After spending five years and $25 million on a new payroll system for the University of Wisconsin System, UW officials still face significant challenges with its development and implementation. With some state lawmakers criticizing the UW System for the expensive new payroll software and the fact that it is months past deadline, UW officials stressed its complexity and breadth made it more difficult to execute than they had first thought.
At a meeting of the state Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities yesterday, university officials briefed legislators on the progress of the Appointment, Payroll and Benefits System. Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, said he was disappointed in the answers UW officials gave the committee.
\The unfortunate thing is that this was supposed to be a briefing by the system and they could not answer 'how much more will it cost?' And 'when will it be done?,' "" Nass said. ""They're kind of floundering right now.""
UW System President Kevin Reilly defended the development of the APBS, saying that the $25 million cost is not excessive.
""When you look at similar-sized organizations coming in with similar new systems of this kind, it's not out of the box. It's comparable to what others have spent; It's less than some,"" Reilly said.
Reilly also addressed calls that the current payroll system does not need to be replaced. He called the current payroll organization ""a thirty-year old mainframe"" and added, ""The people who worry about this tell me that it's really being held together with toothpicks and glue at this point.""
One point of contention between UW officials and state lawmakers is whether it is more efficient to have system-wide payroll programming or to have separate set-ups for each campus.
Nass questioned the wisdom of a single payroll system, saying ""[UW officials] argue that it will be cheaper to do it that way, but we will see.""
UW System spokesperson Doug Bradley defended the decision. He said developing payroll technology that meets the needs of diverse campuses has proved difficult, but the final product will be successful.
""We're going to have one [payroll system] that we think is going to have the capacity to do everything it needs to do and to serve the needs of everybody that's in the system,"" Bradley said.
Bradley also responded to state Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield, who in August claimed university personnel had ""bungled"" the project and that it would have to be restarted.
""I think 'restarting' is maybe a bit of exaggeration,"" Bradley said. ""With all due respect to Sen. Kanavas, we're going to do what we can to make this work, and long term this is going to save us money and this is going to be a system that's going to help us operate a lot more efficiently.\
