SCT Banner YES Implementation Team
Meeting Notes
MEETING LOGISTICS
Item
Date
Time
Location
Description
September 24, 2007
8:30 a.m.
MESHEL HALL – Computer Center Conference Room
ATTENDEES
Facilitator(s)
Note Taker
Participants
Not Present
Carol Chen
Cheryl Beil
Mary Lou Castner, Troy Cross, Sujit Das, Sue Davis, Donna Esterly, Becky Geltz, Jeanne
Herman, Tim Kovaleski, Betty Jo Licata, Dona Madacsi, Rick Marsico, Elizabeth Nelson, James
Stanger, Bob Tupaj, and Beth Yeatts.
Eileen Greaf, Catherine Cala, Cindy Miller and Donna Wainio
AGENDA ITEMS
CORRECTIONS
Impl Mtg – 9/10/07
INTRODUCTION
OF NEW IT STAFF
Notes
New Business item #5 corrected to read “XML transfers” rather than SML transfers. Email any
other corrections to Cheryl Beil.
Carol introduced new technical staff including: Elizabeth Nelson, SA1 for FinAid and A/R
support, and Tim Kovaleski, SA1 for Student support. Rick M. introduced Sujit Das, the new
Technical Resource consultant for Banner who will assist Student and F/A system
implementations. He has worked on Banner systems about 9½ yrs. beginning at Indiana State
Univ., then as an independent Banner consultant, then for SunGard Collegis, and then back to
independent Banner consulting. Donna E. recommended that the new staff review the CD of this
year’s SunGard Summit for additional information about Banner.
REVIEW PRIOR
ACTION ITEMS
See updates on items #1, #2, #3, #5a-b-c-d-e, and #10.
TEAM UPDATES
1. Student
a. Regis/Record
b. Admissions
Mock Registration is set for week of 10/1. Donna W. scheduled training sessions for faculty and
advisors today. Encountered some issues last week; Tom M. is working to complete the Summer
2007 schedule and has reviewed the process for loads. Jeanne will check on status of
outstanding tasks to determine if data can be ready in STMP for today’s training. Mock II will
focus only on one term since we will only have time to adequately prepare data for Summer term
at this point; will then do fall schedule and registration at a later date in permit parallel testing.
New Student consultant Rob Woodyard will replace Lee Cipolla; he will be on campus the week
of 10/8. Gaye Santoro assured Donna E. that Rob has skill sets very comparable to Lee; Donna
reiterated that we do not want multiple consultants. Enlisted Gaye’s support in scheduling
consultants in next few months; and agreed on a policy for payment for cancellation of services
if within 2 weeks, with a goal of providing a 30-day notice when possible. Doug resolved a web
problem with DARS; discovered a bug in software received from Miami Univ. Lyda Smith will
be on campus during week of 10/1; will email her travel schedule. Jeanne emailed a decision
document to Implementation Team; please review and forward comments to her.
Sue Davis requested that Computer Services continue to run the discrepancy report between M204 and Banner once a week on Monday morning. Currently are replacing the old legacy
residency code of 4 on international student records in Banner for graduate and undergraduate;
will instead use coding for in-state, out-of-state, and regional service area for billing purposes.
Banner system identifies the legacy code 4 as non-Ohio residency instead of just a foreign
student which bills at incorrect rates. Student team will research how Banner can identify a
student as foreign for purposes of student health insurance, federal/state/HEI reporting, and
awarding institutional aid; may require an attribute. Carol will contact Jef Davis (Intl Studies)
re: maintaining SEVIS foreign student info. Carol reported that Jayne and Dennis have fixed
c. Student Accts
2. Financial Aid
3. General Person
4. HR/Payroll
5. MyYSU
6. Finance
7. Advancement
95% of data in STVSBGI; still have some duplicate records with 2 different IPED codes. Zip+4
county code issue will be addressed at next Gen Person Team meeting.
TouchNet kickoff conference call was held 9/12; Banner connectivity issue during demo was
resolved after the software was installed by Troy and tested by Carol. Will hold a 2nd conference
call on 9/27. Troy will begin work on installing Cashiering stations. Began working with Mary
Noble to identify refund groups but changed focus to identify billing groups until more familiar
with FinAid’s warning report process. Also working with Mary Lou on another refund check
issue; received a response from UDC and will need clean instance before additional testing can
be done. After Troy installs patches on PROD, Beth will request a clone to PPRD to try UDC
recommendation. A/R has not had any consultant on-site since last fall to assist with several
issues. Pat Kelley is scheduled for a virtual classroom session on 10/26, but Keith Miles is also
trying to locate another consultant to come on campus prior to Pat’s visit set for 4/15-17 of 2008.
Loan guarantor Great Lakes will be on campus 9/25 to discuss loan issues; Beth Y. will also be
involved. Visit to Miami of Ohio is set for 10/22-23 to discuss FinAid issues and share info with
other Banner schools, including Kent State, Toledo, Wright State and Miami. Working to get
PROD instance up to date; were able to automate the housing grant manual awarding process.
James indicated that there is no immediate need to upgrade to release 7.9 but will need to have it
in TEST to be able to test all processes. Wright State indicated that they have no script to process
agency or 3rd party financial aid (i.e.- BVR, etc.). Beth Y. reported that YSU processes more 3rd
party aid than most colleges and has more intricate fee payment scenarios; past assessments of
pulling the function into A/R indicate that it would require additional staff resources and involve
a duplication of effort. Past terms of agreement with donors are creative and are not necessarily
compatible with system functionality, often requiring special processing procedures. James
emailed the FinAid decision document to Impl Team for review; email any comments or
suggestions to him so it can be finalized and forwarded to the Advisory Committee.
No report given.
No report given.
Portal/website advisory committee met to discuss Classified Ads channel. Bob spoke with
Denise Anderson (Wright State); they have used the Ads channel successfully for over 3 yrs.
with about 150-250 ads posted. She monitors the channel about 15 minutes each day scanning
the ads; their Help Desk also assists by notifying her of any violations (encountered very few
issues over the 3-year period). The website advisory committee expressed some concerns and
agreed to table the matter; if decide to move forward with the channel, will forward information
gathered thus far to General Counsel for advisement. Both Wright State and U of Saskatchewan
have a policy in their portal channel and are satisfied overall. Bob met with John Dalbec and
other DBAs to discuss a process for pulling Faculty/Staff directory info out of Banner; consensus
is that it should be possible – will submit a GMR to request IT assistance. Doug inquired about
maintaining the campus phone extension field in SPRTELE; unless Telephone Services maintains
the data, it cannot remain in synch with our 3rd party phone system. Have been forwarding Jason
Rakers any changes made in stand-alone database to compare with Tele Services records. Carol
suggested a workgroup meeting to communicate to Jason’s staff the need to update the Banner
system when maintaining the Campus Directory. Donna E. reported that Jason is currently
evaluating the capabilities of the present phone system and the lack of maintenance; Bob will
discuss with him. James requested that a mock FinAid channel be set up in the portal TEST
instance to test the link to the awards section and modifications. Carol asked Bob about the
feedback on the WebCT single sign-on in the portal which has been running during Summer
2007 and Fall for faculty and students. Bob has tested and signed off on the Luminis 3.3
upgrade; John will do portal server maintenance this weekend.
Still having problems with bank codes for student refund records; will request clone of PPRD this
week. Requested that General Acctg create a new fund dedicated solely to student refunds; will
be assigned proper bank code for refunds. Resumed work with Mary N. on HEI reporting; will
verify with Michele H. if she still wants to keep the Nov. deadline to avoid manual processing.
Mary Lou emailed Carol proposed dates for a consultant to come onsite to assist A/P and A/R
with Student processing issues.
No report given.
8. Communication
9. ODS/EDW
10. Training
11. Technical
Will meet with Jeanne H. and Bob T. to develop a complete plan for communicating the Student
implementation. Proposed doing an update in next newsletter to explain Student components for
processing financial aid in new Banner system. Also suggested an article on the new process for
faculty evaluation.
WebFocus was upgraded in PROD to newest version. Reminded all areas to run existing WF
queries in ODST to test new 3.1 update before moving it into PROD.
No report given.
Troy will install 2 A/R patches and 1 Finance patch today, plus the Banner connect 2.6.2 for
TouchNet. Mike Roberts will be sending Banner data base guardians a security audit detailing
the classes owned and users currently granted access to the classes for verification and updating
as needed; security officers can review list and notify guardians to revise or approve for signoff.
Troy expressed concern about how to get 3rd party systems in synch in PROD. Jamie reported the
inconsistency of data guardian and security officer on the Banner Services Request form. It
should be clarified.
NEW BUSINESS
None
ACTION ITEMS
New Action Items / Issues
Owner
Due Date
Status
Prior Items / Issues
1. PABUG Conference
Nov. 19-20, 2007 – Grantville, PA
Owner
Team
Leaders
Due Date
October
2007
2. Banner upgrades for various systems
Team
Leaders
On-going
3. Review single sign-on PIN / password
guidelines related to FERPA issues
General
Person
ASAP
4. Decision document re: MyYSU email
addresses for alumni and current
graduates
Catherine
Cala
ASAP
Carol Chen
In process
Current Status
Doug Sewell and Bob Tupaj are planning to
attend. Beth Yeatts is interested but will
continue to watch website for sessions info.
Troy distributed a matrix showing all Banner
releases with Release version # and install
date, plus any new releases currently available
or forthcoming and availability dates (does
not include 3rd party products). Recommends
upgrading General to 7.4.1 in near future.
UDC provides release notes.
Greg Morgione (Gen Counsel) foresees no
issue using an employee’s birth date and
partial SS# for initial sign-on in portal since
information is not made public.
Catherine, Bob, Donna and Carol met to
discuss status of SS impl for Alumni &
Friends plus possibility of using a permanent
email addr for alumni. Will meet w/ Deans to
discuss email options for grads incldg recom
to award permanent emails only to Alumni
Assoc members. Will draft decision doc &
consider feasibility of conducting a survey of
alumni/current grads to determine interest.
● Holding weekly conf calls with Bosscars
consultant. Jason T. has installed all scripts
received to date; wrote a modification to code
file to permit building parking fees based on
resident and non-resident status. Jason will
apply the Bosscars patch to resolved issue of
system assigning duplicate parking # when 2
different staff are entering data at same time.
Lisa C. is working with Genl Acctg to create a
report to run which will charge employee
parking benefits back to each department.
1. None
5. Banner System & Third Party
software –
a. Parking fees – Bosscars
b. Classroom/Events Management
Scheduling – Ad Astra
In process
c. Faculty Evaluation
In progress
d. XML Transcript
In progress
e. HEI Reporting
In progress
6. Evaluate if WYSU should use Banner
Advancement for pledges
7. Requests for Labels
a. 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
Advancement
Team
Catherine
Cala
In process
C Cala &
Gen Person
Team
In process
In process
Waiting for 2007-08 schedule data to be
loaded in STMP & imported into Ad Astra so
team can set up more classroom preferences
to test software. Events Mgmt is progressing
with set up of validation rules.
**Carol emailed Impl Team regarding the
Faculty Evaluation workgroup kickoff
meeting notes held 9/10. Group is comprised
of some HR staff, Jeanne H., Becky G., Carol
and some faculty reps. Initial discussion
concerned how students evaluate teaching and
learning in M-204 compared to Banner process
(paper v. online process). Next session is set
for 10/15; invited an interested faculty
member to present his ideas in person. Notes
from their workgroup sessions are posted on
YES website for Impl Team to read.
**Carol indicated that tentative plans are to
implement the XML electronic transcript
transfer process mandated by Ohio Board of
Regents sometime after Student GoLive the
end of March; continue to hold ongoing
conference calls every other week with other
Ohio Higher Ed public institutions. Based on
our unique, complicated data history
conversion of quarter to semester hours
needed for Banner, Carol did some initial
XML transcript setup in STMP and has
successfully exported one test transcript from
Banner to OBOR. For the importing process,
Terry (Wright State) agreed to send a sample
transcript to the OBOR website for Carol to
download into our Banner server to test
importing electronic transcript. The XML
workgroup is planning to attend a workshop
held by OBOR; session is scheduled for 11/5.
**Carol reported the HEI finance workteam is
making slow progress due to year-end audit
work currently underway. Discovered that
much faculty load data needed for HEI HR
reporting was not converted at HR/Payroll
GoLive in Jan. 2007; recommends a regular
bi-weekly meeting of workgroup. Carol will
work with Kay Helscel (Facilities) and Mary
to address Facilities HEI data requirements;
HEI work team will meet again in October.
Decision document is finalized; Catherine will
discuss at next Impl Team mtg.
Catherine unable to attend last Gen Person
Team meeting. GP team/other staff selected to
participate in List/Label workgroup.
●
Donna E. indicated that Cabinet has discussed
appointing a group to address this issue;
8. SCT Quality Assurance Council
9.
Policy/procedure to create/maint.
off-system mini-databases
10. MABUG Conference
Oct. 8-9, 2007 – Blacksburg, VA
Project
Managers
Project
Managers
Team
Leaders
ASAP
Deferred
Complete
Catherine will contact Dr. McCloud for more
info. Ron Williams (mailroom) has equipment
that can run a report of bulk mail addresses to
determine which ones do not meet new postal
regulations that go into effect 8/1/07. Cannot
print labels, but has machine (inkjet) that can
print addresses directly on mailing. Depts.
could then either print their own labels or use
mailroom equipment to address bulk mail
pieces; will still maintain policy of 1,000 or
fewer pieces. Must have procedure to update
M-204 and Banner with correct addresses.
Determine process/procedure for handling all
other general label requests from depts and
designate responsible area/staff.
Recommend YSU gets involved in Council to
assure issues are shared/addressed.
Will determ policy for departmental databases
after Banner is fully implemented.
No areas expressed an interest in attending
MABUG (hosted by Virginia Tech).
Next Meeting – Monday, October 8, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. in Meshel Hall, 4th floor conference room.