April 29, 2003 Feature Story
Utah
State Moves Forward with Transition to SCT Banner, Collegis
Picked as Partner
 After
a two-year process of review and preparation, Utah State University
is about to begin a multi-year transition to SCT Banner, the
university's choice for the administrative data management software
platform.
In addition, this week Utah State chose Collegis as the third-party
implementer for the new software system. The decision was made
through a bidding and request for proposal (RFP) process.
"The selection of Collegis as an implementation partner
and our continued relationship with SCT as the product vendor
puts Utah State in the right position to move forward,"
said Rory Weaver, Enterprise Resource Planning project manager.
"It's a winning combination."
The actual license to install SCT Banner was authorized by the
Utah legislature and purchased by the state of Utah. The Board
of Trustees approved $6.5 million over the next five years to
be applied to the Banner migration. These costs are associated
with implementation, operation and training associated with
Banner.
The SCT Banner system will provide all-day, every-day access
to university administrative operations via the Web. The fully
integrated platform includes four main parts — administrative
finance, student system, financial aid system and human resource
system — that will place key university operations on
one common system. This provides greater efficiencies and less
redundancy and confusion among software products and networks,
allowing for better communication and consistently excellent
information services for students, faculty and staff at Utah
State.
"Collegis is looking forward to partnering with Utah State
University to implement the SCT Banner administrative system
in order to help achieve its goal of providing improved services
to the campus community," said Collegis President and CEO
Tom Huber. "We are impressed with Utah State's vision for
teaching and research, and are committed to helping make this
migration to Banner as smooth a transition as possible."
Barbara White, Utah State's vice president for Information Technology
and CIO said, "This is a university-wide initiative particularly
tied to the university's goal of adopting a new business model."
She said that everyone involved across the campus would be represented
over the next few years of the transition in committees, teams
and focus groups.
SCT Banner's functions will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven
days a week via the Web. Other features include a solution to
the current online registration system's restricted capacity,
a way to track recruitment and enrollment, and online forms
and signatures. Banner also has the ability to issue ID numbers
independent of social security numbers.
Fred Hunsaker, vice president for Administrative Services, said
Banner will mean more timely information, increased convenience
and consistent access all day every day.
"Most important, it means more accuracy," Hunsaker
said. "These are all huge issues for everyone."
All four systems of SCT Banner will be fully integrated, which
means data, such as a student name, need only be entered one
time and will be accessible by all modules.
"The whole university will be on the same system,"
said Judy LeCheminant, director of Financial Aid. "We will
be able to talk back and forth. It will give us a chance to
review how we do what we do."
Three different vendors vied for the contract. "All three
were very professional and thorough in their readiness assessment
and response to the RFP," said Weaver.
But Collegis, he said, was very specific and detailed in its
RFP. Collegis gave clear direction about how Utah State ought
to proceed and succeed.
"Having Collegis will be extremely helpful," said
LeCheminant. "They have been through it before."
The next significant step for the SCT Banner migration will
be a business process analysis (BPA) for each of the four modules,
beginning in June with the finance module.
"The business process analysis gives Utah State a chance
to clearly know which processes we need to hold on to and which
are out of date," White said. "Here's a chance, before
we implement the system, to clearly know what we do well, what
is not necessary and what is unique to Utah State University.
There will be changes in the way we do business.
"This does mean change in the way we think, how we meet
the business functions, in the way we operate and in our expectations.
It will change the way we ask questions. It will provide a more
reliable and consistent management of data that we know we can
count on," White said.
The rest of the timeline is structured so completion dates coincide
with critical university dates. For example, Banner Finance
will be implemented by the end of the university's fiscal year.
White said the BPA for Banner Student is a high priority and
is scheduled to start in July of this year. It will focus on
areas including registration, fee payment and social security
numbers.
"Students recognize the importance of a Web-enabled world
and being able to register and fill the required business processes
of the university," White said. They have become key partners
in the Banner migration and committed over $1.4 million to help
implement Banner Student.
"They want the institution to be competitive," she
said. "They want access."
"All departments involved in the migration will be disrupted
to some degree," Weaver said. He said there might be a
reallocation of staff time in some cases as people move to the
new system but still must use the old system until the migration
is complete.
For more information about Utah State's migration to SCT Banner,
visit www.usu.edu/cio/banner.htm.
About Collegis Inc.
Founded in 1986, Collegis Inc. provides comprehensive technology
services to higher education. Collegis helps colleges and universities
advance their technology by managing networks, supporting academic
and administrative applications and by redesigning curriculum
programs for today's learners. Collegis partners with institutions
to stabilize IT costs, increase revenues and better serve students
and faculty by offering unparalleled knowledge, expertise and
accountability with product-neutral technology services and
solutions exclusive to higher education. Visit the Collegis
Web site at www.collegis.com.
Contact: John DeVilbiss, (435) 797-1358, john.devilbiss@usu.edu
Writer: Danielle Hegsted, (435) 797-7196, danielle.hegsted@usu.edu
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