Global PeopleSoft HRMS Upgrade

 

Overview
The client is North America's largest family footwear retailer. They offer products at affordable prices in a unique self-service shopping format and deals in fashionable, affordable footwear for the entire family. Apart from the self-service outlets all over the United States and other locations, the client also sells footwear via its online store.

 

Business Need
In order to stay ahead of competition, the client had to achieve the goal of timely availability of critical information and an effective integration of the same with the existing processes. The company realized that going in for an upgrade would not only add web functionality but also streamline the processes in the existing system, including Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Purchase Ordering, Project Costing and Asset Management. While this would undoubtedly be far more efficient in terms of performance and user-friendliness, the company also needed the more tangible cost benefits that greater automation would bring in.

 

The company was also looking to leverage the wealth of experience and skill sets of its team by upgrading from its current version of PeopleSoft HRMS version 7.5 and Financials 7.02 to version 8.x across its global operations.

 

The Challenges
The solution was addressed to people from diverse geographies, at different levels of skill and competence. It therefore had to be easily accessible to its large global audience, offer flexible schedules and at the same time be user-friendly, scalable and not too technology-intensive.

 

Apart from this, the solution had to address the following specific challenges:

 

• The Infosys project team had to first understand the impact the upgrade would have on routine production and factor those into the larger plan
• Infosys had to integrate the client's mainframe legacy systems into the new PeopleSoft Web world, which was an intensive task
• The financial systems needed a double upgrade to come up to par with the rest of the IT infrastructure
• The Infosys team had to plan for and deliver support processes to ensure that the client's support systems made a smooth shift to the upgraded systems
• Elimination of internal competition and increasing associate participation are usual challenges in human resources management. While handling HRMS, one task was to get associates to be more focused and better informed than ever regarding their incentive earnings potential
• A presence in the global arena meant sprucing up employee relationships and management for the client. This was seen as one of the major challenges for Infosys

 

Infosys' Role
With a team strength of 14, Infosys managed to cut project cost as well as time-to-market via offshoring. To facilitate a complete and timely knowledge transfer to the client, Infosys worked to ensure that key members from the client's teams were included at all levels of planning and deployment.

 

Infosys knew from experience that customers who implement PeopleSoft packages for any of their systems needed to consistently shift to the higher versions as and when new upgrades hit the market. Scalability was therefore, high priority for any customization during implementation. Moreover, PeopleSoft technical support for the older versions of the software would be discontinued as newer versions hit the market.

 

With a hard timeline of 15 months in which to implement the entire upgrade, Infosys deployed two of its proprietary methodologies to roll out the upgrade: its Global Delivery Model (GDM) and its In-Tune Methodology. With In-Tune, deployment was phased into three phases. This was done to ensure that the final production upgrade could be completed within a short production downtime.

 

While the first upgrade phase focused on getting the script sequencing right and identifying all the project patch requirements, the second phase incorporated most of the key developed code. The third phase ensured that all the modified/developed code was in place. The database that was delivered at the end of the three upgrade phases was subjected to System Integration Test, Unit Test and User Acceptance Test at various stages of deployment.

 

Among other things, this methodology helped Infosys successfully address the challenge of incorporating routine production changes seamlessly while ensuring minimum downtime.

 

" I am extremely pleased with my current offshore vendor because of the comfort level of working with them, the rigorous change management processes that they brought in and the sense of discipline they instilled in our own IT staff and business users", said the client CIO.

 

Infosys also built a working model to help the client easily take control of the new system for post-upgrade support. Domain expertise was combined with business process consulting and program management to put these processes in place without impacting project delivery time.

 

With so much scattered and indiscrete information available throughout the organization, it was important to shift the emphasis from simply gathering data to leveraging valuable information. At the same time, the upgrade of two vital organizational systems (HRMS and financial) had to be implemented seamlessly. To achieve this, Infosys executed the upgrade of the HRMS version 7.5 as well. A lot of legacy systems and manual processes maintained on cumbersome excel sheets were eliminated by virtue of enhanced functionality in the new product.

 

The benefits and enhanced facilities of the upgraded systems and processes needed to be effortlessly assimilated back into company processes. Therefore, key members of the client team were involved in all stages of the project, so ensuring a smooth transfer of knowledge.

 

Benefits

• On the technology front, over 150 customizations were discarded when the upgrade was implemented, which led to a leaner, meaner and much more efficient system
• The client had been maintaining a number of legacy systems and manual tasks. These laborious, expensive, and inefficient processes were automated in the upgraded system. This meant a visible improvement in overall business process competence and a more streamlined workflow
• The upgrade led to improved employee-employer interactions. The HRMS upgrade in particular helped in extending its business processes with regard to e-applications to all its employees, including features like e-pay and e-benefits
• With regard to the financials upgrade, the implementation of the process allowed them to achieve its goals of timely availability of information and better integration of Information
• The upgrade also helped to fully exploit its human resource potential, internal knowledge and skill sets
• The HRMS upgrade gave the client's decision makers quick access to role-relevant information and also an efficient way to disseminate it to its employees to improve productivity

 

Related Information

Event

Infosys at Oracle OpenWorld 2008
September 21-25, Moscone Center, San Francisco
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Testimonials

"Without the help of Infosys, we would have had to postpone large projects for years. We would have suffered as a result."

 

-Terry Morgan
CIO and Senior VP, IT

 

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