Case Study

PeopleSoft FSCM 9.0 to 9.2 Upgrade for Susan G. Komen

Engagement Summary

Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team leveraged its offshore capabilities to complete a seven-month upgrade of Susan G. Komen's PeopleSoft Financial and Supply Chain Management (FSCM) from 9.0 to 9.2. The team also conducted new feature functionality workshops to build a roadmap of the most beneficial 9.2 functionality for Komen to deploy.

Client Background

Susan G. Komen, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is the world's largest nonprofit source of funding for the fight against breast cancer. Since 1982, it has invested more than $2.6 billion in groundbreaking research, community health outreach, advocacy, and programs in more than 30 countries. It works with 110 affiliates and 1,300 community organizations. Komen's mission is to save lives and end breast cancer forever. It educates, supports research, offers grants that provide financial and emotional assistance, and advocates for better breast cancer policy. More broadly, it empowers others, ensures quality care for all, and invests in science to find the cures.

Business Challenges

Large-scale financial and supply chain upgrades are highly complex in nature. In Komen’s situation, it was even more complex due to the 110 Affiliate branch offices staffed by mostly volunteers. Because of the volunteer nature of the workforce, change management was of significant importance and a bit of a challenge. Komen’s objectives were to:

Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2
Reduce customizations
Successfully manage the amount of change presented to the branch offices
Do all of this as efficiently and cost effectively as possible

The Kastech Solution

Offshore-led upgrade: Kastech’s PeopleSoft Practice team leveraged its offshore capabilities to perform the upgrade to PeopleSoft Financial and Supply Chain Management (FSCM) 9.2
New feature functionality workshops: Conducted workshops to create a roadmap of the most beneficial 9.2 new functionality for Komen to deploy
Like-to-like upgrade: Upgrading to 9.2 in a “like to like” manner, combined with building out a 9.2 functionality roadmap, allows Komen to deploy 9.2 with the least change impact to the branches
New PeopleSoft deployment: Includes PeopleSoft Accounts Payable, Purchasing, General Ledger, Billing, Receivables, Project Costing, Treasury (Cash Management), e-Procurement, and Expenses
Upgrade goals: Designed to take advantage of the new functionality within 9.2, reduce customizations, and improve efficiencies

Results & Business Impact

Minimized change impact

By leveraging Kastech's proven processes and delivery model, the team minimized the impact of change on the affiliate offices

Aggressive timeline met

Met an aggressive go-live timeline

On time and under budget

Delivered a successful gaThe project was completed on time and under budgeto-live

Mission focus

Upgrading to 9.2 is helping Komen accomplish its objectives, allowing it to focus even more time and effort on fighting breast cancer through research, community programs, and advocacy

Client Testimonial

"Throughout the entire engagement Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team was very professional and only offered solutions that would benefit Komen. The Kastech PeopleSoft Practice consultants genuinely cared about the outcome and truly understood the key issues that we were working to resolve. The team was driven by customer success while keeping costs/overhead as low as possible and the executive level support they provided was above and beyond expectations. This was one of the most complex and high priority projects Komen had slated for 2014. I can say that we had a very aggressive time line and we got it done on time and under budget. What more could you ask for in a project of this size and complexity?"

— Brim Basom, Project Manager, Susan G. Komen

"Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team acted as a true partner. They presented great value throughout the life of the partnership and helped us to complete our project on time and under budget. We chose Kastech's PeopleSoft Practice team through a detailed Vendor Assessment process. From the beginning they demonstrated extraordinary professionalism in all aspects and continued the same through the end of the project. We cherished the partnership with the Kastech team and look forward to working with them in future."