PeopleSoft Upgrades: Insights into successful projects
How many upgrades have you done? I hear this question on a regular basis. My usual answer is – I am not sure but it is quite a few. Now, I know this may not be a satisfactory answer to most people. Recently I made a number of New Year’s resolutions and one of them was to come up with this number. Some people might preface their answers with a drum roll or a phrase in the vein of “Here’s Johnny..” Me. I will just cough up the number: 15. In some industries 15 may be a small number – how may restaurant tables have you waited? In others 15 would be considered large – how many nuclear power plants have you built? In the upgrade biz 15 is lot more like nuclear power plants than it is like tables.
There are hard-earned insights that I would like to share and I plan to share them in a series of upcoming postings entitled…PeopleSoft Upgrade Insights.
Look for these postings to frequently appear in early 2009…along with regular commentary on PeopleSoft news and careers.
Are we Overboarding when we should be Onboarding?
Can we really afford to make our old hands walk the plank? Times are tough in many industries, many disciplines, and many places but overboarding our most experienced workers may be a fatal mistake. On the flip side, onboarding calm and savvy veterans could be the key to survival and the catalyst for success when the inevitable upturn arrives.
… Just imagine:
What if US Airways had – like so many companies these days – tossed overboard its experienced workers because of their higher salaries and health insurance costs?
Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, 57, white-haired and balding with 40 years’ aviation experience, might not have been piloting that Airbus A320.
The Miracle of Experience
Just yesterday the numbers 1549, 57, 29, and 155 became very important. The first number, 1549, is the New York to Charlotte flight about which the whole country is talking. The second number, 57, is the age of the pilot, Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger III, who safely landed his plane in the middle of the Hudson River. The third number, 29, is the number of years Captain Sullenberger has been piloting airliners for US Airways. The last number, 155, is the most important number of all. That is the number of lives saved by Captain Sullenberger and his crew’s clear headed actions in the face of disaster.
So if you are in your office and a seasoned veteran like Captain Sullenberger wants to talk to you about his many years of experience, his hard-earned wisdom, and his ability to meet your needs please lend him an ear. It may save you.
… The former Air Force fighter pilot, they said, was the last one off the plane and the last out of the life rafts….
Up front, Hood and others shared the raft with the crew and captain, who helped passengers off the plane. Passengers stood on the wing, some knee deep. Helicopters kicked up spray.
“He looked unflappable. It was a testament to leadership,” Hood said. “I heard him reinforcing over and over to his crew – ‘Did you get the count right? Did you get the count right?’”Hood said.
Ferry boats pulled up by the plane and raft within minutes.
From the raft, Hood and the crew assisted others onto the boat.
He and the pilot were the last two left.“I don’t know if you believe in God, but that was a miracle out there today,” Hood said.
Are local highly experienced PeopleSoft professionals less risky…
…than PeopleSoft resources obtained from faraway places? The Satyam scandal could make many organizations rethink their outsourcing risk/reward calculations.
The impact on other Indian outsourcing companies is unclear, but analysts say that, long term, the fraud could have wide implications. The scandal at Satyam — a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and audited by an American accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers — raises doubts about other Indian companies.
“This is a crisis of trust,” said Frances Karamouzis, an analyst at Gartner. “It’s not really Satyam at stake; it’s the India Inc. brand.”
Maybe it is time to take a harder look at older seasoned professionals, those with many years of proven success, who reside a little closer to home. We all know there is a lot more involved in determining the total cost of a project than hourly rates. Trust, performance, and risk should be factored in to the equation as well.
Is Satyam the end of it? Some think not. The Satyam fraud should not come as a shock..
“Our experiences … suggest that manipulative accounting and aggressive promoter [owner] practices are more common in India than is generally believed to be the case,” he said.
“Many [Indian] firms have become so convinced of their own invincibility that they do not even bother denying irregularities when confronted with the evidence. They simply threaten you.”
Older PeopleSoft professionals likely to land on their feet
The cat righting reflex is a feline’s innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet, often uninjured. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3-4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 7 weeks. Bottom line: Older cats are much better at righting themselves during a fall.
If your skills are up to date you are more likely to land on your feet after a downsizing. This article from Kiplingers offers a reasonable ray of hope. Layoffs, rifts, buyouts, rightsizing, downsizing and all the other euphemisms about losing one’s position all lead to the same place, looking for that next job or contract. Experienced professionals with the right skills and right job hunting approach will be successful in finding that next opportunity.
Older downsized workers who are looking for jobs in the same line of work have advantages over their younger job-seeking counterparts: They have experience, and they know a lot of people in their field. The key job-hunting techniques are to emphasize your proven skills and to let as many people as possible know that you are looking for work, experts say.
Direct real world experience in a familiar industry, let’s say PeopleSoft Enterprise, is the most essential ingredient in your job hunting recipe. Recent accomplishments and current skills are important to potential employers. A few gray hairs may lead to some thinly veiled questions related to age but what you have to sell and what they what to buy is your ability to do the work promptly, efficiently, and thoroughly to everyone’s satisfaction.
…John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm based in Chicago, says many employers prize workers who have experience. “Age discrimination is less prevalent for folks who have up-to-date work skills and workplace accomplishments,” he says.
After all..2009 is another PeopleSoft year
We all know that 2008 was not a great year. This will seem a gross understatement for many but, thank goodness, the current year is almost gone with the wind. If you are over a certain age you have almost certainly seen the movie or at least know a few famous scenes. If you are under aged maybe it is time to do a movie search on your favorite entertainment medium. Gone with the wind is about many things but one theme deals with what it takes to recover from disaster such as the burning of Atlanta.
2009 is not necessarily the time to stray too far from “Tara.” Is your PeopleSoft system still providing the basics? If so, this may not be the best time to make any sudden moves. Can your organization swallow a multi-milliondollar project to replace your PeopleSoft systems? Probably not. But your organization may be able to reap greater benefits by building on your current foundation. 2009 could be one of the best years on record for increasing your organization’s productivity.