10 th Anniversary 1999 - 2009

1. 10th Anniversary 1999 - 2009 Making Banner Your Own! - Jeff Montgomery & Bill Balint, IUP

2. General Announcements: • Please turn off all cell phones/pagers • If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible • Please avoid side conversations during the session • Questions will be answered ….. Thank you for your cooperation

3. Problem Statement The base Banner product suite could not solve all of the information system requirements at our university – forcing us to “buy, build, work around or do without”. In many situations, the ‘build’ option provided the best outcome when all factors were considered – so we needed a method to do this without hurting ourselves.

4. Resolution Create a methodology that would permit us to enhance Banner functionality within the project management, technical and functional constraints of our university as well as our overall commitment to Banner as our ERP.

5. About Us • Indiana University of Pennsylvania • Indiana, PA • Public, Doctoral I • 14,638 students • Member, 14-university system (PASSHE) • Two regional campuses • One center and one culinary arts academy • Four 501c(3) affiliates

6. About Us (cont.) • Banner Environment • Implemented 1998-2000 • Version 8.x • Five base modules, three self-service products • Document Management, FSAatlas • Dell Linux and Dell Windows servers • Hundreds of custom-built enhancements • Heavy use of third-party products (parking, facilities, Id Card, judicial, etc.)

7. Banner Enhancement Challenges • Sungard-delivered upgrades • Five major releases since 2001 • Uniformity with Sungard-supplied solution • Authentication, look-and-feel, documentation • No new technical staffing • Limit variety of technologies

8. Enhancement Challenges (cont.) • Must ensure scarce resources are deployed appropriately • Tight, but versatile and flexible governance • Production support/daily operations cannot be compromised • R&D must be maintained and funded

9. Meeting The Challenges • Get Production Support in Order • Get Technology Stack in Order • Get Project Management Structure in Place

10. Production Support • Build a formal support model for IT Staff • “Who supports what” • “Not everybody can be responsible for everything” • Upgrade/patch support • Cross training/back ups • User Education • Reduce amount of support required

11. Technology Stack • Enhance functionality without modifying Banner • Both an interactive and batch environment needed • Version control and QA methodology are critical

12. Project Management • IT Project Governance • Prioritization method • “What constitutes a project?” • Planning • Escalations • Specification concepts • FTE splits • Obligation of the end-user • Progress reports • Flexibility, versatility, unplanned user needs

13. Project Management (cont.) • IT Project Governance • http://www.iup.edu/page.aspx?id=61681

14. Results - Personnel • Application Development Group • Coordinator • Supervisor of all group members • Senior Systems Analyst • Group technical lead • Application Administrators/DBAs • Middleware, patches, upgrades • Systems Analysts (7) • One per module/sub-module • Cross-trained backups, ancillaries

15. Results – Personnel (cont.) • Technical Services Group • Systems and Network Admin. • Hardware, base level security • User Services Group • First-level customer care • Banner navigation and ad-hoc reporting • Desktop issues (ODBC, Oracle, etc.)

16. Project Prioritization • Governance Document • Requests accepted from all – triage immediate • Non-IT Services requests routed to correct location • Production failures ‘all hands on deck’ • Two-day-and-under queue is FIFO • Remainder placed into a project priority queue

17. Project Priority Queues • Five ‘standard’ project priority queues • One for each VP and one for President • Reviewed four times a year, VP sets priorities for their queue • Typically considers recommendations from divisional IT committee • Two special queues • Council of Deans annual projects • Internal IT projects (CIO)

18. Current Technology Stack • Batch: Pro*C (Banner Job Submission) • Interactive: Web Tailor and Web PL/SQL • “Environment”: Oracle Portal, Discover, Java/JSP, etc. from campus license • Version Control: MS Visual Source Safe

19. Lessons Learned • Governance message must be consistent • Get new employees acquainted quickly • Limit spec. work until project is prioritized • Keep focus 9-18 months into the future to ease transitions (upgrade testing, new technologies)

20. Lessons Learned (cont.) • Allow executive users to set priorities – keep the target off your back • Confirm user availability before starting a project – reward those who plan effectively • Advocate for creation of IT-related functional planning committees (problem resolution, escalations)

21. Lessons Learned – IT • Employ a ‘specialist plus back up’ support model • Create ‘teaching’ web pages where you can drive users and build their skills/knowledge • Instruct users on the web page during training • Maintain a vibrant test/development environment – regular refresh of data

22. Lessons Learned – IT (cont.) • Use version control software actively • Invest in your people • User conferences, training, books, R&D • Be an asset – not a liability! • Ensure your efforts map to the mission of the institution and of your customer • Limit time spent on efforts that do not meet this criteria

23. Enhancement Model – Next Steps • Monitor the evolving Sungard HE technology stack carefully and be ready to adjust quickly • Flex, AJAX, Cognos, LifeRay, SOA, etc. • Ensure that our project governance and execution model is supported by new call-tracking system or find alternative

24. Open to the Floor • Questions • Comments Jeff Montgomery jmontgom@iup.edu Bill Balint wsbalint@iup.edu