PeopleSoft Innovation in Action: Q3 2025 Webinar Highlights
This summer, three organizations shared how they’re transforming their PeopleSoft environments through AI-powered forms, intelligent process automation, and modern user experiences. Like a phoenix rising from outdated processes, these organizations emerged with systems that empower rather than frustrate their users. These customer-led sessions, part of our ongoing PeopleSoft webinar series, revealed practical approaches that higher education and public sector organizations can implement today.
AI-Powered Forms: Early Adopters Report Two-Hour Implementations
In August, Grand Rapids Community College, North Dakota University Systems, and Western University presented their experiences deploying GT eForms Assistant—AI that helps both form users and form builders.
Darcy Swope, IT Enterprise Analyst Programmer at Grand Rapids Community College, explained the appeal: “I got to thinking about all the forms where no matter how much detail we would put on a form, we still get calls from students and staff on various questions.”
For North Dakota University Systems, serving 11 institutions with 200 form types, the value was immediate. Sara Narveson, Application Analyst, noted: “Students now can ask questions regarding the form instead of reaching out to the institutional office.”
Implementation speed surprised everyone. “The actual setup, it roughly took two hours to put it in our dev environment. And we pretty much just ran with it,” Sara confirmed. North Dakota moved three forms live within weeks.
The impact extended beyond users to developers themselves. “I really appreciate it on the developer side to ask the chatbot a question at random, like, I forgot how to do this. And it’s just like, here you go,” Sara explained. “It takes the time away trying to go out to the documentation website.”
Automating Faculty Compensation: Los Rios Cuts Errors from 30% to 5%
July’s session featured Los Rios Community College District tackling adjunct faculty compensation for professional development. Kenya Runyan, Confidential HR Generalist, demonstrated their transformation from paper chaos to intelligent automation.
The original PDF process was overwhelming. “The paper process had multiple moving parts. It was time consuming. We required people on campus to look for information in many different places,” Kenya explained. With 300+ forms processed monthly during peak periods, errors plagued the system.
Working with Gideon Taylor, Los Rios created intelligent forms that automatically generate the correct payment agreements. Results were dramatic: “Our error rate plummeted. It’s definitely under 5 percent. And before we were at least 30 percent error rate.”
The system includes built-in validation—preventing more than eight hours reported in a single day and ensuring flex hours match obligations. “All of the places where we tended to have these errors, it eliminates it,” Kenya emphasized.
Her partnership assessment: “Shout out to Gideon Taylor. It has been a phenomenal experience. They deliver what they say they’re going to deliver. And in my experience, it’s even been above and beyond that. They truly become a valuable partner.”
UC Path Center: Modernizing for 265,000 Users While Staying Vanilla
September’s session showcased the UC Path Center’s complete portal redesign serving 265,000 faculty and staff across 10 campuses. Bill Freire, Assistant Director of IT, explained: “We implemented this back in 2017. At the time, we thought we had a modern mobile responsive solution, but over time it was dated.”
The challenge was immense. Their previous portal had fragmented navigation and could only display one notice at a time. “We actually had a shared calendar where people would fight for the space to be able to deliver messages to our employees,” said Suzie Mendoza, Product Manager.
Using Gideon Taylor’s GT UX with native PeopleTools, they achieved something remarkable: “We were able to reduce our footprint, eliminating four layers of technology. That helps us maintain and enhance the system much easier,” Bill emphasized.
The new portal delivers personalized experiences by role—contingent workers see only relevant information, managers access their hub, and transactors navigate seamlessly without losing consistent branding.
From kickoff in November 2024 to production in July 2025, they transformed the portal in eight months. Their secret? A customer focus group representing different user types conducted surveys, tree testing, and design reviews. “Really wanted to make them feel like they were part of the redesign,” Suzie noted.
Most importantly, they stayed with delivered PeopleSoft. “With such a large organization there is a lot of complexity that comes when we do our PUM upgrades. Being able to save the delivered PeopleSoft was a key goal for us,” Bill explained.
Three Common Success Patterns
These diverse projects shared consistent themes:
Speed to Value: AI assistance implemented in hours. Portal transformation in months. Results faster than traditional customization—demonstrating the power of intelligent process automation.
User-Centered Design: Each project started with actual user pain—not technology capabilities. This approach resonates across our higher education clients, where understanding diverse user needs is critical. Campus staff frustration, navigation complexity, and support burden drove solutions.
Staying Vanilla: All three emphasized delivered PeopleSoft functionality over customization. Lower maintenance costs and simpler upgrades prove critical for sustainability.
As Andrew Bediz, who leads Gideon Taylor’s AI and user experience practice, noted: “They really thought about the user experience holistically. They didn’t think about just how does PeopleSoft provide user experience, but what does the user need, right? And how do we meet them where they are.”
These implementations prove PeopleSoft organizations can deliver modern experiences, leverage AI, and automate complex processes without system replacement. Organizations that succeed treat user experience as a journey—UCOP plans chatbot expansion, Western University implements full enterprise AI, and Los Rios continues enhancing their forms ecosystem.
Each organization’s transformation mirrors the journey of Max, our Phoenix mascot—moving from buried beneath inefficient processes to soaring with renewed capability. Whether you’re exploring AI for PeopleSoft, modernizing your user experience, or automating complex workflows, these customer stories demonstrate what’s possible when you combine expert guidance with proven technology.
Watch the full recordings and explore our library of customer-led sessions on our PeopleSoft webinars page.
