This spring, three organizations demonstrated how thoughtful implementation of GT eForms for PeopleSoft transforms complex manual processes into streamlined digital experiences. Like a phoenix rising from paper-based chaos, these organizations emerged with solutions that empower users while reducing administrative burden. These customer-led sessions, part of our ongoing PeopleSoft webinar series, revealed innovative approaches to guest access, benefits administration, and financial aid management.
Guest Access: Secure External Participation Without User Profiles
In June, Jay Jorgensen, Gideon Taylor’s PeopleSoft Apps Product Lead, tackled one of the most frequently requested topics: enabling guest users to participate in eForms securely without requiring PeopleSoft user profiles.
The challenge resonates across higher education institutions—how do you allow parents to upload W-2s for FAFSA applications? How can external references submit letters for graduate student applications? Traditional approaches required either creating temporary user profiles (cluttering the system) or manual document collection via email and fax.
Jay demonstrated two distinct approaches: invitational and self-service guest access. The invitational model—used for sensitive processes like FAFSA applications—allows authenticated users to invite specific external participants via secure tokenized links. “The GT token is just marketing, but it deserves the branding,” Jay explained. “It’s the same security mechanism your bank uses for password resets.”
Implementation speed surprised many attendees. North Dakota University Systems reported setting up guest access in their development environment in roughly two hours, moving three forms live within weeks. Sara Narveson, Application Analyst, appreciated the dual benefit: “Students can now ask questions regarding the form instead of reaching out to the institutional office. And on the developer side, I can ask the chatbot random questions—here you go. It takes time away from trying to go out to the documentation website.”
The session revealed compelling use cases beyond financial aid: dual enrollment applications routing to high school counselors, FERPA affiliate access for parents, separated employee W-2 delivery, and University of Windsor’s innovative approach to collecting reference letters from external reviewers—all without creating PeopleSoft user profiles.
Jay’s shameless sales pitch rang true: “Implementing guest access is not all that hard for any of the individual pieces, but if you do it incorrectly or poorly, you can expose non-public content from your PeopleSoft system.” Most implementations require 10 or fewer consulting hours—often covered by enterprise license credits.
State of Tennessee: Special Qualifying Events at Scale
Tennessee’s Benefits Administration serves over 440,000 eligible employees and retirees across state government, higher education, and local government entities—with a staff of just 90. Their May session demonstrated how intelligent process automation transformed special qualifying events (SQEs) from a manual bottleneck into an efficient digital workflow.
Ian Harris, Systems Administration Manager, described their pre-automation reality: “The process would be an agency HR staffer would send us a form and supporting documentation via email or fax. We’d have to assign a staffer to review it, make sure everything was complete, sometimes send it back asking for additional documentation. That could take days.” With over 3,000 SQEs processed annually, the inefficiency was unsustainable.
Their solution spans 12 different event classes—births, marriages, divorces, and various loss of coverage scenarios. The 11-page form guides users through demographics, event selection, document uploads, dependent management, and plan elections across medical, dental, vision, voluntary AD&D, and health savings accounts.
The breakthrough lies in backend automation. After page three, component interfaces automatically update BAS activity tables, run Ben Admin to generate events in prepared status, and set appropriate effective dates. Upon final approval, another automated process updates on-demand event maintenance with benefit selections, finalizes the event, and updates enrollment tables—all without manual data entry.
Karen Staton, Senior Business Analyst, emphasized the approval workflow flexibility: “If the benefits coordinator is the person keying the form on behalf of their employee, their approval is skipped. They’re assumed to have approved it since they’re the one who did it.” Email notifications keep all stakeholders informed throughout the process.
Results speak clearly: error rates plummeted, processing time decreased from days to hours, and staff can focus on complex cases rather than data entry. Most importantly, the solution stays vanilla—leveraging delivered PeopleSoft functionality enhanced with GT eForms rather than heavy customization.
University of Windsor: 465 Awards, One Intelligent Application
Marianne Dahl, Director of Student Awards and Financial Aid at University of Windsor, opened with a refreshing admission: “Persistence is a great substitute for talent. This was my mantra throughout our implementation and continues to be today.” Her candor set the tone for a remarkably detailed walkthrough of managing 465 unique scholarship applications plus 279 auto-consideration awards.
Windsor’s challenge exceeded simple application collection. They needed dynamic eligibility matching, automated open/close dates, donor communication tracking, budget management, historical record keeping, and multi-level approval workflows—all while serving both undergraduate and graduate populations.
Their solution built comprehensive award management records covering every dimension: citizenship requirements, residency rules, financial need indicators, academic level restrictions, program specifications, high school requirements, and even student athlete eligibility by sport. “Any time we set up a new award, we make sure all the setup is in place, and then the information comes through on the student-facing side,” Marianne explained.
The student experience showcases sophisticated logic. After completing profile questions (many pre-populated from Campus Solutions), students see three award categories: automatic consideration awards requiring no additional materials, individual application awards requiring essays or documents, and information-only awards with no application needed. Award-specific questions dynamically appear based on criteria, and previous responses carry forward when applicable.
Timeline efficiency impressed attendees. From project kickoff in November 2024 to production in July 2025, Windsor launched their complete solution in eight months. Their implementation partner? Alisha Malcarne from Gideon Taylor, who “was instrumental in working with me directly on building out the landing pages and application segments.”
The impact extends beyond efficiency. Awards became more visible to students, application volumes increased significantly for some scholarships, and administrative staff gained systematic tools for tracking adjudication, donor requirements, and year-over-year allocation. “It’s definitely much more fluid and much more logic driven,” Marianne noted. “We don’t have students applying for awards that they don’t meet the criteria for, for the most part.”
Three Common Success Patterns
These diverse implementations shared consistent themes:
Automation Without Customization: Each organization maximized delivered PeopleSoft functionality enhanced with GT eForms, avoiding the maintenance burden of heavy customization. Tennessee stays vanilla. Windsor preserves delivered functionality. The guest access approach works within PeopleSoft’s native security model.
Scale Through Intelligence: Tennessee handles 3,000+ SQEs annually with minimal staff intervention. Windsor manages 465 unique awards plus auto-consideration awards through systematic setup. Guest access eliminates thousands of unnecessary user profiles while maintaining security.
User Experience as Priority: Each project started with user pain points—not technology capabilities. Parents struggling with FAFSA documentation. Agency benefits coordinators buried in paperwork. Students unable to find scholarship opportunities. Solutions met users where they are rather than forcing adaptation to system limitations.
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.
