About ctcLink
The ctcLink project is the implementation of a centralized system to give faculty, students, and staff access to modern functionality and a more efficient way to conduct business. The PeopleSoft Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system provides an integrated software experience that streamlines many of our business processes on a standardized platform at all 34 community and technical colleges in Washington state.
MyWVC/ctcLink Student Resources ctcLink Employees Resources
In ctcLink, implementation, conversion and validation refered to the process of loading data from the old legacy systems to PeopleSoft (ctcLink). The conversion process involved identifying the data that must be brought to the new system, mapping the data to PeopleSoft fields, translating old codes into PeopleSoft codes, and finally loading the clean, compatible data into PeopleSoft.
This project was led by SBCTC's project team and still are working hard to configure the system to work across all the colleges.
The various ERP modules cover our core processes like registration, course management, payroll, human resources, financial aid, financial services and reporting. Once implemented, all students and employees use this new system.
Progress So Far:
Three pilot colleges (Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College, and Tacoma Community College) went live with ctcLink in August 2015. After a rocky start, ctcLink has gone through multiple rounds of improvements and upgrades.
Wenatchee Valley College went live with our ctcLink configuration on February 8, 2021 (for employees) and February 22, 2021 (for students).
Our old (known as Legacy) administrative systems (SMS, FMS, and PPMS) were outdated. Washington State Community and Technical Colleges implemented the Legacy system in 1979. After over 40 years, these systems presented a serious failure risk. The database and reporting tools in use were no longer supported. Considerable effort was needed to keep the antiquated system operational and the effort continued to grow and become more expensive every day. There was no ability to improve or upgrade that system.
- ID Numbers - Students and staff have a single, electronic record with one ID number, available to all 34 colleges.
- Admissions Application - Future students have one admission application process regardless of where or when they decide to attend.
- Financial Aid Process - New and returning students have a single financial aid application process.
- Student Monitoring Tools - Students are able to monitor their ‘time to degree’ and advisors can audit the process.
- Course Catalog - Students have access to a centralized catalog of courses.
- Single Electronic Record - Faculty and staff have a single electronic record with one ID number.
- Mobility - Access to information from any device (smartphone, tablet, or computer) anytime or anywhere.
- Modern Online Tools - Designed with an intuitive and customizable user experience across the entire platform.
- Standardization - Common processes to provide an efficient and effective experience.
Financial Aid System (FAS/FAM): The Financial Aid System that administered and managed financial aid services. This transitioned to PeopleSoft Campus Solutions (CS).
Financial Management System (FMS): The Financial Management System that administered and managed financial and accounting services. This transitioned to PeopleSoft Financial Management (FIN).
Payroll/Personnel Management System (PPMS): The Payroll/Personnel Management System that managed the human resources and payroll processing services. This transitioned to PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM).
Student Management System (SMS): The Student Management System that administered and managed all student and curriculum related business functions. This transitioned to PeopleSoft Campus Solutions (CS).
Some 3rd party softwares or homegrown applications that use the data from these back-end systems were also replaced in the process. These include, but are not limited to, Degree Audit, Instructor Briefcase and TLR (time and leave reporting).
The reporting tools (DataExpress/By Request) were replaced by PeopleSoft reporting tools. Each college identifed and trained a core group of subject matter experts (SMEs) to work with the SBCTC and other colleges to develop the required reports. Staff and faculty have access to run reports as required by their assigned duties.
Because the ctcLink implementation only converted a small window of data, access to the legacy data is provided on a read-only basis.
The ctcLink implementation plan converted all enrollment data for any active student within a six-year (prior to October 2019) period. Personnel and payroll data was only converted for the previous two years.
The legacy system were put into read-only mode and is available through the legacy software for a time that is yet to be determined. While staff have access to the data after Go Live, they are unable to alter it in any way. When all colleges have been migrated (targeted for 2022) and the new system is stabilized, the legacy system will be sun-setted. The legacy data will be available, however, through as yet to be determined methods for reporting purposes.
It depends on your role at the college – if you used the Legacy system (such as FMS, SMS, PPMS or FAM), you will learn an entirely new system and process for inputting and accessing information online. Those who didn't use the Legacy system on a daily basis saw changes too, such as the addition of online workflows for certain tasks and, for everyone, the added benefit of new, online tools to access and manage personal records.
ctcLink Pillers
ctcLink is made up of three main working systems or pillars; Campus Solutions also known as (CS), Financial Management (FIN) and Human Capital Management (HCM). There is a great deal of interaction between the various modules of a single pillar, but there are also interactions and reporting between pillars. This topic will introduce you to the three pillars and how the pillars integrate into SBCTC implementation of PeopleSoft.
The ctcLink staff is comprised of WVC staff who work in one or more of these pillars.
Where Do I Belong?
Supports all Student Administration business processes. This replaces the student management and financial aid systems (SMS, FAM and Degree Audit), as well providing integration for self-service through mobile technology. Financial Aid and Student Financials processes also work out of the Campus Solutions pillar. CS consists of the following:
|
Academic Advisement |
Used to track requirements and policies that a student must satisfy in order to graduate. |
| Academic Structure | Helps manage academic plans, groups and organizations. |
| Admissions and Recruiting | Helps plan, manage and track admissions and recruitment activities. |
| Campus Community | Enables the management and maintenance of a wide range of biographic and demographic information on people and organizations of interest to institutions, both internal and external. Includes Managing Communications, Comments and Checklists (3C's). |
| Continuing Education | Helps with integrating analytics, promo/waiver code setup, generating marketing and promotional materials, and communications, as well as new student enrollment for Continuing Education. |
| Curriculum Management (Course/Class) | Manages schedule of classes and prepares the course catalog. |
| Financial Aid | Automates federal and institutional financial aid processing for a more efficient operation. It provides flexibility and helps manage financial aid activity for applicants and students. |
| Student Financials | Enables the management and calculation of student financial information for your institution. Calculates tuition and fees, bills customers, and issues refunds. Provides functionality enabling the set up of payment plans for students and implementation of automated collections process. Integrates with the general ledger to properly track and allocate institution's debits and credits. |
| Student Program and Enrollment (Student Records) | Enables you to enter, track and process all academic information from the course catalog and schedule of classes to student programs, plans and sub-plans. Includes Transfer Credit. |
| Self-Service (Students) | Enables advisors, faculty, students and staff members to view and update information. Allows students to pay tuition and register for courses. Also assists advisors, faculty and staff with job duties. |
Provides functionality to support financial business processes and replaces the existing financial management system (FMS), as well as providing significant additional functionality in Supply Chain Management (Purchasing). FIN consists of the following:
| Accounts Payable |
Provides functionality for creating vouchers, matching those vouchers to purchase orders, and posting payments. |
| Accounts Receivable | Allows you to enter and track revenue, post to customer accounts and apply payments. |
| Asset Management | Add, maintain and retire assets. Used to budget for assets, adjust or transfer them, and calculate depreciation. Also used to manage physical inventories and archival. |
| Billing | Help create and manage bills and invoice customers. Will create potential receivables and generate accounting entries that eventually post to the GL. |
| Budgeting | Enables the evaluation of business alternatives, set financial targets, conduct scenario-based what-if analysis, prepare budgets, and adjust to changing economic environments. Creates forecasts and tests assumptions and scenarios. |
| Cash Management | Used to manage bank transactions (such as electronic fund transfers) and calculate cash position. |
| Expenses | Used to process travel authorizations and cash advances, generate expense reports and post payments. |
| General Ledger | Core of financial system. Each of the other FIN modules can create accounting entries that eventually feed into the journals which are then posted into the appropriate GL ledger using Chart of Accounts. |
| Grants/Projects/Contracts | Grants is used to help plan, manage and track grants activities, create budgets and create proposals. Projects is used to define project schedules and activities, capture various costs such as those arising from procurement or time and labor. Contracts is the primary module for dealing with contracts; from proposal to award. Grants and projects both feed into contracts. |
| Purchasing | Used to prepare requests for quotes, purchase orders and procurement contracts. Also allows for change orders, reconciliation, and receiving and returning items. |
Supports Human Resources business processes and replaces the existing Personnel and Payroll Management System (PPMS), as well as provides additional functionality around recruitment and talent management. In addition, online employee self service is provided. HCM consists of the following:
| Absence Management | Enables organizations to automate the processes for planning and compensating paid and unpaid time off for employees. Seamlessly integrates with Time and Labor and Payroll modules. |
|
Benefits |
Comprehensive benefits management solution supports a full range of benefit programs and plans, and provides everything needed to maintain benefit records and to respond to inquiries from decision makers, managers, and other employees. |
| Faculty Workload | Enables you to monitor the instructional and non-instructional workload for selected faculty, instructors, and staff. |
| HR Core | Area of initial setup for employee information with job data, personal information, position data, compensation maintenance for step increases, and union information. |
| Payroll | Engine that calculates gross to net earnings, deductions, and related taxes. Integrates with other modules (HR, Time & Labor, General Ledger, Projects, Recruiting, and Compensation) to coordinate a wide range of salary, reward, and expense payments. |
| Self-Service (Employee/Manager) | Enables employees and managers to review, add, update, delete, submit for approval, and/or approve changes to personal absence, leave and payroll information. |
| TAM (Talent Acquisition Management) | Advanced applicant tracking system that is designed to expedite the hiring process. |
| Time and Labor | Provides complete control over tracking employee Time and Labor. Also integrates with HR, Payroll, and Project Costing modules, allowing you to access and use employee and payroll information. |