ibm for peoplesoft hcm upgrade curtis 07sep12

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© Copyright IBM Corporation, 2012. All Rights Reserved.

All trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders

Oracle’sPeopleSoftEnterpriseHumanCapitalManagementupgradeplanning

Tools and techniques for the upgrade decision

Mike CurtisIBM Oracle International Competency Center

September 2012

Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management upgrade planninghttp://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs© Copyright 2012, IBM Corporation

Table of contents

Change history ......................................................................................................................... 1

Abstract..................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2

The process .............................................................................................................................. 2

The PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool..................................................... 2

Estimating hardware requirements .......................................................................................................... 5

Summary................................................................................................................................... 9

Trademarks and special notices ........................................................................................... 10

Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management upgrade planninghttp://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs© Copyright 2012, IBM Corporation 1

Change history

Version Date Editor Editing description

1.0 09/15/2012 Patrick Moore Original version


Abstract

Understanding the information and tools available to help you analyze and justify the need toupgrade to a more recent version of the PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Managementapplication can significantly speed up the decision process and help the final decision to be thecorrect one.

Introduction

Upgrading application software is required at some point for all customers, and like any other business

decision, it needs to be justified. That justification process is fueled by business requirements, support

requirements and upgrade costs for software, hardware and staffing needs. Gathering the information to

get approval for the upgrade project can be challenging, but by following some basic steps it can be

accomplished. For PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM, the HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool makes it

quite easy to determine the new application features that have been introduced in each new release. The

software costs and supported levels can be obtained from the software vendors. Critical to the decision

process is being able to quantify the impact of the upgrade on the existing environment to determine if a

hardware upgrade is required. If an upgrade is needed then the total cost of the software can be

determined. By analyzing existing benchmark data, or by using the IBM upgrade sizing process for

PeopleSoft Enterprise, the hardware requirements for the upgrade can be estimated. Staffing needs are

different for each customer so each customer would have to supply those cost estimates. This paper

discusses the upgrade process and attempts to give customers tips, techniques and tools to assist that

process.

The process

When there is reason to evaluate a possible upgrade of application software there are usually at least two

and sometimes three or more upgrade possibilities. For purposes of this paper, PeopleSoft Enterprise

Human Capital Management was chosen as the focus for this exercise as it is one of the most prevalent

PeopleSoft application suites in the marketplace today. Many customers are still running on the HCM

8.xx codeline and are evaluating the upgrade possibilities. At this time there are two releases available

from the 9.xx codeline, V9.0 and V9.1. There is also planned to be a V9.2 release sometime later this

year. Given the multiple choices, the first choice is likely the upgrade that gives the customer the

business functions required.

The PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool

Finding the needed functions and what release of a particular product introduces those functions can be a

tedious process. Oracle has a great tool to help customers evaluate feature and function differences

between releases of HCM. By going to the following location customers can take advantage of this HCM

Cumulative Feature Overview Tool:

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=793135.1

Note this tool is available on the “My Oracle Support” website, a valid login and password isrequired to access the tool.


Figure 1. HCM Cumulative Feature Overview Tool

Once the tool is invoked by opening the Excel spreadsheet titled

“HCM_Cumulative_Feature_Overview_Tool.xls”, you can choose the PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM product

or products you are interested in and the source and target releases. For the purposes of this exercise

the Human Resource application and the North American Payroll application were selected. PeopleSoft

HCM 8.9 was chosen for the current release and release 9.1 was used for the target release.


Figure 2.Selecting the HCM product, current and target releases

Then click on the “Run Report” button to generate the comparison report as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Generating the comparison report


This comparison report shows the available new features and functions that became available between

the current release and target release, and notes the release in which the features first became available.

With this information the customer can make an educated decision about which HCM release to target for

their upgrade project in order to obtain the required functions. For our example the report that is

generated is 13 pages long. Figure 4 shows a sample page from the report. Notice the product and

detailed feature description and the first release the feature became available.

Figure 4. Sample page from report

Estimating hardware requirements

With this information you can now move on to estimating the hardware requirements for your planned

upgrade. One way to estimate hardware costs is to look at existing benchmarks. The benchmarking

exercise gives significant performance information as well as sizing data. PeopleSoft benchmark results

are documented in a benchmark report detailing the benchmark criteria, workload descriptions,

transactions executed, and performance statistics, and are posted at:

http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/benchmark/apps-benchmark/peoplesoft-167486.html

Normally a benchmark report is accompanied by a tuning white paper documenting system and database

settings used during the benchmark process and noting any changes made during the process, along

with their impact on results. This paper can be very helpful to customers, allowing them to see the actual

system settings to help guide them in their own implementation or upgrade efforts. By using the

benchmark performance report data customers can see the impact of specific upgrades. For this

example the performance of PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll V9.0 was compared to V9.1. The following

table depicts the comparison:


PayrollV9.0

PayrollV9.1

Paysheet

Average Clock Time (Min) 6.4 5.7

Average CPU (TCB) Time(Min)

1.84 1.64

Average % CPU Busy 28.3 26.9

Average I/Os per sec 1562 1560

Average I/O resp time (MilSec)

1.6 1.48

Peak I/Os per sec 2508 2080

Paycalc

Average Clock Time (Min) 31 32.5


22.27 23.86




0.88 0.96


Payconf



16.6 15.6




1.2 1.34


DDP001


Average CPU (tcb) Time (Min) 1.75 2.1


Average I/Os per sec 1875 385.5



0.56 1.3


DDP003

Average Clock Time (Min) 18 18.7


14.97 14.7


Average I/Os per sec 2278.4 1103


0.54 0.57


Table 1. PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll benchmark comparison

After reviewing these benchmark results, it is easy to see that the difference between upgrading to V9.0

versus V9.1 is very small, performance and resource wise, and the cost, from the processor usage

perspective, was very small, probably not requiring a CPU upgrade. Consequently, it would likely be

better from a support perspective to go to V9.1 because support for this version would be available longer

and there are more features and functions available in that release. Hardware and software costs for this

upgrade would appear to be small, and possibly zero.

This process, while time consuming, is fine if you have the time AND can find published benchmark

reports from which to extract the required data. However, if you would rather rely on IBM expertise and

benefit from years of experience with PeopleSoft Enterprise performance analysis, based on both

published and unpublished benchmarks, you can, at no expense to you, utilize the PeopleSoft Enterprise

upgrade sizing process. For a description of the upgrade sizing process visit:

http://www-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/PRS1551

This process has been used by customers for many years and has evolved into its current state with

feedback from customers and technicians. Its evolution continues with each release of PeopleSoft

Enterprise applications and with each improvement in hardware technology or software release from IBM

to provide outstanding planning information for customers. Take a look at the detailed sizing

questionnaire to appreciate the depth of information analyzed to give customers the best possible

upgrade planning information:

http://www-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/PRS1617

By using the IBM Techline ISV Solutions Sizing Team, the group within IBM that executes the upgrade

sizing process, customers can easily obtain upgrade planning estimates, at no cost to them. A

customized sizing report is sent to each customer that requests a sizing estimate.

Once the sizing process is complete the possible need for a hardware upgrade can be evaluated and, if

needed, the accompanying software upgrades determined.


At this point the PeopleSoft Enterprise upgrade release is known and the hardware and software costs

have been estimated. All that remains is the staffing estimates and the upgrade proposal can be

completed and sent for approval.


Summary

Upgrading software can be painful, but in many cases very necessary. The best approach to planning for

an upgrade is to utilize any available tools and techniques to help make it as painless and as reliable as

possible. With PeopleSoft Enterprise applications and IBM, the answer is use the existing tools and

information discussed in this white paper to obtain the most accurate information to estimate the total cost

of the upgrade so that management can make the correct decision.


Trademarks and special notices

© Copyright. IBM Corporation 2012. All rights reserved.

References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them

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Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

The information provided in this document is distributed “AS IS” without any warranty, either express or

implied.

The information in this document may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.

All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM

products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance

characteristics may vary by customer.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published

announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of

such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly

available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not

tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims

related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the

supplier of those products.

All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without

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Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as a

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information is presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a

good faith effort to help with our customers' future planning.

Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled

environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending

upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O

configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be

given that an individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the

ratios stated here.

Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models.

Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in

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ibm for peoplesoft hcm upgrade curtis 07sep12

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