What is Datatel?
Datatel, Inc. is the one of the largest computer software company dedicated exclusively to providing
advanced information management systems for institutions of higher education. Datatel has over 500 client
institutions in the United States, Canada, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1968 and
has headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. For more information about the company, click here to go to the
Datatel Website - www.datatel.com.
What is Colleague?
Colleague is the name of an administrative software package designed by Datatel, Inc. to meet the
advanced information management needs of institutions of higher education. With Colleague, information
entered into the system immediately becomes online, real-time data for the end user to access. It also allows
all of an institution's processes -- financial, purchasing, academic, human resources -- to more easily "talk
to each other" and draw from a common database.
How will the change to Colleague affect me?
Many of our processes may change to some extent, perhaps with steps eliminated, or with a standardized
method of data entry. Each of us will need to learn these changes as part of our Colleague training.
When will I be able to use Colleague?
The following systems are scheduled to be operational on: · Finance, Sept. 2001 · Human Resources,
January 2002 · Financial Aid, February 2002 · Curriculum Mgt./Faculty Information, February 2002 ·
Accounts Receivable, February 2002 · Admissions/Recruitment, April 2002 · Academic
Records/Registration, April 2002 · Degree Audit/Advisement, June 2002
What is the schedule for all the activities between now and when I will use the new Colleague
administrative software?
It's difficult to give exact dates at this point, but a general Implementation Planning Schedule is available
on this Website. Click here to go to the Project Timeline. This calendar will give you a general idea of the
time frames for activities such as training/consulting; (This refers to training/consulting for those involved
in the technical use and set-up of the new system, and for those who will become in-house trainers.);
Consulting visits by Datatel; Testing the new system (called Decision Testing); Simulated use of the system
(Mock Dates), and Live Processing (actual use). Activities listed on the calendar are revised and addition
added periodically.
When will I be trained to use the new Colleague administrative software?
All end users of the new system will receive training appropriate to their job responsibilities. This so-called
end-user training will take place immediately before the different parts of the system "go live." Training
immediately before using the system should result in the best retention of the information and the most
efficient use of the faculty and staff's time. Our own in-house experts will present the end-user training on
campus. We will make every effort to offer training sessions with a broad schedule of days and times. All
end-user training will be announced and scheduled in advance.
What is the Colleague training that has been going on for the last few months?
Colleague-related training so far has been for employees most closely involved in the start-up of the new
software and hardware. Much of the training has been about technical aspects and setting up the core
database on which all the end-user functions depend. Many of these employees will be our in-house
trainers; drawing on the expertise they are developing in these initial training sessions.
Will more faculty representation be added to the teams?
When the implementation teams begin to address the details of areas that impact academics, they will get
additional faculty input through one or more avenues which may include participation such as ad hoc subteams, adding members to teams, asking faculty to serve as resource members to teams, faculty focus
groups, and/or questionnaires.
The term "vanilla implementation" is often used by members of the Colleague teams. What does
this mean?
"Vanilla implementation" means that we will bring each of the modules of the Colleague administrative
software online with the full functionality of the modules that the college purchased, but without creating
any special customization of the software. When customizations occur, programmers write code that
interfaces with a software product in order to make it perform in ways that it was not designed to perform.
It is time-consuming and complicated to perform all the activities needed to implement a basic (i.e.,
"vanilla") system and to transfer our current operations to that new system. Consequently, there is no time
or manpower available during the implementation phase to write, test, and install additional new programs.
After implementation, after our basic business processes are secure, and as we learn more about the new
system and its capabilities, we will begin to consider any customizations to Colleague.
At any time anyone may submit an idea or concern to the Datatel Project Manager. Click here to e-mail
Donnie Carpenter.