paper -
97 Supporting PeopleSoft Financials in an Academic Environment: Pitbull or Poodle?
Jen
Whiting, Princeton University
Gary Eshbaugh, Princeton University
Princeton University implemented PeopleSoft Financials
as the purchasing and financial reporting application on campus in December,
1998. As the central help desk on
campus, the CIT Help Desk was asked to provide end-user support for the
application. Sixty thousand purchase
orders later, we have a grasp of what it really means to be first-tier support
for a university business application that is used by over 1600 customers.
By taking the step to become the first-tier of support
for this widely used business application, we immediately were exposed to what
were, in many instances, new customers to the Help Desk. Cultivating alliances with customers, the
Treasurer’s Office, the training branch of the organization and PeopleSoft
technical staff provided a base from which to build working, daily support.
Developing expertise in what we believe is a mission
critical university-wide business application has moved the CIT Help Desk into
a new light: our customer base has grown beyond the “techies” on campus, and
helped us embrace the administrative customers that had not utilized our
services.
During this paper we will briefly look at the details
of training existing staff to be PeopleSoft savvy; important alliances in the
path to supporting PeopleSoft in a University environment; training end-users,
and why this is a critical step in the development of our knowledge;
documentation that works, and that which hasn’t; and the differences we
encounter between supporting computing applications vs. supporting business
applications.
This paper will be of interest to Help Desk staff and managers who are facing the possibility of becoming the first-tier of support for a PeopleSoft implementation on their campus.