Exploring new frontiers in payroll modernization
Baker Tilly helped a major academic health institution modernize payroll with Oracle Cloud, achieving seamless integration and scalable, future-ready systems.
Client background
A prominent academic health institution, part of a major university system, serves a vast region supporting more than 8,000 employees and educates over 3,400 students annually across 100-plus healthcare facilities.
Operating with a $1.5 billion annual expense budget and managing nearly 3 million patient visits each year, the institution recently expanded its footprint with the opening of a new hospital in fall 2024.
Business challenge
Following a successful Oracle HCM go-live in April 2024, the institution faced the next frontier: migrating payroll from its legacy PeopleSoft system to Oracle Cloud. While HR data had transitioned to Oracle, payroll remained in PeopleSoft. Baker Tilly maintained a co-exist model to ensure data integrity and for seamless integration.
To move forward, the organization needed to address all internal and external system integrations tied to payroll, while preparing for the operational demands of a newly opened hospital.
Strategy
Baker Tilly partnered with the institution to lead the payroll transformation, aiming to consolidate systems and support long-term scalability. Planning began in early 2024, with the “Harmonize” phase, focused on future-state process mapping and technical strategy, running in parallel with the phase 1 HCM rollout.
After the successful HCM launch in April, the team shifted to building and testing Oracle Payroll. The midyear go-live required converting both calendar and fiscal year balances from PeopleSoft, along with developing and testing more than 55 integrations.
To ensure accuracy, Baker Tilly conducted two parallel test cycles, comparing full payroll execution between PeopleSoft and Oracle. The result was a penny-perfect balance.
Outcome
In June 2024, Oracle Payroll went live. Thanks to meticulous planning and execution, the team achieved 100% load success for conversion objects. A custom solution was also developed to streamline tax handling for treaty employees, reducing manual effort and improving compliance.
Costing, a critical component for the institution, was successfully integrated with the financial system, enabling accurate data flow and process efficiency.
Since go-live, the institution has executed multiple payroll cycles: monthly, biweekly, off-cycle and supplemental, with strong performance and reduced manual intervention. Operating within a single HCM system has allowed the payroll team to shift focus from troubleshooting to strategic, value-added work.
With momentum building, Baker Tilly is now facilitating discussions to expand the institution’s Oracle Cloud footprint into EPM and ERP, continuing the journey toward a fully integrated, future-ready enterprise.
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