ADAPT Changes Software Provider

Beleaguered Project ADAPT has hit yet another bump on the long and winding road towards updating the University’s administrative computer systems.

In early May, the Project ADAPT team announced that the human resources (HR) Project—already a year in progress—would be switching software vendors.

The HR Project, designed to develop improved computer systems for human resources, payroll, benefits and time collection, will now be powered by HR software developed by PeopleSoft.

Polly Price, Harvard’s associate vice president for human resources, said the HR project was originally slated to run off of software provided by the Oracle Corporation, the vendor that provided the software for the financial systems installed during the first phase of Project ADAPT.

“At the time that we purchased the original software, we purchased the [Oracle] HR software for a very small additional amount,” Price said, noting that there was never a stipulation or agreement that Harvard would use the Oracle product.

Robin Pearce, one of the HR project leaders, said the reasoning behind switching to PeopleSoft was twofold.

First, the Oracle software cannot handle multiple assignments. For example, if a Harvard employee were to hold more than one job at the University, this employee would receive two paychecks—the Oracle software would not be capable of combining these two sums into a single payment.

Morever, Pearce said the switch to PeopleSoft followed the University’s decision that it wanted to have the hardware and applications for the HR systems operated offsite. Peoplesoft’s HR software operates in this manner, while Oracle’s does not.

Unlike most mid-project changes in technological service providers, the change to Peoplesoft will not prolong the completion of the HR Project. On the contrary, while the original end date for the project was well into 2003, project leaders now say the project should be ready by April 2002.

HR project leaders point out that the combination of a financial system run on Oracle software and an HR system powered by PeopleSoft has proven quite successful at other universities, such as Stanford and Columbia.

However, PeopleSoft’s HR software has faced resistance in other uses. The software powers the HR systems of all Boston public schools, and has its share of dectractors.

“[The system] has got problems,” said Ethan Mutschler, the Boston public schools representative to the Administrative Guild of Boston. “Clearly whoever the vendor is is doing a good selling job.”

Emily DiCesare, a secretary for Boston Latin High School, said the new system’s complexity makes it difficult to use. “It’s a lot more steps than the system I was previously using,” she said.

Complicated data entry processes have been a major source of complaints levied against the financial systems established during Project ADAPT’s first phase, with many administrators saying they are unhappy with the change.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.