What would you consider to be your main area of expertise?
I have worked with the PeopleSoft financials applications in both functional and technical roles, but I really enjoy business analysis and financial functional roles.

What project have you most enjoyed working on and why?
I have enjoyed all of my PeopleSoft projects, as I get great satisfaction in working with people to provide financial application solutions that meet the user’s needs.

The most enjoyable project that I have been involved in was the replacement of a financials application that I had responsibility for, and designed much of, with PeopleSoft financials. The company was a supplier of Information Systems solutions to Local Government in Australia and New Zealand and PeopleSoft Financials was selected as the object oriented solution for a replacement of the costing, payables, purchasing, asset management, cash book, Inventory and general ledger applications. My role was that of business analyst for the fit gap analysis, enhancement where necessary and integration to the remaining application suite. The project was most fulfilling, as it was totally customer focussed and provided a long-term solution for their financial analysis and control.

What is the most interesting customisation that you have delivered or seen in PeopleSoft?

The most interesting customisation that I have delivered is a Project Costing to General Ledger interface that is totally driven by Projects based on a default costing hierarchy that allows the chartfield default to be allocated with the entry of the project information on any of the general ledger distribution pages. This provided a more simple costing code for the users but still providing the financial information for the accountants and financial management.

What would you most like added to the PeopleSoft product?
One of the major areas that should be improved is the help within the pages and fields within a page. The generic help can be of some assistance to a user, but it may not reflect the business processes for that user. An easily maintainable user help interface would be of great advantage. This should not only be applicable to data pages, but to menu selection hyperlinks.

For the developers, it would be nice if all of the tools were available to the Application Designer. As an example, it would be nice if Application Engine could also provide reporting, or SQR and Crystal were incorporated in Application Designer.

What is the most frustrating thing about the PeopleSoft product?
The product reflects its country of origin (USA) and therefore the abuse of the English language.

What originally drew you to consulting or the computing field?
After completing my accounting qualifications, I decided that I was not going to become “Chartered”. I was involved with the implementation of a disk based computer financial application as liaison between the implementers and our users and their requirements. This company then recruited me as an implementation consultant and business analyst. Providing empirical solutions was more appealing than P&L and Balance Sheets.

What advice would you give to a new client starting with PeopleSoft?
Implementing a new computing application can allow business process reviews for all areas affected. Take the opportunity to devolve tasks and responsibilities using the PeopleSoft process integration tools to facilitate this. Review the product “desktop” integration and ensure that you can take advantage of the wealth of functionality that the product provides. Do not “shoe horn” old business practices into the new product.

Why did you join Congruent?
I enjoy working for Congruent, as it is an employee centred business with a very flat hierarchy. The management and staff are dedicated professionals with many unique skills, and always prepared to help each other for the good of the customer as well as fellow employees.

Where do you want to be in 5 years time?
I have been in computing now for over 20 years, so I guess that I will still be involved in some way. My main objective in this timeframe is to be able to work on my car restoration projects and get paid for doing it.

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