ConnectCarolina updates to ease data ?ow

For the first time in more than 40 years, the ConnectCarolina payroll system is going to be updated.

Changes to many aspects of the ConnectCarolina system, set to go live in January 2014, will streamline services and allow all of UNC’s administrative software to operate on the same platform, said Debra Beller, communications specialist for Information Technology Services.

ConnectCarolina is the University’s name for its administrative services software, which is run primarily by PeopleSoft, Beller said in a campuswide email.

The updates include adding human resources, finance and payroll functionalities to PeopleSoft, Beller said.

“There shouldn’t be a huge impact on students or faculty,” she said. “The real impact comes on staff — the people who do the purchasing and people who hire employees — there will be quite a bit of impact there.”

Beller said major changes to the student component of ConnectCarolina took place in 2009. Those updates included changes to registration, student records, grades, financial aid and cashier services.

Kevin Seitz, associate vice chancellor for finance, said the most recent change to ConnectCarolina is necessary because the current system is out of date.

“Our accounting system is 25 years old, our payroll system is 44 years old, and on and on,” Seitz said.

“It’s a wholesale change in the applications on the finance side.”

Beller said she believes the new software will help the University’s staff work more efficiently.

“Once we put in these systems in January, all of the University’s administrative systems will be on the same platform,” Beller said.

“It will make it easier for staff on campus to do their work because we’ll all be using the same system across the board.”

The updates will require an extensive training process to acclimate staff to the new software, said Matt Brody, associate vice chancellor for human resources.

Seitz said upward of 4,000 people will be trained on the finance side, and about 500 will be trained for human resources.

“There is a fairly complex project that involves many people from many different central and school division offices who are all working together as part of an extended project team,” Brody said.

Brody said he thinks the large-scale changes will ultimately benefit the University.

“By moving everything to a singular, consolidated platform, the data will flow more easily,” he said.

“The users will have a more consistent user interface rather than having to be trained to use lots of different systems. We expect improvements to our ability to do reporting and to get data back out of the system.”

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