By Laura L. Acosta
UTEP News Service
PeopleSoft, the highly anticipated commercial software that will impact all UTEP employees, including student workers, will go live in early May.
PeopleSoft will affect every UTEP employee, from deans and department chairs to administrative assistants, student workers, researchers, faculty members, electricians, police officers, groundkeepers and more. The University employs about 3,100 faculty and staff and about 2,500 students. 
PeopleSoft is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system designed to help large enterprises better manage their resources, business processes and data.
The new system will replace BIS for finance and HRMS for HR business processes at UTEP and several other University of Texas institutions.
“PeopleSoft is an enterprise-wide solution for business processes,” said Cynthia Vizcaino Villa, vice president for business affairs. “It will replace our current BIS system and it will be the mechanism through which we process HR, payroll, accounting and procurement activity on campus.”
Since March, BIS and HRMS users have attended training classes at Prospect Hall and the Education Building for the new web-based application, which uses a web browser and dropdown menus for easier navigation. PeopleSoft also uses plain English, rather than the Define system command codes of BIS.
Focused training sessions teach BIS and HRMS users how to do specific tasks, such as managing departmental budgets, filling out time sheets, requesting time off for vacation and sick leave, and requesting travel and expense reimbursements. Unlike BIS, where employees often have to log in multiple times to complete tasks, they will need to log into PeopleSoft only once.
“I think once everybody does it a few times, they’re going to be fine,” said Anthony Turrietta, associate vice president for business affairs. “It’s a web-based system, which is actually much easier to use than BIS. We’re finding in trainings that most people understand how to maneuver through the system pretty easily. It’s different but it’s definitely not impossible.”
Shortly after implementation, employees will have access to the PeopleSoft module Employee Self-Service (ESS), which will replace UT Direct for viewing and updating personal information, viewing leave balances and accessing their earnings statement (paystub) information. As more functionality is implemented over time, employees will use PeopleSoft to request leave and submit time sheets.
Additional direct deposit options also will be available.
“If you have an existing bank account stored for direct deposit, it’s going to convert over (to PeopleSoft),” Turrietta explained. “But after May 5, if you want to change banks or even add a second or third bank account for direct deposit, employees can do it by turning in a direct deposit form to the Payroll Office.” The new form to request multiple direct deposit accounts will be available from the Forms Mine after May 5.
Additional PeopleSoft information is available for all UTEP employees through the PeopleSoft website, peoplesoft.utep.edu. The PeopleSoft Training page features a series of training documents that employees can download. Documents include quick guides that take users through every process in PeopleSoft they need to complete. Detailed training guides include step-by-step instructions and screenshots. Job aids are training documents that list all the actions in a single line of text.
Employees who would rather train at their own pace or who need a refresher course can access the User Productivity Kit (UPK), an on-demand training tool that offers tutorials and videos online. Users can review the different modules such as Time Reporting using UPK’s See It!, Try It!, or Print It! modes.
“The trainings have been helpful as far as letting the user know what the system will look like,” said Maria G. Placencia, administrative secretary for the UTEP Department of Theatre and Dance and chair of the University’s Staff Council. “The trainers give you a lot of information and if you’re attending two to three workshops a week, like we all have, it can be difficult to keep track of all the information, especially terminology. I think the UPK’s will be helpful once the system goes live so that we can see step by step instructions and attempt to do things on our own.”
After PeopleSoft goes live, Turrietta acknowledges that there might be a few bumps and hiccups in the beginning. As part of the implementation process, PeopleSoft will enter a stabilization period, which will be used to identify problems and resolve system issues, before additional users are granted access to the system.
Employees are encouraged to call the Help Desk at extension 4357 (off-campus: 915-747-5257) or email helpdesk@utep.edu with their PeopleSoft-related inquiries or issues.
After PeopleSoft is implemented, employees can also attend Drop-In Help Sessions at the PeopleSoft lab (Prospect Hall, room 300) to process their transactions. Different HR and Finance topics will be scheduled each day and a processing specialist will be present to offer assistance. A schedule for the sessions can be found on the PeopleSoft Calendar of Events. Sessions will be held for the entire month of May.
“It’ll take people a while to get used to PeopleSoft, but I really believe that most people are not going to have trouble figuring it out,” Turrietta said. “Eventually when we have a complete system in place, it’ll eliminate a lot of the paper that we use, which is a huge benefit. And within a few months we’re going to have very robust reporting functionality in place.”