The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is an independent, non-profit research institution dedicated to the development and advancement of biomedical research to eliminate cancer and other potentially fatal diseases. Recognized internationally for its pioneering work in bone-marrow transplantation, the center's four scientific divisions collaborate to form a unique environment for conducting basic and applied science.
Fred Hutchinson is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Pacific Northwest and is one of 39 nationwide. The center employs more than 2,400 faculty and staff.
Solutions Profile
Modules Implemented
Financials 8.4 including Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Purchasing, Accounts Receivable, Billing, Asset Management, and Grants
Environment
Hardware: IBM x-Series 360
Other Hardware: Dell 2650
Operating System: Windows 2000 sp3
Database: SQL 2000 sp2
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Fred Hutchinson needed to replace its outdated, custom-developed ERP systems. Development time and effort to maintain the system was growing cumbersome, and commercially available ERP packages had made great strides since the center's original decision to custom-build.
An important consideration in selecting new software was integration. At the time, the center was running several different systems for human resources and payroll, core financials, grants management, and procurement. Fred Hutchinson wanted to consolidate all these needs on a single system to achieve tighter integration and improve reporting capabilities.
The Solution
Fred Hutchinson selected PeopleSoft HRMS/Payroll and Financial applications because they offered the most comprehensive and well-integrated solution. The PeopleSoft solution also encompassed an advanced Grants Management module, strong procurement capabilities, and delivered additional benefits through its "pure Internet" architecture and superior reporting features.
The PeopleSoft 7.5 HRMS modules were implemented first. CIBER functional resources were engaged on completion of this implementation to assist in improving table set-ups and redesigning business processes to improve efficiency of the new system. CIBER's skilled and experienced consultants also provided additional training to Fred Hutchinson users to help them adjust to PeopleSoft. The engagement led to dramatic improvements in production processes and payroll cycle time.
CIBER also assisted with the HRMS implementation for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, an alliance between Fred Hutchinson and several other Seattle area medical centers, and assisted with the subsequent upgrade of the HRMS from 7.5 to 8.0 with implementation of Time and Labor.
CIBER was then selected to assist with the Fred Hutchinson Financials 8.4 implementation. CIBER resources distinguished themselves throughout the implementation, providing functional, technical support that included development of a custom-built module for Labor Cost Distribution (LCD).
The LCD module allows Fred Hutchinson researchers to charge their hours to specific projects each week, representing hours in the form of straight time, effort, dollars, or a combination of all three. The process downloads salary, benefits, and vacation information from the Payroll system and loads the information into the Project Resource table. These charges are then redistributed, as appropriate, to the General Ledger. CIBER consultants not only built the LCD module, but also the corresponding reports, scripts and testing, and helped with business processes throughout the development.
CIBER also helped set up LDAP authentication, which allows a single password to be used for the center's network, PeopleSoft and Crystal, as well as Project security, eliminating the need for the users to remember three separate passwords. It also helps facilitate auditor's requests to change passwords for security purposes to one source, not three.
Access for each user is setup by user ID, and is verified whenever a report is run. This is a must for research facilities like Fred Hutchinson, which often need to distribute funding from a single grant to multiple projects, and often do not want to make certain kinds of information, such as how funding was distributed or specific work being done on projects, available to all users.
Why CIBER?
Fred Hutchinson selected CIBER for the depth of its resources functional and technical knowledge, and experience implementing PeopleSoft HRMS and Financial applications for a wide variety of clients, including healthcare organizations.
Benefits
The benefits that Fred Hutchinson has realized with its PeopleSoft implementation include full integration of its HRMS, Payroll, core Financials, Grants Management and Procurement systems. This has improved accuracy and increased functionality of reporting, and improved revenue recognition within the system. Elimination of the need for training and maintenance on separate systems, easier distribution of information to users, and the elimination of the need to maintain code on client workstations have further reduced cost and improved productivity at the center.
How CIBER Added Value
CIBER provided strong functional and technical knowledge of PeopleSoft's HRMS, Financials and toolset offerings, familiarity with healthcare business processes, and implementation know-how that helped guide the project to a successful on-time and within budget conclusion, in an early adopter environment.
Fred Hutchinson was one of the first organizations to begin the implementation of 8.4, especially in the Grants and Commitment control areas. CIBER helped to develop and implement testing plans to mitigate risks, such as delays and cost overruns, associated with implementation of a brand-new application.
CIBER resources' knowledge of security, and other technical skills, also helped bring Fred Hutchinson's implementation to a successful conclusion. By developing a very advanced security structure, the center can keep project information secure, while facilitating reporting and workflow for users and improving the quality of information available to managers.
The development of the LCD module also greatly helped Fred Hutchinson. Users can now gain access to payroll information quicker and can distribute that information as appropriate.
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