2020 saw the release of many new and important Teams updates. Join us for this roundup of some of the end of 2020’s most exciting updates for Microsoft Teams. Topics covered will include:
It required a solid plan, methodology and a strong team, and after over a year of hard work the S/4HANA Migration launched successfully in early November 2020. This represented a massive technical upgrade to U of T’s SAP Administrative Management Systems that will set the stage for improved overall system performance and future modernization.
“This project was lucky to have not only an exceptional project plan, but also exceptional team members,” says Lorena Gaudio, manager of Financial Advisory Services and Training (FAST). “It is a testament to the dedication of each of the team members that the deadlines were met all while dealing with the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The core project team involved over 40 people with members from Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI), FAST, Human Resources & Equity, Procurement Services, Facilities & Services, and Division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation. It also required consultation from divisions, local IT administrators, Information Security, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions and the vendor, EPI-USE.
“Everybody who was in a lead position on the S/4HANA Migration team was a subject matter expert – when you have the right people in the right roles good things happen,” says Philip Millenaar, project manager at EASI. “That’s tied together by the project plan with key tasks, deliverables and milestones and strong methodology so the ship keeps moving forward.”
The project required extensive planning, including code cleanup, system design and build, four rounds of testing involving more than 150 users, two simulated dry run cutovers, and detailed final preparation to ensure a smooth go live.
“When you have a technical migration it comes down to the testing,” says Millenaar. “We had formal test cycles and test cases with heavy IT and business involvement – this included central and divisional users. This was an extremely smooth go live because the testing was so extensive and detailed.”
The new platform represents the next phase of a five-year project, called the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program, that will upgrade U of T’s Administrative Management Systems and transform the future for more than 33,000 staff and faculty – with a revamped HR Talent Management Suite and core HR and research systems.
“With the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program, we started by moving our infrastructure to the Azure Cloud, then launching SuccessFactors Learning Management System, Performance and Goals, and Recruitment, and finally launching S/4HANA,” says Cathy Eberts, director of EASI. “We’ve really come together as a high performing team. This sets the stage for future projects, including Succession Planning and Employee Central, while also continuing to optimize the system.”
And the team is already seeing results. After launch, there were no post go-live issues with the 180 integration points with AMS. Fiscal month end ran 50 per cent faster, batch processing is 25 per cent faster, select optimized reports run 80 per cent faster and 10 systems have been decommissioned to create an optimized landscape and reduce costs. The team will continue to work to optimize code and further improve speed and reporting for the Financial Information System, Human Resources Information System and Research Information System.
In January 2021, the team will also work to provide a reporting solution within AMS that will be available 24/7 during scheduled AMS lockouts.
Going forward, the platform will have the potential to provide an improved user interface as well as enhanced analytics and better insights into reporting. The new interface will be part of the U of T’s first steps into SAP’s latest and greatest web-based user experience offering: the SAP Fiori Launchpad.
A sneak peak of the interface will be available with a redesign of the Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD) on the Web application with an anticipated launch date in early 2021. This application will still be available through the Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service portal, but its new user interface will be responsive.
After playing a key role in previous SAP migrations, leading this current migration and working at U of T for 32 years, Gaudio will be retiring as of January 31, 2021.
“I am honoured to have had the opportunity to work on this project and it’s a great way to end my career at the university,” she says. “The introduction of the FIORI technology will be exciting and I have no doubt that future phases of the S/4HANA Project will have the same successful outcome as the first phase.”
EASI and FAST would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this project a success.
Dear ROSI users,
*** This e-mail is sent on behalf of Student Receivable and Accounting Office ***
Following is the schedule for the production of the 2020 Tax Forms.
T4A:
T2202:
Feb 21, 2021 T2202 & T4A available on ACORN (ROSI) for students.
For questions regarding the Education Credit details or overall schedule, contact Enterprise Service Centre (ESC): uoft.me/esc
For questions regarding T4A details or Tuition Credit details, contact Student Receivable and Accounting Office (Ruth Bonifaz at 416 978-6400 or Audrey Cheung at 416 978-7295).
Sincerely,
Student Information Systems
Dear ROSI users
On Thursday, January 14, 2021 from 6:00am to 7:00am, the Information Security group will be performing maintenance on the Administrative Systems VPN, the VPN required for access to ROSI, ROSI Express, ROSI Files, FIS, HRIS and a few other systems. A brief interruption in service is expected during the maintenance period. If you are working at that time and experience service disconnection, please reconnect to the Admin Systems VPN after 5 minutes.
This email has been sent from a service account and does not accept replies. Please direct any follow up questions to the Enterprise Service Centre http://www.uoft.me/esc
Student Information Systems
In order to assist you in preparing for the February 1 count, please refer to the procedures below. The COUNT DATE is as at February 1 and the COUNT RETRIEVAL DATE will be on the evening of Wednesday February 10. This allows divisions extra time to update ROSI to the February 1 status. On February 10, all academic activities that were approved on or before February 1 will be picked up for each student. Academic activities that do not have APProved status on or before February 1 will be excluded. There is no need to “freeze” processing to ROSI records between February 1 and February 10 as long as all amendments have the correct effective date associated with them.
If you have any questions or if you need clarification, please contact Planning & Analytics by email at planning.analytics@utoronto.ca. You may also contact SIS Client Services and Process Integration via the Enterprise Service Centre (ESC).
Hi everyone,
Happy New Year and welcome back.
All staff and faculty facing student and curriculum systems are operational this morning. If you have any difficulty signing in today after being out of routine for two or three weeks, please remember to check that you are signed in to the correct vpn and that you have your eToken plugged in. A full troubleshooting check list can be found here in the Enterprise Service Centre knowledge base. If, after running through the check list, you still have difficulties, please submit a ticket in the ESC and we will assist you as we can.
Please note, most overnight batch procedures, including bank transfers, were suspended during the December break. These will run again today for the first time. Updated data should be available tomorrow morning. Also note, system traffic may be high this week as students check on grades and their current enrolments and possibly make course changes. Because most divisions won’t begin instruction until next week, we are not cautioning against running reports or generating admission letters as we have in other years. However, please be patient while waiting for your reports and downloads. You may want to consult the ESC knowledge base if you haven’t printed to ROSI Files in a while.
The past ten months have been challenging for all of us. We thank you for your assistance and patience as we have tried to make changes to support students, staff and faculty. We look forward to working with you over the coming months and to seeing you all on campus by the end of 2021.
This email has been sent from a service account and does not accept replies. Please direct any follow up questions to the Enterprise Service Centre http://www.uoft.me/esc
Sincerely,
Student Information Systems
Dear all past RPT users:
As you may be aware, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) has launched the next phase of an upgrade to the Administrative Management Systems (AMS). You may also be aware that as part of this launch, the RPT instance is no longer being refreshed and staff are now using AMS to run all reports.
In September 2020, we sent a communication anticipating a pilot of a modern user interface to enable users to run a range of key reports prior to, and during, the holiday shut down period. Due to time and resource constraints, largely as a result of the combination of COVID-19, implementation of essential HR year-end support packs, and the need to ensure all other systems continue to work effectively after the recent upgrade, we will need to delay the launch of this interface until early 2021. This additional time will ensure the solution we provide has been tested thoroughly and is fully stable.
It is anticipated that the new reporting solution will be available 24/7 and will be part of the University’s first steps into SAP’s latest and greatest web-based user experience offering: the SAP Fiori Launchpad. The solution will offer a range of key reports that were identified after consultation with a number of Central and Divisional users and will provide reporting functionality during scheduled AMS downtimes (Fiscal Year End, Holiday Shut Down (2021 and beyond), Fiscal Month End and pay runs).
We will provide an update early next year and we will also present a Connect+Learn session to highlight new features for reporting.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday break and look forward to connecting with you in 2021.
Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)
Dear CIS Registrar’s Office users,
We would like to inform you that CIS 5.12.4 is now live, with the notable changes listed below. Please refer to the Release Report for the full details.
If you have questions or need support, please refer to our help documentation or submit a ticket.
This email has been sent from a service account and does not accept replies. Please direct any follow up questions to the Enterprise Service Centre.
Sincerely,
Course Information System
Dear Colleagues,
Information Technology Services (ITS) will apply new advanced security features to your Microsoft 365 (M365) account. These features will add another layer of security to your email account and will help safeguard you against malicious threats posed by attachments and links (URLs) in email messages and links in documents.
What advanced security features will be applied to my account?
As part of this update Safe Links for Email and Documents will check URLs found in your email and documents to verify that the link is safe to view. Safe Attachments will check to see if the attachment is safe to be delivered to your inbox. If the attachment is found to be unsafe, you will receive the email but not the attachment.
What do I need to do to prepare for these new features?
No action is required from you. These features will be applied to your account automatically. If you have already been enrolled in the policy, there will be no impact on your account.
Additional information regarding these features can be found at: https://easi.its.utoronto.ca/connectlearn-microsoft-defender-for-office-365/ .
Kind regards,
Information Security
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
