This semester, for the first time, student admissions, financial aid, billing and course scheduling all were handled through a single computer system. With this, Cornell's decade-long changeover to PeopleSoft administration software is almost complete. But it's not about technology so much as better business practices and capabilities the university didn't have before.

Students, faculty and staff use the PeopleSoft system for such tasks as enrolling in a class, looking up grades or reporting that a new employee has been hired. The system records bursar fees and writes paychecks. Unlike the multiple systems it replaced, anything can be linked to anything else, and no piece of data is in more than one place. That reduces errors and gives tremendous power and flexibility.

The changeover hasn't been easy, partly because the PeopleSoft system is large and complex, but also because Cornell itself is complex. One challenge is that the PeopleSoft interface isn't always intuitive, and training isn't much help for office workers who may use it only once or twice a year. Staff unfamiliarity with the new application was one reason many students experienced a delay in financial aid processing this fall. In the spring, enrolling for courses was problematic when thousands of students trying to use the online self-service option over a short period of time triggered a bug in the system, according to David Koehler, director of information systems for Cornell Information Technologies. PeopleSoft technicians fixed the bug in a single day, he said.

The saga of PeopleSoft goes back to 1996, when Cornell contracted with PeopleSoft of Pleasanton, Calif., founded by David A. Duffield '63, MBA '64, and now owned by Oracle Corp. PeopleSoft was then primarily a business system. Cornell helped to create the academic version, now used by several hundred institutions.

The first portion installed, in 1999, was a human resources module. At first the system did what the old one did: write checks. But with additions it now tracks employees, positions, benefits and more, and employees have "self-service" options to manage their personal data. Coming are online performance reviews and features to manage training.

All the new data can be used for planning. "When it was just payroll, all we knew was what you needed to pay people," said Lyman Flahive, director of human resources information systems. "We're still trying to see how we can best use this new data."

Students also have self-service options, enabling them to manage finances or courses at any time of day from anywhere in the world. In one day this fall 2,807 sophomores created 17,730 course enrollments.

The old way of doing things kept admissions, financial aid, billing and course scheduling in four separate systems. The PeopleSoft student system is both unified and flexible. "The old system was set up for two semesters and summer sessions," explained Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services. "Now we can support 12-month executive MBAs or modular courses in the Vet School, for undergrads, graduate students, professional students, continuing education, summer students and even our pre-med students in Qatar."

Alumni Affairs and Development no longer has to take students from one system and put them into another. "They're already there," said Rick Banks, associate vice president for services. "There are a lot of data points and metrics we use to manage alumni relationships that simply didn't exist before." That helps manage the campaign, he noted, but also makes life better for alumni. "If we're not tied up with administrative things we can spend more time talking with alumni, to make it easier to make gifts or pay class dues or find out about Cornell events all over the country and the world," he said.

Concluded Murphy, "Faculty and students are being very patient with the challenges, and the staff is doing a fabulous job. And it's long overdue."