Retired Action Project - Reengineering the University Student Information Systems

1. Description

To develop recruiting and student services by replacing the technology-driven enterprise transaction and decision support system. A new system will facilitate more efficient use of resources, provide for higher quality feedback, and provide an improved ability to measure institutional effectiveness.

2. Related AQIP Categories

Primary 6-Supporting Institutional Operations
Related 3-Understanding Students' and Other Stakeholders' Needs
Related 4-Valuing People
Related 5-Leading and Communicating
Related 7-Measuring Effectiveness

3. Rationale for Action

The institutional operation upgrade is a critical element in providing the most effective and efficient tools to our stakeholders.

4. Areas Affected

Admissions, Computing Center, Administration and Finance, Financial Aid, Student Fiscal Services, Academic Advising, Registrar's Office, Provost's Office, Institutional Assessment

5. Processes Affected

Admissions - Improved processes provided by system upgrade; Computing Center - Operations maintenance; Academic Advising - Improved processes provided by system upgrade and increased options provided by students regarding the fulfillment of this critical process; Recruitment, Financial Aid, Billing, Student Record Management, Student Activity Management, Scheduling, Institutional Assessment - Improved processes provided by system upgrade

6. Process Measures

Project management tracking process; efficiency indicators for critical processes; competency development milestones

7. Outcome Measures

Student satisfaction; faculty (advisor) satisfaction; recruitment (prospect yield rate); recruitment (web-based inquiries); advising (student goal attainment); advising (degree audits prepared); registration (system usage); student involvement/use of technology

8. Keeping Focus

System enhancement will, by virtue of its efficiency and relative ease of use, be integrated into normal University processes and procedures on a variety of levels, involving faculty, staff, students and administration (among other constituents).

2004 Annual Update

Action Project retired end of 2004.

1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.

After the decision was made to discontinue implementation of the Sungard Bi-Tech Student System in Fall 2003, the Administrative Systems unit awarded a bid to Legacy Migration Solutions to convert the legacy Student System to a relational database structure (on IBM’s DB2). The table definitions have been completed, and some CICS programs have been converted. We expect to receive all of the converted code by the end of the calendar year. When all of the data is in relational format and all of the programs are converted, then important portions of the system can be live 24/7, and the University Portal can become live. The University Portal will be developed using the open software system uPortal. The programmers have configured the full version of uPortal, and they have tested portions of it. In preparation for the conversion, FHSU purchased and installed a new Enterprise Server, an IBM 9672 R16. We required a system of this size and power to run the DB2-based applications. In addition, we purchased and installed a new ficon-connected (fiber-connected) fast access DASD Shark disk drive unit. The combination of the new Enterprise Server and fast DASD had the effect of cutting our nightly batch processing from 9 hours to 1 ½ hours. It will also provide a separate processor for Linux-based academic applications. The Systems staff installed the latest versions of VM and VSE and the supporting third-party software for the new server. As part of this purchase, we installed new tape drives and a new printer with an upper/lower case print band. FHSU went live with the new Sungard Bi-Tech Financial system on July 1, 2004. This system, also known as IFAS, replaces our legacy Financial system. It provides a web-based interface for the campus community, and the database used is Oracle. When all of the functionality is fully realized, this will provide a significant upgrade of the current system. This system is an important component of the Student System because the financial transactions are passed on to IFAS. Because the Bi-Tech Financial system has been implemented, we will not be able to use the financial platform for the Human Resources module from Sungard. We believe this system is a cost-effective system for FHSU.

2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.

A variety of key user groups finalized a three-year implementation plan by prioritizing the desired functions. These user groups included the Director of the CTC, Registrar, Student Fiscal Services, Instructional Technology Policy Advisory Committee (many key faculty and Provost’s Office), students, Computing Center staff, Virtual College representatives, Graduate School, Directory of the Library, and Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning Technology. This set of prioritized functions was also reviewed at the President’s Cabinet. During the year the President was the Acting VP of Administration and Finance, and so he was involved in the process on a monthly basis. Currently the VP of Administration and Finance is taking a very active role in planning for the Portal and in using IFAS.

3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.

To implement the University Portal, the CTC will create an enterprise-wide Directory. This directory will assist in authenticating users and authorizing them to use various applications. By communicating with this Directory using LDAP, the programming team will be able to enable single sign-on first for the Student System, then for Web Mail, and then for Blackboard. We are creating an umbrella User Group that will assist in determining priorities for the University Portal. Some User Groups will target specific issues and processes, and they will communicate their issues and concerns to the Umbrella User Group. The Portal should go live at the end of March.

4. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.

The User Group process in setting priorities worked well. There was a lot of interaction and debate among people with their own set of perspectives and priorities. Overall, a consensus was reached and communicated to the President's Cabinet. This provided a good way to involve a lot of constituencies in the process and to communicate the results campus-wide. We believe that this process will work well for Portal planning too.

5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?

The main challenge may be to manage user expectations. Even though the University has agreed on a three-year plan, users will want functionality sooner rather than later. By adopting uPortal, we hope to provide some additional, unexpected functionality in addition to that specified in the three-year plan, and that might increase user satisfaction. Finally, meeting expectations on a short-time line is always challenging. Even though the Computing and Telecommunications Center has been entrusted to complete the project, every project encounters unexpected glitches.

2003 Annual Update

1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.

Last year’s Annual Update reported, “Although the 'early returns' in the implementation process looked promising, the past year has seen the development of some data interfacing problems which are being worked out, and a number of unanticipated situations which have slowed the process. Implementation for the new system has been moved back at least one year.” A similar situation has occurred this past year forcing a substantial evaluation of the requirements for a new student information systems as well as a thorough evaluation of personnel and budgetary resources that had been allocated to the project. One of the major project champions, the Vice President for Administration and Finance left FHSU in July forcing an opportunity for change. The Sungard Bi-Tech financial system and human resource system had successfully met the various quality assurance testing necessary. The downside was that in July it was determined that the Sungard Bi-Tech student system would not be successful under an acceptable timeline. Currently, the commitment to deliver a new student information system based on a relational database has never been stronger, but the change in leadership and the inability of Sungard to deliver the negotiated product has prompted a healthy reexamination of the best project plan to achieve the desired results in a timely manner. It is anticipated that the remaining decisions regarding the project will be made very soon and that efforts to move the current antiquated databases to relational database format will occur soon. Over the last year the conversion to a new student information system has not languished without direction or effort. Quite the contrary has been the case. The CTC has worked hard to integrate every element, some were just not delivered by the vendor in a manner that would be worth implementing. In reflecting on this action project it quickly appeared that the failure of the Sungard student information system had been a valuable lesson to the staff and had actually given them much confidence in their ability to work with new programming tools. This confidence is an unexpected benefit as they begin to take the project in a new, and hopefully, successful direction. A final comment bears mention. Over the past year the CTC designed and administered a customer satisfaction survey in order to isolate areas that appeared to need attention. These results, many already anticipated, were integrated into revisions in the timeframe and user specs that have been utilized for the new project plan for a new student information system.

2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.

Over the course of the past year there has been tremendous participation between the professionals of the CTC and the employees of Sungard. Given some of the problems that we faced last year, the President of Sungard personally took on the project. This development sped up the process, but the results were probably no different. This is simply evidence of the importance that FHSU placed on this project. The Director of the CTC and the Vice President of Administration and Finance worked tirelessly to maintain support and interest in the project, and will continue to work just as hard as the student information portion of the project takes a different route over the next 24 to 36 months. Other internal constituents have been consulted regularly, including students, faculty advisors, the Virtual College and Registrar’s Office, and other administration and staff. As the effort begins to take more shape, training materials will be developed and this will require a new level of attention to involvement. It is anticipated that the data migration to a relational database will not be complete until at least next summer.

3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.

The next step is two-fold. First, the university will work quickly to implement the financial and human resources systems. These two parts of the overall information infrastructure are nearly operational, and all the data conversion and the interface are complete. Over the next year, training on these systems will occur and they should be fully operational by this time next year. The second planned action step involves nearly imminent decisions on the project direction and immediate implementation of those decisions. Some decisions (purchase of a new enterprise level server) have been made. The basic plan has been decided, now project specifics are being implemented. Specifically, the route to data migration and related decision on interface and application development and deployment will be the issues faced over the next year.

4. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.

Perhaps the biggest lesson learned, though not necessarily a best practice, is that there has been a certain level of learning that has occurred. Staff members of the computing center now have more confidence that they can complete the requisite acts in order to migrate the data, build the interfaces and applications, and test their outcomes.

5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?

The basic challenge is as simple as it was last year – timely and successful deployment of a system that meets user specifications. In many ways time has been the biggest enemy of the last year, and will continue to be. Data migration of the student system is a time consuming process, but necessary. The project plan includes simultaneous development of web interfaces so that the time to deployment will be decreased, but frustrated users may not see much more by this time next year. A further concern over the next year is to “think outside the box” in terms of user requirements. Once a full set of user specs has been created, then decisions about which functions are highest priority can be made. User specs are largely limited by status quo legacy software, so some user education on the possibilities may prove valuable.