosen to implement the Student Administration module, integrating it into the existing production Human Resources module. These campuses will serve as pilot models for the other campuses to follow. The Fresno State PeopleSoft HR Support Team had a challenging upgrade project to move the considerable Human Resources functions already delivered to campus to the new Web-based version of PeopleSoft. The upgrade was completed in less than six months from software release to the Feb. 19 "go-live."

Another milestone reached by the PAWS team was the first PeopleSoft Campus Portal implementation in an academic institution. John Briar, interim director of Campus Information Systems and CMS project director, led the team of Fresno State and PeopleSoft analysts.

The Fresno State Portal team members were Anne Burkholder, Candace Egan, Cher Travis-Ellis, Brad Barker and John Wagenleitner. Also contributing were the ITS Unix Systems and Network Design groups. Among other things, the My Fresno State Portal will allow students, faculty and staff to access the PeopleSoft system in an easy-to-navigate interface.

Also, the My Fresno State Portal will offer students, faculty and staff a secure, personalized, interactive Web-based environment to access campus information and services. These self-service transactions have gained a great deal of popularity among commerce, banking and many other Web sites since they allow users to update their own information.

Back to University Journal, 4/02/02 Issue