|
Teleflex, located in Limerick, PA, has been a PDS customer since 1999. They employ 18,000 associates through 45 states and countries. They have 40 pay companies, and on any given week can process up to 40 payrolls using weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly pay frequencies
Teleflex was the first PDS customer to "go live" after upgrading from the Vista 2.4.1 series to Vista HRMS 4.0. We wanted to ask their project manager, Chrissy Koennecker, a few questions about the experience -
Q: When did Teleflex begin working on the conversion?
A: Teleflex had Vista 4.0 installed in April, 2008. Previous to that, we had Vista 3.2 installed, but didn't begin any true testing until 4.0 was installed.
Q: I thought that Vista HRMS 4.0 release was in June 2008?
A: Yes, our installation timeframe was before the official release, since we volunteered to be one of the Beta testing sites. This gave us the opportunity to test the new version and provide our testing feedback. As a result of our feedback some things were added to the new version.
Q: When did you actually go live with Vista HRMS 4.0?
A: January 2, 2009
Q: Why January 2?
A: We waited until after the first payroll ran in 2.4.1 on January 2nd. We have open enrollment and year end at the same time so instead of learning how to clean up year-end issues in 4.0, we did them in 2.4.1. (which made for a clean cut over).
Q: Did you have any conversion issues?
A: We had more issues with year end than we did with Vista HRMS 4.0. Our biggest issue 4.0 issue was the tax deferred matching process and our benefits eligibility setup.
Q: How long did the actual data conversion take?
A: 8 hours to convert the Teleflex data. Initially it took a lot longer but we spent a lot of time working with Validation tools to help clean up our data. In Vista 2.4.1 we had a nightly job that would fix issues that we would encounter in Vista HRMS 4.0. Each time we went thru a Vista HRMS 4.0 test upgrade we would add more to our validation script. This was constantly being updated.
Q: Were there any "gotchas" in Vista HRMS 4.0 in January?
A: We had some issues with tax deferred processing because we didn't realize that matching was done at the benefit plan level instead of the benefit option level. If we had tested this more thoroughly we would not have had the issue. Truly, benefits eligibility was our biggest hurdle because the setup in 2.4.1 is so different. We had eligibility values setup that had no corresponding values defined. The null values that were brought over in the conversion made our "big bens" (benefit processing) error out and cause all kinds of problems. However, PDS assisted us in correcting all the issues and now our benefit processing is working just fine.
Q: In preparing for the conversion, was there anything that took the longer than expected?
A: Security! Teleflex did not utilize group security because each user had slightly different access. This meant that security had to be completely re-organized for Vista HRMS 4.0. However, this was a good opportunity for us to review security and standardize where we could.
Q: Was anything easier than expected?
A: Payroll and payroll testing. The payroll users adjusted quickly to the new version and testing was very straightforward for them.
Q: In retrospect, would you do anything differently?
A: We would have spent more time testing benefits and the leave accrual process.
Q: What PDS Professional Services did you utilize?
A: We utilized PDS Services to assist us in analyzing a variety of customizations and to identify improvements where possible. We also had onsite assistance to work with us in our initial setup. Approximately 80 hours of PDS Services were utilized in total.
Q: How many users did you have to train and how many people did you have working on the conversion?
A: We have approx 80 users and we had training in 4 locations across the US. The training sessions took approximately 2 days for payroll, as well as HR users. My team who worked on the actual conversion consisted of 6 people including me. We had a DBA (Timm Bromirski), 2 HR analysts (Jen Gunther and Michelle Collins), Payroll analyst (Mike Szekeres), and Benefits analyst (Jamie Ruminski).
Q: How did you prepare your team for the upgrade project?
A: We invested in the team's education by sending them to the UGA Conference to learn more about the new version and to participate in the many workshops. They also gained experience by working with the PDS staff and consultants throughout the year.
Chrissy Koennecker
Teleflex
PDS Note: PDS continues to improve the data conversion tools to take account issues that we've encountered. See the newsletter article on page 7, describing audit tools to validate your benefits setup information. These audit scripts would have eliminated the benefit processing issues encountered by Teleflex, and will hopefully save other clients from having the same experience.
Congratulations Teleflex! Recently a few of us got together to celebrate Teleflex's successful upgrade. Starting from the left: Mike Szekeres (Teleflex), Timm Bromirski (Teleflex), Earl Foster (PDS), Pat Palmer (PDS), Bill Davies (PDS), Chrissy Koennecker (Teleflex), Joe Kincel (PDS), Jeanne Eberly (PDS) and Dwight White (PDS).
|
