With all due respect to Administration and Finance
Vice Chancellor Joyce Hatch, the PeopleSoft system, at least where
the financials are concerned, is not flawless.
As one who is not "in the trenches," Vice
Chancellor Hatch couldn't possibly know the downsides to the financial
package. If she would like to know, perhaps she should man one
of the phone lines at the "Help Desk." It might also
behoove Vice Chancellor Hatch to sit in on the Purchase Order
Data Entry Operators meeting on Sept. 26 to see how well things
are going. No longer are we, the dogfaces, allowed to phone anyone
in Purchasing or the Controller's Office to get answers to our
myriad questions; they're too busy. All of our cries for assistance
must be filtered through the Help Desk, where we may or may not
receive some answers.
And what happens in December, when the PeopleSoft
crew packs up its tents and moves to another campground? We are
left here, to shovel up the mess and make sure all the fires are
out. So many problems, so little time.
MARY PELIS
clerk III,
Physics Department
Joyce Hatch, interim vice chancellor for Administration
and Finance, replies:
Now that the new finance system is up and running,
we appreciate all feedback and input from the many users on campus.
While the actual conversion was a success, we recognize that this
PeopleSoft system presents a major change in operations for all
of us and, like the old system, it will take time for us to iron
out the kinks in the day to day functioning. It will also take
time for all of us to become as proficient at our jobs in the
new system as we once were with the old.
The user support system includes the Help Desk as
the first point of contact to sort out various questions. This
is to ensure that callers ultimately get answers from appropriate
staff. This structure is designed to allow the limited support
staff in each of the functional departments (like Purchasing)
to focus on calls directly related to their expertise. We are
checking on these response times to insure they are as prompt
as possible.
We have trained over 600 financial system users
in the past five months. At the moment, the Help Desk is a temporary
strategy. We will not abandon users in the future and will maintain
permanent support staff who can continue to provide training and
answer questions.
We appreciate the patience and diligence of the
many users on campus during this period of incredible change,
particularly in departments that have experienced a loss of staff.
