IRIS: Teamwork, Collaboration and a Synthesis of Skills

With 9,300 employees, Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) is one of CSC’s largest clients in Canada. Although P&WC had been using SAP 4.6 as their core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system since 2000, their Human Resources (HR) and payroll systems were running on a mainframe legacy system in need of an update.

Updating the HR IT System

The goal of the Integrated Resource Information Systems (IRIS) project, initiated in October 2000, was to upgrade and expand P&WC’s SAP system by integrating the new SAP HR module into it — thereby gaining all the advantages conferred by a modern HR system with functions such as employee and manager self-service, automation of a range of administrative and HR functions, etc.

The project was divided into two phases, with Phase 1, involving the fundamental HR and Payroll systems, being the more ambitious and critical. Among the SAP HR sub-modules that needed to be integrated in this first phase were Payroll, Organizational Management, Personnel Administration, Time Management, Cross Application Time Sheets and Manager’s Desktop.

	Some of CSC’s team members on the IRIS project pose for a photograph. The IRIS team included members from CSC, Pratt & Whitney Canada, SAP and Arinso.

Drawing on Many Resources

The large-scale, critical system implementation project involved a pooling together of resources and skills from a number of different organizations — including two global divisions of CSC as well as P&WC, SAP and Arinso. In addition, the IRIS team, numbering 35 to 40 full-time team members, drew on resources from the Montreal Software Development Center (MSDC) — CSC’s recently launched Center of Excellence — as well as CSC’s ERP Competency Center. At the peak of the project, the IRIS team expanded to include more than 20 additional part-time resources to test and tweak the system to perfection.

P&WC team members, including several from HR and Payroll, worked side-by-side with CSC staff. Two full-time CSC experts worked to ensure system security — a critical component in HR systems. The multifaceted team stayed coordinated through constant communication and close teamwork, with daily and weekly status meetings ensuring the project stayed on track. With 9,300 P&WC employees depending on the success of the project to draw their paycheck each cycle, the IRIS team knew they had to get it right the first time.

The Cutover — and Success

On January 9, 2002, IRIS successfully performed its first live pay run, and P&WC employees received a new pay stub with all the right numbers. Two Help Desks were beefed up in anticipation of questions and concerns from employees — CSC’s technical support and P&WC’s HR Access Center. Although calls initially peaked in the first week, levels soon returned to normal, with smaller peaks on subsequent paydays.

Forging Ahead with Phase 2

It was a difficult and demanding project, but the IRIS team did not take much time off to celebrate. Phase 2 is already in the planning and scoping stage. While Phase 1 culminated with the "big bang" of a payroll cutover, Phase 2 implementations may be managed in smaller deployments, including Employee Self Service, Staffing & Recruitment, Training and Event Management, and Personnel Development.

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