CFO Seal

Interfaces

What are interfaces? Interfaces refer to data exchanges between Florida PALM and external business systems. Florida PALM will interface with agency business systems, enterprise partners (e.g., MFMP, People First) and third parties (e.g., banks). Agencies are responsible for gaining an understanding of planned Florida PALM functionality, making decisions about how the agency will provide or consume Florida PALM information, and preparing agency business systems for interfacing with Florida PALM. 

To support agency understanding, based on the completion of the Design Phase, the Project has provided a list of interface layouts through the Interface Catalog on the Knowledge Center. As the Project, enterprise partners, agencies, and third parties complete testing (e.g., System Testing, Interface Testing, and User Acceptance Testing), additional changes may be made to interface layouts. The “As of Date” column on the Interface Catalog tables reflects either the original date of publication or the most recent date on which the layout was updated. Please check the Interface Catalog regularly for updates.

What options are there besides interfaces? Interfaces are one of several ways that information can be obtained from Florida PALM. The Data Availability Graphic illustrates where and how data will be available within the Florida PALM system, the Data Warehouse, and agency business systems. This graphic also describes where agencies may choose to receive information using standard interfaces from Florida PALM to maintain agency business systems that support those ongoing operations. Alternatively, agencies may request the Project create agency-unique data extracts from the Data Warehouse to support agency-unique needs for information not contained in the Project provided interfaces. These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

 

Interface Testing

As described in the Interface Testing Approach, interface testing will be conducted in three cycles for the Financials and Payroll Implementation Waves.

  • Cycle 1 – Connectivity Testing ensures that interfacing partners can connect to the Florida PALM Managed File Transfer (MFT) Server to deliver inbound interface files and access outbound interface files.
  • Cycle 2 – Technical Interface Testing ensures that:
    • Inbound interface files from interfacing partner systems can be processed by Florida PALM.
    • Outbound interface files from Florida PALM can be picked up and processed by interfacing partner systems.
  • Cycle 3 – Full Integration Testing during User Acceptance Testing (UAT) ensures that interfacing partners can complete all processes from start to finish, including those upstream and downstream processes that rely on interfacing system integration and interface data.