Enterprise Systems Committee
CMS Steering Committee (CSC)
Minutes of April 24, 2000
Present: John Miller, Don Graham, Arno Rethans, George Wellman, Jeff Wright, Dennis
Graham, Dennis Frazier, BobSneed, Debbie McElroberts, Fred Ryan, and Susan Greco
(staff)
John Miller thanked everyone for submitting Staffing Plans. He will now organize them
into an overall plan for the project. Team Leaders were asked to include in their status
reports information about what is happening system wide (first wave, etc.) for their
respective areas and how it relates to what we are doing here at Chico. Team leaders are
expected to keep abreast with what is coming up on the CMS Website and to bring new
information to the CSC group.
Status Reports
Technical Team: Debbie McElroberts reported that the composition of the technical team
is not yet complete but that the list of team members will be finalized very soon. The
central web site for the technical area does not appear to be up-to-date. However, there
has been a lot of work done by this group with the central readiness, the architecture and
the Citrix solution - how scaleable it is and how it will be used. The Technical
Infrastructure group minutes show an extensive list of things they are working on at the
central level, our technical team will try to keep in sync with them.
Human Resources: Nothing new to report. Nancy Praizler is attending the Financials
meetings as a liaison.
Financials: Others from outside the Financial area who have agreed to be part of the team
are Nancy Praizler, Chuck Worth, and Bruce Rowen. They have completed Draft One of
their staffing plan. The plan addresses backfill issues and how to live with the legacy
system during the move. The group is holding weekly meetings every Thursday, minutes
will be provided for our web site.
George Wellman asked about our process mapping. Ryan and Miller indicated that we
would be doing quarterly updates for schedule and budget. What we do is predicated on
the status of the project system wide. A group has been formed to determine our campus
process for CMS Process Mapping. We may need to bring in target consulting to help
start the process. Expect to have some direction fairly soon and will report back to the
group.
A letter from President Esteban will be distributed to campus soon as a follow-up to the
Dallas PeopleSoft SIG conference. This will express his support for the CMS project.
The search process for the Project Management position is underway and we should be
ready to advertise very soon.
ISC Meeting Briefing
Fred Ryan distributed a recap of the April 4, 2000 CMS ISC meeting held at the Fullerton
Marriott. CSEA has filed an unfair labor practice regarding outsourcing. Attention was
drawn to several areas of the minutes such as:
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HOSS update (page 2);
CSUC paying to participate at planning table with PeopleSoft, gives visibility
(page 3);
Some slippage (page 4);
CMS Risk Assessment Ð how to set standards and reliance on 4CNet (page 4);
Simultaneous HR/FIS implementations (page 5); PeopleSoft 8.0 (page 6) Module
availability (top page 6)
The July 2000 date may be an unrealistic target to begin backfill. We need to discuss
what this date should be, possibly October. As we move further down the track this gap
will narrow. Another complexity to consider is how the software updates are distributed
to the various waves. How do we instill and keep buy-in from the staff and units? This is
not easy to deal with and we hope for more clarity in the next couple of months.
A copy of a PowerPoint presentation titled CMS Project Assessment, Human Resources
& Finance by Derinda Williams dated April 4, 2000 was distributed. First wave groups
are having trouble making the schedule and keeping up-to-date so a new set of priorities
has been set for the project. Our team leads need to be reviewing for this same type of
thing. When you refer to page 5 of the ISC minutes, the deliverables for September 1 are
less. Functionality is being cut back which is an issue for first wave people. There will be
a PR problem of how to explain the cutbacks due to the complexity of the project.
Campuses will be responsible for the explanations. The first wave groups will have to
deal with and find solutions for many of these problems. Human Resources web
development is to be deferred. It has been agreed to decouple the two areas. This means
some work will have to be done twice but it was felt that keeping them together was too
risky. The system is trying to hold to the dates but scale the scope of the project back.
They are still going forward to deliver all GL, AP and PO processes by September 1,
2000. Processes will be delivered but functionality may not all be there.
CMS Support Services
A handout titled CMS Support Services Ð DRAFT by Mark Crase dated April 1, 2000
was distributed. This is a look at reality by the ChancellorÕs Office folks. We need an
end-to-end control of the process in order to make it work from San Diego to Chico.
4CNet is a core element. There is a Network Assessment approach (with a $35,000 price
tag) which will tell campuses if their networks are ready or not. The idea is that some
kind of support structure can be put together (see support page of hand out). The
complexity of this is equal to the complexity of the whole CMS project itself. It is a
difficult issue with which to deal. The third page of the handout defines support service
responsibilities and the 4th page talks about the schedule of what they see themselves
doing. The last page discusses the development of the initial support services budget.
This will cost, ChancellorÕs Office says money wonÕt come from the campuses but
weÕre not sure how this is possible. If we do it jointly there are things that can be done
more economical than what we are doing now. Chico is probably at the top 10% in terms
of support structure. A lot of other campuses will have to start from scratch. We need to
determine how Chico will deal with support issues. There needs to be a knowledge base
brought together across the system for the standard type of questions. Even though some
functions are performed for the enterprise some services may be performed at campus
levels depending on where something is routed for resolution. In order for this to work, it
will have to be mandated from the Chancellor. In theory, if the software is common
across the system the support person could be centralized.
Staffing Plan Ð Next Steps The next meeting will be just the management leads to
review the staffing plan document John is compiling. The goal is to emerge with an
understanding of what each area needs and then submit for GartnerGroup review. Once
reviewed, it will be brought back and a price tag attached (target date for this is May
15th).
A readiness document for Long Beach had previously been distributed. It is expected that
we will have several other campus plans from the first wave campuses in the near future.
Latest project plan shows Fresno by June 1, Maritime in August and Pomona July 1. San
Bernardino shows done. We need a readiness that reflects reality rather than a two-year
old document. We can use Wave One as a guide for us to get ready.