Connections to Community

C2C Highlights Archives

August 2007

  • Guess Who Just Turned 1? The WaveNet Portal!!
  • The new University HR system was implemented on January 2, 2007. Conversion of data from the old HR legacy system to PeopleSoft HR occurred in late December and HR self-service was made available to the campus on January 2.
  • The first payroll on the new system, which was the January bi-weekly pay period, was successfully generated on PeopleSoft!
  • The first phase of the new Student Administration system implementation, Recruitment and Admissions, went live August 1, 2007.
  • The Finance system just got a new reporting tool - Simpler Systems. Training classes for requestors and approvers are happening now.

October 2006

Project highlights:

  • The new University portal, Pepperdine WaveNet, launched on August 1, 2006, replacing PepperdineXpress and GraziadioNet and connecting you to the Pepperdine community like never before!
  • Also on August 1, the University launched the new Finance system.
  • On January 2, 2007, the new HR/Payroll system will go live.  The new HR system includes Workforce Administration, North American Payroll, Benefits Administration, Employee Self Service, and Labor Cost Distribution. 

August 2006

Project highlights:

  • The new University portal, Pepperdine WaveNet, launched on August 1, 2006.  WaveNet replaces PepperdineXpress and GraziadioNet, and is an enhanced, global gateway that connects you to the Pepperdine community like never before!  Read more about it.
  • Also on August 1, the University launched the new Finance system.  Starting that day, our Finance Office was fully functional and began utilizing the new system.  All other users had access to the system beginning August 7.  See details about this launch.
  • We have added a Help link to the menu at the left side of these pages.

July 2006

Project highlights:

  • John Donovan has been hired as the Student Administration Lead.
  • Two consultants have been added to the Student team. 

May 2006

Current highlights of the project include:

  • Financials development is well underway and a series of "town hall" sessions and chartfield introduction classes have been held.  Finance system training materials can be found on the C2C Training Web page.
  • The Portal pilot has been completed and the development team is now incorporating the feedback from that process.  Help name the portal and you could win a prize.  Take a sneak peek at the portal.
  • The Human Resources project is underway and fit/gap sessions have recently been completed.  The next step is to present the business process recommendations for approval and finalize the scope for the first phase.
  • Ryan Freeman, Ryan Kim, and John Donovan have joined the C2C team as senior application developers.
  • The annual HEUG (Higher Education Users Group) for PeopleSoft meeting was held in March and was well attended by 43 Pepperdine representatives.

  • IO Consulting has been selected as Pepperdine's consulting partner for the implementation of Campus Solutions (Student Administration).

February 2006

The highlights from the project include:

  • The detailed project plan for Financials has been completed and configuration and development are underway.  In March, the C2C finance team will be holding several Finance project TRAINING sessions to acquaint the Pepperdine community with the C2C financials project and to answer subsequent questions.
  • Portal development is moving forward and a pilot group started work on February 13.
  • The Human Resource project is now officially started; and training for the core team is underway.  Fit/Gap sessions have begun.
  • The selection process has started for consulting services for the Student Administration project.
  • Tim Bodden has joined the C2C team as the Financials Lead.
  • Hector Ramirez and Brian Fujitani have joined the C2C team as application developers.

November 2005

The development of the logo for the C2C project is complete and it is now ready for its official unveiling.  I would like especially to thank University Design for a job well done!

It has been another busy and productive month for the C2C project.  Here are some of the recent highlights.

  • Fit/Gap for Financials has been completed with the next step being the development of the detailed project plan for the first phase of Financials.
  • The Portal design phase is complete and development is well under way.
  • The consultants have been selected for the first phase of the Human Resources implementation, which will begin on January 3, 2006.
  • The Student Administration / Advancement Lead position has been posted.
  • As part of the Human Resource implementation, discussions will begin in early January to address the "campus community" shared data among Human Resources, Student Administration and Advancement.  On November 14th, approximately 75 representatives from the University attended a presentation on "PeopleSoft Integration Concepts" to provide an early look at some of the discussions that will be occurring. 

September 2005

The last month has been very productive, as we move out of the planning stage into implementation.  Key committees have been finalized, consultants have arrived; and there were two important kickoff events.  Here are some of the highlights from the last month.

  • A kickoff reception, hosted by Oracle USA, took place August 16 at the Drescher campus.  Speakers included Pepperdine President Andrew K. Benton, Vice President for Planning, Information and Technology, Nancy Magnusson Durham, Chief Information Officer, Hilary Baker, and Oracle's Senior Vice President for North America Strategic Account Sales, Randall Runk.
  • The membership of the C2C Implementation Committee has been finalized.  The group had their kickoff meeting August 17.
  • Bill Hudson announced his much deserved retirement.  Bill was instrumental in getting the C2C project off the ground, as well as the planning and vendor selection processes. We will miss Bill and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.  The Advancement / CRM lead position, made vacant by Bill's departure, will be posted soon.
  • Position descriptions are currently posted, seeking experienced candidates to fill the Financials Team Lead and two initial application developer positions.
  • Ted De Guzman has been hired as a PeopleSoft Database Administrator.
  • Thanh Nguy has been hired as a PeopleSoft Portal Developer.
  • Gerry Flynn has been selected as the Training Lead.
  • Henry Lai has been selected as the Data Warehousing Lead.
  • The Portal project is well underway.  Consultants have been engaged for the first phase of the project and are working with the team to develop detailed design specifications.
  • The Financials project has now officially started.  The consultants are on site; and a specific task group is making excellent progress with the development of Pepperdine's new chart of accounts.  Preliminary business process design sessions will be soon underway.
  • The PeopleSoft software has been installed and is up and running on our new servers.

July 2005

Welcome to the Connections to Community (C2C) web site. The C2C project is responsible for the replacement of our administrative software suite (SIS, FRS, HRS) and portal applications with the PeopleSoft Enterprise application suite. The project will be much more than a replacement of software. The overall objective of the C2C project is to enable a consistently high level of customer service to the Pepperdine community. It will include a substantial process re-engineering effort to improve Pepperdine's business practices, as well as provide many enhancements and new functionality that will benefit all members of the Pepperdine community. This site will be an information source and communication channel for the overall C2C project.

Since my arrival, I have enjoyed meeting many of the Pepperdine staff and have been working on various tasks to ready the project for implementation. Here is a brief update of what has been accomplished and what lies ahead in the near future.

  • Project governance and organization have been defined and approved. Details can be found here.
  • Position descriptions are currently posted, seeking experienced candidates to fill the Financials Team Lead, Database Administrator, Portal Developer and two initial application developer positions.
  • Jackie Paicius has been hired as the Human Resources Team Lead and will be starting on July 25.
  • Candace Jones has been selected as the Portal Team Lead.
  • Bill Hudson has been selected to lead the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team.
  • The RFP process has been completed for selecting a consulting partner for the first phase of Financials, which will consist of General Ledger, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Budgeting.  Contracts will be finalized in July and the consultants will report for work on August 15.
  • Initial PeopleSoft portal planning and fit/gap sessions were conducted in May and the team is now focusing on defining scope for the first phase of the portal project.
  • An initial location has been approved for the C2C project teams, which will be in the Payson Library, and is currently being prepared for use.
  • The servers have been installed in the Malibu data center and are currently being configured.  The PeopleSoft software installation is scheduled to begin July 25th.  View pictures.

You are invited to check back at the C2C website on a regular basis for updates and additional information.  Please don't hesitate to submit questions and feedback at .