Reminder about Outages for
Financial Systems during Next Release top
A reminder that the next release to Harvard’s
central financial systems and the financial data warehouse (FINDINI
3.0.3) will take place over the weekend of October 18-19. Notice
of the times when systems will be unavailable to the business
community will be posted on the application login pages approximately
one week prior to the scheduled release.
In addition, the PCard
settlement system will come down at 4 p.m. on Thursday, October
16 in preparation for the conversion of this system into the
Oracle Financials' suite of applications as part of the FINDINI
3.0.3 release (please see the story below for more details).
The hours of operation for Harvard’s administrative
systems, including planned outages, are available on ABLE at
able.harvard.edu/other/hours.shtml.
As always, information on unplanned outages and other system
problems is available at: uis.harvard.edu/system_status.
Upgraded PCard Settlement System to Go Live top
The upcoming release to Harvard’s financial
systems brings with it a new PCard settlement system, which
will be available to users on the morning of Monday,
October 20, 2003. In order to switch from the current
PCard settlement system to the upgraded Oracle-based version,
there will be a system blackout on Friday, October 17, during
which time the settlement system will be unavailable to users.
Harvard's technical team has worked hard to
preserve the look and feel of the current PCard settlement system.
Those familiar with the current system should require little
or no additional training to operate the new version.
One change to expect in the new PCard system
is that users will log on through Oracle Financials, as they
would to complete a web voucher or another financial transaction.
For most users, this means one fewer password to remember! Also,
Internet Explorer will be the supported web browser for the
new PCard settlement system, thus bringing PCard into line with
other Harvard financial tools, all of which run on the Internet
Explorer browser.
The PCard project team will meet soon with
local PCard administrators and the UIS Help Desk, to provide
more information and answer questions. As always, please check
upcoming issues of the e-News
for more information on the upgraded and improved PCard settlement
system.
AWS3 Users Will Need to Install Brio Plug-in
Version 6.6.3 by October 31 top
The HR Harvard Data Warehouse
team will be working with local IT organizations over the
next month to upgrade the Brio “software plug-in” required
to access AWS3, to Version 6.6.3. The desktop of each user
must be upgraded with this new “client” software by October
31 to ensure uninterrupted access to HR reports via AWS3.
If you are an active AWS3 user
and have not yet received this upgrade by late October, please
contact your local desktop/IT support organization.
If you need to perform the
software upgrade yourself, the plug-in is available from the
AWS3
login page by clicking on “Install Brio plugin.” Step-by-step
instructions are available for PC
and Mac
users. They provide guidance about uninstalling earlier versions
of the plug-in, and then upgrading to the version you will
need.
New Action / Reason Codes Established top
The most recent release to the PeopleSoft
HR systems in late August (described in the last issue of the
e-News) brought with it several
new Action/Reason code combinations as follows:
| Action
/ Reason code combination |
Use
when... |
|
Job Reclassification / Lateral (LAT) |
an employee’s job code is being changed to one at the
same grade level, in the same or different HR department |
|
Data Change / Temporary to Regular (TTR) |
a
temporary employee is moving into a regular (non-temporary)
position within the same HR department |
| Transfer
/ Temporary to Regular (TTR) |
a temporary employee
is moving into a regular (non-temporary) position in a different
HR department |
The complete list of Action/Reason codes is
available on the atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin
web page.
So Far, So Good: New Student / Temp Quick
Hire Process Implemented in Late August top
The late August release to the HR systems
also brought with it a major change in the way student, temporary,
and LHT workers are hired. The new “Quick Hire” process has
been in production for about two weeks, with these encouraging
statistics:
| Number of saved hiring
transactions (those that have been drafted, sent for approval,
or submitted to the database) |
603 |
| Number of
employees hired using this process |
490 |
| Number of preparers and
approvers who have logged on so far |
44 and 37 respectively |
| Number of requests for helpdesk
or technical assistance |
25 (20 related to one bug
which has since been resolved) |
| Estimated number of hours
of data entry saved to date (Quick Hire versus “long form”)
|
57 for local administrators,
81 for FAD Payroll |
| Usage breakdown
by department (i.e., the department into which the employee
was hired) |
Central Administration |
229 (largely
UOS) |
| Divinity School |
1 |
| FAS |
166 (largely the Registrar) |
| Design School |
23 |
| School of Education |
16 |
| Business School |
14 |
| Law School |
42 |
| Medical School |
1 |
| Kennedy School |
98 (largely teaching support) |
| Radcliffe Institute |
1 |
| School of Public Health |
12 |
Based on these statistics, our assessment
is “so far, so good” with careful monitoring of the new system
and process to continue throughout the beginning of the academic
year. Our thanks to local administrators for helping us develop
this more streamlined process, and for your support of its initial
implementation.
Resources Available Online for Employers of
Temporary and LHT Workers top
While user training has been completed, “how
to” materials for Quick Hire users are located on the atwork
website. In addition, these recently updated brochures are also
available:
Guide
to Student Employment at Harvard University. This tri-fold
brochure can be used as is, or customized and distributed to
your student temporary employees to save time explaining how
processes such as time reporting will work at your school or
department. In particular, this brochure explains a new incentive
program being offered by Harvard in conjunction with Fleet Bank
for students to use direct deposit. Please email
us if you need a soft copy of this brochure.
Policy
and Guidelines for Hiring Temporary & Less-than-half-time
Employees at Harvard. This brochure, produced by Harvard’s
Office of Labor and Employee Relations, is intended as a quick
reference guide for managers when hiring or employing temporary
and LHT workers. It provides definitions, policies, and suggested
procedures.
About the e-News
top
The Office of Human Resources
publishes this semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of
Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies,
and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on or around
the 12th and 26th of each month.
It contains:
- updates on projects underway to build
or improve University administrative systems;
- information about new University
policies, procedures, and forms;
- reminders about upcoming deadlines
and cut-over dates;
- tips and tricks for working more
easily or productively.
We welcome questions and suggestions
for improvement from readers. If your questions are of general
interest, we will answer them in future issues.
Please send comments, questions,
or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: admin_systems_enews@harvard.edu
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