Internal Audit notes Software Glitches

Some functions of a new $50 million computer program at the University of Missouri were not in place or working properly when the program went online, according to a recent university audit report.

The internal audit focused only on one component of the PeopleSoft program - a "module" that tracks grant money - but the report elaborates on more widespread problems noted by faculty at the university’s Columbia campus.

The audit, released last month to the university’s Board of Curators, recommends that the four campuses delay future PeopleSoft activations if functionality issues have not been resolved.

The university agreed with the recommendation and said it will review its process for setting activation dates.

PeopleSoft is a California-based company and computer software package designed to handle everything from purchasing to student financial aid data for the university system and its four campuses.

The university began activating the grant module in November 2002. Among other things, the module is designed to track the balance remaining on grants. The audit noted problems associated with transferring data from the old computer system to PeopleSoft, including:

PeopleSoft functions that did not work at the time the grant module went online
Data fields in the old computer system that did not have an equivalent field in PeopleSoft
Some PeopleSoft users who did not know how to properly transfer or convert data from the old system

The report also said some pending grant accounts were not transferred to PeopleSoft. In its response to the auditors, the university said it decided not to transfer some soon-to-be closed accounts in an effort to reduce the amount of data it had to convert. The university has since transferred all Columbia campus grants to PeopleSoft.

Most of the university’s responses say that the four campuses agree with the auditors’ recommendations or that the university has taken or will take other steps to alleviate the problems.

Ralph Caruso, the university’s vice president for information systems, said an upgrade to PeopleSoft’s financial components is planned for November and will address problems listed in the audit.

Nikki Krawitz, the university’s vice president for finance and administration, said problems such as staff training reflect issues common to new computer operations. "These are much more complex systems than we’ve had in the past," she said.

In June 2002, Bill Wiebold, an associate agronomy professor at the Columbia campus, issued a report critical of PeopleSoft computer programs.

In an interview last week, Wiebold said he believes that PeopleSoft is working better but said the audit suggests there are still communication problems between the program’s users and administrators.

"The people who are using PeopleSoft, they know the need for change," Wiebold said, "but it’s hard to get that information up to the people who are responsible for implementing PeopleSoft."

Tribunal