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1College Update - November 1, 2005
Team Updates
FinanceNo new update to report.
College Relations/Development
During past few weeks, the team has been focusing on furthering the use of Banner within the Development and College Relations offices. Specific focus has been given to utilizing Banner Advancement solutions to enhance the programs of both offices. There is still a lot of work to be completed but major advances have been accomplished. An example of a major process improvement for a Development program can be seen in the Dickinson Phon-a-thon. Using the new reporting tool, Cognos ReportNet, and the Banner Operational Data Store (ODS), the team was able to create a report to generate Phon-a-thon information cards on an as needed basis. In the past, the all Phon-a-thon cards were generated at one time by members of the LIS staff. Generating all cards at one time meant hours of work pairing spouse cards and determining if a gift or pledge had been received in the time since the card was printed. Today, the cards are printed within days of being used and the new process ensures spouses are included on the same card. Using ReportNet and ODS to generate the Phon-a-thon cards also gives the office the flexibility to change the card with a very short turn-around time.
The team will continue to utilize these new technology tools to further enhance the College Relations and Development programs. The team will also be focusing on fixing some data conversion issues that have been discovered with the gift and soft credit data.
- Brennan Hadden, Functional Lead for the Advancement Team
Financial Aid
The recent weeks are a blur. The interface from Recruitment Plus has been completed so that extensive final testing of our rules can begin. We have moved our validation and rule tables into the production database and have almost completed the set up for the 2006-07 year. The remainder on our setup depends upon a patch from Sungard SCT with new year-specific tables, which we expect this week. This, plus new student financial aid application files from the College Board for 06-07, will prompt yet another round of intensive testing. We are looking forward to the end of testing, and a successful start for using Banner.
-Rick Heckman, Functional Lead for the Financial Aid Team
Student
The Student Team continues to verify conversion data for the 14,000+ records that are being converted from Colleague to Banner. We have begun end-user training, which will continue in November. Topics covered include Banner Student Module Overview & Navigation as well as Creating & Maintaining Student Records.
-Deb Bolen, Functional Lead for the Student Team
Accounts Receivable
The team has been working together with members of the Financial Operations team to assign General Ledger account numbers (FOAPAL structure) to the Student Detail Codes in the Accounts Receivable Module. A training plan for the Students Accounts office has been established.
-Sally Heckendorn, Functional Lead for the Accounts Receivable Team
Human Resources/Payroll
HR/Payroll, along with the Data Standards committee, has established firm guidelines on data and how it is to be entered into Banner. The team continues to review the accuracy and thoroughness of the data that was converted from Colleague into Banner for all regular and student employees. Testing of these employees is to begin next week.
Data is being entered and "cleaned up" in preparation for parallel payroll testing in November and December. A communication plan is being revised to inform employees of all relevant changes.
-Michelle Spencer, Functional Lead for the Human Resource/Payroll Team
Dates to Remember
November 15, 2005: Financial Aid Office begins using Banner.November 21-22, 2005: Pennsylvania Banner User Group (PA-BUG) Annual Conference.
December 1, 2005: Registrar's Office begins using Banner.
January 1, 2006: Human Resource and Payroll Offices begin using Banner.
*Note that on or around November 15, 2005, the Registrar's Office, Student Accounts Office, and Human Resource Office will be maintaining both the Banner and Colleague systems. These offices will be maintaining both systems until approximately August 2006. For many of the staff in these offices, this will be very difficult time. Please be patient and understand that it may take longer than normal to meet your request.
Training Opportunities
Financial AidOctober 24: Data Logging and EDE Corrections. (3:00 - 5:30 PM) Old West 2
October 27: Working/Review Session. (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM) Old West 2
November 1: Packaging Set-up. (3:00 - 5:00 PM) Information Commons Classroom
November 2: Packaging. (9:00 - 11:00 AM) Academic Technology Services
November 4: Population Selection. (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM) Academic Technology Services
November 4: Letter Generation. (1:00 - 2:00 PM) Academic Technology Services
November 8: Self Service. (3:00 - 4:30 PM) Information Commons Classroom
Lessons Learned
The Financial Operations, Development, and College Relations offices have been using Banner since July 1, 2005. Below are some comments and lessons learned form staff in these areas."I would say after going live, to expect that routine requests for data will require a little more lead time than in the past, and to try to think ahead on these to help ensure timely delivery. Also, I would say that although learning to navigate and use a new application can be frustrating, the head's down data entry operators in Development have already developed a comfort level with Banner to the extent that they now have difficulty remembering some of the mnemonics, function keys, etc. in the old system (Benefactor). Also, after go-after, most departments should expect to have somewhat of a documentation process to go through, where they need to take the basic materials provided in training, etc. and augment them to be specific to their daily workflows, exceptions to the rules, etc. "
-Kathy Ballew, Administrative Software Technician for Development and College Relations and Technical Lead for the Advancement Team.
"Banner requires more work for data entry - it's more complicated, there are often many more steps, much more detail, so your job will probably take longer. "
"When you are being trained, make sure they present the training using one method instead of the various options. It's too confusing to make constant mental leaps while learning other concepts. Stick with the mouse point and click or the key stroke method, but don't let them mix it up. "
"Overall, I like Banner."
"Make sure the trainers are using language/terminology you understand and that they don't talk over your head. Also, don't let them rush you. You will find you need more hands-on than you actually get in training in order to understand it."
- Various quotes from the Development Administrative Services Staff
Did you know?
- The Pennsylvania Banner User Group (PA-BUG) is a network of Pennsylvania Higher Education institutions that use Banner software to support administrative functions. To learn more about this organization, visit www.pabug.org.
- Banner will interface with many auxiliary systems on campus. These include systems used by the Bookstore (Sequioia), Dining Services (CBORD), Health Center (Kronos), Admissions (Recruitment Plus), and Global Education (Student Access International). The technology team is currently developing and testing the process that will keep all these systems in synch with each other.
Learn the Lingo
Below are samples of terms you may be hearing around campus. In this update, we are focusing on specific Banner terms.SCT Banner: The technology solution chosen to provide an integrated data management system the entire campus.
INB: Internet Native Banner. The core "terminal style" interface to Banner modules that some expert users will access. Similar to the Colleague or Benefactor systems.
SSB: Self Service Banner. The simpler web-based interface to Banner modules that the majority of users access. Similar to DOC.
FOAPAL: The "string" of numbers that makes up a specific accounting code. It is an acronym for Fund, Organization, Account, Program, Activity, and Location.
PIDM: The Personal Identification Master or PIDM is an internal key field stored in the Person Identification table (SPRIDEN). The PIDM may represent a student, vendor, employee, beneficiary, alumnus, or other entity. All tables that contain person or entity related data must store the PDIM but not necessarily complete records. This relational reference method makes Banner a powerful and efficient tool for data storage and retrieval.
Validation Table: A static table in the Banner database that stores valid codes and descriptions. For example, the NATION validation table contains a code or abbreviation for each nation. This code can be used to look up the actual name of a nation. The table is also used to verify that a nation is valid when an international address is entered in the Banner data entry form.
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