By Cathy
Gonzalez, EIS Training/Computing Administration Manager
EIS Status Report
The Purchasing and
Procurement (PPS) completed the first three training sessions of EIS
eProcurement with the ePro Pilot group on March 3. Members of the
Pilot Group began entering requisitions into ePro during the week of
March 8. After the initial pilot period is completed, other
departments will be phased into the program. If a department is
interested in being in the next group implementing ePro, please e-mail
Sandy Shelton,
sandy@unt.edu.
While ePro is being
implemented, PPS will continue to accept paper requisitions.
PPS has established an
ePro Help Desk (x2506) and an e-mail address specifically for ePro
assistance (ePro@unt.edu). In PPS, ePro Support Services
includes Craig Thorp as the supervisor and Julie Lauderdale working
the Help Desk. Tina Koenig, PPS Training Coordinator, is conducting
the ePro training sessions.
Equipping Students with Real World Experience
While attending the Higher Education User Group –
PeopleSoft (HEUG) conference in Atlanta, I attended some
sessions in a track known as On Campus. Last year was the first
time the HEUG conference offered this track.
The purpose of the track is to bring together faculty who are
interested in incorporating PeopleSoft into their course offerings as
a way to enhance their institution’s IT programs. Many higher
education institutions recognize the value of integrating information
technology but struggle with exactly how to integrate new, “real
world” enterprise systems into their established business curricula.
Examples of such systems include human resource information systems (HRIS),
financials, supply chain management (SCM), and other enterprise
solutions. These systems, many of which are Web-based, represent the
tools that graduates ultimately will work with in their chosen
professions. Students who gain experience in working with these
technologies while in college will likely possess marketable skills
they can apply in their post-graduation careers.
PeopleSoft's On Campus program is a comprehensive
industry-academic partnership that helps colleges and universities
integrate enterprise software into their course offerings. The program
awards training and academic grants of PeopleSoft 8 enterprise
management software. PeopleSoft On Campus awarded Dakota State
University (DSU) a $2.8 million grant to upgrade to PeopleSoft 8,
making DSU the first institution to receive the new, Internet-based
software. In the fall of 2001, DSU began implementing these
Internet-enabled products, including PeopleSoft Human Capital
Management, Financials, and Supply Chain Management.
PeopleSoft and Dakota State University
DUS worked closely with PeopleSoft to ensure a smooth transition to
its new technology-enhanced curriculum. The first step was a
commitment to ongoing faculty training on the new enterprise software.
To date, DSU business information system (BIS) faculty have attended
more than 60 weeks of PeopleSoft functional and technical training,
providing them with a unique and outstanding faculty development
resource. To meet the challenge of continuous improvement and
development, BIS faculty worked with industry-leading companies to
build relevant classroom programs. The main focus was to create
programs and courses with real-world technology applications,
augmenting curricula with the functional and technical skill sets
required in today's workplace. These companies often extend
internship offers to students.
Today, DSU offers multiple technology-based one- and three-hour
courses in enterprise software. The courses cover Internet
architecture, application design, installation and the fundamentals of
enterprise systems and PeopleSoft. Additionally, Dakota State
University is developing enterprise system software minor in Computer
Information Systems.
Interestingly, Dakota State took its growing partnership with
PeopleSoft a step further. A natural extension of the On Campus
experience is the institution's Center for Remote Enterprise System
Hosting (CRESH). Through CRESH, DSU offers other interested schools
remote-hosted access to PeopleSoft's suite of applications.
Institutions around the world are interested in utilizing enterprise
systems in their courses, but not every school has the time or
technical where-with-all to support complex systems infrastructures.
At CRESH the technical infrastructure is in place, and they are
developing business models and access and delivery options that
schools may wish to.
"At Dakota State University, we learned first-hand that a
successful, enterprise-software implementation—even for academic
uses—involves a significant investment of time and resources," says
President Jerald A. Tunheim.
"The implementation process—contracting, installation,
training, testing, maintenance, and support—are very similar to the
implementation cycles of a commercial project. But then we had to add
curriculum development to the mix too! With the technical
infrastructure completed, we now have a multi-year plan in place that
focuses on faculty and curriculum development and the CRESH
remote-access initiatives, all of which will allow us to exploit the
capabilities of this new enterprise software, while offering an
exciting new resource to other institutions around the country."
During the HEUG conference, I experienced great enthusiasm for
PeopleSoft’s On Campus program and the camaraderie that results from
alliances such as CRESH. The latest pure Internet enterprise software
opens doors for remote access to applications and to new styles of
teaching and learning. With the use of these technologies, industry
and academia collaboration can enrich courses and provide a direct
benefit to our students.
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