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The Oracle/PeopleSoft Financials upgrade from version 8.4 to 9.0 is underway. Testing environments are being prepared and users in the various administrative, functional areas for UNT, HSC, and the UNT System are being educated on the finer points of doing a massive upgrade to a significant aspect of EIS. The functional areas for UNT and UNT System include those related to the Controllers Office and Financial Reporting, the Budget Office, Purchasing and Payment Services, Assets, and Research Services (Grants). For HSC, the areas involved are the Accounting Office, Financial Systems, Purchasing, Property Control, the Budget Office, and Grants and Contract Management.

Tracy Hansen, Computer Systems Manager, Enterprise Systems Technical Services, CITC

UNT is currently implementing the ImageNow electronic document management, imaging and workflow solution by Perceptive Software in several areas across campus where paper-intensive processes hinder efficiency. ImageNow integrates with EIS applications to give users instant access to document images directly from their EIS screens rather than having to leave their desks to search for paper files. With a button click on an EIS transaction record, users can view all the corresponding paperwork in ImageNow. Additionally, ImageNow Workflow allows electronic routing of the documents.

The CITC Infrastructure & Technical Services Team (ITS) handled all of the hardware and operating system setup to support ImageNow. They helped in configuring the network for the servers that house the imaging software. This was a unique setup as it was not installed in the area where ITS normally has MS Windows servers. It was installed under the campus active directory that is managed by the CITC Directory Services Team. Extensive testing was conducted by ITS to ensure everything would work appropriately. ITS received significant help from the CITC divisions of Communication Services and Enterprise Systems Technical Services during the setup. Another aspect of the work done was setting up the fax portion of ImageNow which included work from the CITC Data Communications team managed by CR Chevli.

The EIS Tools, Applications, Reporting, and Portal team (EISTARP) recently created tools in EIS that allow systems developers to easily incorporate ImageNow document retrieval into desired EIS pages. “These tools will expedite the process of incorporating ImageNow into EIS with minimal training for the developers,” said Ginny Richards, Administrative Computing Team Manager, EIS Tools Support. “A developer simply adds a “button” to the page or subpage, does a little configuration, and voilà, functional users with the proper security access are able to click the button to retrieve any scanned documents related to the item they are looking at in EIS.”

The University of North Texas System (UNTS) is upgrading from PeopleSoft’s Financials 8.4 to version 9.0. This upgrade gives UNTS new and enhanced functionality and allows for continued support from Oracle/PeopleSoft of the Financials applications until 2012. Some of the new features will enhance reporting capabilities and make use of newer XML technology. PeopleSoft is also delivering new features to enhance performance, including system monitoring and the ability to archive older transactional data to free up valuable data storage space.

The project is a collaborative effort between UNT and HSC administrative functional support areas and UNT’s Computing and Information Technology Center (CITC). The upgrade team consists of several CITC technical teams and functional representatives supporting financial reporting and accounting, budgets, E-procurement, purchasing and payments, assets, grants and projects, as well as the support of multiple UNTS internal departments and external entities that interface with the Financials system.