State Accounting Office newsletter

State Accounting Office Newsletter
Sound Fiscal Leadership for Georgia

Inside This Edition:

Issue 4

January 2008

1 SAO Customer Service Survey
4 Streamlined Banking Update
5 Georgia on the Move 6 PS Fin. 9.0 Upgrade 11 System Announcements 12 Surveys 12 Be in the Know 13 Calendars 14 Helpdesk Options 14 Contact Us!
Upcoming Events:
Financials Upgrade to 9.0 is starting the testing phase. See article beginning on page 5.
Project timelines see Georgia on the Move on page 4.
We're on the Web! See us at:
sao.georgia.gov

SAO Customer Service Survey Recently Completed

Governor Perdue has requested that all state agencies deliver faster, friendlier and easier customer service to the people of this state and to each other. This is aligned with his initiative to make Georgia the number one managed state in the country. In this spirit, an SAO Customer Service Survey was distributed to our users last month.
Many of you took the time to help us evaluate the delivery of SAO's PeopleSoft support services. To those who did, thank you for your candid feedback!! Your overall satisfaction ratings and comments were noted and appreciated, and action items are being developed to address any service gaps.
In the section which follows, please review our responses to some of the key findings from the survey.

Enhance System Availability The survey responses revealed that respondents would like access to the system over longer periods of time each day, especially for additional hours during year-end and month-end processing periods. We have focused on system availability since last summer to ensure the system is available during the published business hours. Systems are available for processing Monday through Friday between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. for Financials, and between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. for HCM. Additionally, although the system can be accessed on weekends and holidays, no batch processing on weekends or holidays occurs.
Inherently, system availability must be balanced against the requirements and complexities of the processing environment. The state is running a

batch update versus a real-time PeopleSoft environment; therefore, after each business day, enough time must be allowed to perform transactional updates, and interfaces with agency's non-PeopleSoft systems, banks and insurance companies to post. Additionally, the volume of financial and human capital management transactions that must be processed daily and posted to the appropriate ledgers is very substantial over 800 gigabytes.
To extend the online availability window, SAO has taken steps to minimize the size of the batch processing window (through tuning or optimizing the batch processes) and routinely archives historical data.
Although the batch processing window is required, in an effort to satisfy customer's processing needs, during

State Accounting Office Newsletter

SAO Customer Service Survey Recently Completed (cont'd)

Enhance System Availability (continued) year-end and for emergency on-line processing requests, SAO has kept the on-line system up on Saturdays and Sundays as needed. These types of arrangements require close coordination with GTA, particularly when processing on a Sunday is necessary since GTA routinely brings the system down for maintenance on Sundays.
Enhance Agent Knowledge Many respondents stated that the level of knowledge within certain SAO areas was spread too thin, and that adequate backups for system knowledge

did not exist.
As a result, during the last quarter, we have:
Hired additional staff primarily in production support and application development to address customer agency's needs, and to allow us to increase our ability to be more proactive.
Continued cross- training initiatives within several key areas of our support / development and accounting infrastructure, while also taking measures to promote staff retention.

Updated our website with more current information on each of the PeopleSoft modules.
Updated many business processes, tips and troubleshooting guides, links, and procedure documents stored on the SAO Internet for Financials and HCM.

By making these changes, we will address the issues!

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State Accounting Office Newsletter

SAO Customer Service Survey Recently Completed (cont'd)

Enhance Agent Knowledge (cont'd) Recently implemented a
SAO monthly newsletter to improve communications.
Engaged in planning discussions with OPB to gather feedback for use in developing a training strategy to address agency's PeopleSoft training needs.
Updated all of the Financials UPK topics since the 8.8 upgrade and are approximately 30% completed with the HCM 8.9 upgrade changes. Please note that many of the HCM changes involve adding screenshots that reflect HCM residing on the Portal, while others consist of changes to PeopleSoft language or functionality. Please continue to review the UPK training modules when possible and if a particular topic is not working for

you, let us know and we will address the issue. (Financials UPK) and (HCM UPK)
Improve Helpdesk Response Time -
78% of our respondents reported reaching an agent within 5 minutes. Another 20% stated it took 10 or more minutes to reach someone. We are investigating ways to improve response time and are also exploring ways to leverage other Customer Relationship Management practices with the State's Office of Customer Service. This group is in charge of identifying methods and metrics to more efficiently manage call centers.
Don't forget to go to our website to look for information on dates, calendars, business processes, queries, reports, tips and techniques, and frequently asked questions. These can

be found on the Financials or HCM web page under each subheading. (SAO Financials/HCM)
Communications - We utilize many resources to distribute timely messages to you. Some of them are the SAO Web Page (www.sao.georgia.gov), the ESS Teamwork's site (http://team.state.ga.us/), the SAO monthly newsletter, Helpdesk responses, transition sessions, and various group meetings with agencies. We also utilize a tool called ListServ to deliver important SAO announcements regarding the PeopleSoft system, Policy & Procedure updates, system availability, etc. If you haven't already signed up to receive these communications, please do so now. (ListServ)
Summary Overall, the survey results were positive; however, there is room for improvement...and our goal is to make it happen!!

Achieving customer service excellence is our most important goal!!
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Streamlined Banking Update

State Accounting Office Newsletter

User Group Meeting
The Streamlined Banking Deployment Team held the final User Group Governance meeting on December 11, 2007. Representatives from the original pilot agencies attended. The purpose of this session was to illustrate the new procedures for the monthly reconciliation of their agency depository account. The team discussed: Book to Bank (BTB) system changes & updates, transaction flow processes, and future review sessions. Following the User Group Governance meeting, the Cash Management group conducted one-on-one sessions with pilot agencies and helped them bring the reconciliations current.
End to End Training
The Streamlined Banking End to End Training session is scheduled for Tuesday, January 15, 2008 from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. at the James "Sloppy" Floyd Building, Room 1514A & B. This meeting is designed to provide the current Streamlined Banking agencies with an overview of all Streamlined Banking business processes.
OPB Prepares for Streamlined Banking Deployment!
It is anticipated that during the first quarter of 2008 the Office of Planning & Budget (OPB) will be moving their lockbox operations to Bank of America. This action is intended to reduce the impact when OPB is integrated into the Streamlined Banking Model and will allow the agency to focus on deployment activities only. Bank of America is the official bank for all SLB depository activity for the State's Streamlined Banking Project.

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State Accounting Office Newsletter

Georgia on the Move
Elevating Georgia to the status of, "The Best Managed State" has spurned many important projects and initiatives for state agencies. Within SAO, through partnership with Department of Administrative Services (DOAS), State Personnel Administration (SPA), Office of Planning and Budget (OPB), and Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) the following PeopleSoft projects are currently underway and planned to be implemented in FY09 and beyond:

Human Capital Management System - SPA Competency Management ePerformance Management

Planned Implementation Date July 2008 July 2008

Financials System - DOAS Team Georgia Marketplace: Contract Management Pilot Agencies Strategic Sourcing Pilot Agencies Supplier Rating Pilot Agencies eSupply Connect Pilot Agencies Catalog Management Pilot Agencies eProcurement Pilot Agencies

Planned Implementation Date
January 2009 January 2009 Deferred January 2009 January 2009 January 2009

State Accounting Office Internal Projects Streamlined Banking Cleanup Financials 8.8 Cleanup Upgrade to Financials 9.0

Planned Implementation Date Done March 2008 September 2008

SAO and its Enterprise Support Agency Partners....moving Georgia toward the Best Managed State!

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State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade
Team Georgia Marketplace Drives Need to Upgrade PeopleSoft Financials System
One of the exciting projects mentioned above, Team Georgia Marketplace (TGMP), is owned by DOAS and supported in partnership by SAO.
The TGMP initiative will reinvent the business processes that are used at all levels of the procurement function. This will largely be accomplished through the implementation of several PeopleSoft procurement modules:
Supply Contract Management Strategic Sourcing eSupply Connect eProcurement Catalog Management
According to DOAS's website, the TGMP initiative will automate employee requisitioning via a selfservice web shopping system. This will streamline the ordering process, reduce purchasing cost, and reduce transaction overhead. Further, the module will deliver a central repository of contracts (both statewide and agency), making it easier to determine what is on contract, when you can leverage another agency's existing contract, and what is available to purchase via P-card.
In support of the new functionalities referred to above with the implementation of TGMP, the state must move to the 9.0 version of the PeopleSoft Financials system. The current version of PeopleSoft Financials version 8.8 does not support the desired TGMP processes.
Upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials 9.0
How Does This Upgrade Compare with the Financials 8.8 Upgrade?
As you learned above, the PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade project is necessary so that our existing PeopleSoft system can accommodate the new TGMP functionality. As many of you may recall, we recently completed a Financials upgrade over the last 18 months (i.e., from version 7.2 to version 8.8). You may also recall that we had several key significant challenges during the upgrade:
The PeopleSoft system had not been upgraded in many years, causing very substantial changes between the existing system design and those introduced with the implementation of 8.8
This resulted in underlying table structure changes that had to be accommodated in development, testing, and learning the new system
There were effectively two upgrades performed within this period because the state was so far behind in the versions
Oracle completely redesigned the Budget module as well as the way PeopleSoft handled encumbrances.
(Continued on next page)
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State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade - continued
Oracle's redesign eliminated the identification of Budget Year on transactions The State's transition from object Class budget control to Program by funding source control had to
be accommodated. This resulted in major functional changes in the processes, system configurations, and reports used to track budgets The state implemented changes to accommodate interagency transactions The upgrade had to be implemented at the beginning of the fiscal year which resulted in closing the fiscal year and dealing with the problems of the new implementation at the same time During the upgrade, agencies were asked to devote several subject matter experts and other staff to the Streamlined Banking Project as well as to the upgrade, causing temporary staffing shortages in several agencies The PeopleSoft Financials production system was down for 2 weeks prior to the go live date for data conversion purposes, causing user inefficiencies / backlog across all SAO People soft supported agencies Various data conversion issues impacted the ability to generate accurate, timely, system reports The fiscal year end 2007 closeout was delayed due to the upgrade to 8.8
In comparison with the 8.8 upgrade, the 9.0 upgrade has many core, vital differences:
There are fewer business process and technical changes between version 8.8 and 9.0 resulting in less complexity
The 9.0 upgrade is being treated as a technical upgrade only - that is, in most cases, no functional changes will be implemented. Only limited exceptions will be allowed.
No program budget changes (i.e., changes to the Budget module or budgeting processes) have to be integrated into the 9.0 upgrade
Existing processes that are still supported by 9.0 or through existing customizations will not be reengineered; rather, those processes will be brought over to the 9.0 environment unchanged
As of 12/31/07, changes to production were effectively "frozen" with the exception of occasional emergencies. The code freeze restricts enhancements to the current functionality and prevents us from adding new agencies to PeopleSoft until after the 9.0 upgrade
Adding new agencies to Streamlined Banking has been deferred until the 9.0 upgrade is completed Measures are underway for the 9.0 upgrade which will allow data conversions to be performed
within 5 or less calendar days Recently purchased and implemented a state-of-the-art automated testing suite, the HP Quality
Center, to monitor the processes and software testing within our IT environment. This tool will be used for this and all future projects involving testing of system modifications and quality verifications A conversion data clean-up project is underway (Cleanup 8.8 as mentioned above) to resolve the data conversion issues that surfaced during the 8.8 upgrade. Specifically, this project will resolve the data integrity issues created in balancing transactions within each module and between modules. Addressing this issue prior to the upgrade is essential to avoid rolling data conversion problems from 8.8 forward to 9.0 (Continued on next page)
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State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade - continued

Data issues created by user error will continue to be addressed and resolved during the normal course of business.
The upgrade to 9.0 is not required to be implemented at the beginning of the fiscal year which will allow agencies to complete closing FY 2008 prior to conversion to the 9.0 upgrade

What are the Project Milestones for the 9.0 Upgrade?

Testing Procedures and Set Up Test Director
Unit Test Scripts
TGMP Development Database
Functional Test Results System Test Scripts Performance Test Scripts System Test Results Performance Testing Complete UAT Go-No Go Decision Go-Live

Create Testing Procedures and work aids and set up Test Director

12/15/2007

Creation of Functional Unit Test scripts

1/18/2008

Create and deliver 9.0 Development Database for the TGMP group

2/1/2008

Complete Functional Unit Test 2/15/2008

Create System Test Scripts

4/30/2008

Create Performance Test scripts 4/30/2008

Complete System test

7/10//2008

Complete Performance Testing 7/15/2008

Complete User Acceptance Test 8/15/2008

Go-No Go Decision

8/22/2008

Go-Live

8/31/2008

(Continued on next page) 8

State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade - continued
What is the Current Project Status?
SAO is now actively involved in extensive technical and functional unit testing activities. The testing phases are:
Unit testing Functional testing
o System testing o Integration testing User acceptance testing.
Where and how during the upgrade will users be involved? And what about training on any new system functionality - what is the approach to address this?
Users will be involved in User Acceptance Testing (UAT). User involvement in any system implementation, even one with minimal process changes, is critical to the success of the project. With this in mind, similar to the 8.8 upgrade, users will be asked to participate in the 9.0 upgrade testing process.
Beginning in January 2008, SAO will be soliciting volunteers from the user community to be engaged in a thorough UAT testing phase. User acceptance testing validates the usability of the new processes and ensures that the system meets the needs of the organization and the end user. At the end of the UAT phase, users should walk away with a feeling of assurance that transactions are designed to operate reliably and accurately, and that all user process steps are clearly reflected in the UPK. Remember....your feedback is essential to a successful upgrade!! We encourage and appreciate your full participation in the UAT phase.
Although the 9.0 upgrade is purely a technical upgrade (as opposed to one which involves key business process changes), we anticipate that certain PeopleSoft functions may be slightly different from those in 8.8. In order to ensure that our PeopleSoft users are properly trained on applicable functions introduced in 9.0, the SAO Training Staff is working closely with the 9.0 implementation team to identify changes in system functionality and will:
Create a 9.0 Upgrade FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) site for users (9.0 Financials Upgrade - Frequently Asked Questions)
Update the PeopleSoft Financials User Productivity Kits for new functionality and user screens (On Demand Website for UPK Training)
Conduct train-the-trainer sessions as necessary
(Continued on next page)
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State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade - continued
Is there an oversight function for the 9.0 upgrade?
Yes; one of the primary oversight roles is the one played by the 9.0 upgrade Steering Committee. This organization has been recently established, and will be comprised of executives / leadership from at least 3 agencies other than SAO and DOAS. We believe that this approach will help to ensure that our users' concerns and interests are well understood and addressed throughout the project.
Who's Managing the 9.0 Upgrade?
In order to support our 9.0 upgrade staffing needs, SAO engaged an implementation partner, BearingPoint, to compliment our team. BearingPoint has extensive PeopleSoft implementation experience, and is partnering with SAO in the successful management of this project. Also, there are several team members from SAO and BearingPoint engaged in the upgrade project to assure its success.
Will the system continue to be available to users during the upgrade?
While we expect that the system will be unavailable during the cutover period (anticipated to be no more than five calendar days, at least two of which will fall on a weekend), the system will continue to be available to all existing PeopleSoft users during the upgrade project for normal production hours. Please be reminded, however, that no changes to the system will be applied during the production freeze period (i.e., January 1st through September 1st) unless they are deemed to be emergencies as determined by the project management and/or the Steering Committee.
What benefit will the upgrade have to the state over the long term?
In addition to supporting the needs of the TGMP project, the upgrade will also help us be better positioned to take advantage of system enhancements available in 9.0 that were not available in 8.8, the version that is currently installed.
Can we expect to have an upgrade every 12-18 months going forward?
It is not our intent to upgrade more frequently than is necessary. To the extent that we are on a version of PeopleSoft that addresses the needs of our customer agencies and one that is still considered "current", we will remain on 9.0.
Summary
The bottom line is this....we are poised for success!! We do not have the same complexity of change experienced during the 8.8 upgrade, and have put measures in place to avoid the problems encountered in the previous upgrade. The scope of the 9.0 upgrade should be less invasive of our user's time and resources, our testing approach is further enhanced with the implementation of the HP Quality Center, we do not have business process re-engineering efforts underway during the upgrade, and we will vigorously protect the scope of the upgrade to support success.
(Continued on next page) 10

State Accounting Office Newsletter
PeopleSoft Financials 9.0 Upgrade - continued
Summary (continued) Overall, our objective is to ensure that we are focused on providing you with the level of service that you desire and deserve. And with this in mind, we have developed and are deploying an upgrade approach that will demonstrate our commitment to a successful upgrade. Thank you for your continued support!!
System Announcements
Monday, January 21, 2008 will be observed for Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Financial Systems will be available 7 a.m. 7 p.m. (No Batch Run). HCM System will be available from 7 a.m. 6 p.m. (No Batch Run). Entries will be included in the batch run on Tuesday, January 22, 2008.

Direct Deposit Advice Print

The weekend of January 4, 2008, SAO printed the last direct deposit pay advices for December, 2007 for

PeaemdvrpislcoeoysewnesearwelhpoSrihneatevrdevanitocttheheasGd TtBhAautparddinvgticfeaectrieliPvteyrrasoenddj,ewadcejrutesidtoeisdntroirb-uaUtneydpowdthiteahr tytyeopuer

correction for 2007. The agencies reports. The Pay

Voucher Report (PYxxx0003V) will not be available in Document Direct. Please note that all employees

will receive a W2 form with their salary year to date totals required for tax purposes. Printing the final

check advice for December 2007 allows the employee to review year to date totals in advance of their

W2 form which will be printed later in January.

Personal Services Budget Projection - Update

The Personal Services Budget Projection report has been changed for both the current (FY2008) and next fiscal years versions (FY2009) to reflect the Social Security (OASDI/FICA) maximum change.

The maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax will increase to $102,000 (tax of $6,324) for 2008, up from the year 2007 level of $97,500 (tax of $6,045).
Salary Increase/Performance Management Processing
The Appropriations Act of FY 2008 included discretionary pay adjustments as part of the compensation package. Agency plans to implement these adjustments should have been approved by the Office of Planning and Budget and State Personal Administration. Discretionary Adjustments are to be used for performance incentives, or market and/or equity adjustments. The adjustments are intended to reward exceptional performance and/or address specific critical staffing needs and therefore are to be applied to a small segment of a total agency workforce.
Discretionary Adjustment Codes have been approved in the HCM System for use in the 2008 Salary Increase processing.
Discretionary Adjustments are effective January 1, 2008, but must be paid out by the end of the fiscal year, June 20, 2008.
Please see the FS Communication dated December 21, 2007 for more information on this important piece of system processing. Communication from 12/21/2007

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Newsletter Survey

State Accounting Office Newsletter

Thank you for reading our SAO Newsletter. We want to know what you think about us. Please share your feedback by clicking on the link below.
Customer Service Survey

Want to be in the Know?
Want to be "In the Know"?
"FS Official Communications" are e-mailed on a regular basis to users who have subscribed to the Listserv system. One way to be "in the know" and receive these communications is to sign up for a Listserv!
Put yourself in the "LOOP"! There is no cost to subscribe and it's easy to do! You can also unsubscribe at any time. Please be aware, however, that the more elists (modules) that you sign up for, the more emails you will receive in your inbox. We recommend only signing up for the lists applicable to your job duties.
Listserv is one of the most effective ways for you to obtain information and communications relative to your PeopleSoft system. If you have not already done so, sign up now.
Available lists include: Financials -AP, AR, AM, GL, Labor, Budget, and PO HCM - Human Resources, HR Budget, Payroll and CSB's Financial Reporting - PeopleSoft Agencies, Non-PeopleSoft Agencies, Audits and CPA Audits
Visit the SAO Website and click Financial Systems > Related Links > ListServ and subscribe today!

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Monthly Calendar

State Accounting Office Newsletter
January 2008

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

1

2

Holiday

6

7

Personal

Leave

Election

process run

8

9

Personal

Leave

Election

process run

for DOT

13

14

15

16

SLB End to

End

Training for

current

users

20

21

22

23

Holiday

27

28

29

30

Thu

Fri

Sat

System Availability: FN & HCM 8:00a.m.
1:00p.m.*

3

4

5

Deadline for System

1099

Availability:

Agency FN &HCM

Address 8:00a.m.

Corrections 1:00p.m.*

to SAO

10

11

12

System

Availability:

FN & HCM

8:00a.m.

1:00.p.m*

17

18

19

W-2's print System

this

Availability:

weekend! FN & HCM

8:00a.m.

1099 MISC 1:00p.m.*

Print

Today!

24

25

26

System

Availability:

FN & HCM

8:00a.m.

1:00p.m.*

31

*Normal Weekday System Availability: Financials 7:00a.m. 7:00p.m. Monday F1r3iday HCM 7:00a.m. 6:00p.m. Monday - Friday

State Accounting Office Newsletter
SAO Helpdesk and Options
404-657-3956 or 888-896-7771 Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm Option 1 - Financials Help Desk 1 Financial Accounting (GL, AR, CU, Budgets, AM) 2 Financial Distribution (Vendors, AP, PO) Option 2 - HCM 1 HCM Application Support Option 3 - ID, Password, Security Option 4 - Connectivity, Printing Option 5 - Streamlined Banking Operational Support 1 Streamlined Banking for Payroll 2 Streamlined Banking for Accounts Receivable 3 Streamlined Banking for Accounts Payable 4 Streamlined Banking for Bank Administration 5 Streamlined Banking for Check Reconciliation Option 6 - AMPS (Maximo Asset Management System)
Contact Us

State Accounting Office of Georgia
200 Piedmont Avenue Suite 1604, West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
PHONE: (404) 656-2133
FAX: (404) 463-5089
E-MAIL: stateaccountingoffice@sao.ga.gov

State Accounting Office of Georgia Lynn Vellinga, State Accounting Officer
COMMUNICATIONS Toni Kennelly Mario Covington Deval Lott CONTACT 404-651-2133
saocommunications@sao.ga.gov http://www.sao.georgia.gov
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