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Software Review
A Look at Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0
4/30/2007
Perhaps the most promising global feature introduced in version 9.0 is a very powerful and flexible mechanism known as Population Selection. Until now, Oracle has had to make its best guess as to which particular parameters an institution might wish to use to define the target population for each of the many batch processes found in the system. But higher education has such diverse needs that there is no way to please everyone with a fixed set of parameters for any given process. The solution was to allow institutions to define the population by a text file, a user-defined query, or a tool known as the Equation Engine. Several delivered processes have now been configured to use this tool, others are planned for future release, and the capability has been provided for adapting any batch process to use this mechanism. Again, this tool should allow us to eliminate many modified or custom processes that we have developed using hard-coded selection criteria.
Another very extensive area of significant improvement is self service. Enhancements in the student financials area make the functionality much more intuitive and easy to use for students, and should allow us to eliminate the majority of the modifications we have made for that purpose. A new approach to self service advisement/degree audit for students provides a much more concise and easy to follow layout than the previous version. The new Enrollment Backpack and My Planner functionality has the potential to help students plan their course enrollment in a more informed and efficient manner.
There are many other features that will also offer us welcome improvements and allow us to retire customizations. These include major enhancements in the functionality and security of Student Groups (which we use for a wide variety of purposes), Permission Numbers (used to override enrollment restrictions), Service Indicators (holds), admission into and graduation from specified majors, tracking of academic statistics (credits and GPAs), external awards and repackaging in Financial Aid, and a number of other areas. Again, most of these enhancements are ones that Boise State and many other HEUG institutions have asked for, and Oracle has delivered on more of those requests--and delivered well--than in any previous release of Campus Solutions. At Boise State, we are looking forward to taking advantage of all these new features in 9.0 when we upgrade in Fall 2008.
What is perhaps most gratifying and reassuring is that we are in a much healthier situation than many of us anticipated when Oracle acquired PeopleSoft just over two years ago. It is no secret that the HEUG and most of its members were opposed to the acquisition; we were very concerned that Oracle would eliminate the PeopleSoft applications and we would have to switch to the Oracle E-Business Suite applications, or look elsewhere. Fortunately, Oracle has made a commitment to continue to support and enhance PeopleSoft applications, and the valuable relationships we had built with key PeopleSoft strategists and developers have not only survived but grown stronger. The application is still not perfect--a system this complex never can be--but Oracle appears to be quite serious about listening to us and addressing as many issues as they feasibly can. We look forward to the evolution of the product toward the Fusion release and beyond, and to continuing to play a role in helping to shape, test and find effective ways to use that product.
Steve Grantham is the coordinator for data quality and reporting at Boise State University (ID).
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