PeopleSoft implementation proceeds cautiously

by Joe King

The NIU Board of Trustees has decided to proceed cautiously with the implementation of the PeopleSoft Student System.

The badly needed software will replace a 25-year-old system which barely can keep up with demands, and for which no company provides any type of support, says Steve Pace, associate director of Computing Services in Finance and Facilities.

If and when it is fully implemented, the new PeopleSoft system will transform how the university handles all student-related record keeping. It will include modules for admissions, registration and records, financial aid, grades and more. It will simplify entry of records, and allow students, faculty and staff to access relevant information much more easily.

While the new software would be an enormous improvement, the board decided to heed staff advice and proceed slowly until the federal courts clear up a potential hostile takeover of PeopleSoft by rival software maker Oracle.

Oracle has been trying for some time to buy out PeopleSoft, but that attempt was blocked by the Department of Justice, saying it would violate antitrust laws.

That lawsuit put the university in a bit of a bind, Pace says.

NIU already purchased the base software package in 2003 and would like to get it online as quickly as possible. However, should Oracle succeed in its takeover of PeopleSoft, it could force the university to go through the effort and expense of a major software systems change in just a few years. The proposal approved by the board included contract guarantees that would mitigate this risk.

Faced with that uncertainty, staff in Finance and Facilities offered the board four different scenarios, ranging from completely shelving the project until the court case is settled to moving ahead with the full implementation.

The board chose a middle-of-the-road option under which the software will be installed and an implementation project team will be trained. A firm will be hired to work with the implementation team to identify potential gaps between current business practices and the new software's functionality and develop a comprehensive project plan that can be enacted if the university goes ahead with the full implementation.

That option not only keeps the project moving forward, but also locks in discounted prices for software, maintenance and training - all of which would have been lost if the project was shelved.

It also allows the university to qualify for a customer assurance program that guarantees a refund of two to three times the cost of a customer's investment in PeopleSoft software, training and maintenance should the company be taken over and the new owners choose not to support the software.

Should the Oracle/PeopleSoft case be resolved, the university will return to the Board of Trustees with a request to implement the student system. That process could take anywhere from 18 months to 30 months to complete. The protracted time line has much to do with fitting the implementation around the normal university cycle so as not to disrupt processes, Pace says.

The university previously installed PeopleSoft software to handle all record keeping for human resources and accounting work.

6-28-04