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Almost 300 staff members filled the Sibley Auditorium, in Bechtel Engineering Center at noon, Jan. 28, to hear the latest on Berkeley Administrative Initiatives-the two new computer systems being installed to upgrade and improve campus human resource management and the Berkeley financial system. In her opening overview comments, Alison McGill, controller and executive director of financial and business services, said the current phase of documenting campus needs is nearly complete. Now, the project team is identifying areas that may need customization to meet Berkeley's unique needs. McGill said that the Berkeley Financial System would be implemented first, with the Human Resources system following three to six months later. Jack McCreadie, associate vice chancellor, information systems and technology, discussed "the Winframe solution," which will enable Macintosh users and those with very old PCs to use the new PeopleSoft systems being developed. Elaine Fukuhara Schilling, training coordinator for Berkeley Administrative Initiatives, said the BAI training committee is evaluating training options. She said that PeopleSoft has on-line training, and that in addition to that there will be functional training on both the financial and the HR systems. "Staff will gain access to the new systems after they've completed a training sequence," Schilling said. She urged people to sign up for classes in Excel, Word and Windows, to learn the skills needed for the PeopleSoft systems. In response to an audience member's question about timeline, McGill said the Berkeley Financial System is scheduled to be up and running somewhere between October 1998 and March 1999. "We can't have a more precise date than that until we know how much customization is needed to make the systems workable for us," she said. "The Human Resources system will be rolled out three to six months after that." McGill reiterated that although the PeopleSoft systems have tremendous flexibility, everyone doesn't need to know everything in order to use the new systems. She emphasized that no one will be asked to work on the new systems until they've been trained, and at the same time, people will not be trained for functions that have no relevance to their work. For more information, or to ask questions or send suggestions, check
out the BAI website at http://www.bai.berkeley.edu/bai/.
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