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CMS General FAQs
See also:
What is the CMS Project?
Common Management Systems, also known as CMS, is a CSU system-wide initiative that seeks to provide efficient, effective, and high-quality service to students, faculty, and staff by replacing a variety of campus-developed/acquired and maintained administrative software packages with standards-based and centrally maintained and hosted administrative software.
CMS applications will be used for financial, human resources, and student administration tasks. The CSU contracted to acquire the PeopleSoft Inc. suite of Financials, Human Resources, and Student Administration software in 1998, and all 23 CSU campuses, plus the Chancellor’s Office (CO), have implemented or are in the process of implementing this software suite. In 2005, PeopleSoft Inc. was acquired by Oracle Corporation, which has continued to maintain and develop enhancements and modifications to the PeopleSoft product suite.
What are the goals of CMS?
Common Management Systems (CMS) is a project of the California State University (CSU) System that was developed in the 1990s to provide efficient, effective and high quality service to students, faculty and staff at all 23 campuses in the system plus the Chancellor's Office. By 2008, the CMS project will enable the CSU:
- To share administrative best practices;
- To support administrative functions (initially including human resources, financials, and student services) with a shared, common suite of applications from a single software provider [Oracle/PeopleSoft];
- To operate the administrative software suite at a single location (currently, the Unisys data center in Salt Lake City);
- To share a supported, central data warehouse.
Does the Chancellor’s Office help us in any way?
The CO provides a set of CMS/PeopleSoft modules to campuses. Some of these modules are expected to be implemented by all campuses and are known as “core functionality.” Campuses can add custom features to the core modules and can implement modules that are not part of core functionality; however, it is more cost-effective for campuses to limit their CMS implementations as much as possible to what is contained in the core modules and is therefore centrally supported and maintained by the CO. In addition to negotiating system-wide contracts related to CMS and maintaining the core software modules, the CO pays Unisys for the use of the data center in Utah that supports the databases and software applications used by the entire CSU system.
Is there a University committee overseeing the project?
Oversight committees and project management teams have been established to ensure that the implementation of CMS provides the best overall results for CSUDH. See Implementation Steering Committee (ISC) and Contact Us for names and titles of individuals who are part of the implementation phase of the CMS Project. ISC is a large committee representing a broad cross-section of campus constituencies. Mary Ann Rodriguez, Vice President, Administration & Finance, serves as executive sponsor of the Financials and Human Resources applications. Boice Bowman, Vice President, Student Affairs, is executive sponsor of the Student Administration implementation. President Mildred Garcia ’s Operations Group comprises the Executive Committee of the CSUDH CMS Project.
When will we start the implementation?
We've started! The first go-live date was July 2006 for selected modules of the CMS Financials (FIN) and Human Resources (HR) applications. Additional modules of these applications, as well as the CMS Student Administration (SA) system, are being implemented now, with all core modules expected to be in use by Fall 2008.
Will CMS PeopleSoft training be provided?
Yes, CMS training is being offered. The University understands that education and training related to CMS is an ongoing investment that will pay for itself. Here are some of the ways in which education and training likely will be delivered:
- Hands-on classroom training;
- Telephone, e-mail, and office visit support via trained CMS Help Desk staff; and
- Extensive documentation; don’t forget to visit the CMS Web site frequently to look for new FAQs and documentation.
Training and user feedback will play a major role in the success of the CSUDH CMS project. The project-related training process is expected to include:
- Implementation team training;
- Functional user and manager training; and
- New training coinciding with software updates and other changes.
Additionally, CMS Help Desk staff will receive training in order to sustain the implementation and support efforts.
Where can I get more information about the project?
Visit the CSU CMS Web site for much more information. In the menu bar, click Links, then CSU and Campus Links to find related information at the Chancellor’s Office and at other CSU campuses.
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