Report to the 88th Legislature: CAPPS — ERP in Texas
Accomplishments
System Improvements
The primary goal of the CAPPS Deployment team is to deploy CAPPS to all state agencies. The secondary goal is to continually improve the system. Improvements include:
- Minor system changes.
- Major module updates.
- New functionality implementations.
The following key improvements were made this past biennium:
CAPPS Platform
In April 2019, the Comptroller’s office moved the CAPPS applications to a new, more robust technical platform using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services. The new platform provides improved system performance with high availability and on-demand capacity, and is more cost effective than the previous platform.
CAPPS Financials System Improvements
Travel and Expense
Improved the Travel and Expense module by:
- Enhancing integration with CAPPS HR/Payroll to display up-to-date position and employee data.
- Upgrading several pages from Classic to Fluid design and implementing Fluid approvals for easier and improved user experience.
- Creating and enhancing travel and expense reports to provide data to employees, travel coordinators and supervisors.
LBB Interface
Updated the LBB interface to import the LBB contract status and date to the CAPPS contract record and provide the status of any contract records that have changed since the previous status. This allows for near real-time monitoring of LBB status in CAPPS.
Process Performance
Improved process performance by:
- Modifying the CAPPS-to-Uniform Statewide Accounting System (USAS) inbound and outbound process to optimize performance and ensure successful interfacing of large datasets.
- Upgrading the Centralized Master Bidders List interface to reduce processing time by 80 percent.
- Performance tuning labor, fund and cost allocation processes to facilitate project costing.
USAS/CAPPS Reconciliation
Improved the USAS/CAPPS reconciliation process by:
- Updating reports and queries to display informative reconciliation error messages.
- Adding the ability to automatically generate certain documents originating from other agencies into CAPPS.
- Adding the ability to update fields on the historical transaction (HX) browser to help with document matching.
- Creating a process to restore USAS input (IN) transactions from the archive and adding the ability to mass update fields.
Enhancements, Maintenance Items and Fixes
More than 281 enhancements, maintenance items and fixes were introduced in the system, including a major upgrade to both PeopleTools and Image.
CAPPS HR/Payroll System Improvements
Enhancements, Maintenance Items and Fixes
More than 416 enhancements, maintenance items and fixes were introduced in the system, including a major upgrade to both PeopleTools and Image.
Fluid User Interface (UI)
Updated the Fluid UI to add:
- A new timesheet for all Time and Labor users; it includes a weekly view and a workflow for routing approvals of time and leave entries.
- A newly implemented Time and Labor WorkCenter, which provides organization and quick navigation for managers, time administrators, and Time and Labor superusers.
- Enhanced search, guided activities, effective sequencing, and summarization of changes in Job Data and Position Data, increasing ease of use and accuracy with the ability to validate changes before submission.
- Fluid enhancements for the W-2/W-2C View Form page and the Direct Deposit page that streamline the pages’ appearance and provide a consistent user experience across all devices.
Direct Deposit Notification of Change (NOC)
A new NOC process for CAPPS alerts payroll personnel to changes in employee banking information and initiates needed changes that are interfaced from the state treasury. A corresponding Direct Deposit Audit report lists employee direct deposit changes initiated by the NOC process or users via self service.
ERS Cash Balance Benefit Retirement Plan
A new defined-benefit retirement structure allows eligible employees to enroll in the Cash Balance Benefit Plan (Group 4) beginning Sept. 1, 2022. The plan includes a lower employee contribution, 6 percent of pay, and applies to members of the Employees Retirement System, including contributors to the Law Enforcement Custodial Officers System (LECOS) supplemental retirement fund and elected officials.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) Extension — American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021
System enhancements in response to the ARPA of 2021 allowed the extension of benefits initially granted under the FFCRA and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Agencies retained the ability to voluntarily offer emergency paid sick leave and paid family leave created by FFCRA through September 2021.
Other CAPPS System Improvements
IAM Deployment
In June 2021, the Comptroller’s office launched an identity and access management platform for CAPPS and its component systems (Recruit, Learn and Business Objects) to improve security for the Comptroller’s office and CAPPS agencies. The project enhanced CAPPS security by adding multi-factor authentication, adaptive authentication and single sign-on access via the statewide Texas.gov Digital Identity Solution owned by the Department of Information Resources (DIR).
Fluid Approval Tile
A new Fluid Approval tile was added to the Manager Self Service and Financials dashboards. This tile replaced the worklists that were on different dashboards and consolidated them to one place, and includes both human resources/payroll and financials approvals.
PeopleTools and Image Upgrades
The PeopleTools 8.59 and Image (HCM-40/FIN-41/ELM-22) upgrades significantly enhanced the global search feature, resulting in more accurate search results. PeopleSoft breadcrumbs were added back to the user-facing screens, making navigation easier. New icons were added to the Quick Access bar for recently visited pages, favorites and new menu navigations, and there is a new option to display in alphabetical order. The homepage now features a notification panel for actions and alerts.