The Regional Medical Center (RMC) in South Carolina had big plans for PeopleSoft going into 2020. With MIPRO Consulting’s assistance, those plans included updating PeopleTools as well as doing PUM updates and adding new features for both their Financial and Human Capital Management systems. Shortly after the projects kicked off, COVID arrived and could have brought everything to halt. Instead, RMC pivoted, adapted its plans to accommodate remote employees, consultants, and project managers. The end result was a successful, on-time update that included the use of many new features and a system that was current and positioned well for the future.

About Regional Medical Center

Regional Medical Center (RMC) is a 286-bed acute care hospital located in Orangeburg, South Carolina. RMC healthcare system includes primary care and specialty practices. There are more than 100 physicians on staff, over 1,200 employees, and 150 volunteers.

RMC’s PeopleSoft footprint at the start of 2020 included:

• FSCM
  • 2 PUM
  • Tools 8.54
  • General Ledger
  • Accounts Payable
  • Asset Management
  • Purchasing
  • Inventory
  • eProcurement
  • Mobile Inventory
• HCM
  • 2 PUM
  • Tools 8.54
  • Core Human Resources
  • Benefits Administration
  • Payroll for North America
  • eBenefits
  • ePay
  • Employee Self-Service
• Server
  • Oracle Database 12.1
  • Linux 6.8
  • Windows 2012R2
  • Tuxedo 12.1
  • Weblogic 12.1

RMC was behind on both PUM and PeopleTools updates and was not taking advantage of the new features in 9.2. The future plan for RMC included:

• New Servers
• Oracle 19c Database
• Linux 7.6
• Windows 16
• Tuxedo 12.2
• Weblogic 12.2
• PeopleTools 8.57
• FSCM PUM 34
• HCM PUM 31
• Fluid
• Dashboards
• Mobile Inventory
• SC W4 for Employee Self Service
• HR Dashboards
• Manager Self Service

Project Planning Approach

RMC’s approach to project planning included:

• Project team with resource allocation – Roles of RMC vs. implementation partners
• Stakeholder engagement
• Pre-work for new features and scope prioritization
• Testing
• Training

RMC utilized MIPRO Consulting as its project implementation partner.

The Financials and HCM update project ran concurrently with a slightly staggered start. Several people worked on both projects so the staggered start was designed so that the go-live dates were spread out enough that Financials would go live with a buffer for any post-go-live actions prior to HCM going live. The goal was to complete FSCM by the end of June 2020 and complete HCM by the end of July 2020.

As soon as RMC kicked off its project, COVID-19 hit, which nobody could have foreseen. This forced RMC to immediately decide how COVID would impact the project and if a six-month timeline was feasible. The risks that were identified were SME reduction in hours, project team health, and PM travel/health concerns. Because of these risks, RMC’s new plan of action focused on communication, collaboration, additional team members, and Zoom meetings. Once stakeholders approved SME participation in user acceptance testing (UAT), RMC proceeded with the project as planned.

User Acceptance Testing

RMC’s user acceptance testing was traditionally performed on-site. This testing was used to gauge user participation and feedback. These training sessions were shifted to virtual Zoom meetings. These meetings were also recorded for those who were not able to join live. Similar to UAT, training was typically done on-site with a trainer and facilitator. RMC once again utilized Zoom meetings for these trainings with required registrations and recordings that were uploaded to RMC’s learning management system. Some sessions were made mandatory to attend for certain groups.

Lessons Learned

Some of the lessons learned that RMC came up with included:

• Limit new functionality during a dual upgrade. Some of the new features RMC focused on during its upgrade included Fluid, Elasticsearch, and Dashboards.
• Partner with your partners
• Challenge your team members
• Take a break for mental health

To learn more about RMC’s upgrades during COVID-19, check out the full RECONNECT Envision session below.

Additional Resources

Mark your calendars for BLUEPRINT 4D taking place June 6-9, 2022 in Las Vegas, NV! This conference is designed for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Oracle Cloud applications, Oracle Commerce, and Oracle Database & Technology users from around the world. Former COLLABORATE attendees will recognize the breadth of strategic insights and information found at this event, while RECONNECT and INFOCUS fans will appreciate the opportunity to get hands-on with practical how-to learning.

Call for Presentations is open until November 12th, so submit a proposal today! Registration for BLUEPRINT 4D is now open.