Helen Norris and Elaine Meckenstock, Budget and Finance
In January 2004, the campus began a project to upgrade the Berkeley Financial System (BFS) from PeopleSoft Financials version 7.02 to version 8.8. The new version is web-based, similar to PeopleSoft HRMS, and is expected to provide several benefits to UC Berkeley. As a web-based system, the user experience — navigating to the different pages or panels, etc. — is more intuitive and familiar, and users will be able to run BFS directly from their local computers without the use of Citrix servers. PeopleSoft has also added functionality to the product — for example, the ability to modify a transaction while it is in a queue to be approved. (Currently, users must wait until the approver takes action on the transaction before they can modify it.) In addition, the upgrade will place the campus on a supported version of PeopleSoft's product. Originally planned for an implementation date in April 2005, the campus has now committed to an implementation date in late September or early October 2005, pending final planning of the actual cutover.
The project team, led by Helen Norris of Budget & Finance Information Technology, is comprised of functional and technical staff from a number of campus units including Budget, Financial Accounting & Reporting, Financial Services, Disbursements, Procurement, Budget & Finance User Support, Administrative Systems (ASD), and Central Computing Services (CCS). In addition, the project team regularly solicits input from the BFS/BAIRS Focus Group and from representative users who have been invited to preview components of the system.
The University is not changing its fundamental business processes or the chart of accounts as part of this project. For example, purchase orders will continue to be prepared and authorized by two separate people, as part of an important system of internal controls. With rare exceptions, our reporting and analysis tools (BAIRS and BIS) will also remain as they are. BAIRS and BIS will simply source their data from the upgraded version of BFS. The minimal changes to BAIRS or BIS which are required by changes in PeopleSoft's new version will be covered in user training before and during the implementation.
One prominent change will affect how we use the Processing Unit attribute, which will become more flexible for campus users. Processing Unit is used in BFS to connect Preparers, Reviewers, and Approvers to each other and to transactions. Currently, Processing Unit is specifically assigned always at level 4 or 5 of the campus organizational tree. We now propose a more dynamic use of the tree, plus the expansion of the processing unit concept to encompass Levels 2 through 6. This has led to changes in some peripheral systems, notably Payroll, e-Travel, and CNS systems. These changes are being coordinated with the BFS Upgrade project.
There will, of course, be training and help desk support for end users before, during, and after the upgrade, provided by Budget & Finance User Support. The training plan includes the use of web-based, forum, and hands-on classroom training, as well as manuals and quick reference guides for common transactions. We expect to deliver informational forums to prepare campus staff for the change approximately six weeks before implementation, and to deliver transaction-based training (how to prepare a purchase order, for example) beginning a week to two weeks prior to the "go live" date. Training will be announced via the BFS/BAIRS listserve.
Users should anticipate some system downtime at implementation — possibly up to two weeks or more when access to BFS will not be available. During this time, we will be running the upgrade processes to convert the database and the data from 7.02 to 8.8. This will mean that users will not be able to create, change, or approve transactions during this window. There will be campuswide communication about the specific dates of downtime as we approach implementation. Departments will be able to use their bluCards for low-value purchasing during the system downtime. We also anticipate that BAIRS would be available for reporting while BFS is down. During spring 2005, central campus business units will be preparing a business continuity plan for this downtime.
There are significant differences in technical architecture between our current client-server system and the new web-based application. As a result, behind-the-scenes transaction processing will take place in a very different way and system performance may well be different. The new system may process some activities more quickly and others more slowly. We are aware that this is an area of critical concern to all of our users — both central and departmental — and we are doing everything we can to ensure acceptable performance. This includes decisions about how fields and panels are designed, how and when information is passed between the user's computer and the database, as well as the technical architecture itself. In addition, we will be conducting substantial performance testing and tuning before we go live. It is reasonable to expect, however, that initial system performance may be slow for some functions and will require tuning and adjustments. We are preparing for that and ensuring that the appropriate technical resources will be available to make those adjustments as quickly as possible. With regard to supported browsers, minimally, the upgraded BFS will support the same browser set as Blu and HRMS. Additionally, we plan to survey the user base in early spring 2005 to determine which combinations of browsers and operating systems are most prolific on campus and should be tested.
For additional information and current developments, please see the BFS Upgrade website (http://bfsupgrade.berkeley.edu/).
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