The Mosaic Project, The University of Arizona's massive technology replacement program, is ahead of schedule with the human resources/payroll implementation reaching its first milestone several weeks early.

A test of the new system that will be used to manage payroll, which generally represented different pay circumstances, was successful.

"This is an exciting, high-value milestone," said Marcia Chatalas, the Mosaic Project Implementation Director for HR/Payroll and a human resources director. "We are delighted with the outcome because a comparison of the test data against the actual payroll data for the period reflected no significant differences."

That means the project is ready for its next step: a test run of payroll for a carefully defined representative group of almost 200 employees, which will take place by early December.

PeopleSoft Human Capital Management system, the most widely used human resources/payroll system in higher education, is replacing the UA's outdated Personnel Services Operation System (PSOS). PeopleSoft will significantly enhance information capacity and flexibility and its Web-based format will make extracting information much easier for users, Chatalas said.

With its adoption of the system, the UA has joined the Higher Education User Group, an international organization composed of members using PeopleSoft and other software offered by Oracle Corp. The group's members share ideas, information and experiences and advise Oracle on product direction. As a member, the UA is drawing on the experiences and expertise of the other members, as well as a powerful support system that will carry through the implementation phase and beyond.

The payroll system and several other HR systems are slated to be launched around Oct. 1, 2009. These include the employee data, job data and benefits enrollment administration systems.

Over the next 36 months, outdated technology for student, financials, research and business intelligence also will be replaced. Each system will be tested on ever-larger samples until it is deemed fully reliable. The first area expected to be completely replaced is financials, which is slated for full operation in July 2009.

Visit the Mosaic Project Web site for more information and to sign up for regular updates or ask questions.