Category
Technology
Submitted By
Christine Bauder, christine.bauder@cu.edu, Assistant Director of Production Services
Project Team
Christine Bauder, christine.bauder@cu.edu, Assistant Director of Production Services
Victor Goldberg, victor.goldberg@Colorado.edu, Retiree/Independent PeopleSoft FA Consultant
Project Description
Our aim was to simplify the extensive batch job changes required by Denver Financial Aid by utilizing the Automic batch scheduler script and email service. The original process carried a high potential for error as campus users updated a spreadsheet containing separate parameters and active status for each batch job. The spreadsheet was submitted through a ticket to the UIS Production Services team who would go through the spreadsheet making individual job changes and updating active statuses of each job.
The new process is a condensed spreadsheet containing centralized variables specifying the parameters for multiple jobs and a flag signifying the active status of each job. The automation reads the spreadsheet, updates Peoplesoft run-control parameters automatically and sets the jobs to active or inactive. This process eliminates manually updating each job. It saves both departments countless hours of work and reduces errors that could affect our students’ experience.
Project Efficiency
Taking a process that routinely took multiple people from two separate departments many hours over multiple days and changing it to a process that now takes minutes is inspiring. Reducing errors in the Financial Aid process for our students is equally, if not more important. We added methods throughout this process which automatically check for errors or provide opportunities for us to find any errors before nightly Financial Aid processing begins. These checks prevent and practically eliminate the chance for processing errors.
Project Inspiration
We wanted to reduce the amount of time spent making manual changes and reduce the number of errors being made in Financial Aid for both the Financial Aid and Production Services departments.
What Makes You Happiest about this Project?
Watching the spreadsheet come in through email, seeing the automated jobs execute in minutes, knowing it only took my Financial Aid campus user a few minutes to put together, and knowing there will be no errors makes me smile and I know we succeeded in what we set out to accomplish.
