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Laurence,

Thanks for documenting this!  I have a general 
strategy in life, whenever people stick me with a 
system that gives me problems, I make it someone 
else's problem.  In the case of EBS, I just call 
EBS Support at 884-3000 at the drop of a hat and 
let them personally guide me through 
step-by-step, and if I have trouble finding that 
number, then I just start with the general ATS 
Help Desk at 432-6200 and let them guide me to the next step.

I have no shame about this.  If enough people 
make it a problem to the folks who instigated 
EBS, then those folks will find some way to fix 
the problem; conversely, if no one makes it a 
problem to them, then they have no incentive to 
change anything.  To their credit, the folks at 
ATS and EBS Support have always been friendly and helpful when I call.

Just my $.02,
-- dkm, Professional Faultfinder


At 11/10/2011 06:28 PM Thursday, Laurence Bates wrote:
>I have tried to be somewhat generous about the 
>EBS system, recognizing that a new system takes 
>some time to implement and will inevitably have 
>the occasional glitch upon roll-out.  That said, 
>my experience in trying to reenroll for FSA has 
>lead me to the conclusion that something is 
>fundamentally wrong with the organization 
>principle behind the current EBS system.  The 
>steps from the human resources web site to the 
>enrollment screens are not just poorly designed, 
>they are unintelligible.  As far as I can tell, the steps are:
>
>1)     Search the MSU site for “FSA”
>2)     Click on 
><http://www.hr.msu.edu/benefits/fsa/>http://www.hr.msu.edu/benefits/fsa/
>3)     Locate and click on the Quicklink “FSA Enrollment”
>4)     Click on “Enroll Online (EBS Portal)”
>5)     Login using MSUnet credentials
>6)     Arrive at a screen that has no relevance 
>to FSA enrollment and contains few clues to the correct path forward.
>7)     Establish that the “MSU Human Resources” 
>link points back to <http://www.hr.msu.edu/>http://www.hr.msu.edu/
>8)     Try the “Finance System” tab and 
>determine that none of the 78 web links on a 
>single page relate to FSA enrollment.
>9)     Try the “ESS Faculty” tab, having no idea what “ESS Faculty” are.
>10) Click on the “Benefits” link.
>11) Click on the “Enrollment Services” link.
>12) Click on “FSA Open Enrollment” link.
>13) Search the MSU web site to determine what “DCSA” and “HCSA” relate to.
>14) Click the selection box under “HCSA”
>15) Click on the “Flexible Spending Accounts” 
>link and arrive back at 
><http://www.hr.msu.edu/benefits/fsa/index.htm>http://www.hr.msu.edu/benefits/fsa/index.htm
>16) Double Check that the Quicklink “FSA Enrollment” leads back to step #4
>17) Back Track to step #14 and click “Add Plan”
>18) Success at last – a single form field labeled “Contribution Amount”
>19) Try to recall what last year’s Contribution amount was.
>20) Click on the “Show PlanTypeofTodayView” link
>21) Enter the same amount for the new plan and 
>click “Add Plan to Selection” button.
>22) Click the “Log off” button
>23) Wonder about the pop-up message “You have 
>unsaved data. Are you sure you want to log off?”
>24) Click on the “Review Enrollment” button.
>25) Click on the “Save” button
>26) Click the “Log off” button
>27) Wonder about the pop-up message “Are you sure you want to log off?”
>28) Click “Yes”
>29) Look for the Asprin.
>
>Does this process really need to be so obtuse?
>
>
>Laurence A. Bates
>College of Education
>Michigan State University
>217E Erickson Hall
>East Lansing
>MI 48824
>517-355-2178
><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
>
>An exuberant rationalist...  (most of the time)