Leaping Forward:

1. Leaping Forward: Positioning Yourself for a Successful System Implementation The Pennsylvania State University Dawn Boyer, ITS Carol Findley, OUR Melanie Schuster, ITS

2. ISIS History • Electronic Data Systems (EDS) • Went Live in 1983 with Admissions • Considered “State of the Art” System at the time • Built to reflect processes and University structure in early 1980s

3. “State of the Art”

4. What is ISIS? • From Penn State Newswire, March 21, 2013 • ISIS is integral to the work and academic needs of tens of thousandsof Penn State community members daily. Not only is ISIS used to manage billing, student aid awarding, course scheduling, transcripts, and student records for Penn State students from admission through graduation, but it is also the backbone for eLion, Penn State's Web-based system for students, advisers and faculty.

5. eLion Background • Web-based application (portal) • Students (Current and Former), Advisers, Faculty, Parent/Other • Access to Information and Services • Web front-end to legacy SIS • Timeline • 1994 – Project Team Formed • 1996 – Prototype Release • 1997 – Production Release

6. eLion Student

7. ISIS Statistics • Some brief statistics • 23 Campus locations, including World Campus • 96,000Students University Wide • 1 Medical and 2 Law Schools • 21,000Degrees awarded per year • 1,839 unique student batch procedures • 17,000batch student procedures run per month • 500,000emails sent out in last 180 days • 11,000 file transfers in/out per month. • 5000+unique report definitions in our electronic document system

8. ISIS Current Interfaces Schreyer Honors College Central Person Rep. Univ. Outreach Grad School iTWO (Data WH) GI Services Degree Audit Dickinson Law Hershey Medical Global Pgms Student Aid Univ. Libraries Student Affairs Sched. of Courses Budget Office MyPenn State ANGEL Bursar eISIS Registrar STROBE EASIS Ug Adm eLion eSteward CSRS CACTUS EIS Engineering ISIS Database Database Database 8

9. PSU Unique Functionality • Undergraduate Admissions Decision Process • eSteward (Donor gift stewardship) • SRTE (Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness) • Early Progress Reporting • Loan Processing • The Graduate School Application/GRADS • Automated Collection Process

10. Build vs. Buy Option A – Do Nothing Option B – Rebuild ISIS Option C – Open Source Option D – Purchase a vendor SIS

11. Build vs. Buy Each option was evaluated using Technical skills of IT staff Skills of functional staff Viability of current technology & architecture Functional capability of current software Risks and benefits

12. Build vs. Buy

13. Benefits of Buy Modern System Faster access to new functionality Software compliance with federal regulatory requirements Vendors constantly enhance their products Support the needs of distance and continuing education learners

14. Business Process Review • Mapped Current Processes • Defined Future State Processes • Goals • Reduce number of steps in a process • Reduce/Eliminate duplicate tasks • Reduce time/effort to complete task • Increase accuracy and quality • Increase user satisfaction • Ensure consistency

15. Future State –Registrar Examples • Non-Degree Enrollment – one entry point for all types • Registration – integrate with student plan, degree audit, and course schedule; shopping cart functionality; prereq checking; waitlisting • Re-enrollment – incorporate workflow in evaluation process • Holds – alerts within Student Portal

16. Policy Review • Engaged Faculty Senate • Faculty Focus Groups • Evaluating current policies • Process to expedite policy changes • Examples • Academic Drop Policy • Course Scheduling Policy • Hold Policy

17. Request for Proposal (RFP) Goal - acquire and install a new Student Information System that supports Penn State’s traditional brick and mortar and World Campus student services for the next 15 years or more.

18. Request for Proposal (RFP) 3 Parts : Software Vendor RDBMS Systems Implementation Partner

19. Guiding Principles Inclusive process Vanilla implementation University System Opportunity for change Utilize best practices Enable consistency Things will be different but better Will not achieve perfection

20. Project StaffingPSU and Implementation Partner • Project Management team • Functional Area teams • Cross-Module Functions • Recruiting & Admissions • Records & Enrollment Advising • Student Aid • Bursar • Technical team • Change Management team • Training team

21. Proposed Project Org Chart

22. Impact to Functional Areas • Experienced / Senior-level staff moving to Project Team • Operational and Technical staff • Full time commitment • Staff remaining in office • Assume additional and/or higher-level responsibilities • Assist Project Team

23. Governance – Decision Making Current State: 13 to 1 is a tie Too many people have veto power No time limits on discussions Future State: 100% consensus is not required Effective & timely decision reduces cost Formal documented process

24. Proposed Governance Structure

25. Vision The new, student-centered information system will foster transformative thinking, increased efficiency and agile delivery of excellent and consistent services to students, faculty and staff. The system will enable robust strategic planning and data-informed decision-making across Penn State. Penn State will leverage best practices and adopt uniform business processes in support of the diversity of education delivery models and needs of the University community.

26. Project LionPATH • Student Contest to name the project • Penn State Academic Technology Hub • http://projectlionpath.psu.edu/

27. Questions? • Advice for us? Dawn Boyer dmb1@psu.edu Carol Findley csf3@psu.edu Melanie Schuster mus2@psu.edu