Transcript PeopleSoft corporate story

National City’s Journey
To PeopleSoft 8
Migration to a Self-Service
Future
Todd Saporito & Ed Walters
Session 4609
Agenda
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National City Overview/Background
Planning & Scope
Staffing
Analysis, Design & Development
Architecture
Testing
Training
Implementation & Current State
Q&A
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National City Corporation
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Founded in 1845.
NYSE:NCC.
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Financial holding company with assets
approaching $106 billion.
 Operates more than 1,100 branch banking
offices and over 1,600 automated teller
machines (ATMs) in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan.
 Company Website: www.nationalcity.com.
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National City Corporation (cont.)
 Approximately 34,000 active employees.
 PeopleSoft history:
 Implemented V3.22 in 1995.
 Upgraded to V5 in 1997.
 Upgraded to V7 in 1998.
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Background – Configuration before 8
 HR and Payroll V7.
 Ben Admin outsourced to Hewitt & Assoc.
 Shared Services Center outsourced to IBM.
 Oracle database.
 Sun Solaris database server.
 Managers completed employee merit
process using a custom access database
and excel spreadsheets.
 Moderately customized.
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Planning
 Planning began in 2000 when we evaluated
whether we do nothing, upgrade,
outsource, or migrate to a new vendor.
 Decided upgrade to V8 was correct path to
lay foundation for self service direction.
 Began V8 planning beginning of 2001.
 Focused on defining scope.
 Began identifying resource requirements
and developing staffing strategies.
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Scope
 Included the removal of all non-essential
customizations.
 Made the decision to move forward with
self service but needed to decide which
application to move to first.
 Decision was made to utilize the
eCompensation and parts of eProfile for the
Manager’s desktop as our first attempt.
 Additional Scope items included:
 Eliminating custom hierarchy and utilize dept
security.
 Misc list of new functionality to implement.
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Staffing
 Staffing the Project:
 Worked with business leaders to obtain
qualified resources for each process area.
 Brought in PeopleSoft resources for short
duration to target a particular process.
 Staffed external resources on project in
positions where they were working closely with
internal counterpart when possible.
 Tried to utilize production support resources to
minimize transition impacts.
 Team consisted of approximately 23 dedicated
functional resources and 15 technical
resources.
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Analysis & Design
 Created process teams to focus on the
following:
 Identify customizations to be removed.
 Understand how new functionality will impact
their process and begin process reengineering.
 Start identifying material for training.
 Created an object repository to assist with
customization evaluation. Huge effort but
huge payback.
 For critical areas we created SWAT teams
to review options and recommend
solutions.
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Development
 Utilized PeopleSoft Upgrade Lab to perform
database upgrade.
 Assigned 2 resources to handle upgrade
process:
 Supported upgrade lab.
 Performed migration steps for database builds.
 Migrated code to each database.
 Used PS Change Control Feature and
Harvest for SQRs, scripts.
 Plan to have multiple databases during
development to support development,
testing, demo and training.
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Development Challenges
 Overwhelmed by the number of patches/fixes to
review (over 250).
 The technology change from V7 to V8 including the
additional components challenged the staff. A lot to
learn.
 The initial cutover scripts ran for days instead of
minutes.
 Struggled to find Variable Comp experienced
resources within PeopleSoft.
 eCompensation and eProfile modules required
more customization than anticipated.
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Architecture
 Physical N-tier running PeopleTools 8.14.12.
 Designed to support 250 concurrent users.
 Web Server - Two W2k servers running weblogic.
 Application Server - Solaris Server w/ 10Gb Mem.
 Oracle Database Server - Solaris Server w/ 8Gb
Mem.
 Process Schedulers - One W2k server and one
running on database server.
 Database is 60 Gig.
 Windows client still distributed to small user group.
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Architecture (cont.)
 Items to consider:
 Stress test!!! – architecture was new in our organization.
 Identify your concurrent user population (needed for
sizing).
 If purchasing new hardware, move into a ‘quiet
production’ prior to implementation.
 Make sure your information protection group is onboard
especially if you have never used SSL before.
 Read PeopleSoft’s current desktop requirements and
understand your end user population.
 Develop a cache maintenance strategy for app servers
and process schedulers.
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Architecture (cont.)
 Items to consider (cont.):
 Understand usage limits and develop a process to
maintain them. (e.g. Shutdown process schedulers during
batch, or bounce web server every night @ 9 pm.)
 Understand how Query/Reporting tools need to be used
in your organization. (Tools 8.14.12 required us to still
distribute windows client for query users due to limitations
in web interface.)
 Include process scheduler training for end users
especially if you have a NT process scheduler and Unix
process scheduler.
 Stay on top of all patches/releases besides just
PeopleTools. (e.g. Weblogic, Tuxedo, etc.)
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Testing
 Completed Unit, System/Integration, Stress
and User Acceptance Testing.
 Assigned a test team manager who created
testing plan.
 2 months for System/Integration Testing – 2
months for User Acceptance Testing.
 Version control processes were critical
during the testing phases to ensure proper
object migration.
 Utilized a problem log database to log and
track all testing issues.
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Testing – Stress Testing
 Very critical in V8 due to the architecture
advancements from V7.
 Utilized Mercury Interactive tool.
 Stress testing conducted on hardware
slated for Production.
 Identified concurrent users and broke out
into specific transaction types to replicate a
true stress test. (e.g.. Data entry, reporting,
online lookup, updates, queries.)
 Uncovered some performance issues which
we were able to correct.
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Testing
 Items to consider:
 Plan to have both technical and functional
resources assigned to testing support and
execution.
 Ensure issue tracking tools and resolution
processes are in place and communicated.
 Develop a solid interface testing strategy.
 Stress Test – so many new components in V8.
 Ensure batch testing is completed within testing
cycle and full schedule runs occur.
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Training
 Consisted of 3 Phases:
 Train the Team
 Train the Trainer
 Train the End User
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Training – Train the Team
 Majority of project team resources had little
to no V8 exposure. Utilized different
methods:
 Approximately 46 people received training.
 Brought PeopleSoft onsite for large group delta
classes.
 Sent resources externally for specific
PeopleSoft classes.(Security, App Engine, etc.)
 Utilized PSAdvisor and customer connection.
 Conducted multiple brown bag/knowledge
transfer sessions amongst the team.
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Training – Train the Trainer
 Needed to develop an internal program that
could be repeatable:
 Created 18 trainers.
 Identified process experts in the field.
 Hired a training consultant to work with internal
staff to develop training program.
 Process experts contributed to developing the
training material for their area.
 Trainers brought onsite to learn material and
training techniques.
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Training – Train the End User
 The Self Service foundation and new GUI
created a demand for additional training of
our end users:
 Approximately 320 HR professionals and 1200
Managers.
 NCC trainers conducted sessions in the field.
 Purchased and customized PeopleSoft’s WebBased Learning Assistant for self help.
 Created a command center specifically
designed as a PeopleSoft hotline outside of
normal IS help desk.
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Implementation
 Planning was essential – reviewed plan
with entire team.
 Performed multiple practice cutovers and
one formal dress rehearsal.
 Created a hotline and voicemail recording
for team to obtain updates.
 Created a command center to focus team.
 New Year’s Eve 2001 Party – Started
Friday, Dec 28, 2001 and brought system
backup Jan 02, 2002.
 Overall – very smooth transition.
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Post Implementation Support
 To address problems quickly we developed a
PeopleSoft command center to log problems and
work directly with team. (Duration: 120 days of
operation after implementation.)
 Technical & Functional teams held daily flash
meetings in the morning to review problem status
and progress.
 Utilized the intranet home page to post hints as
problem trends were identified to assist users.
 The support process was identified and
communicated to team prior to implementation.
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Post Implementation Support (cont.)
 Problem areas after implementation:
 General usage questions or confusion:
 The PeopleSoft Command Center quickly answered
user questions which minimized confusion in the field.
Center was staffed with the process experts from the
project team.
 Some existing interfaces began to have
problems:
 Determined some 3rd parties tested interface load but
didn’t fully validate data values (eg. Some xlat values
changed).
 PSQuery users were impacting performance:
 Lowered query timeouts and amount of data they
could return. Also capped the amount of concurrent
queries that could be run.
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Post Implementation Support (cont.)
 Resource Transition – preventing
knowledge from walking out the door when
resources roll off (internal and external):
 Maintained critical resources on team through
first month of support.
 Created a resource skill set matrix for technical
resources to identify gaps in the internal
knowledge and develop a transition plan.
 Assigned each departing resource a knowledge
area where they were responsible for insuring it
was properly documented. Also required them
to conduct a knowledge transfer session on that
topic.
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Current State
 Operating on V8 since January 2002.
 System has been stable and meeting end
user performance requirements.
 Command Center has been shut down:
 General process knowledge questions now
handled by generalists and SMEs in the field.
 Technical problems now addressed through
corporate IS help desk.
 Positioned for a self service foundation.
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Critical Success Factors
 Strong Sponsor support.
 Staffing, Staffing, Staffing!!! – Obtained the
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best qualified resource whenever possible.
Solid Training strategy from team to end
users.
Stress Testing provided valuable input on
finalizing the architecture configuration.
Practice mini cutovers and full dress
rehearsals helped ensure a smooth
cutover.
Creation of Command Center after
implementation prevented small problems
from becoming disasters.
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Q/A
 Todd Saporito – National City Corporation
SVP, Corporate Human Resources
Director, HR Project Management & Technology
Services
[email protected]
 Ed Walters – Right Team, Inc.
Senior Manager
[email protected]
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