PeopleSoft 8.8 -- Software From Hell

Well here I am again, stuck not being able to work, and this time, its all PeopleSoft's fault.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with PeopleSoft -- the erectile dysfunction (I secretly think of them as PenisSoft, hehe) of the packaged software industry -- they are the company that designed the AP/AR software that UCB (as well as just about every other public college and university) uses.

We recently (2 weeks ago) upgraded from 7.02 to 8.8 -- a drastic change that moved us from a VPN based interface to a web-based interface -- during which our AP/AR system was down for 2.5 weeks. Yes, you read that right: 2.5 weeks. 2.5 weeks that we couldn't pay bills. 2.5 weeks that we couldnt process incoming payments. 2.5 weeks that several million dollars of grants could not be initialized. 2.5 weeks that NOTHING could be accomplished.

This is something that in the corporate sector would NEVER have happened. Having your AP/AR system down for more than a few hours in the middle of the night is pure business suicide! But this isn't the corporate sector now is it. Us non-profit folks don't need to hold ourselves to the ridgid business standards that the rest of the world lives up to... Ooooooh no.

Well fine. With all that downtime, when the system comes back up, it will be shiny and new, and work like a liberally oiled machine... Right?

Wrong! The first day it was up, it crashed the authentication servers for the whole campus! And every day there after, there were more and more bugs found. More and more weird error messages, less and less functionality. Tasks that originally took me an hour to finish using 7.02 now take up to five times as long, if I can get them accomplished at all... And today, today, 2 whole weeks after implementation, I can't even approve a fucking payment because of a "mysterious SQL error"!!

*Side note: I always think of SQL as "squirrel," and when there's an SQL error, I wind up envisioning a little squirrel inside my computer throwing a hissy fit because he can't find his acorns*

Well hell. Someone want to tell me why I even bother showing up to the office? I mean, if they want to pay me to sit on my ass and do nothing all day, can't I at least do it by the pool? Somehow I don't think that idea would go over well with HR... But I'm tired of this. Really sick and tired.

And in my humble opinion (Or maybe not so humble. Maybe rather indignant instead.) PeopleSoft needs some Cialis or something to get their asses in gear. It sure would be nice if we could charge them for every hour each staff member has to spend twiddling their thumbs instead of working because of whatever system glitch 8.8 has, and send us the fuck home on PeopleSoft's tab. That would sure wake them up quick. Pity theres things called indemnity clauses in contracts... *sigh*