SCT Banner YES Implementation Team
Meeting Notes
MEETING LOGISTICS
Item / DescriptionDate / December 8, 2008
Time / 8:30 a.m.
Location
/ MESHEL HALL – Computer Center Conference RoomATTENDEES
Facilitator(s) / Eileen GreafNote Taker / Cheryl Beil
Participants / Mary Lou Castner, Troy Cross, Sue Davis, Bob DeFrances (for Beth Yeatts), Bob Forchione, Brian Godson, Kim Jenkins, Tim Kovaleski, Dona Madacsi, Rick Marsico, Liz Nelson, Steve Taraszewski, Jason Thomas, Bob Tupaj, and Donna Wainio.
Not Present
/ Catherine Cala, Becky Geltz, Jeanne Herman, Betty Jo Licata, James Stanger, and Beth Yeatts.AGENDA ITEMS
CORRECTIONS / NotesImpl Mtg –11/3/08
/ Email any corrections to Cheryl Beil.REVIEW PRIOR
ACTION ITEMS/ See updates on items #1, 2, 12, and 13.
TEAM UPDATES
1. Studenta. Regis/Records / Donna W. reported that she and Jeanne H. presented the decision document on non-attendance F policy to the Academic Senate for approval. Beginning Spring semester 2009, faculty will be required to identify students who earn a non-attendance F because they do not attend class and do not turn in any assignments. Faculty were sent info regarding grading for Fall semester and notified that additional info will be sent prior to Spring semester regarding new practices related to the non-attendance F grade. FinAid will have to notify students as well. Registration by appointment for Spring 2009 went well with few phone calls and no problems with system load; open registration continues through 1st day of term 1/12/09. Records Office continues to work on student data conversion and verification to release holds. Discovered an issue with pre-reqs in DARS. Fall grades will roll in phases, beginning 12/10 and thereafter as received from faculty; will post a notice today that standings will not be calculated until the week after all grades are received. Provost sent a memo emphasizing the importance of submitting grades on time and the impact on other areas.
b. Admissions / Sue D. reported that Cameron has almost completed the EMAS bridge and is finishing final test; will have to manually close out Fall. Tim K. is moving activated SGASTDN records to inactive status for students who applied and were accepted for Fall but did not register for classes. Sue received several requests for various reports; referred some requests to Institutional Research but will need to submit GMR’s for more complex reports.
c. Student Accts
/ Ran batch fee assessment for Spring 2009 so students can view charges online prior to mailing of first paper statements on 12/15. Contest runs through 1/5/09 for students paying bills online. The Communications Team is designing posters, flyers to include with bills, etc. to communicate the contest – will also post a message on TouchNet login site. Direct deposit of student refunds is now functional; 400 students have signed up to date. If process continues to work satisfactorily, will develop additional marketing for it. Due date for first Spring billing was changed to 1/8/09. Troy reported that the Evisions ScriptDirector product was purchased; will load a .PDF version of paper bills into the database for viewing online in Banner rather than in TouchNet; bills for Summer and Fall 2009 have already been loaded.
2. Financial Aid / Liz N. reported that the 7.12 upgrade has been tested and will be live in PROD the last week in Dec. The modification to Banner that 7.12 broke has been fixed. Will test renewal scholarships in TEST as soon as grades roll. Currently working on the new 2009-10 academic year startups for Freshman class that will first register for Summer 2009.
3. General Person / Donna W. reported a self-service add-on for Banner which will capture new race codes required for implementation in 2010. Will need to update self-service with the survey, add a channel for Luminis, and install the current GP upgrade. Admissions application must also be modified. Bob T./John D. will research further. Steve T. will email link indicating that race coding will only be required of new applicants. Since Rick has not received any offers to head up the General Person Team, he proposed using the Implementation Team for GP issues.
4. HR/Payroll / Kim J. reported that minimum wage will increase to $7.30 effective with the second bi-weekly pay of 2009; decided to set up 5-cent increments to anticipate future increases. Verified personal leave grievance pay info for eligible retirees and terminated employees; paper checks will be sent 12/15. Verified and updated sick leave accruals for part-time faculty with additional e-classes. Education increment adjustments approved by committee were set up in Banner; also processed enrollment incentive payments. Currently verifying tuition remission for W-2 purposes. Continue preparation work for W-2’s; a meeting is planned to communicate necessary info gathering and processing. Troy indicated that there are no significant changes for Evisions. Ron Granger will order W-2s. Tim K. clarified that Fall semester Faculty Evaluation forms were sent out; deadline for return is prior to Thanksgiving. HR is in the process of collecting and sorting responses before Testing Office can scan; then IT will run a report to tabulate responses.
5. MyYSU / Bob T. reported on the OBUG conference; he attended a session on G-mail. Kent State offers an opt-in process and has set up accounts for half of their students; will then consider faculty/staff. Are able to maintain the kent.edu address as well. Will consider this approach for our students. Website portal advisory committee met 11/19 to revisit the Classified Ads channel. Abbreviated the canned category list that came with Luminis to include Books & Textbooks, For Sale, Wanted to Buy, Rides/Carpool, and Lost & Found. Will present the list to Mark VonTilberg (new Marketing & Communications director) for consideration by Cabinet.
6. Finance / Mary Lou reported that A/P continues to test direct deposit for employee expense reimbursement. Received a price quote from IntelleCheck for a module that allows emailing of direct deposit advices to employees and vendors; purchase has been authorized. Mary N. devised a program to send a test file to the bank; waiting for confirmation from the bank. Developed a completed journal voucher report for General Acctg in response to an audit finding; are now able to verify that journal vouchers were approved by authorized staff.
7. Advancement / No report given. Eileen will contact Catherine C. to discuss status of open Action Items.
8. Communication
(Rick Marsico for
BJ Licata) / Rick M. reported that President Sweet requested a means of ongoing communication that covers not only Banner, but also other technical activities that impact the University. Will contact Ron Cole to discuss ways to possibly use an existing publication or web option rather than a separate newsletter (i.e.- the YES project newsletter). Rick wants input from the Implem Team at the January meeting on this request. The Student GoLive celebration is postponed to January 2009.
9. Reporting / No report given.
10. Training / Donna W. reported that she finished the training schedule for December and is assisting with rolling grades this week. Faculty received communiques encouraging them to submit their Fall grades promptly through the self-service portal. Will complete the Jan./Feb. training schedule soon and email. Donna’s plan is to finish her extended employment period the end of February. Troy requested suggestions on how to handle requests from employees for general training not related to Banner. Rick is considering decentralizing training and proposes that we identify a person in the respective areas who can handle Banner training; also wants to designate a specific person to coordinate the decentralized training and other miscellaneous training needs. Please email any comments/recommendations to Rick. Brian Godson emphasized the need for proper training of the trainers to ensure correct data entry for reporting requirements.
11. Technical / Dona M. introduced the new Systems Analyst 2 Bob Forchione; he will be assisting the Student area. Bob has 18 yrs. IT experience and worked with the Business/Finance team and Bursar at Kent State; has significant experience with Banner, Microsoft products, and Sequel Server. Troy reminded the Team about the OARNET outage from midnight until 2:00AM on 12/9.
12. SciQuest / No report given.
13. PeopleAdmin / No report given.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Banner 7.5 upgrade / Troy C. received a request for maintenance to upgrade Student to 7.5 as a result of an issue with students having transfer courses that aren’t being counted as pre-requisites for registration. Tim K. believes it may be a problem with the DARS bridge rather than an upgrade issue (specifically, how data was entered). Jason T. reported that the UDC solution is to upgrade to 7.5.1. However, we would first have to upgrade Banner general and Student to 7.4 and then upgrade Student to 7.5 – the general 7.4 upgrade would require full testing by all areas before moving it into PROD. Jason suggests that we begin testing now before a major PROD issue forces us to upgrade in a very short time period. Troy recommended upgrading all areas to bring them current. Consensus is that we begin testing now to implement all upgrades by February 2009.
2. New SunGard
account manager / Rick M. reported that Suzette Compton, our new SunGard Account Mgr., visited campus last week. Lyda Smith will continue as Project Manager. Suzette agreed to check into possibly extending the SG contract. She is based in Michigan, but her territory covers northeast Ohio (except for Kent State) and includes Univ. of Toledo.
3. Review of Draft Enhancements Timeline / Rick M. reviewed his first draft of the ERP Software – Core System Enhancements & Extended Functionality summary/timeline. It is based on survey response from the Impl Team and further discussion with IT staff and takes into account the availability of resources, the impact of Banner 8 implementation, tasks currently assigned to IT staff, the state mandate issue, and SciQuest implem. Troy is working with SunGard on ePrint functionality for electronic distribution of output and archiving; it will be available in a test environment in Jan. with some Feb. training tentatively scheduled. Xtender Solutions will benefit several departmental needs for image scanning/cataloging/retrieval. EDW and Workflow delayed until 2010; Suzette agreed to provide further info on capability/functionality of EDW. Rick advised that we first install Banner 8, since the other 2 components require significant tech support to implement. Team is to review the draft timeline and email Rick any concerns or updates before it is forwarded to the Advisory Comm and then to Cabinet. Banner 7 upgrades will be included on the worksheet.
ACTION ITEMS
New Action Items / Issues /Owner
/Due Date
/Status
1. Processing requests for reporting /Rick Marsico
/ASAP
/A draft process/procedure for centralized reporting will be developed and submitted to Executive Comm for consideration. Need to identify reports / determine person responsible for providing. Also should develop a complete timetable for running Appworx reports.
Prior Items / Issues
/Owner
/Due Date
/Current Status
1. Assistance for accessing TouchNet inthe portal /
Rick Marsico
/ ASAP /Only open item is the FAQ link on Stud Accts homepage. Tech Desk phone # is posted on portal homepage for users having problems logging in; a blurb regarding pop-up blockers was added. A redirect link has been added to the Stud Accts homepage.
2. Retiring CICS/Advantage subsystems /Rick Marsico
/ 12-31-08 /Finance area has a GMR assigned to Mary N.; Mary Lou will review with her and discuss possible need for vendor history and budget.
3. Reassess Banner & 3rd party softwareproject requests and prioritize needs /
Proj Mgrs
/ ASAP /Rick received replies from Student, A/R, Instit Research & Advancement; high request needs include Astra Scheduler (2/2009), continuing tech training, Banner 8 planning, acad history conversion (prior to Ban 8 impl), as well as Work Flow and EDW. Will email summary of projects / proposed timeline. Eileen cautioned that EDW’s shortcomings need to be assessed.
4. Review of portal usage policies /Bob Tupaj
/ ASAP /Decision doc re: MyYSU campus emails and announcements and Classified Ad policy was reviewed/accepted by Cabinet. Will fast-track commun of new policy before implementing change. Troy indicated that sending targeted announcements before 8AM to eliminate a sluggish portal would conflict with backup.
5. Decision document re: MyYSU emailaddresses for alumni and current
graduates /
Catherine Cala
/ ASAP / Catherine, Bob, Donna and Carol discussed status of SS impl for Alumni Friends plus possibility of using a permanent email address for alumni. Will meet with Deans to discuss email options for grads, including a recom to award permanent emails to Alumni Assoc members only. Will draft decision doc and consider feasibility of conducting a survey of alumni/current grads to determine interest.6. Classroom/Events Management
Scheduling – Ad Astra /
Jeanne Herman
/ In process / Jeanne requested a fresh instance for testing. Jason T. will provide by week of 11/17 since FinAid is still using STFA to test 7.12. Target date to have online is March/April 2009.7. XML Transcript /
Sue Davis
/ In process / Marie Cullen meets with the State bi-weekly regarding this mandate.8. Evaluate if WYSU should use Banner
Advancement for pledges /
Advancement Team
/In process
/Catherine C. to meet with Kami Greene in Gen Acctg; will add finance component to decision document and resend to Impl team.
9. Requests for Labelsa. Determine policy for departmental
requests for data lists & labels for
for Alumni/YSU donors
(centralize or decentralize)
b. Create workgroup to determine
responsibility for handling other
departmental label requests /
Catherine Cala
C Cala &
Gen Person Team /In process
In process /● Processing requests lists/labels of alumni and YSU donors by providing Excel spreadsheet for depts to print own labels or will print their labels depending on size of job. Will also provide a disk if requestor chooses to use a mail house. Catherine will provide a final version of the policy for handling any departmental requests for lists and labels of alumni and YSU donors.