Like many PeopleSoft customers, Sandia National Laboratories has deployed Fluid User Interface to modernize their user experience (UX) within PeopleSoft. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Michael Marthe, Software Systems Engineer for PeopleSoft Development for Sandia National Laboratories.

Sandia National Laboratories is on PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 up through Image 17 with features delivered in Images 18 and 19 implemented, and are on PeopleTools version 8.55.11. They are using various parts of Human Capital Management (HCM), including Recruiting, Workforce Management (Core HR), Benefits, Payroll for North America, Performance, and Self-Service.

Key Takeaways

About Sandia National Laboratories

For more than 60 years, Sandia National Laboratories has delivered essential science and technology to resolve the nation’s most challenging security issues.

Sandia National Laboratories is operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Sandia Corporation operates Sandia National Laboratories as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and supports numerous federal, state, and local government agencies, companies, and organizations.

As a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), Sandia may perform work for industries responding to certain types of federal government solicitations. The solicitation must allow FFRDC participation and meet the requirements of Sandia’s management and operating contract with Department of Energy.

A strong science, technology, and engineering foundation enables Sandia’s mission through a capable research staff working at the forefront of innovation; they are able to participate in collaborative research with universities and other companies, as well as discretionary research projects with significant potential impacts.

What were the drivers for you to begin using fluid user interface?

Michael:

We wanted modernization to the user experience (UX) within PeopleSoft, meaning not only interface, but as well as the way users interacted and navigated around the system.

Where and how are you using fluid?

Michael:

We first rolled out Fluid as part of self-service to shift the navigation paradigm with which users were interacting. We leveraged the Fluid Homepages and the tiles on those homepages to navigate users to Classic WorkCenters, which included stylesheets that mimicked Fluid pages. This was done as part of our HCM9.2/PT8.54 upgrade in the summer of 2015 to get users familiar with that look and feel as well as the new navigation.

As part of our PT8.55 upgrade this past summer (2016), we started adopting Fluid Components easily, such as the delivered Personal Details and Paycheck, without users noticing a difference.

Currently we are restructuring Self-Service to use Fluid Dashboards rather than WorkCenters due to the amount of content that we now have at our fingertips.

How are you rolling out fluid user interface to your end users?

Michael:

We rolled Fluid out as a way to navigate at first. We made sure there was consistency in styling and branding between Fluid and Classic pages to avoid a noticeable difference.

Now that we set up the structure of Homepages/Dashboards, we can easily drop new Fluid content onto those homepages and roll out new capabilities iteratively as they become available.

What was your experience in deploying fluid? What did you learn that other customers could benefit from?

Michael:

Fluid is very intuitive and provides a very useful navigation method that not only looks modern, but is up to the user to define. Don’t be afraid to lose the breadcrumbs; work with customers to expose them to Navigation Collections in tiles, which are totally up to them to define based on what they think makes sense.

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter in deploying fluid?

Michael:

Not many to be honest, at least not from a technical standpoint. The biggest obstacle was to get over the “cultural fear.”

What concerns, if any, did your company have in deploying fluid?

Michael:

There were concerns in the consistency between the Classic and Fluid look, as well as if any new Fluid deployment would meet the customizations that we once had in Classic pages. In most instances, we could go with delivered functionality.

Another concern we received from the user standpoint was how to organize the homepage. Our answer was simple though: include your most used components as tiles or aggregate rationally into navigation collections.

Are you deploying fluid as delivered? If not, how customized/modified are you and why?

Michael:

Yes, we have deployed to Production as delivered, which includes homepages and components. We are working on customizing components to fit our needs and incorporating Fluid analytics, as well as extending delivered application classes to create customized tiles to include things like training videos, announcements, etc.

Where do you want to take your company’s fluid strategy in the next 2-3 years?

Michael:

We want to continue to transform the self-service experience, pushing the dashboard model to give users useful information and indicators, along with the ability to manage these transactions more easily. We will also continue pushing the boundaries on the frameworks that Oracle delivers to us, as well as keeping up with new content as it becomes available.

Since deploying fluid, what benefits have you seen for you and your company?

Michael:

1. A simpler to use interface and design, as well as being able to get to content on the go via mobile device.
2. It has given us the opportunity to revisit customizations that we had made at one time and to now ask ourselves, “Did we really need those?” or to apply them in a different way.
3. More Fluid Resources