EASI

Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration

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Important Message for RPT Users

Date: September 8, 2020
To: RPT Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: Important Message for RPT Users

Dear all RPT users:

As you may be aware, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) is launching the next phase of an upgrade to the Administrative Management Systems (AMS). As part of this phase, called the S/4HANA Migration, we are moving to a new SAP platform and recently entered our third and final testing cycle. An important change to note is that after we go live with the new platform, the RPT instance will no longer be refreshed and you will need to use AMS to run all future reports. 

RPT was built in the late 1990s to offload the reporting functionality of AMS in order to improve the performance of AMS. Since then, we have learned that RPT is being used for running reports during scheduled AMS downtimes, to provide a static data set and compensate for historical performance shortcomings in AMS. With the move to the Azure Cloud last year and the upcoming S/4HANA upgrade, these historical constraints no longer exist. We thoroughly investigated the possibility of continuing with the RPT instance in S/4HANA; however, due to both technical and cost constraints this option is unfortunately not feasible.

As a solution to the issue of not being able to run reports during AMS system downtime, we will be piloting a modern user interface to enable users to run a range of key reports, which will be available 24/7. This new user interface will be part of the University’s first steps into SAP’s latest and greatest web-based user experience offering: the SAP Fiori Launchpad. We will be sending out future communication on this to advise which key reports have been developed and ask for your feedback on potential additional reports that could be added. We believe this will provide the required reporting functionality during scheduled AMS downtimes (Fiscal Year End, Holiday Shut Down, Fiscal Month End and pay runs).

What do you need to know?

  • The last time that RPT will be refreshed will be at the end of October 2020.
  • To assist with the reconciliation and comparison of pre and post S/4HANA migration financial results, this RPT clone will remain available to the end users for a period of time.
  • After the S/4HANA migration, you will be able to use AMS to run your reports with the following improvements:

o   Added horsepower to the AMS system.

o   A new database called AMS HANA that lays the foundation for future improved performance.

  • To further mitigate the impact of the loss of RPT, we will be reducing our scheduled downtimes – please stay tuned for the details. It is anticipated that the new 24/7 reporting solution will be available by the holiday shut down period. The EASI team will be optimizing the post go live downtime periods in November and December to ensure maximum availability.
  • A link to the new reporting landing page (with login using UTORid) will be provided on the Administrative Web Services webpage in advance of the holiday shut down period.
  • A Connect & Learn session for interested users will be scheduled in advance.

Learn more about the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program. 

Thank you for your support in making these improvements.

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

 

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ROSI Training Survey

Dear ROSI users,

The Student Information Systems Team is designing new ROSI training and support materials to improve and facilitate your ROSI learning experience. We will also develop information sessions and would like to get your opinion about it.

Please take a few minutes to help us enhance our ROSI training by answering the following ROSI Training Survey.

ROSI Training Survey

Thank you very much for your involvement!

Sincerely,
Student Information Systems

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Introducing Microsoft Shifts – Sept 3, 2020

Join Connect+Learn for this introduction to Microsoft Shifts. Shifts is a schedule management tool that lets you create, update and manage schedules for your team​. With Shifts, you can:​

  • Create a new schedule or import an existing schedule from Excel.​
  • Toggle between different Shifts schedules to manage them if you own multiple teams.​
  • Create staff groups to help you better organize your schedule.​
  • Review requests for schedule changes.​
  • Allow your team to clock in and out with their mobile devices.

Resources

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Introduction to Microsoft FindTime

Join us for this introduction to Microsoft FindTime, a tool that can help you and your colleagues find the best time to meet. FindTime shows what days and times work the best for you and the attendees when available using free/busy data. You can propose your selected times to all attendees and allow everyone to vote and quickly come to a consensus on what time to meet.

Resources

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Important SAP GUI Upgrade Instructions – S/4HANA Migration

Date: August 25, 2020
To: SAP GUI Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: Important SAP GUI Upgrade Instructions – S/4HANA Migration

Dear SAP GUI users:

As you may be aware, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) is launching the next phase of an upgrade to the Administrative Management Systems (AMS). This phase, called the S/4HANA Migration, requires an upgrade to the SAP GUI before a university-wide transition to the new S/4HANA platform. SAP GUI users will need to upgrade from SAP GUI 7.5 Patch 12 (Enjoy theme) to SAP GUI 7.6 Patch 6 (Blue Crystal theme). The new SAP GUI comes with the modern Blue Crystal GUI theme and the old Enjoy theme, used by some users, will no longer be available.

The SAP GUI upgrade represents minimal change to business processes and will be easy for users to adapt – the transition will create the foundation for improved overall system performance and future modernization of the SAP systems at U of T.

Your local IT administrator(s) will be deploying the updated SAP GUI software to your computer before September 18 in preparation for the system migration in November. After the deployment, users will have links to both the cloud and new S/4HANA systems. Users will still need their CISCO VPN and eToken to log in to the cloud system. 

If you do not have a managed desktop or a local IT administrator, you can submit a ticket to the Enterprise Service Centre.

Background

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. U of T’s Financial Information System will be a core part of this upgrade and will transition to a highly responsive system, allowing users to perform quicker queries since the new system will be a transactional and reporting system built into one. As well, the upgrade will improve speed and reporting for the Human Resources Information System and Research Information System in the future. Read this article to learn more.

Thank you for your support in making these improvements.

Sincerely,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

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SAP GUI 7.6 Patch 6 Rollout – Stage 2

Date: August 24, 2020
To: Divisional IT Administrators
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: SAP GUI 7.6 Patch 6 Rollout – Stage 2

For all local IT administrators who have SAP GUI users that they manage:

As you may be aware, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) is launching the next phase of an upgrade to the Administrative Management Systems (AMS). This phase, called the S/4HANA Migration Project, requires an upgrade to the SAP GUI before a university-wide transition to the new S/4HANA platform. The new SAP GUI comes with the modern Blue Crystal GUI theme and the old Enjoy theme, used by some users, will no longer be available. As part of this project, some of you have already helped to upgrade your divisional users from SAP GUI 7.5 Patch 12 (Enjoy theme) to SAP GUI 7.6 Patch 6 (Blue Crystal theme) to allow them to participate in user acceptance testing.

In order to prepare for the platform upgrade in November, we will need the SAP GUI rolled out to all users by September 18.

The deployment package was developed by the central Digital Workplace Team and has been used to quickly and automatically roll out the SAP GUI to over 100 central users. You can download it here.

If there are divisions that want to build their own deployment package, or do not have managed desktops, they can use this instructional video and the manual instructions.

The S/4HANA Migration Project will improve performance speed and create a platform for future modernization. It is also part of the next phase of the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program – a project that is set to upgrade the administrative management systems and transform the future for more than 33,000 staff and faculty.

We have created a dedicated Teams channel for divisional IT administrators. In order to be added to this channel, or for any related issues, please reach out to Praveen Narayanaswamy at praveen.narayanaswamy@utoronto.ca and provide your First Name, Last Name and Division. Please note, this channel is meant to answer specific queries from divisional IT administrators for the SAP GUI deployment. It is not meant for end user communications.

The SAP GUI upgrade represents minimal change to business processes and will be easy for users to adapt – the transition will create the foundation for improved overall system performance and future modernization of the SAP systems at U of T.  See the changes here.

After the deployment, users will have links to both the cloud and new S/4HANA systems. Users will still need their CISCO VPN and eToken to log in to the cloud system. 

Thank you for your support in making these improvements.

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Microsoft rolls out new Teams updates for September

A woman with dark hair in a purple shirt laughing as she uses Teams.

This month, the University of Toronto community can expect to see several updates to their Microsoft Teams experience. With these updates come several new and useful features that will enable staff and faculty across the University to make the most of their online meetings.

The most significant of these updates is the introduction of new Teams meeting features. Read this article for a summary of these changes, and how to enable them if you haven’t already. If you haven’t seen these updates yet, don’t panic: it’s a gradual roll-out that will eventually reach all Teams users at the University.

1. Teams meetings now have a capacity of 300 people

Teams has increased the number of people who can join a meeting from 250 to 300 people. You don’t need to do anything to activate this change – the update is automatic.

2. Teams adds additional options to the meeting lobby settings

Until recently, University of Toronto Teams users could not implement lobby settings that would allow them to screen every user before admitting them to a meeting. Teams just rolled out an update to address this issue: meeting organizers can now opt to have everyone – including people within the organization – wait in the lobby.

To add this setting to a planned meeting, simply go to your meeting options. Click on the Who can bypass the lobby? dropdown menu and select Only me. Click Save to update your meeting settings.

3. Teams has started rolling out a new ‘pop-out’ Teams meeting display to all its users

This update is currently available in preview mode before it becomes the default view. To turn the new display on, simply click on your user icon in Teams and go to Settings. Under the General tab you will see a box to Turn on new meeting experience. Click on the box to apply the change. You then need to restart Teams by quitting and relaunching the application.

When you relaunch Teams after changing this setting, your meetings will have a new display. You will notice two major differences:

  1. All your calls and meetings will now launch in a new window. This makes it easier for you to navigate between your active meeting and items in your main Teams window such as your chat, calendar and channels.
  2. Your meeting controls will now be at the top of your call window. They will always be visible this way and will never obstruct content when someone is presenting.

4. Teams now offers a larger, 49 person grid 

In response to user demand, Teams has introduced a new 7×7 grid. This means that your Teams meeting can now display a maximum of 49 people! To access this larger display, follow these steps:

  1. Activate the new pop-out meeting display using the instructions outlined above.
  2. Click on the three-dot More actions menu.
  3. You will see an option called Large gallery. Click on this option to activate the larger gallery size.


Note: You must have at least ten people in your call in order to activate this setting.

5. Introducing ‘together mode’ 

Together mode lets you feel like you’re in the same shared space with everyone in your meeting. To activate together mode, click on the three dot More actions menu in the meeting task bar and then select Together mode. Your video must be on.

A group of people using Together Mode in Microsoft Teams.

Interested in learning more about Teams?

For a list of additional new Teams features and updates, please see this announcement from Microsoft.

Visit EASI’s Connect+Learn page for a list of upcoming Teams training sessions. You can also subscribe to the Connect+Learn newsletter for updates, and view slides and recordings from previous presentations.

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Upcoming upgrade of U of T’s SAP Administrative Management Systems

Abstract image of arrows pointing up

Starting in November 2020, U of T will launch the next phase of an upgrade to its Administrative Management Systems (AMS) – called the S/4HANA Migration. While changes to business processes will be minimal, the transition will create the foundation for improved overall system performance and future modernization of the SAP systems at U of T.

U of T’s Financial Information System will be a core part of this upgrade and will transition to a highly responsive system, allowing users to perform quicker queries since the new system will be a transactional and reporting system built into one. As well, the upgrade will improve speed and reporting for the Human Resources Information System and Research Information System in the future.

“The ‘S’ in S/4HANA stands for ‘simplified’ because it’s a simplified version of the product,” says Praveen Narayanaswamy, solutions architect with Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI). “The system now has a fraction of the thousands of tables it once had, which will streamline reporting and operations and provide a foundation for future growth.”

It’s an exciting development for U of T staff and the university as a whole.

“This is a whole new world from a technology standpoint,” says Sheila Brown, U of T’s chief financial officer. “The new financial system will be faster, more flexible and user-friendly. We’re one of the top universities in the world, and this technology upgrade is really setting U of T up for future success.”

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.

“We’re two years into this exciting program. We’ve already implemented a series of projects to transform our HR processes, including a new Learning Management, and Performance and Goals systems using SAP SuccessFactors,” says Cathy Eberts, Director of Enterprise Applications and Deputy CIO. “This summer we launched a new recruitment platform and in the future we’ll also be launching Succession Planning and Employee Central, which will replace components of the Human Resources Information System.”

Last year, as part of the program, U of T also moved its Administrative Management Systems from an on-premise data centre to the cloud. It’s a move that has vastly improved system performance and security.

“Before the cloud migration, our old servers offered limited capacity for intense workloads like payroll and we had to restrict access during peak times,” says Frank Boshoff, senior manager of technical solutions and architecture with EASI. “With our move to the cloud, this process has greatly improved. In the future, the new in-memory SAP database design promises blazing speed and will offer elasticity so we can expand during peak times and contract after the surge.”

The platform will have the potential to provide an improved user interface as well as enhanced analytics and better insights into reporting. A sneak peak of the user interface will be available with a redesign of the Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD) on the Web application, and a new Service Order application to be released as part of the current upgrade.

The S/4HANA Migration is progressing with quality assurance testing this summer and the new platform is scheduled to launch on November 1 this fall.

“This important upgrade will provide the foundation for the future,” says Brown. “We can expect a modern digital enterprise platform with rich user interface applications and real-time analytics, allowing staff to work smarter, faster and more strategically.”

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ACORN notification error – minimum payment deadlines

Date: August 19, 2020
To: ROSI Users
From: Student Information Systems
Re: ACORN notification error – minimum payment deadlines

Hi everyone,

We are currently experiencing an issue with the registration payment deadline notification (sessional events MR2 and MR3). Some students in divisions where these sessional event dates are active and who haven’t yet paid their fees will see this notification. It may list incorrect POSt titles.

We have identified the problem and will be releasing corrected code by Friday. The problem only affects the program title displayed in the notification. It does not affect the invoice, the student account or the student’s registration record.

Attached is an example of what students may see. 

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.

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