Financial Affairs
Communication Plan
Meeting Attendance & FAR Member
Guidelines
FAR members are responsible for
disseminating information to the area
they represent
Meeting attendance has exceeded
capacity of BSE Room
Next meeting – March 17th at 2 p.m. will
be held at BB 206.04 University Room
How to effectively communicate
Ongoing Business Process
Enhancements?
Administrative Guidelines and Forms
 New guidelines & forms – 60 days advance
notice for stakeholder review & feedback
 Changes to existing guidelines & forms
 Substantive – will provide 60 days unless
required to address a regulatory or non-optional
policy change
 Minor – no advance notice required as
determined by AVP-FA
How to effectively communicate
Ongoing Business Process
Enhancements?
Administrative Guidelines & Forms
 Notification methods
 Email requesting review/comments (1o)
 Special meeting – open invitation to present &
discuss / invite feedback
 Review with CMO and or selected stakeholders
- “pilot group”
How to effectively communicate
Ongoing Business Process
Enhancements?
Financial Affairs Website
http://www.utsa.edu/financialaffairs/
 What’s New page
 Periodic email to FAR members with link to
guideline and or forms as changed
Frequency?
 Monthly? As approved new guidelines,
forms and or changes are made?
Pre-PeopleSoft implementation
projects
1. Statement of Accounts Automation
Objective: Reduce paper printed & manually
distributed each month by creating Cognos reports
that are emailed to Account Administrators &
reconcilers.
Other benefits:


Simplify fee reasonableness testing
Signed certification will only be required by
Account Administrator on 1 page for all
accounts within a unit code.
Pre-PeopleSoft implementation
projects
Expected roll-out of automated SOA:
 Use with February month-end reports
received mid March
 Special launch meeting (or wait until
March 17th FAR?)
 Regularly scheduled SOA Training
classes will be updated
2. Citibank Travel Card conversion
Pre-PeopleSoft implementation
projects
2. Citibank Travel Card conversion
 Guidelines are being drafted and
decisions reviewed

Disregard any previous correspondence
until an official statement is provided
 State Comptroller objective to transition
all agencies by 2/28/2011

We are doing our best to meet this goal
Pre-PeopleSoft implementation
projects
3. Travel Reimbursement Process &
Form
 Finalizing draft documents, guidelines,
forms & business process and
responsibilities
 News to follow
 Will follow 60 day review process

How do you prefer to be informed?
PeopleSoft Project
Communication Planning
Good communications among all
stakeholders is key to the project’s
success
At most project lessons learned
sessions, communication winds up on
the top of the things that could be
improved list
Why plan project
communications?
Provide open and two-way information
flows
Facilitate problem identification &
resolution
Ensure effective decision-making
Involve key stakeholders throughout the
project and facilitate teamwork
What is a project
communication plan?
Written strategy for getting the right
information to the right people at the right
time
A communication plan has 3 basic
components:
1. Purpose
2. Methods
3. Frequency
What are the steps to planning
project communications?
STEP 1: Identify Project Stakeholders
STEP 2: Analyze the needs and expectations
of stakeholders
STEP 3: Identify existing and possible new
communications vehicles or opportunities
and choose the appropriate vehicles
STEP 4: Develop, document and monitor your
communications plan
What are communications goals?
 Ensure essential information gets to the required
parties at the right time, quickly and efficiently
 Identify and raise potential problems via scheduled,
consistent status reporting
 Generate project enthusiasm and buy-in
 Assist decision-making, approvals and change control
 Specific process for feedback and conflict resolution
 Enhance & facilitate teamwork, cooperation and
collaboration
 Enable appropriate transition upon project closure
How much communication?
PROJECT FACTORS
Complexity
Size
Duration
Risks
Reach
Costs / Value
Visibility
COMMUNICATION
FORMALITY
Increases in
direct
proportion to
each of the
corresponding
project factors
Who are the stakeholders?

Anyone with a ‘stake’ in the outcome of a
project
 Who has a vested interest in the project in terms
of process or outcome?
 Who has information or expertise to contribute?
 Who has functional responsibility for the project
or its outcome?
 Who must be involved in project decisions and
approvals?
 Who as authority to approve project expenditures
and purchases?
What are the needs and
sensitivities of stakeholders?
What are their specific concerns or needs
resulting from the project or its deliverables?






Want to know project implications & risks
No surprises
Want early warnings / advance notice of changes
Impacts of business processes changes
Project success
On time, on budget, and expected deliverable results
Identify expected results
Continued project support
Problem solving when necessary
Effective communications throughout the
university
Understanding of the impact of the project to
help make accurate decisions about
business processes
Communications methods
What method will ensure that the
message reaches the stakeholder?
Which method will increase the likelihood
that the message will actually be
received and understood?
How much info and what level of detail?
Stakeholder preference?
You are a very important
stakeholder!
General: Project list serve/email, website,
newsletter, status reports at
regular FAR meetings
Special: Focus groups, fit-gap reviews,
usability testing, road shows,
demos, testing assistance, enduser training, learn & share and
project/issue briefing meetings.
Communications methods
Publications: Website, newsletters, white
papers, reports, business process
guides, functional specifications
PeopleSoft Project Update
Work in Progress
Project Manager Selection
Project teams & backfill planning
Appointments for Steering Committee
Identification of implementation partners
Project scope determination
Project budget
Data Conversion planning
PeopleSoft Project Update
Work in Progress
Review of SciQuest – as an alternative to
PS eProcurement
Chart of Accounts team
Review of Reporting tools & Data
Warehousing
Disaster Recovery planning &
requirements