The Human Capital Management (HCM) software powers the Human Resources, payroll and benefits functions across all University of Colorado campuses. It’s critical to keeping business running smoothly. With that in mind, the HCM Systems Team in UIS has adopted a patching and upgrade process that ensures the system is always up-to-date and major upgrades are a thing of the past.

What does this mean for you?

All HCM patching is critical to our service line. It ensures all CU employees get paid correctly and promptly. Beyond payment, regulatory and current system updates ensure that employees receive benefits properly, including health, retirement and other programs.  

How often are these updates?

HCM has three different upgrade cycles:

• Four times a year, the HCM Systems Team completes a project for patching and regulatory upgrades related to payroll and benefits.
• Two times a year, the team will plan for a full PUM (PeopleSoft Update Manager) catchup as the business cycle allows. This is a full systematic catchup of functionality from the vendor, Oracle. This helps CU maximize its investment and stabilizes the service line into an incremental no-additional cost upgrade model preventing large systematic upgrades to functionality.
• Once a year, the team will plan to conduct a PeopleTools technical upgrade as the business cycle allows. This helps CU to stay compliant and within vendor support parameters for HCM 9.2. This type of upgrade helps CU to stay with current technology in support of the user interface, security, accessibility and other features.

How has this changed previous HCM upgrades?

Prior to the upgrade to HCM 9.2, HCM did regulatory patches less than four times a year and hadn’t done an upgrade to functionality in close to a decade. Under this model, the entire system eventually requires a time-intensive, costly upgrade. HCM’s new strategy puts the university on a no-additional-cost upgrade model. By staying current, we won’t need to do a massive system upgrade.

How has this new process benefited CU overall?

The last HCM upgrade changed the way campuses did business. It provides CU an updated system that no longer requires massive upgrades. Instead, it allows the HCM Systems Team to enhance business processes as suggestions and needs arise. This provides a better value than everything changing at once. Technology is making a difference in how we continue to keep CU supported.