... Oracle s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management upgrade planning Tools and techniques for the upgrade decision

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1 Oracle s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management upgrade planning Tools and techniques for the upgrade decision Mike Curtis IBM Oracle International Competency Center September 2012 Copyright IBM Corporation, All Rights Reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders

2 Table of contents Change history... 1 Abstract... 2 Introduction... 2 The process... 2 The PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool... 2 Estimating hardware requirements... 5 Summary... 9 Trademarks and special notices... 10

3 Change history Version Date Editor Editing description /15/2012 Patrick Moore Original version 1

4 Abstract Understanding the information and tools available to help you analyze and justify the need to upgrade to a more recent version of the PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management application can significantly speed up the decision process and help the final decision to be the correct one. Introduction Upgrading application software is required at some point for all customers, and like any other business decision, it needs to be justified. That justification process is fueled by business requirements, support requirements and upgrade costs for software, hardware and staffing needs. Gathering the information to get approval for the upgrade project can be challenging, but by following some basic steps it can be accomplished. For PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM, the HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool makes it quite easy to determine the new application features that have been introduced in each new release. The software costs and supported levels can be obtained from the software vendors. Critical to the decision process is being able to quantify the impact of the upgrade on the existing environment to determine if a hardware upgrade is required. If an upgrade is needed then the total cost of the software can be determined. By analyzing existing benchmark data, or by using the IBM upgrade sizing process for PeopleSoft Enterprise, the hardware requirements for the upgrade can be estimated. Staffing needs are different for each customer so each customer would have to supply those cost estimates. This paper discusses the upgrade process and attempts to give customers tips, techniques and tools to assist that process. The process When there is reason to evaluate a possible upgrade of application software there are usually at least two and sometimes three or more upgrade possibilities. For purposes of this paper, PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management was chosen as the focus for this exercise as it is one of the most prevalent PeopleSoft application suites in the marketplace today. Many customers are still running on the HCM 8.xx codeline and are evaluating the upgrade possibilities. At this time there are two releases available from the 9.xx codeline, V9.0 and V9.1. There is also planned to be a V9.2 release sometime later this year. Given the multiple choices, the first choice is likely the upgrade that gives the customer the business functions required. The PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool Finding the needed functions and what release of a particular product introduces those functions can be a tedious process. Oracle has a great tool to help customers evaluate feature and function differences between releases of HCM. By going to the following location customers can take advantage of this HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool: Note this tool is available on the My Oracle Support website, a valid login and password is required to access the tool. 2

5 Figure 1. HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool Once the tool is invoked by opening the Excel spreadsheet titled HCM_Cumulative_Feature_Overview_Tool.xls, you can choose the PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM product or products you are interested in and the source and target releases. For the purposes of this exercise the Human Resource application and the North American Payroll application were selected. PeopleSoft HCM 8.9 was chosen for the current release and release 9.1 was used for the target release. 3

6 Figure 2.Selecting the HCM product, current and target releases Then click on the Run Report button to generate the comparison report as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Generating the comparison report 4

7 This comparison report shows the available new features and functions that became available between the current release and target release, and notes the release in which the features first became available. With this information the customer can make an educated decision about which HCM release to target for their upgrade project in order to obtain the required functions. For our example the report that is generated is 13 pages long. Figure 4 shows a sample page from the report. Notice the product and detailed feature description and the first release the feature became available. Figure 4. Sample page from report Estimating hardware requirements With this information you can now move on to estimating the hardware requirements for your planned upgrade. One way to estimate hardware costs is to look at existing benchmarks. The benchmarking exercise gives significant performance information as well as sizing data. PeopleSoft benchmark results are documented in a benchmark report detailing the benchmark criteria, workload descriptions, transactions executed, and performance statistics, and are posted at: Normally a benchmark report is accompanied by a tuning white paper documenting system and database settings used during the benchmark process and noting any changes made during the process, along with their impact on results. This paper can be very helpful to customers, allowing them to see the actual system settings to help guide them in their own implementation or upgrade efforts. By using the benchmark performance report data customers can see the impact of specific upgrades. For this example the performance of PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll V9.0 was compared to V9.1. The following table depicts the comparison: 5

8 Payroll V9.0 Payroll V9.1 Average Clock Time (Min) Average CPU (TCB) Time (Min) Average % CPU Busy Average I/Os per sec Average I/O resp time (Mil Sec) Peak I/Os per sec Average Clock Time (Min) Average CPU (TCB) Time (Min) Average % CPU Busy Average I/Os per sec Average I/O resp time (Mil Sec) Peak I/Os per sec Average Clock Time (Min) Average CPU (TCB) Time (Min) Average % CPU Busy Average I/Os per sec Average I/O resp time (Mil Sec) Peak I/Os per sec Average Clock Time (Min) Average CPU (tcb) Time (Min) Average % CPU Busy Average I/Os per sec Paysheet Paycalc Payconf DDP001 6

9 Average I/O resp time (Mil Sec) Peak I/Os per sec Average Clock Time (Min) Average CPU (TCB) Time (Min) Average % CPU Busy Average I/Os per sec Average I/O resp time (Mil Sec) Peak I/Os per sec DDP003 Table 1. PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll benchmark comparison After reviewing these benchmark results, it is easy to see that the difference between upgrading to V9.0 versus V9.1 is very small, performance and resource wise, and the cost, from the processor usage perspective, was very small, probably not requiring a CPU upgrade. Consequently, it would likely be better from a support perspective to go to V9.1 because support for this version would be available longer and there are more features and functions available in that release. Hardware and software costs for this upgrade would appear to be small, and possibly zero. This process, while time consuming, is fine if you have the time AND can find published benchmark reports from which to extract the required data. However, if you would rather rely on IBM expertise and benefit from years of experience with PeopleSoft Enterprise performance analysis, based on both published and unpublished benchmarks, you can, at no expense to you, utilize the PeopleSoft Enterprise upgrade sizing process. For a description of the upgrade sizing process visit: This process has been used by customers for many years and has evolved into its current state with feedback from customers and technicians. Its evolution continues with each release of PeopleSoft Enterprise applications and with each improvement in hardware technology or software release from IBM to provide outstanding planning information for customers. Take a look at the detailed sizing questionnaire to appreciate the depth of information analyzed to give customers the best possible upgrade planning information: By using the IBM Techline ISV Solutions Sizing Team, the group within IBM that executes the upgrade sizing process, customers can easily obtain upgrade planning estimates, at no cost to them. A customized sizing report is sent to each customer that requests a sizing estimate. Once the sizing process is complete the possible need for a hardware upgrade can be evaluated and, if needed, the accompanying software upgrades determined. 7

10 At this point the PeopleSoft Enterprise upgrade release is known and the hardware and software costs have been estimated. All that remains is the staffing estimates and the upgrade proposal can be completed and sent for approval. 8

11 Summary Upgrading software can be painful, but in many cases very necessary. The best approach to planning for an upgrade is to utilize any available tools and techniques to help make it as painless and as reliable as possible. With PeopleSoft Enterprise applications and IBM, the answer is use the existing tools and information discussed in this white paper to obtain the most accurate information to estimate the total cost of the upgrade so that management can make the correct decision. 9

12 Trademarks and special notices Copyright. IBM Corporation All rights reserved. References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in every country. Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. The information provided in this document is distributed AS IS without any warranty, either express or implied. The information in this document may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer. Information concerning non-ibm products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of such products by IBM. Sources for non-ibm list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims related to non-ibm products. Questions on the capability of non-ibm products should be addressed to the supplier of those products. All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the full text of the specific Statement of Direction. Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as a definitive statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function or delivery schedules with respect to any future products. Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements. The information is presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effort to help with our customers' future planning. Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here. Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models. Any references in this information to non-ibm Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk. 10