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Transform Purdue Project Update – Human Capital Management and SuccessFactors Upgrade

To:       Chancellors, Vice Presidents, Vice Provosts, Vice Chancellors, Deans, Directors, and Heads of Schools, Divisions, Departments and Offices

Fr:       William E. Sullivan, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer

Date:    December 13, 2018

Re:       Transform Purdue Project Update – Human Capital Management and SuccessFactors Upgrade

Since launching the Transform Purdue project in late 2016, two of the three phases – Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and General Ledger (Finance) – have been successfully implemented.  As a result, the University was able to:

  • automate a highly paper-driven capital request process and introduced an electronic work request process;
  • redesign our core financial structure, including creating the ability to view all accounts managed by our faculty in one system; and
  • streamline the paper-driven Summer Pay and Effort Reporting processes through the online application, SEEMLESS (Summer Employment and Effort Management Leading Efficiency through a Simple Solution).

The upgrade to SuccessFactors will complete the final phase to rebuild our core human resource structure.  All employees will transition to SuccessFactors for their Human Resources needs, including but not limited to, accessing their pay statements and updating their personal information, direct deposit and tax withholdings.  Other major change impacts include:

  • All benefits-eligible employees will request time off through SuccessFactors.
  • All timekeeping will be processed through SuccessFactors.  Paper timecards and Kronos will be eliminated.
  • Faculty, staff and student recruitment processes will be processed through SuccessFactors, automating the collection of all new hire information.
  • All staff will move to a single performance period and use SuccessFactors to create goals and objectives and ultimately complete the annual performance appraisal.

Training materials and resources in just-in-time formats (like quick reference guides, work instruction videos and cheat sheets) place the information at the fingertips of staff 24/7.  All training resources are accessible on the SuccessFactors Training web page.  Training resources specific to employee self-service, time off requests and timekeeping are easily found at https://purdue.edu/timehelp.

The responses from our training sessions so far have been positive, but we know even positive change still presents challenges.  We expect there to be some bumps in the road as people get to know the new system.  Please bear with us in the early going, and we promise to have a robust hypercare team available throughout the transition.  Some key issues to be aware of include the following:

  • Employees and supervisors will be responsible for accurate timesheets.  The business office will no longer ‘fix’ time.
  • Employees and supervisors transitioning to the Webclock from Kronos will experience a learning curve.  The Webclock application is different than today’s clocking system.  For example, Kronos provided the opportunity for a supervisor to view concurrent position information – the Webclock does not.
  • Department support staff and/or supervisors creating a position for the first time will want guidance.
  • Recruitment processes, specifically faculty positions, incorporate several roles.  Working through the new process while meeting department-specific needs will likely be challenging initially.
  • Business offices processing direct hires (positions not paid by Purdue), additional payments, employee data changes and other payroll-related tasks will want to reference training materials or attend open labs to get questions answered quickly.

We are excited about the roll-out and the efficiencies and transparency that this new system will offer.  However, we strongly encourage everyone to view anticipated key benefits, as well as additional issues that we need to prepare for, on the SuccessFactors Transition web page.  Help resources will be available to answer questions during deployment; visit SuccessFactors Go-Live Support – Help Resources to learn more.  Patience is key, and training will be ongoing as we all learn together what new capabilities and functionality we have as a result of the transition.