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A Newsletter From the Core-CT ProjectOctober 2002 |
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Recent Frequently Asked QuestionsFrequently asked questions (FAQs) are posted at the Core-CT website, separated into categories for easy reference, at http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/faq/index.htm. Listed here are some questions and answers that have been added recently. Will we be using Crystal Reports for Financials? Will agency staff need to be trained in Crystal? Users will not need to be trained in Crystal, though the Financials Team is developing Crystal Reports, users will not need to know if a report is a "Crystal Report" or not. For agencies that are not on SAAAS, will a consistent approach be used for grant transfers? This functionality that deals with Grant Transfers is currently under review by the Chart of Accounts team. A process for this functionality will be coming out in the near future. When will agencies see the list of Financials standard reports to be available in Core-CT? A list of Financials standard reports is posted on the Core-CT website. It is linked from http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/library.htm#fsr. What defaults from Time and Labor schedules: the number of hours per day or the actual schedule (e.g., 8 am - 4 pm)? The number of hours per day defaults in. If an agency is not able to use the automated salary update process, is the workaround totally manual? All salary increases for range plans will need to be manually adjusted. How many steps are there to get Mass Salary to run? Mass salary updates will be run centrally for step salary plans. For manual entry of increases to range salary plans (example: managers, VR's), the following six steps will be required:
How will HR legacy system data be available post-go-live (agency access or central group access)? Regarding historical transactions - we are converting very little historical data.
If the agency use their own systems today - they need to speak to their tech. people to see what is happening with the legacy systems. When will agencies see the list of HRMS standard reports to be available in PeopleSoft? A list of standard reports will be posted on the Core-CT website soon. Can the HRMS BPW presentation be made available to agencies? This has been posted on the Core-CT website. What areas of Excel should staff be trained in? The list of prerequisite skills can be found in the September Sponsor Meeting presentation posted on the Core-CT website as well as in Core-CT Extra No. 17, also on the website. Have we purchased the Analytical and Strategic Reporting Module? The state has purchased the analytical modules, but the configuration and set-up of these modules is not included in the current project plan. When can agencies see a list of the 20 standard EPM queries/templates? This list is still being developed and will be published when finalized. How many years will be available to be reported on when executing a cross-year report? The current plan is to accumulate and maintain multiple years of historical data after the system goes live. The exact number of years is to-be-determined. The data required for historical cross-year reporting will not be converted from the existing legacy systems into the EPM database. How many years of data will be available in EPM once we go live? Only limited historical data will be converted into the EPM database. Account balances for the past 5 years will be converted from the Central Accounting System into the EPM database. See the response to the "MSA Conversion" issue below for information about what payroll data will be converted to EPM. How many years of MSA history will be converted? How much will be available in the EPM reporting tables?
When will agencies see the list of HRMS standard reports to be available in PeopleSoft? A list of standard reports will be posted on the Core-CT website soon. Is the Automated Budget System being replaced? No, OPM's Automated Budget System is not being replaced by Core-CT. It was determined that the PeopleSoft application's budget function is not robust enough to meet the state's requirements. Agencies will continue to submit their budget requests to OPM in a format required by OPM. What are limited scope agencies? Which agencies are limited scope? Limited scope agencies are agencies that will be using only some of the Core-CT modules - in most cases, only the HRMS functions since they have separate accounting organizations for statutory or constitutional reasons. The limited scope agencies are Legislative Management, the Judicial branch, UConn, UConn Health Center, Connecticut State University System, Connecticut Community Colleges, Connecticut Development Authority, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, Connecticut Lottery Corp., and Connecticut Innovations, Inc. We've heard of location codes in PeopleSoft. What are location codes and why are they used? Location codes identify places where positions are located and people report to work. They are used for OSHA reporting, Affirmative Action reporting, and, most importantly, for payroll check sequencing. They are also used in Select and Recruit when posting a position. Payroll checks (and advices of deposit) are grouped according to work location so agencies do not have to sort the checks in this way. If there is no need to identify a unique location for the aforementioned cases, then a person's location code will be the agency's central office. Will APS be kept alive for historical inquiries? Yes. Some users will be able to query it for history, but on a read-only basis. After Core-CT goes live, no transactions will be keyed into APS. Why are some in-house time and attendance systems not being retired? Some agencies have implemented a time and attendance system that is highly customized and decentralized; there will be an interface for those systems. The project will provide a standard interface. But generally there is no need to keep any systems that Core-CT will replace. Recently the project team provided sponsors a document called the Systems Disposition Summary. This document mentioned that interfaces will be built between certain systems and Core-CT. If the interface is not listed in this document, then an interface is not planned. Most agencies will be performing time and attendance (to be called Time and Labor) in PeopleSoft, except for those agencies using TPS and other agencies with their own decentralized systems. If an agency does not have a separate time and attendance system today, that agency will be using PeopleSoft. Is it true that some limited scope agencies will not be using the Core-CT Time and Labor module? Yes. UConn, UConn Health Center, Judicial and Legislative Management will be processing payments through the Additional Pay module. They will not be using Time and Labor to record time and attendance. How far before go-live will the agencies have access to the Core-CT system? That hasn't been determined yet. The goal is to have most of the changes that the Core-CT team is going to make in place before an "instance" of PeopleSoft/Core-CT is opened up. (This exploratory "instance" is often called "the sandbox," since it provides an accurate experience of the system, but can be used without any consequences to live data.) Users will receive access to the "sandbox" environment only after they complete training. What is prerequisite training? And who should take it? In preparation for the transition to Core-CT, optional training on basic accounting principles will be available to those state employees that currently have general ledger and/or accounting responsibilities. The one-day course will be offered free of charge beginning in the fall of 2002, prior to PeopleSoft training. (A similar course in Human Resources basics will be offered as well. Details are not firm as yet.) Please note, this is not PeopleSoft training; it is only basic prerequisite training that will ensure Core-CT users have the basic accounting skills that will be necessary in the new system. The prerequisite accounting class will be a one-day, instructor-led session. The target group is agency staff at the level of FAO, Accountant or below. These accounting professionals are responsible for preparing and entering deposits, transfer invoices, ledger corrections, or debit/credit memos into the general fund and/or enterprise/internal service fund accounting systems. Sponsors will work with appropriate agency personnel to determine those who should have training. Topics to be covered in the class include:
We have a lot of users who will only enter requisitions and nothing more. Will they the same level of training as others? No. Limited users such as requisitioners will need much less training. Training for requisitioners will be done within these limited users' own agencies using a "train-the-trainers" approach. In other words, a particular person will be designated by the agency to deliver local training. That designee will be trained by the Core-CT training team and will then return to his or her home agency and train the other users there. Agencies and the Core-CT training team will continue to work together to determine the training needs for all Core-CT users. More information will be available in winter 2002/03. Also, impacts and roles will be discussed extensively at the Financials Business Process Workshops coming up in September and October. Will there be separate training for HRMS and Financials? Yes, and it will be separated by module (HR, Payroll, Benefits, Time and Labor, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Purchasing and eProcurement, for example). Will classroom training for PeopleSoft be done at agencies or off-site? Logistics of PeopleSoft classroom training are in the planning stages. The Training team has identified a number of sites in state agencies, mostly in the Greater Hartford area, but details and schedules have not been finalized. We are still recruiting trainers, so cannot determine where any one agency's personnel will be trained. More information on training logistics will be forthcoming in winter 2003. We've heard a little about the ad-hoc reporting functions under something called EPM. What is this function in Core-CT? The EPM Ad-Hoc Reporting team is working to build an ad-hoc reporting capability that will allow business users to retrieve relevant information from Core-CT. Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is a PeopleSoft product that will be used to create reporting table repositories (in a data warehouse) that are designed to support ad-hoc reporting. The information in the data warehouse will be refreshed nightly, when appropriate, providing end users with timely access to business information. The data warehouse will also be designed with the end user in mind. The intent is to provide an intuitive and integrated view into a very complex transactional system, without affecting the system's performance. During Phase 1 implementation, the EPM Ad-Hoc Reporting team will develop processes to move data from the production system to tables within the EPM database. These tables will be designed and built during Phase 1. In addition to developing the processes and tables, the team will be designing a limited number of ad-hoc reports. The intent of developing these reports is to provide end-users with examples of how this new capability can be used to extract, format, and analyze business information. Ultimately, individual users will be creating ad-hoc reports by themselves. For Phase 2, the team will be refining the ad-hoc reporting capability while looking to take advantage of the EPM's analytical capabilities. Users who need to run reports in Core-CT will receive training in the PeopleSoft query tool, and possibly other reporting methods, during their training sessions. I don't have an e-mail address. Will this be a problem? All Core-CT users will need an e-mail address to receive important information about the project, especially regarding training. Training schedules, enrollment confirmations, and other notifications and reminders will be handled solely by e-mail. As we draw closer to the go-live date, and even after go-live, the Core-CT project team will likely be sending frequent updates that all users will need to receive. In light of the critical role that e-mail plays in Core-CT communications, the project team urges all agencies to clear up any remaining e-mail problems and validate and/or obtain working e-mail accounts for all who have been identified as Core-CT users. Should you need assistance, please work with your agency Internet technical liaison.
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