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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Banner Project?

The LCC Board of Trustees supported an administrative recommendation to move away from the Oracle information technology system at the Board of Trustees meeting on June 28, 2006. A recommendation from the administration to retain SunGard Higher Education was presented to the Board of Trustees at the August 8, 2006 meeting. The Board approved a $8.7 million Capital Project Budget for the Banner Implementation Project effective August 31, 2006, through February 1, 2008. This follows College purchasing policy guidelines for situations when it is necessary to obtain supplies or services essential for the efficient operation of the College under certain circumstances.

Why did LCC choose to move away from Oracle?

This decision was based on a number of factors including the future of Oracle’s investment in the student system, the amount and quality of corporate support in future years, and the fact that LCC is one of only four institutions currently implementing the Oracle Student System. All of these factors put the College and the community it serves in a vulnerable position.

Why did the college choose SunGard Higher Education?

Over the last several weeks, College staff explored different systems that used both SunGard Higher Education’s Banner applications and PeopleSoft. These are the only two systems that could effectively operate on the College’s existing information technology infrastructure. Staff representatives, including Division Deans and Chairs, from Academic Affairs, Student and Academic Support, Human Resources, Finance, Accounting and Payroll, Administrative Services and the Office of Advancement participated in informational sessions on the systems offered by SunGard Higher Education. Staff concerns and issues were captured and shared with the President and the Board of Trustees. For a summary of the questions and concerns from these sessions, go to LCC Questions Sungard Responses.

SunGard Higher Education was seen as the best partner for the College to work with in achieving its student success, operational and information technology goals. SunGard Higher Education is focused solely on serving higher education and has an extensive customer base of more than 1,600 institutions. SunGard Higher Education offers an advanced system that uses a Banner application and the Oracle database that creates a unified digital campus. Working from a portal, users are able to access the information to enroll students, distribute payroll, pay vendors, manage courses, and support the multi-faceted needs of the College.

Why choose SunGard Higher Education for Student and HR and Finance?

  1. Oracle modules were not fully implemented or implemented correctly.
  2. Amount of effort required to integrate Oracle finance and human resources with Banner student is excessive
  3. Oracle was a much more complex system (finance and human resources) than what LCC needed.

Why not DataTel?

  1. Uses sequel and unidata file structure; LCC does not.
  2. Different database structure than what we have currently.

Why not PeopleSoft?

  1. Only one other Michigan community college – Grand Rapids – uses PeopleSoft.
  2. People Soft will need to re-implement to Fusion within 3 years.

How will this impact students?

A primary goal of this information technology transition is to improve services to students and to make the transition to a new student system as easy as possible. The new system will not go into effect until sometime during the next academic year. The College will notify students well in advance of any implementation.

How will my department's budget be affected?

This decision will not impact any already approved and budgeted FY07 departmental budgets. Any transition plan will include additional personnel from the vendor placed in departments to supplement and assist College staff during the transition. This technology implementation will be a College-wide project, not just the work of one division.

What will be different with this implementation?

College leadership and staff identified some lessons learned from the Oracle implementation that should be addressed in any new implementation. These include:

  1. staff involvement at every stage of development;
  2. adequate personnel resources provided;
  3. a detailed implementation plan with tangible deliverables;
  4. the desire for a specific, itemized contract with the vendor; and
  5. continuous and consistent communication to staff and faculty about the project.

What is the status of the Banner Project implementation?

The Banner Project is currently in the critical planning and development stage. Key staff from LCC---Jack Bergeron (LCC Project Manager), Ray Wawro (Contract Administrator), and Carol Harton (Project Ombudsperson)---are providing leadership for the project. The SunGard Higher Education project manager, Pete DeLorme, will be responsible for the development, delivery and monitoring of the project. He, along with LCC CIO John Posenau, will be involved in scheduling and monitoring the SunGard resources assigned to the project. A detailed “Project Description” is being developed by a cross-functional planning team and will be submitted to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) for approval.

How will decisions about the Banner Project be made?

Below is the organizational structure for decision making on the Banner Project.

Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is comprised of the ELT and will be responsible for guiding the implementation from an institutional point of view. It will provide a high-level review of planning, development, and implementation activities across the functionality of individual Banner systems. This Committee also will advise and prioritize personnel resources that may be needed during the various phases of implementation and make appropriate policy decisions when needed.

A Steering Committee Work Group, made up of John Posenau, Catherine Fisher, Queen McMiller, Rebekah Woods, Jason Mayland, Jack Bergeron, and Peter De Lorme, has been established to provide timely direction and counsel. Its charge is to review the project plan with the LCC and SunGard project managers on a weekly basis, provide counsel on operational issues, identify and address potential risks, and review and recommend items to be brought forward to the college’s Executive Leadership Team.

View the Steering Committee membership.

Implementation Team
The Implementation Team will oversee and expedite the implementation of all Banner systems. As the Implementation Team identifies issues that need escalation, the issues along with recommendations will be presented by the Project Manager to the Steering Committee. The Implementation Team, which will meet weekly, will be responsible for the following:

  • Advising and prioritizing personnel resources that may be needed during the various phases of implementation
  • Establishing cross-functional work teams to ensure integration between Banner and other LCC systems
  • Recommending priorities for allocation of resources
  • Expediting decision making
  • Making recommendations for policy decisions

View the Implementation Team membership.

Process Teams
Eight Process Teams will make process and procedural decisions related to implementation in the following functional areas: Luminis (web portal), Finance, Human Resources, Student, Financial Aid, Data Standards, Testing Methodologies, and Technical.

View the Process Team Members.

The leader for each team will serve on the Implementation Team (see above) and be responsible for facilitating communication between Process Team members and monitoring progress towards completion of tasks and deliverables assigned. As the Process Teams identify issues that need escalation, the issues along with recommendations will be presented to the Implementation Team for resolution.

SunGard User Liaisons
SunGard is assigning four Technical and Application Specialists to the LCC Banner Project. Each will have application knowledge and be responsible for specific tasks, such as installation review, system education, and general consulting. The User Liaisons will work primarily with the Process Teams.

When will the Banner Project be implemented?

Below is a tentative schedule for implementation of the Banner system components. It must be emphasized that these “go-live” dates are contingent upon several tasks being successfully completed beforehand, such as security procedure development, self-service functional training, policy and procedure development, and testing, to name a few. These tasks will be delineated in the integrated project plan, and will be closely monitored by Peter De Lorme, LCC Project Manager Jack Bergeron, and the other members of the Steering Committee Work Team. Below are the tentative go-live dates as of April 18, 2007:

Finance (General Ledger, Purchasing, Accounts Payable) July 2, 2007
Finance (Budget, Fixed Assets, Endowment) September 28, 2007
Human Resources January 1, 2008
Student (Admissions) March 31, 2008
Financial Aid March 10, 2008
Student (Registration) June 25, 2008
Student (Student Billing) July 7, 2008
Student (Curriculum Advising and Program Planning) August 29, 2008
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