SCT Banner 2000
Concordia’s New Administrative Computing System

For nearly a year, some of Concordia University Wisconsin’s best and brightest staff members have been taking time out of their busy schedules to make regular trips to Concordia University River Forest, IL. They have joined their counterparts from several other Concordia’s (Austin, TX, Bronxville, NY, Irvine, CA, Portland, OR, River Forest, IL ,St Paul, MN, the St Louis Seminary, and the LCMS International Center-St Louis), in building a Banner 2000 prototype. They have been busy identifying and defining the business processes common to all the campuses, then translating that information into a computer software prototype. The Systems & Computer Technology Corporation (SCT) developed Banner 2000 to meet the changing needs of the higher education marketplace. They worked with higher education professionals to create an integrated software application based on a business process orientation and incorporating best practices. The Banner 2000 software incorporates 650 ‘workflows’ and 2700 practices. The workflows are designed to cross all the silos of information, removing artificial (departmental) boundaries and providing access to information to all those who need it. Bringing Banner to CUW is not simply a matter of the school wanting the latest and greatest software. The CUW system would not have undertaken the massive effort and expense of changing to this new system without a powerful need.

The Need for Change

Since the mid-1980’s, several of the Concordia University System campuses, including CUW, relied on the Concordia River Forest (IL) computer system to meet their administrative computing needs. The schools processed the majority of their student, financial aid, advancement, housing, admissions, registration and other records through the mainframe computer located at Concordia University River Forest (CURF). CURF’s programmers, analysts and database administrators originally designed and built the administrative computer system to meet the requirements of the individual Concordia campuses. Over the years, this system met those needs well. However, by 1996, the College Information System Advisory Committee (CISAC) recognized that the CURF system required significant hardware and software upgrades to meet the expanding needs of the campuses it served. In view of the cost and effort involved, and considering the dramatic improvements in hardware and software over the last several years, especially in the area of client-server technology, they agreed to engage a consultant in the field of computerized administrative systems to review the administrative computing equipment, functions and needs of all twelve campuses, and to recommend a strategy for future collaboration as a system of schools.

In its June 1997 meeting CASAC voted to accept a report by EDUTECH, a nationally prominent consulting firm, which contained several major points, including:

1. The current CUIS (Concordia University Information System) needed to be replaced.
2. The software for a new system should be purchased, rather than written by the schools themselves (several campuses did not participate in the CURF system, preferring instead to design and maintain their own systems).
3. An integrated solution should be purchased to avoid many of the problems involved in a best-of-breed approach.
4. The existing system needed to be replaced by a model based upon owner-participation involving all the campuses.
5. The schools should work together to share technical expertise.

The member schools agreed the existing system no longer provided them with the everyday functional tools needed to operate their institutions effectively. Without an integrated computer system, decision makers sometimes had to rely on incomplete or outdated information. Further, the member schools felt they needed to significantly enhance their capability to provide students and faculty interactivity with an administrative computing system. CISAC accepted the EDUTECH report and decided to use the recommendations to guide the new project.

Once the schools decided to commit to a new computer system, events began to move relatively rapidly. In July 1997, representatives from CUW joined their counterparts from the other campuses in St Louis to learn the procedure that would be followed in documenting the administrative and business process on each campus. The next month, the Technology Team moved forward with research on several fronts. They compiled information on each campus’s computing infrastructure, began an evaluation of vendors and software, technology futures, and support models for each campus. In addition to selecting a vendor and product, the CISAC realized that a new governance structure for the coordination and operation of the new system would be necessary.

In September 1998, the Presidents of the Concordia schools affirmed a plan calling for them to serve as a governing board, and for one representative from each campus to serve on a management council. CISAC resolved to begin a transition to the new governance structure, designated the Concordia Administrative Information System (CAIS). This is a consortium of LCMS campuses and clients for the operation of a common administrative information system. CAIS refers to the collaborative network of personnel and administrative computing activity as overseen by a CAIS Council (participatory management) and a CAIS Board (policy based governance).

Bringing Banner 2000 to Life

The LCMS Board for Higher Education/Concordia University System signed a contract with SCT (Systems & Computer Technology) Corporation in March 1999 to purchase the Banner 2000 software for use at all ten Concordia campuses, the two seminaries, and the International Center in St Louis. Less than two months later, the campus Process Teams began a series of Business Process Analysis (BPA) meetings on the campus of Concordia River Forest to start the task of defining and building a prototype application. Throughout this BPA process, the area experts (i.e. Registrars, Admissions VP’s, Business and Finance VP’s, Human Resource Directors, and Financial Aid Counselors) took the SCT Banner application and worked on incorporating all the processes common to the majority of the participating schools. Their goal was to create a prototype that would meet the common requirements of all the campuses and could be tailored locally to meet the unique needs of the individual schools.

SCT developed Banner 2000 along a dual track. In addition to the integrated system available for staff and faculty use, SCT also created ‘net-cenetric’ applications that focus on the needs of the customer and support the self-service model of 90% self-service, 8% generalist support, and 2% specialist support. Some of the Banner 2000 Web Products include: Web for Employees – which allows staff to update tax exemptions and personal data, and view earnings and job history online; Web for Students - which enables students and prospects to apply, register, and get financial aid online: Web for Executives – which puts the most up to the date information in the hands of decision makers; and Web for Faculty & Advisors – which allows faculty to post grades, advise students and manage instructional activities online.

The application consists of five primary modules: Finance, Advancement (Alumni/Development), Financial Aid, Human Resources, and Student (Registrar/Admissions/ Student Life). Each of these modules is integrated with the others and allows much greater sharing of information across departmental lines.

On July 1st, 2000, CUW will implement the first two modules of Banner 2000, Finance and Advancement. Ed Meier, CUW V.P. Business and Finance, played a leading role in developing the CUW-specific Chart of Accounts, which will be incorporated into the Banner 2000 system. Since nearly all the other modules have some connection to and reliance on Finance, it must necessarily be the first module implemented. The Finance module supports commercial accounting so that it meets CUW’s external reporting and fiscal management criteria. In addition, the software is in compliance with FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) and GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) guidelines. The Banner Finance system can be used independently, or be integrated with the other Banner modules. For example, Finance supports the Human Resources module’s payroll and labor distribution functions; the Advancement module’s gift designation needs; and the Student module’s tuition reimbursement and accounts receivable requirements. One of the best features of the Banner system is that it allows CUW to incorporate its unique policies and procedures. Finance is made up of nine additional sub-modules that can best be described as tools available for use when needed. These sub-modules include: the General Ledger, Fixed Assets, Purchasing, Cost Accounting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Stores Inventory, Investment Management, and Budget Development. CUW will not immediately make use of all these sub-modules, but the tools are available when needed.

The present schedule calls for the implementation of the Banner Alumni/Development (Advancement) module concurrently with Finance. The Advancement module provides a better method of controlling CUW’s giving and development programs by helping build a constituency, cultivate relationships, manage events, plan and monitor campaigns, and conduct fund accounting, pledge tracking and gift processing more efficiently than the present system. The Advancement module is integrated with the Student module for information on recent graduates, with the Finance module to assure FASB compliance and accurate gift designations, and with Banner 2000 Human Resources to permit pledge payments via payroll deduction. Because the Banner 2000 modules share demographic data, redundancies can be eliminated and data entry tasks can be reduced. Sandy Vick, Executive Secretary in the Friends of Concordia Office serves as the CUW team leader for the implementation of the Advancement module. The module contains nine sub-modules, which provide management with a variety of tools. The sub-modules include: Constituents, Prospect Management, Organizations, Solicitor Organization, Membership, Campaigns, Events, Designations, Gift & Pledge Processing. In addition to this, The Advancement module, like all the Banner modules, incorporates security features to safeguard sensitive information and ensure only those who have a valid need to access the data can do so.

Following the implementation of the Finance and Advancement modules, the staff will have several months to work with the new application, learn the system functions and navigation, and establish appropriate work procedures. As with all software implementations, there will undoubtedly be some adjustments to be made before everything runs smoothly. Once the initial rush of the new academic year is over and the application is running smoothly, the CUW Project team will begin finalizing preparations for the phased implementation of the remaining three modules.

In January 2001, the Human Resources module will be integrated with the Finance and Advancement modules. The HR/Payroll module automates numerous manual processes and gives the HR Director much greater control and quicker access to information. John Gresley, CUW Human Resource Director and HR Implementation team leader for CUW, presently uses a combination automated and manual systems, which include paper records along with Access databases. One of the tasks ahead of the CUW Technical Team will be to import the data from the present in-house system into the Banner system. The rule-based structure of Banner 2000 will accommodate CUW’s unique payroll, personnel, and budgeting policies and procedures. One of the challenges facing the Implementation Team will be determining how to incorporate the payroll and tax information for the out of state Adult Education sites into the Banner system. A successful implementation of the HR module should enhance the Human Resources Director’s ability to streamline personnel processing, administer sensitive HR data, and plan related financial resources with accuracy. In addition to the close integration with Finance, the HR module shares information with all the other modules. Human Resources consists of 11 sub-modules. While all these tools will be available to CUW, the Employment Administration and Payroll functions will form the basis of the initial HR implementation.

One month after HR comes online, the Implementation Team will bring up the Financial Aid module. Those who manage CUW’s Financial Aid Office are guided by a key mandate: To provide a consistently responsive, ever increasing level of service to students. Banner 2000’s Financial Aid System automates the entire financial aid process, guaranteeing equitable treatment of students and control over eligibility. The Financial Aid Office will be able to process records easily, from creation of applications through disbursement of funds to student accounts. In a recent Implementation Team briefing to the Advisory Council, Carol Masse, Financial Aid Counselor and Financial Aid Implementation Team leader for CUW, explained that while the module contains 14 sub-modules, CUW will initially concentrate on using the Applicant Record Creation, Funds Management, Requirements Tracking, Packaging, and Disbursement sub-modules. As with the tools available in the other Banner modules, the Financial Aid Office has the latitude to use which ever of the sub-modules best meets CUW’s needs.

At the beginning of April 2001, the Implementation Team will put the final piece of the Banner 2000 puzzle in place. With all the other modules already operating, CUW will be ready to implement the most highly integrated and complex module of the Banner system: Student. At the request of Dr Martin Duchow, CUW’s Registrar and Student Implementation Team leader, CUW will be the Beta test site for the Student module. Testers from the Registrar’s office, the Admissions Office, and the Student Life Office will receive an early copy of the prototype and will be charged with the task of verifying that the module works as designed, identifying any problems, and recommending any necessary changes. It is a significant undertaking and will affect how smoothly the module is integrated on all the campuses.

Since the Student module encompasses Admissions and Student Life (in addition to the registrar functions), Ken Gaschk, CUW V.P. of Enrollment Services, and Dr Andrew Luptak, CUW V.P. Student Life, have been participating both in the River Forest meetings and as an integral part of the CUW Implementation Team meetings at the Mequon campus. The integration between the Student and Financial Aid modules ensures that changes in a student’s status or schedule are immediately available to users in the financial aid office. Integration between Student, Finance, and Human Resources assures that activity in accounts receivable and payable, or in faculty assignments is immediately reflected across these systems. In addition, when students graduate, Banner automatically transitions their records to the Alumni module. The Student module consists of 15 key sub-modules:

• Course Catalog
• Class Schedule
• General Person
• Events Management
• Faculty Load
• Recruiting
• Admissions
• General Student
• Registration
• Location Management & Housing
• Accounts Receivable
• Academic Records/Transfer Articulation
• Degree Audit; and
• Banner 2000 Web for Students.
• (only 14 are listed here, as CUW will not use the 15th module)

Preparing the Infrastructure

Implementing Banner 2000 required the introduction of several technologies new to CUW. Mark Newhouse, CUW Network Administrator and Technical Team Leader for the implementation, procured and directed the installation and setup of the two new servers that will form the backbone of the system. Banner relies on an Oracle database, which, in this case, is installed on a very large server using an Open VMS operating system. Since CUW did not use this technology on any of its other systems, the introduction of this equipment required the IT technical support staff to attend a series training classes designed to teach them how to operate and maintain the equipment and the application. By having the same equipment and software configuration as the CAIS service center and the other Concordia campuses, CUW will be able to share information and draw on the expertise at those other schools should any problems occur. Representatives from CAIS and the SCT Corporation visited the CUW campus during the last week of November to load the Oracle database and help configure the servers. Over the next few months, the IT technicians will continue to learn about the new system while working with the prototype application.

Preparing for the arrival of Banner 2000 on campus means more than just procuring and installing new equipment – it means preparing people. A milestone in this process occurred in October, when the CUW Process Team leaders presented a briefing on Banner 2000 to the Advisory Council and other invited guests. The next step involves a similar briefing to the faculty and staff to introduce them to Banner’s capabilities and to make them aware of what to expect over the next 18 months while Banner is being implemented in phases. In November 1999, the SCT Team members began attending a series of technical training courses explaining the integration and interdependencies built into the application. Beginning in January 2000, the team leaders will begin going to training classes to teach them the nuts and bolts of using Banner. In addition, Mark Newhouse, the CUW Network Administrator, loaded a ‘Banner 2000 Navigation Instructional CD onto one of the servers. Those people who will be using Banner on a regular basis use this CD to learn the skills necessary to use the application. Once these people are fully trained, they will become the trainers for the end users. The process of training the end users will begin in March 2000, and will continue throughout the implementation.

Because the new system incorporates client-server technology, new hardware and top of the line software, it should serve Concordia University Wisconsin’s needs well into the future.