University's payroll system gets Peoplesoft update

By ADAM GIFFORD

The University of Canterbury is replacing a 30-year-old manual payroll system with Peoplesoft's human resource management system (HRMS) package.

Canterbury's information technology director, Associate Professor Michael Dewe, said the system would cost about $1.3 million over two years, including software licences of about $500,000and $150,000 in hardware.

He said the university wanted to use web technology to deliver self-service access and information to its more than 1600 employees.

"The Peoplesoft HRMS package is both web and workflow-enabled, which will improve the quality of information to support our decision-making and strategic planning," said Professor Dewe.

The Peoplesoft licensing structure made the product attractive for wide deployment with browser-based access, he said.

Peoplesoft has targeted the tertiary sector, both for its core human resources software and for student administration packages, and has made sales to Auckland University, Unitec and Lincoln.

Peoplesoft NZ manager Stewart Gibbs said the university had gone for a "low-risk, rapid-deployment model to avoid costly modifications to existing systems and processes."

Five university staff and three consultants from Wellington firm Kirkwood Consultants are working on the project.

Project manager Kerry Stewart said doing the work in-house "means other universities that have implemented Peoplesoft are willing to share technical and functional experience with us, which they would not be prepared to do with a commercial organisation."

She said the payroll modules were due to go live at the beginning of November.

Other human resources functions, which include the ability for employees to check their personal details online, apply for leave or check their payslips, should be running by the middle of next year.

"There is improved security, particularly with auditing and tracking, and it lets us deal with our staff who don't have regular work patterns," Ms Stewart said.

The system will run on a Microsoft SQL server database using Compaq Proliant servers.

The university will maintain and enhance its existing student administration and enrolment systems for at least the next three years.

"At the end of last year the council decided the large student systems currently available are not mature," said Ms Stewart.

Canterbury is also upgrading its Oracle Financials system to Version 11i.