May 30, 2008
Banner Project Update
Overview
The HR go-live conversion started May 23 with the backup of Oracle. Electronic data conversion was completed on May 24, with manual clean-up of data continuing through the rest of this week. The HR system is on track to meet the June 1 go-live date.
Eighteen million Student Academic History records were loaded into production this week. This represents 75% of the total number of records to be converted. Student and Financial Aid phased go-lives are on schedule.
As a result of additional system tuning which has increased the number of concurrent users who could access the system, scheduled registration will be segmented into 5 groups based on credits earned (90+, 60+, 30+, 12+, and 0-11).
The Finance module went live July 2, 2007. The final phase will be completed by July 2008.
Banner Project Implementation began in August 2006 and may continue through Fall 2009. All of the modules are expected to be implemented by the end of 2008, except for the Luminis Portal System which will go-live in 2009 after a new release of the software becomes available.
Human Resources
The HR implementation continues to be on track for the June 1, 2008 go-live. The Steering Committee Work Group (SCWG) has agreed that the new implementation strategy will be to mitigate to the extent possible any remaining risks, rather than move the go-live date again.
HR/Payroll end-user training began on May 5. Self-service Time Entry training is being delivered as planned. The SCWG has approved, at the recommendation of Queen McMiller and Catherine Fisher, the face-to-face and communications-based training documenting HR policies and procedures.
Open Forums are being held on the West and Main Campuses to announce plans, and solicit feedback on new procedures, paycheck changes, and training delivery. The second round of forums was held on the Main Campus on May 20 and West Campus on May 21. Additional open forums will be scheduled for post go-live.
Finance
Finance continues production operations in Banner while continuing Phase III activities, such as fixed assets implementation and policy and procedure documentation.
Finance is continuing to test the Student Accounts Receivable interface.
The longstanding problem with implementing the Xtender imaging application has been resolved. Xtender training has been delivered.
The final system acceptance documents are under review.
Student
The Student System's phased go-lives remain on schedule for Fall Semester 2008.
The Student Team has decided to return to scheduled registration times in order to manage stress on the system during the first two days of registration. Students will be allowed to register at specific times based upon their total credits. [See separate story in May 29 News to Use.]
At the direction of the Board of Trustees, the team is developing a detailed registration back-up plan should there be a problem with online registration. The plan will involve training an additional 25-30 LCC and/or external staff to register students through a non-self-service function (back office).
Admissions Self-service continues to have intermittent problems. The Student and Technical Teams continue to investigate possible causes which may include user error, identity management interface, and volume processing.
A Mock II Integrated Systems Test began the week of May 12. This test will include the above items plus the Spring Semester course roll process which copies sections from one semester to the next to help in course schedule development.
Financial Aid
The awarding of funds for financial aid in Banner self-service is on track for its scheduled go-live on June 18. On that date, the college will begin informing students of their eligibility for financial aid, which includes institutional, state scholarships, state and federal grants, loans, and state and federal work study. Award letters will be sent to students in early July. The assessment of whether a student meets the satisfactory academic progress requirements for financial aid is on track for completion by June 15.
Technical
Information & Technology Systems staff continue to perform stress testing to tune the system for maximum system registration volume. In the most recent test after additional system tuning, 1,200 concurrent users were able to process in the system. This is an increase of 850 from previous tests and is considered sufficient to meet registration loads as currently planned. Additional testing with onsite technical support from Mercury Loadrunner occurred this week.
The new Identity Management System was originally scheduled to be implemented prior to Registration go-live on June 25, but was postponed due to lack of funding. Now that funding has been approved, it will be implemented in mid- to late September. This delay creates some risk of creating duplicate students.
Reporting
The Reporting RFP for additional resources to write critical reports was put on hold pending the arrival of the new CIO. Due to this delay, the Reporting Team has re-prioritized reports which will require Process Teams to develop mitigation strategies for reports that will not be available as originally requested.
For more information, visit www.lcc.edu/banner or contact Jack Bergeron, Banner Project Manager, at 483-1478 or bergerj@lcc.edu.
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Inside this Issue May 2008
- Tobacco Free Campaign Moves Forward
- New Assigned Registration Schedule for Fall 2008
- Banner Project Update
- MSU Institute of Agricultural Technology and LCC Offer Joint Applied Science Program
- Lansing Community College Names New Chief Information Officer
- LCC Softball Team Competes in National Championship
- Faculty & Staff News
- Printable PDF Version of this Issue
- News to Use Archives