The first SA conference started about 5 years ago when it was called the “Mini
HEUG” because of having only 40 attendees. However, the event has been held
annually since then, and each year the conference is hosted by a different SA
higher education institution, and the number of attendees has increased.
There were in excess of 150 attendees at the 2 day conference, and there were more
than 40 presentations spread over 3-4 tracks, including a half day "deep
dive" workshop given by Oracle's Mindy Paul the day before the start of the
conference; the workshop focused on the new capabilities in the latest
"Activity Management" modules in CS, and was attended by about 40
attendees.
The attendees converged at the University of Pretoria https://web.up.ac.za/, and they were primarily
from Universities such as Cape Town, Witwatersrand, and Free State. In addition
to the attendees from these Universities there was representation from Oracle
product management and the Director of Education and Research for the region,
along with local consulting and vendors such as Visions Consulting, OrangeNow,
and Exemplar Intelligence.
There was also a wide range of presentations on a variety of
topics, such as, ‘Online Applications; using the constituent HUB,’ ‘PeopleSoft
Campus; Program Enrollment,’ a customization to allow ‘ By plan’ and ‘By Course’
billing, ‘Third Party Contracts in Continuing Educations,’ and an overview of
‘Oracle Data Integrator’ -- a tool for data extraction and integration, just to
name a few.
The tracks were devoted to technical issues with presenters sharing their learning
on PeopleTools 8.52 and 8.53, mobile options, etc. with the balance of the
tracks focusing on Campus Solutions topics; in previous years the focus was on
HCM, FSCM, BI, and other user support issues.
The SA HEUG was organized by Barry Hudson, Project Director: Systems Renewal at
University of Pretoria and his team; they did a wonderful
job of putting together the content, organizing the tracks, and providing a
collaborative space for the attendees. Congratulations to Barry for making
everyone feel welcome, and for a successful conference.