ealing with HR data is no picnic at most companies. For the HR systems staff, the “pain point” typically occurs in the process of generating reports, those much-requested documents that provide HR or other company executives the skinny on trends in overtime and time-off-with pay utilization, benefits enrollment, flexible-spending account utilization and other HR-related issues.

For PeopleSoft users specifically, the data quest can mean labor-intensive programming using Structured Query Report Writer (SQR), a complex programming language specifically designed to work in conjunction with Microsoft SQL Server database reporting and information processing. Large companies, in fact, may process between 100 and 150 ad hoc PeopleSoft requests per week, and while most are simple, others require the time-consuming task of writing complex SQR/SQL code.

To help loosen that potential bottleneck, some companies are taking advantage of new, easy-to-use data query tools designed for the non-techie. For example, one such application, called Rwiz from Watertown, Mass.-based Nuvosoft Inc., allows HRIS departments to extract more key information from the PeopleSoft platform

without having to be SQR experts. The result, say users, is less frustration, but more importantly, more time and subsequent dollar savings.

Time and Money
Two Rwiz customer companies, the Rouse Co. and State Street Corp., attest that Rwiz has led to sharp gains in efficiency and effectiveness when generating reports for HR execs and other company officials in need of decision-making data.

“We receive numerous requests from executives and managers asking for data summaries of various kinds,” says Sandra Jaffe, HR PeopleSoft manager at the Rouse Co., a Columbia, Md.-based commercial real-estate firm. “Rwiz makes fulfilling these requests simple. It’s easy to learn and doesn’t require significant technical expertise to produce meaningful data.”

Jaffe adds that in the past, if her assistants received a request for new SQR code, they would write the specifications, which then had to be programmed by the Rouse technical team. Now, the functional HR team member writes the Rwiz query and also validates the results, bypassing the initial IT interface. Once the HR staff knows the query is on the money, they pass it on to the

technical team so the SQR code can be attached to a run control and placed on a menu for easy use by HRIS staff.

“This allows the functional HR group to provide more accurate data with a faster turnaround time,” she says. “And our cost for doing so is significantly less than if the technical team had written the SQR from scratch.”

Jeff Davis, HRIS manager at the Rouse Co., notes that while PeopleSoft does offer its own data query tool, called PeopleSoft Query, it’s not as effective as Rwiz for a couple of reasons.

“PeopleSoft Query is good, but it takes a long time to run the reports,” he explains. “It also uses more system resources.” Davis says that prior to Rwiz, it often took between one to three weeks to create a program with PS Query that eventually created a data report. Now, that turnaround has been reduced to hours.

Moreover, Davis says the Rouse Co. realized cost savings within the first month, despite the price of the product ($1,495 per license), which he says is relatively low compared to similar software packages. “We saved dollars almost immediately,” he says.

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