SCT Banner YES Implementation Team
Meeting Notes
MEETING LOGISTICS
Item
Date
Time
Location
Description
November 16, 2009
8:30 a.m.
MESHEL HALL – Computer Center Conference Room
ATTENDEES
Facilitator(s)
Note Taker
Participants
Not Present
Eileen Greaf & Rick Marsico
Cheryl Beil
Catherine Cala, Mary Lou Castner, Michelle Craig, Troy Cross, Bob DeFrances (for Beth
Yeatts), Bob Forchione, Becky Geltz, Brian Godsen, Jeanne Herman, Angie Jeffries, Dona
Madacsi, James Stanger, Steve Taraszewski, Bob Tupaj and Donna Wainio
Sue Davis, Beth Yeatts
AGENDA ITEMS
CORRECTIONS
Impl Mtg – 10/12/09
REVIEW PRIOR
ACTION ITEMS
Notes
Email any corrections to Cheryl Beil.
See update on #2.
TEAM UPDATES
1. Student
a. Regis/Records
b. Admissions
c. Student Accts
2. Financial Aid
Page 1 of 4
Jeanne H. reported on an issue with Promise to Pay in Banner 7. Students who decline the P2P
get a message that they cannot go further to register. Normally they cannot continue. It was
recently discovered that some students can still get to the registration screen by clicking on the
Registration or Change of Registration tabs. This seems to occur only occasionally and with no
apparent pattern; it has not been easy to assess the magnitude of the problem. Jeanne is working
with Bob F. to resolve the issue prior to Banner 8 upgrade. Student team met; the testing form
was given to other Student areas with a request that they test Banner 8 and report any issues.
Spring 2010 registration went smoothly and ~8,400 students are registered thus far. Pre-reqs are
working well.
No report given.
Bob D. reported that they are on schedule to go live 11/23 with the MarketPlace U-Store; Testing
and Student Diversity will be the first 2 live store functions. Implementation of TouchNet UCommerce will allow single sign-on for various modules from an administrative perspective,
with no effect on the end user or the student. Bob reported that Beth Y. is recommending that
we get on the TN implementation schedule for Bill Payment Client to meet the 7/1/2010 PCI
compliance deadline for Advancement and Admissions. TN gives an implementation timeline of
~2 weeks; Beth will propose a tentative date in April or May after Banner 8 is live. IT staff will
determine if there are other tech requirements or Banner patches needed; they also questioned
whether a 2 week implem timeframe is for one area or all 3 areas (including Student transcripts).
James S. reported that 2010-11 financial aid year scholarships have started going out for
incoming Freshmen. Since all letters are in FormFusion and all the jobs are in Appworx, this is
the first year they have been able to launch a chain to do awards, updates, run reports, and print
letters all at once, reducing the scholarship process ~95%. Upcoming federal changes will
mandate direct loans; students need to sign new promissory notes with the federal government.
The direct loan process will require some updates to self-service; this process has been initially
set up in the TEST instance. Scheduled a second visit to Kent State for assistance. Also plan to
attend OBUG on 11/17 (KSU will be a presenter). Staff from FinAid and Student Accounts will
attend the Federal DOE conference in early December. Have started testing Banner 8; still
waiting to run Appworx testing as well.
3. General Person
4. HR/Payroll
5. MyYSU
6. Finance
7. Advancement
8. Reporting
9. Training
10. Technical
Page 2 of 4
Bob F. requested that all areas notify him of any Gen Person problems encountered during their
area Banner 8 testing. A meeting is scheduled 11/18 at 2PM to kick off implementing the new
federal/state guidelines which will now allow users to input and report on race and ethnicity.
New Team Lead Michelle Craig was introduced. She is the new manager of HR Information
Systems and will be responsible for leading the functional side of Banner HR/ Payroll computing,
in addition to overseeing the Processing Center. Donna W. reported that she and Michelle have
been working on Banner 8 testing; there are several changes to the HR processes, especially
related to processing reports that have been written in-house. The HR/Payroll work team will
meet 11/16-17 to review the testing plan; each person has received a spreadsheet documenting
the testing components and a sign-off sheet. Goal is to complete testing by the end of December
and then begin W-2 testing after Banner releases the code for W-2 reports. Maureen and Donna
have finalized the tuition remission report that will go into PROD hopefully this week. The report
is used to process W-2s for non-cash earnings and only identifies staff who must report additional
fringes, including graduate tuition remission, additional life insurance, courtesy vehicles, athletic
tickets, country club membership, terminal degrees, theater tickets or gift cards. Work continues
on PeopleAdmin to handle application processing and evaluations. Tie-in to Banner is not as far
along as thought - will require IT assistance. Continue to work on corrections to various reports
and processes based on auditor recommendations; there are 4 audits currently underway in HR.
Have been working closely with UDC to correct a defect regarding a rounding issue. Staff is
finishing up corrections to 2008 W-2s for the Social Security Administration; will then forward
to IRS. Donna clarified that inquiries regarding visa codes for employees should be directed to
Jef Davis (International Studies); all informational changes should be sent to HR to update
personnel records. It was further clarified that anyone requesting an official name change must
provide legal proof of a change in name (i.e.- marriage certificate, court document, etc).
Bob T. reported that he continues to work with Jeff Trimble on the Library tab for new channels;
he circulated a sample of the tab/channel page for the Implem Team to see. It is also available in
TEST for viewing.
Mary Lou C. reported that finance area will have a kickoff meeting on 11/19 regarding Banner 8
upgrade. Will need to point SciQuest user test instance to the Banner 8 test instance to test the
purchase requisition process; IFEP interface software needs upgraded first. John Dalbec and Ron
Williams (Procurement Svcs) will discuss further; may involve contacting Paul Fagan (SunGard)
which could incur a consultation fee. Donna W. indicated that Finance staff will need to be
involved in final testing of the HR feed to finance.
Catherine C. reported that Banner 8 testing is in progress. Encountered an issue with the feed to
finance; the feed for donor gifts is working okay but an Oracle error message is received under
Options when selecting ‘Show document’ to change printing format. Also cannot use the ‘Show
document’ for the mail merge process; will send error message to Troy C. Advancement staff
attended the Student Accts demo of MarketPlace. While it includes several desirable features for
gifting (i.e., does not require setup of an additional user account and offers an installment
payment option), the interface for credit card charges and the feed to the donor record would
require more manual entry. Also has a limit of one donation box or description per page, which
is not realistic for designated gifting; would be suitable for unrestricted donations but this would
involve using two different sites for the gifting process. Will research further and also consider
the possibility of tailoring the existing login page to meet current gifting needs (would require
coordinating any changes with Admissions which also uses the unsecured login site for initial
registrations). Catherine will submit a GMR to request assistance with this issue.
No report given.
Donna W. reported that she will resume her training sessions upon completion of Banner HR
orientation for Michelle Craig.
Troy reported that the AIX 5.3 and the Oracle 10.2.0.4 upgrades were completed on 10/17 and
improved system performance significantly. ODS was upgraded to 8.1 on 10/23; encountered an
issue with extraction views in Banner database since the owner was changed to ODS Manager.
The new ODS 8.2 release due out December has enhancements which no longer use extraction
views but use an Oracle data stream instead. Will need to convert Access reports into WebFocus.
Troy worked with Dennis/Maureen on the HTML file to email the YSU Magazine. Doug S.
worked with Bob F. on a GMR for the advisement screen. IT received a message from Tech
Desk and Network Services that letters went out to some students with incorrect email addresses.
Jeanne explained that Records Office sends a letter to returning students whose SGASTDN
records are reactivated to notify them of registration times; an error occurred when running JOBS
that assigned incorrect email addresses, but the issue was resolved.
Troy reported that the 11/8 clone of Banner 8 was installed on 11/13. Recently copied Appworx
from PROD into TEST and TRNG instances for Banner 8 testing; must now copy modifications
for specific areas from PROD to TEST. Will install BDMS in Banner 8 TEST the morning of
11/17; will move into Banner 8 PROD later. It was suggested that we add a note to the Banner 8
testing login page regarding the need to use J-Initiator 6.13 or Java 5.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Project Mgmt
Update
2. Recommendation
of Auditors
Rick reported that on Lewis Chen’s visit in October, he recommended some additional
components to BDMS in response to needs identified by various areas. We did license the Disk
Extender Windows File System Manager to provide another layer of security so that users are
not able to see another party’s documents. The Application Extender Reports Management
component will offer the automatic capture and indexing of files (PDF or ASCII) generated by
purchase orders, FinAid letters, etc. Rick also reported that Mr. Chen has not yet forwarded his
assessment report recommending hardware requirements. A recent update indicated that he was
pulled from our project and assigned to another; regardless, we should have the report by next
week. A SunGard agreement was executed to run now through the end of Dec. 2010. The new
agreement reduces our service hour rate by more than 13% and includes the following: a block
of 480 hrs. for EDW implementation, 390 hrs. for Workflow, a dynamic block of 730 hrs. for
BDMS, WebTime Entry, Banner integration for e-Learning, and support of Blackboard 9 (this
also includes project management and miscellaneous consulting) for a total of 1,600 hours
available through the end of Dec. 2010.
Dona M. reported that the auditors suggested that we look at developing policies and procedures
for parameter changes, with a focus on how data custodians are documenting these changes. The
Implem Team was unsure what the auditors meant by “parameter” changes; Rick will request
further clarification from Crowe Horwath.
ACTION ITEMS
New Action Items / Issues
Owner
Due
Date
Status
Prior Items / Issues
Owner
Due
Date
Current Status
1. Determine the need to develop a
centralized training team
Team Leads
ASAP
2. Banner travel
Rick Marsico
ASAP
Bob Tupaj
ASAP
None
3. Review of portal usage policies
Page 3 of 4
Eileen G. distributed a summary of area training
needs based on past history, plus staff that are able
to train in various areas of Banner technology /
functionality and 3rd party products, or to assist
with other campus-wide training needs.
Rick M. reported that FY10 budget modifications
in Dec. will give a clearer indication whether
funding will be available for Banner travel. Any
training needs critical to Banner 8 rollout will be
considered on an individual basis. Dona M.
reported that 4 staff from IT and a few from
FinAid will be attending the OBUG conference on
11/17/09 at KSU.
Proposed policies are still in Exec Committee.
Clarified that our goal is to not duplicate campus
announcements by using both mass emailing and
portal Announcements. Portal performance has
improved by NOT processing MyYSU mass emails
9AM-3PM. Classified Channel may not be
implemented. Marketing of the portal is still on
the table. Continue to discuss forwarding of YSU
4. Decision document re: MyYSU
email addresses for alumni and
current graduates
Catherine
Cala
ASAP
5. Classroom/Events Management
Scheduling – Ad Astra
Jeanne
Herman
In
process
Sue Davis
In
process
7. Evaluate if WYSU should use
Banner Advancement for pledges
Advancement
Team
In
process
8. SCT Quality Assurance Council
Project
Managers
Project
Managers
ASAP
6. XML Transcript
9. Policy/procedure to create/maint.
off-system mini-databases
Deferred
email to a 3rd party provider or disabling forward
entirely. E-bills are bouncing back from 3rd party
addresses, and student does not receive notice at
all; will also impact FinAid notices next year. Gmail can provide more storage while maintaining
the ysu.edu address – Kent State currently offers
to student accts. SunGard is working on channels
for Google mail and calendar.
Need to develop process to deactivate alumni Ban
email addresses after 1 yr free membership. When
student record loads are completed, will activate
disabling function; must develop method to notify
when account is deactivated. Currently assign
student email addresses when appls are accepted
and a notification letter is sent. Return students
and staff are not notified of a prior email address.
Jeanne updates current student email addresses;
need to formalize a procedure for Registration
staff to correct personal info. John Dalbec
currently runs batch processes of changes, but this
slows processing of ID cards.
Bob F. - Events Mgmt is finalizing data to load.
Proposed condensing room type info; Astra
workgroup will meet to discuss and approve.
Goal is to have Astra available Fall ‘09 term.
Bob F. reported that Phase I is capable of running
in PROD but is still being tested in parallel
environments.
Catherine C. to meet with Kami Greene in Gen
Acctg; will add finance component to decision
document and resend to Implem team.
Recommend YSU gets involved in Council to
assure issues are shared/addressed.
Will determine policy for departmental databases
after Banner is fully implemented.
Next Meeting – Monday Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Meshel Hall, 4th floor conference room.
Page 4 of 4