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Sierra-Cedar successfully migrates Arizona State University’s PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management applications to the AWS Public Cloud
Arizona State University
Sierra-Cedar Successfully Migrates Arizona State University’s PeopleSoft Applications to the AWS Public Cloud
For five consecutive years, Arizona State University has been ranked #1 in the U.S. for innovation by U.S. News & World Report. ASU’s University Technology Office (UTO) supports this innovation with its commitment to true, human-centered technological initiatives. A component of the UTO’s top ten goals for 2020 was to complete the migration of its PeopleSoft applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of its Cloud objectives. ASU engaged Sierra-Cedar to complete its migration of PeopleSoft and supporting applications to the AWS Cloud and to provide post-transition managed services support within AWS.
Key Project Highlights:
- Migrated PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management applications to AWS in less than seventy hours.
- Accomplished and sustained a high level of performance one day after go-live as ASU entered a busy enrollment and usage period.
- Facilitated the build and ongoing management of ASU’s PeopleSoft applications in AWS using Sierra-Cedar’s FlexOps automation and orchestration platform.
- ASU projects a reduction in its managed services spend by 20 percent per year over the next three years.
Indian River State College Centralizes & Automates Recruiting & Admissions
Indian River State College
Indian River State College Centralizes & Automates Recruiting & Admissions with Workday Student Recruiting & Admissions
Indian River State College (IRSC) is the first institution in the U.S. outside of the original Design Partner group to go live with Workday’s student technology. Sierra-Cedar, the primary implementer for all facets of IRSC’s Workday deployments, worked with IRSC to implement the entire Workday Student suite.
Key Project Highlights:
- Integrated recruitment efforts across the college
- Streamlined mass communications
- Automated invitations, web inquiries, and recruiter assignments
- Enabled mobile-friendly prospect entry and management
Ramsey County Leverages a Cloud Solution to Minimize Risks & Meet Regulatory Compliance Requirements
Ramsey County
Ramsey County Minimizes Risk & Meets Regulatory Compliance Requirements with Amazon Web Services Solution
With the help of Sierra-Cedar, Ramsey County realized the benefits of the cloud and created a highly available application architecture for a critical application. Now as it pursues its cloud strategy, Ramsey County has the capability and agility to leverage AWS for other critical applications and continues to rely on Sierra-Cedar as its fully hosted cloud provider.
Key Project Highlights:
- 24/7 availability with zero downtime
- Automatic scalability for peak workloads
- End-to-end encryption in transit
- Automated deployment stack
- Zero downtime for operating system patching
University of Virginia Completes Student Information System Implementation on Time and under Budget
University of Virginia
University of Virginia Completes PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Implementation on Time and under Budget
The University of Virginia was challenged to replace a homegrown legacy student system that had been heavily customized for 20 years and included interfaces to multiple applications. Within the university’s highly decentralized organizational structure, unique business processes and the customized nature of the legacy system had permitted a variety of approaches to processes. Flexibility in the legacy system’s data usage protocols meant that converting data into the PeopleSoft system with its rigorous data validation and edit constraints would be challenging.
Key Project Highlights:
- Completed the highly complex implementation project on schedule and under budget
- Prompted collaboration on data definitions and new business processes across the various schools
- Implemented a local expert model that helped promote critical buy-in among home schools and departments
- Achieved the university’s objective to provide an efficient and effective student information system that supports its mission, integrates with existing systems, and adapts to growth and change
Broward College Goes Live with Cloud-Based HCM & Payroll Solution in less than 12 months
Broward College
First Public Higher Education Institution to Go Live with Workday HCM and Payroll, in less than 12 months
In 2012, Broward College determined that it was time to replace its 25-year-old core administrative ERP application systems in order to realize excellence in IT operations and administrative efficiency, free-up resources, and add value to its student-centric mission. To meet its needs, Broward chose Workday HCM/Payroll and Financials and selected Sierra-Cedar as its prime implementation partner.
Broward’s HR processes are now fully transparent to hiring managers, and the college community as a whole is enjoying the benefit of having time tracking, time off, and benefits all visible. Additionally, paper-based processes have now become easy to complete in Workday.
Key Project Highlights:
- HCM went live in October, and Broward conducted its first online Open Enrollment (formerly done 100% on paper) in November—a huge win for all.
- Broward’s HR processes are now fully transparent to hiring managers.
The Los Angeles Police Department Implements an Early Intervention System to Better Serve the Public
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department Implements an Early Intervention System to Better Serve the Public
After a corruption scandal resulted in a Consent Decree between the U.S. Department of Justice and the City of Los Angeles in June 2001, Sierra-Cedar helped the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) integrate data from various existing and planned information systems in order to allow analysis of individual employee and organizational performance. With this foundation in place, the LAPD gained the ability to track management evaluation and action in regards to potentially divergent employee behavior. The result? Better identification and management of risk areas, which has made it easier to protect the civil rights of citizens.
Key Project Highlights:
- Early identification of potential at-risk behavior by comparing individual officer or organization performance to appropriate peer groups
- Improved management accountability for proactive risk management
- Secure and ready access to operational and personnel information, with drill-down, drill-up, and drill-across capabilities to other related incident and employee information
DOTComm Reduces Costs & Gains Flexibility through Public Cloud Solution
DOTComm
DOTComm Reduces Cost & Gains Flexibility through Amazon Web Services
Sierra-Cedar and DOTComm worked together to architect and deploy the infrastructure to host Hyperion in AWS. Three AWS services were deployed. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) was also deployed to segregate its network with a site-to-site virtual private network.
Key Project Highlights:
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) as the compute layer for the Hyperion metadata store
- Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) for application binary storage
- Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for secure, durable, and highly scalable object storage
University of Wisconsin Platteville Leverages CRM Solution to Redefine & Streamline Processes for Highway Technician Certification Program
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
UW-Platteville Redefines & Streamlines Processes for Highway Technician Certification Program
UW-Platteville’s Highway Technician Certification Program (HTCP) process was difficult to manage. Maintaining accurate records, tracking certifications, and reporting on program effectiveness required considerable manual work and was a challenge for HTCP staff. UW-Platteville engaged Sierra-Cedar to help redefine and streamline processes for course registrations, enrollments, and certification tracking.
Key Project Highlights:
- Leveraged Salesforce.org’s Higher Education Data Architecture
- Created a registration form with Custom Visualforce and Apex
- Generated merged documents using RS Documents
Kansas State University Migrates Production HR System to Public Cloud in under 48 Hours
Kansas State University
Kansas State University Migrates PeopleSoft Production HR System to AWS in Under 48 Hours
Kansas State’s data center, located in the basement of Hale Library, sustained extensive water and smoke damage as a result of a three-alarm roof fire. With only a few days to meet an upcoming deadline that required the PeopleSoft HR system to be operational for payroll processing and transmission, Sierra-Cedar worked with Kansas State’s staff over the Memorial Day weekend to migrate Kansas State’s production HR system to AWS.
Key Project Highlights:
- Migrated the university’s PeopleSoft HR production environment to AWS
- Established a security-aware architecture
- Helped improve batch processing and OLTP performance
Furman University Implements CRM Solution to Foster Communication in New Mentorship Program
Furman University
Furman University Implements Salesforce to Foster Communication in New Mentorship Program
Furman University created a new mentorship program and was challenged with matching prospective mentors with students. The university needed a system that would foster communication between interested parties and facilitate notifications as relationships progressed.
Key Project Highlights:
- Leveraged data loaders and an ETL platform to integrate data
- Configured Salesforce Community Portal as the primary interface
- Built a custom interface in Salesforce Lightning
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Reimplements Cloud-Based CRM System to Automate Recruiting & Event Management
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
UW Oshkosh Reimplements Salesforce Sales Cloud to Automate Recruiting & Event Management
Sierra-Cedar assisted UW Oshkosh with the reimplementation of Salesforce Sales Cloud using HEDA and Lightning. With a future enterprise vision in mind, Sierra-Cedar created a custom recruitment configuration using its Interactions and Territory Assignment accelerators.
Key Project Highlights:
- Reimplemented Salesforce Sales Cloud using HEDA and Lightning
- Customized recruitment using proprietary Interactions and Territory Assignment accelerators
- Created custom event registration and management
- Replaced paper-based workflow and automated event management
WGBH Integrates Its ERP Financial System with CRM System for Cleaner Data & 100% Accuracy
WGBH
WGBH Integrates Its ERP Financial System with Salesforce for Cleaner Data & 100% Accuracy
WGBH needed functionality that was not yet available in its ERP financial system. The public radio station operates in a project-centric environment to record time and materials, and a significant portion of its production operations and activities are funded by grants from individuals, private foundations, and government agencies. By integrating its ERP with Salesforce, WGBH was able to bring transactional data from that system into Salesforce. Once the Salesforce Custom Engine processes the transactions appropriately, the updated transactional data is transferred back to the ERP, where it is maintained.
Key Project Highlights:
- ERP integration brings transactional data from the ERP system into Salesforce.
- Salesforce configuration makes it easier to track grant funds and expenditures.
- The Custom Engine makes the funding decisions based on the project and grant data held in Salesforce.
Towson Leverages Sierra-Cedar’s CRM Team for Strategic Services & Recommendations
Towson University
Towson Leverages Sierra-Cedar Salesforce Team for Strategic Services & Recommendations
Towson University engaged Sierra-Cedar to conduct a robust Health Check of its current implementation of Salesforce/TargetX. While the existing system met current needs, the university required a different approach for its upcoming enterprise-wide implementation. To help the university prepare for this project, Sierra-Cedar made recommendations about the data model, security, data archive/storage, and several governance processes.
Key Project Highlights:
- Sierra-Cedar recommended that Towson follow an industry-leading practice by adopting a tiered approach to managing changes.
- Towson chose Sierra-Cedar as its implementation provider.
City of San Jose Saves Money & Time by Leveraging Sierra-Cedar’s Upgrade Lab for Human Capital Management System Upgrade
City of San Jose
City of San Jose Saves Money & Time with Sierra-Cedar’s Upgrade Lab for Oracle’s PeopleSoft HCM Upgrade
As support for HRMS 8.0 SP1 was coming to an end, the City of San Jose was ready to take advantage of the latest functionality and platforms offered by HCM 8.9—such as the various delivered eApps. To complete the upgrade on time and on budget, the city sought the help of an experienced application management services provider.
Sierra-Cedar took a blended upgrade approach to the application upgrade, using both traditional onsite consultants for functional tasks and the CMS lab for the technical portion of the upgrade. As a result, the city achieved cost and time savings, reduce technical infrastructure burden, and obtain the high level of knowledge transfer and training it desired.
Key Project Highlights:
- Project management, technical and functional consulting for PeopleSoft upgrade from HRMS 8.0 to HCM 8.9 using Sierra-Cedar’s CMS Upgrade Lab
- Training through Oracle’s PeopleSoft UPK tool
Cox Enterprises Gains Efficiencies in HCM System Workloads with Application Management Services
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises Gains Efficiencies in PeopleSoft HCM Workloads with Application Management Services
Cox Enterprises’ Work Request Group had been using an on-site and offshore support model from another vendor for the past five years. However, this relationship lacked quality resource retention, industry-leading procedures for analysis and development, and effectively managed services governance. When the work backlog began to increase and cause frustration for internal customers and management, Sierra-Cedar reviewed the existing procedures and implemented an optimized global delivery model.
Key Project Highlights:
- Offshore resources were quickly ramped up to address Cox’s backlog of work requests and take over tax update and quality assurance functions to reduce the workload of their on-site analysts.
- The utilization of senior-level offshore resources provided a significant cost savings for Cox Enterprises without compromising delivery quality.
AMA Education System Implements & Integrates Student Information System for Future Growth & Improved Efficiencies
AMA Education System
AMA Education System Implements & Integrates PeopleSoft Campus Solutions for Future Growth
AMA Education System (AMAES) recognized the importance of reimplementing its ERP applications to take advantage of various capabilities available in more current versions of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions applications. A major challenges was to bring all AMAES-owned colleges and affiliated colleges under one system where proper rules could be defined and followed. Additionally, the current system was capturing student data in multiple systems, making it difficult to consolidate all the data. Plus, there were complex rules for calculating tuition fees for the students, and some of the calculations were being handled manually.
Key Project Highlights:
- AMAES now has a foundation to include all the owned and affiliated colleges into one system.
- AMAES is closer to its goal of providing the university community with an efficient and effective student information system that supports its mission, integrates with existing systems, and adapts to growth and change.
Bay Path Uses CRM System to Facilitate Communication between the Institution & Constituents
Bay Path University
Bay Path Uses Salesforce to Facilitate Communication between the Institution & Constituents
Bay Path University contracted with Sierra-Cedar to assist with a Salesforce solution for its student advising staff. The team utilized the Case Management, Knowledge, and Live Agent features to create a solution that facilitates communication between the institution and its constituents.
Bay Path personnel provided project requirements in an easy-to-understand, iterative fashion. Configuration was done on schedule for the various components and feedback was provided in a timely manner, resulting in an efficient and productive team effort. Bay Path and Sierra-Cedar leveraged Salesforce “out-of-the-box” features in the design to reduce rollout time and keep the project within Bay Path’s budget.
Key Project Highlights:
- A new case resolution process using the Salesforce Service Cloud Console was developed to assist Bay Path’s student advisors.
- Sierra-Cedar guided Bay Path in the organization and configuration of Knowledge articles within Salesforce.
ASU Provides Transparency, Tracking & Insight into Recruitment Activities with CRM System
Arizona State University
ASU Provides Transparency, Tracking & Insight into Recruitment Activities with the Salesforce Student Cloud
Arizona State University has been pursuing an ambitious, progressive vision to create “The New American University” to serve the needs of a projected 95,000 students by the year 2020. Sierra-Cedar has helped Arizona State University to plan and begin the execution of an enterprise-wide constituent relationship management system implementation leveraging the Salesforce platform.
Key Project Highlights:
- With Salesforce Service Cloud, the university has a single case management and knowledge base tool with a consolidated view of student service and institutional touchpoints for each student for use across distributed departments.
- Students can now access context-sensitive and population-specific help for multiple departments from one location and submit cases through the use of Salesforce Communities.
BWAY Hits Aggressive HCM System Upgrade Timeline
BWAY Corporation
BWAY Hits Aggressive PeopleSoft Upgrade Timeline
Using the development team in India, BWAY completed its PeopleSoft 9.0 upgrade on time and at a lower implementation cost than it was likely to achieve using onshore resources. BWAY’s team was able to review and test the application during its business hours, while the Sierra-Cedar India team processed modifications and completed development work during the company’s nonbusiness hours. The convenience of having information available for testing at the start of the business day enabled BWAY to achieve its aggressive upgrade timeline.
Key Project Highlights:
- The Sierra-Cedar India team took on high-level functional requirements, translated them into technical specifications, and quickly prototyped a solution, overcoming initial concerns about differences in time zones and potential language barriers
- The upgrade project was a resounding success and the relationship continues as BWAY and Sierra-Cedar India work on future enhancement initiatives.
Canon Leverages Functional & Technical Consulting Services for Migration to HCM System & Planned Upgrade
Canon
Canon Leverages Functional & Technical Consulting Services for Migration to PeopleSoft & Planned Upgrade
Following a merger, Canon engaged Sierra-Cedar, its longtime technology consulting and implementation provider, to provide functional and technical consulting services to support the migration and conversion of Océ North America’s HR system data from ADP into Canon’s existing PeopleSoft system. The conversion included over 4,000 employees and the go-live was a success. Sierra-Cedar then went to work on Canon’s PeopleSoft upgrade from 8.9 to 9.1.
Key Project Highlights:
- Sierra-Cedar’s consultants helped Canon’s small team support PeopleSoft applications.
- Sierra-Cedar consultants’ knowledge-sharing network worked to Canon’s advantage.
The State of Kansas Leverages Hosting & Managed Services to Improve Business Processes & Operate More Efficiently
Kansas
The State of Kansas Leverages Hosting & Managed Services to Improve Business Processes & Operate More Efficiently
For many years, the State of Kansas has relied on Sierra-Cedar to optimize its PeopleSoft applications. Sierra-Cedar has continually assisted the state with each HRMS and Financials upgrade to the current versions. The state awarded Sierra-Cedar a five-year contract for providing PeopleSoft and Oracle BI hosting and disaster recovery services, using the Sierra-Cedar data center and administrative personnel. The state gained many efficiencies by migrating on-premise HCM and Financials applications to the Sierra-Cedar Hosting Center.
Key Project Highlights:
- Empowered the State of Kansas to focus its existing resources on core mission objectives rather than day-to-day maintenance or system upkeep
- Reduced down-time due to hardware/system issues or failures and eliminated out-of-pocket expenses for on-site hardware
- Reduced time required to apply or complete major application upgrades
- Made it easier to stay current with application updates, bundles, fixes, and patches