Transform Purdue: A look into the Technology project transformation

Technology team: (Front row, from left) Jeff Smith, Pam Williams, Cindy O’Neal, Kathy Rainwater, Theresa Jacobsen, Jennifer Clingenpeel, Charles Welborne, Jim Slopsema, (back row, from left) Aaron Walz, Chris Frazee, Brian Oswalt, Kent De La Croix, Carl Berryman and Mike Schulte. Not pictured: Amy Clawson, Craig Fee, Morgan Grosso and Terry Schroeder. (Purdue University photo/Rebecca Wilcox) Download image

As Purdue continues to its work to transform business processes, the Business Process Reengineering project teams share a common goal: to simplify, streamline, automate and organize business processes and related systems. They also share a common need -- technological support to meet that goal. Jim Slopsema, technology project manager, and his team are striving to provide that support through the launch of new hardware and software, testing of new systems, system updates and more.

Here, Slopsema answers questions about the group and its work:

Who is on the technology team?

Carl Berryman, Amy Clawson, Jennifer Clingenpeel, Kent De La Croix, Craig Fee, Chris Frazee, Morgan Grosso, Theresa Jacobsen, Cindy O’Neal, Brian Oswalt, Kathy Rainwater, Mike Schulte, Terry Schroeder, Jeff Smith, Aaron Walz, Charles Welborne and Pam Williams.

We also partner with other IT professionals and each of the project teams.

What are the overall goals/mission of your team?

The goal/mission of the technology stream is to provide the underlying technological support for the transformation projects. This includes the deployment of new hardware and software, development for new applications and updates to existing programs, ensuring security within the systems, and coordinating the testing and validation of the new systems. 

In addition, we are working with the other functional areas to identify how required data from the legacy systems can be converted to the new systems and/or retained in other ways to meet reporting and data retention requirements.

What has the team been working on so far during the design phase?

The team has:

* Deployed new software components in the current nonproduction SAP systems to support the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) project.

* Worked with our consulting partners to perform a prototype migration of our SAP system to S/4 HANA. S/4 HANA is really "SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA." This suite is easier to use and easer to administer. Yet it helps our transformation teams resolve more complex problems and process larger amounts of data than our current SAP ERP. The "S" stands for simple. The goal of the software is to dramatically simplify business processes and the "4" indicates it is the fourth generation of SAP software.

* Worked with SAP to set up the cloud instances of the Human Capital Management environments and Purdue’s secure connectivity to them.

* Started working with the functional areas to develop data conversion and historical data strategies.

* Started development of the testing strategy for the various systems and components going live during the transformation.

What challenges have you encountered? 

One of the complications for the technology team is the interaction and connectivity of the transformation projects. As each team completes its design phase, it will define requirements and have technology questions that need to be answered. In order to support their specific needs and to support the overall project timeline, we have to prioritize tasks.

How many workshops have you held as part of the design phase? Which units been involved, and what topics have been discussed?

Most of the technology workshops have already been completed. Topics included security, technical requirements, compatibility, authentication and system integration. We worked with various IT departments and partners to talk through the technical implications of any new software and configurations.

What is coming up next for your group in the next few months?

In the next few months, as design phase ends, we will begin the development phase. Our developers will start working on programming and system updates. While that is taking place, we will finalize our plans for data conversion and testing. We will also begin the setup of the new S/4 HANA environment so development can begin in preparation for the upgrade to it in July 2018.

What do you want faculty and staff to know about your team and efforts?

We partner with project teams, various IT departments and other professionals in order to meet technology requirements. The processes and systems are also very integrated with each other and have a lot of contact points. As we work through configurations, we also realize current operations also need support.  Our goal is to keep disruptions to a minimum.

More on the transformation projects

* Review the first four articles in the series:

- Efforts to Transform Purdue business: A BPR Overview (March 20, 2017)
- Transform Purdue: A look into the Enterprise Asset Management project transformation (March 21, 2017)
- Transform Purdue: A look into the General Ledger / Finance project transformation (March 22, 2017)
- Transform Purdue: A look into the Human Capital Management project transformation (March 23, 2017) 
- Transform Purdue:  A look into the Reporting project transformation (March 29, 2017)

* Explore our website for an overview of the transformation projects.

* Provide feedback by submitting a pain point, completing a survey or sending an email.

* View previous presentations and publications for more information.