The Pennsylvania State University - Administrative Information Services, a unit of Information Technology Services

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiatives have long been part of Administrative Information Services (AIS) planning; however, in recent years, these initiatives have been recognized as separate processes. In 2001, AIS began to define initiatives that are deemed essential to support strategic planning and which, in turn, could generate specific projects. This section describes on-going strategic initiatives.

Services

Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence (BI) is a multi-year initiative, with the goal of planning, designing, developing, and implementing an infrastructure that will transform administrative data into information and then make the information available to the right Penn State stakeholder at the right time through the right delivery media.

Payroll Modernization Project

The Payroll Modernization Project will modernize and enhance the existing Payroll system so that it provides additional benefits for University departments and employees and, more important, reduces workload, expenses, and risk associated with running the current system.

Specific Goals:

  • Standardize the use of technology throughout the Payroll system.
  • Provide additional flexibility and functionality.
  • Improve the integrity of the Payroll system.
  • Maintain and enhance the integration of the Payroll system with central and departmental systems.
  • Replace the Payroll system business logic due to its age characteristics (old technology, very little or old documentation, increased difficulties to change/update), the loss of systems knowledge due to retirements, and the ever increasing risks associated with such an aged system.

Key Enhancements Required for the Business:

  • Exception reporting
  • Miscellaneous deductions
  • Standard deductions
  • Taxable benefits
  • Other deductions
  • Multiple local and state taxes
  • Time card processing

Project Sponsors:

  • Joe Doncsecz, Corporate Controller
  • Ron Rash, Senior Director, AIS

Project Managers:

  • Kathy Plavko, Director, AIS PMO
  • Larry Friedken, Director, Payroll and Taxes
  • Faynetta Fort, Practice Director PMO, Software AG
Project Management (PMO)

The Administrative Information Services (AIS) Project Management Office (PMO) is composed of three full-time project managers and has a two-part mission, with the overall goal of improving the delivery of systems and services to the Penn State Integrated Administrative Systems community.

The first part of the mission is to provide professional project management services for administrative systems that involve major modifications, or the replacement of, core administrative systems. These are typically multi-year projects, such as the Social Security Number (SSN) Conversion. Current projects include Systems Development Modernization, Workflow, EASY Re-engineering, and the Payroll Modernization Project.

The second part of the mission is to establish a repeatable process or methodology for AIS staff to use in all project work, with a project being defined as any work request estimated to require at least 40 hours of effort. This project methodology is active and is continually refined so that AIS can improve its track record of systematically initiating, tracking, and completing projects to meet the needs of our customers on time and within budget.

Supporting Documents

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