ConnectCarolina: Enterprise Resource Planning

As implementation of the student services component of ConnectCarolina continues, work has begun on the next phase of the project – the finance and human resources components. The completed ConnectCarolina project will provide the University with a fully integrated administrative system that increases the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes related to student services, human resources, payroll and finance.

Oracle’s PeopleSoft is being used for all aspects of ConnectCarolina through these components:

• Campus Solutions (student systems)
• Financial Management Solutions (finance)
• eProcurement (purchasing/commodity system)
• Human Capital Management (HR and payroll)
• Enterprise Performance Management (reporting and data warehouse)

Bain Report Drives Timeline Change

The timeline for implementing the finance and human resources components has been stepped up as a result of the Bain Report. In the original plan, the ConnectCarolina team would have completed the student systems implementation, followed by the HR and then finance implementations. Following release of the Bain Report, the team has reconfigured the timeline to conduct simultaneous implementations and moved finance ahead of HR. The goal is to more rapidly implement the new administrative system to help business offices reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

An example of a Bain Report recommendation on ConnectCarolina is in the area of purchasing. In order for the University to negotiate better prices, a commodity system is needed to provide detail on quantities and pricing. Bain’s analysis identified this as a gap and recommended that a commodity system be implemented as soon as possible. PeopleSoft does this through the eProcurement system, which the ConnectCarolina team will begin working on in December 2009. The University is also exploring a partnership with North Carolina State which already uses eProcurement. By leveraging what NC State has done and the knowledge they have, the ConnectCarolina team hopes to fast track eProcurement implementation.

Finance and HR Components

Stakeholder committees have been formed for the next phase, led by:

• HR and Payroll: Matt Brody, Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources
• Finance: Roger Patterson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance

Working groups have begun to review existing policies and business processes in the finance, payroll and HR areas. The goal of all of these groups is to identify potential policy and process improvement opportunities that have both a positive benefit to the University now as well as facilitate the implementation of the HR, payroll and financial components of the new system.

The ConnectCarolina team that will implement the finance, HR and payroll components is currently being assembled. ITS team members who support the finance and HR applications today are anticipated to be active participants in the ConnectCarolina implementation of these functions. Functional and/or technical PeopleSoft training will be provided for all the impacted teams in early 2010, and workloads will be coordinated to ensure staff availability for the training.

The implementation of Financial Management Solutions will begin in January 2010; this may include:

• General Ledger
• Payables
• Receivables
• Purchasing
• Asset Management

The implementation of Human Capital Management will begin in February 2010; this may include:

• Human Resources
• Payroll
• Base Benefits
• Learning Management
• Talent Management
• ePay
• eBenefits
• ePerformance
• Absence Management