Hosted by Brooke Repine and Stephen Valentine

Hello PeopleSoft World,

We’ve been talking a lot about PeopleTools 8.62, but the real story isn’t the upgrade. It’s what you do with it.

In this episode, we spoke with Jeff Dudas, ERP Supervisor at Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System. With 30+ years in PeopleSoft, Jeff brings a practical mindset—focused on outcomes, not features.

What stands out is simple: they don’t treat PeopleSoft like a system to maintain.

They treat it like a platform to use.

From Paper to Something That Works

Jeff’s team replaced a paper-based project request process—packets, signatures, no visibility, with a streamlined workflow inside PeopleSoft.

Approval cycles dropped to under two days, and for the first time, teams can see exactly where requests sit.

No heavy customization. Just a clear understanding of the process and smart use of delivered functionality.

Fixing a Risk Before It Broke

Their grants process was running out of an Access database owned by one person. When that person planned to retire, the risk became obvious.

The response was fast and focused:

• Implemented PeopleSoft Grants, Billing, AR, and Contracts
• Converted ~250 active grants
• Eliminated a single-point-of-failure process

The lesson is straightforward:

If scope and business alignment aren’t clear upfront, the technology won’t save you.

AI That Solves a Real Problem

Their latest work focuses on AI-driven invoice processing.

Instead of someone reading an invoice and keying it in, the system does the work:

• Reads non-PO invoices
• Extracts key data
• Pushes transactions into PeopleSoft via Integration Broker
• Leaves the user to validate—not enter

What matters is how they got there. This started with simple automation—scripts mimicking user actions—and evolved as the technology matured.

You don’t jump to AI. You build toward it.

What This Actually Means

This isn’t about features. It’s about execution:

• Use what PeopleSoft already delivers
• Stay current to unlock capability
• Eliminate manual data translation
• Focus automation on real friction points

Jeff and his team will be presenting at Blueprint 4D 2026 in Dallas (May 4–7), where they’ll share more on both their AI work and their grants journey.

If there’s one takeaway: most organizations don’t have a system problem—they have an execution problem.

This is what it looks like when that gets fixed.

Missed an episode? Check out the full episode list!

Learn More

Quest Oracle Community is where you learn. Ask questions, find answers, swap stories and connect to other PeopleSoft customers and product experts in the PeopleSoft Community, where you can also check out what’s happening in a Quest PeopleSoft Community Group.