LCC BPRASA Final Report - NSCC MyWeb 2.0myweb.northshore.edu/users/gham/ODS/NSCC-SA-Final-Report.doc · Web view2.2.6 Determine End User Reporting Capabilities 11 2.2.7 Develop Common

North Shore Community College

Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment

Prepared by: Debbie Head, Sr. Functional Consultant, Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics

Date: December 7, 2007

SunGard Higher Education Project Manager Hector deZayasNorth Shore Community College Project Manager Patrick Thomas

North Shore Community College CIO Gary Ham

North Shore Community CollegeBanner Performance Reporting &

AnalyticsStrategic Assessment

Confidential Business Information

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Prepared By: SunGard Higher Education

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Issued: January 2005

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Table of Contents

1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................8

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................8

2.1 Overview............................................................................................................................ 8

2.2 Summary Observations and Solutions.........................................................................10

2.2.1 Establish Groundwork to Embrace a Culture of Change.....................................102.2.2 Appoint a Strategic Reporting Team.....................................................................102.2.3 Create a Central Report Library.............................................................................112.2.4 Balance Data Access with Data Security..............................................................112.2.5 Develop and Implement a Training Plan...............................................................112.2.6 Determine End User Reporting Capabilities.........................................................112.2.7 Develop Common Data Definitions.......................................................................112.2.8 Review Insecure Data.............................................................................................112.2.9 Recognize the ODS as the Single Source for Ad hoc Reporting........................122.2.10 Gain a more complete Knowledge of Banner Data Columns by Studying the ODS Metadata.......................................................................................................................... 122.2.11 Assign a Working Owner of the ODS Initiative.....................................................122.2.12 Assign ODS Technical Tasks.................................................................................122.2.13 Assign ODS Functional Tasks...............................................................................122.2.14 Brief the Executive Sponsor of the Strategic Reporting Initiative about the Importance of the Role...........................................................................................................12

2.3 Summary Recommendations.........................................................................................13

2.3.1 Allow for Time to Ascend the Learning Curve......................................................132.3.2 Collaborate in the Report Writing Process...........................................................132.3.3 Judge the Value of Shadow Systems....................................................................132.3.4 Consider Implementing the Enterprise Data Warehouse....................................132.3.5 Cultivate a Process to Convert Operational Data into Strategic Data................132.3.6 Identify Data to Assess Unique Outcomes of Success.......................................132.3.7 Contemplate Assigning ODS Functional Tasks to Institutional Research.........142.3.8 Identify Well-Developed Reporting Processes and Model Them........................142.3.9 Improve Communication........................................................................................142.3.10 Assure that all Business Areas Have “A Seat at the Table”................................142.3.11 Use This Report.......................................................................................................14



3 OBJECTIVE.................................................................................................14

4 ASSESSMENT PROCESS...........................................................................15

5 OBSERVATIONS IN DETAIL.......................................................................15

5.1 Current Tools Used for Reporting.................................................................................15

5.2 Control of Information Access.......................................................................................16

5.3 Current State of Information Access.............................................................................16

5.3.1 Programmers and DBAs.........................................................................................165.3.2 Functional Areas.....................................................................................................165.3.3 Executive Committee..............................................................................................18

5.4 Desired State of Information Access.............................................................................18

5.4.1 Programmers and DBAs.........................................................................................185.4.2 Functional Areas.....................................................................................................18

5.4.2.1 From the Student Success area:...........................................................................185.4.2.2 From the Human Resources area:........................................................................195.4.2.3 From the Regulatory, Cross Functional area:........................................................195.4.2.4 From the Accounts Receivable area:....................................................................195.4.2.5 From the Student Recruitment and Admissions area:...........................................205.4.2.6 From the Financial Aid area:.................................................................................205.4.2.7 From the Enrollment, Registration, Course Management area:............................205.4.2.8 From the Instructional Support area:.....................................................................215.4.2.9 From the Advancement area:................................................................................225.4.2.10 From the Budget Mangers area:...........................................................................225.4.2.11 From the Academic Assessment area:..................................................................225.4.2.12 From the Financial Services area:.........................................................................23

5.4.3 Executive Committee..............................................................................................23

5.5 Information Access Challenges.....................................................................................23

5.5.1 Programmers and DBAs.........................................................................................235.5.2 Functional Areas.....................................................................................................245.5.3 Executive Committee..............................................................................................25

5.6 What We Do Well.............................................................................................................25

5.6.1 Programmers and DBAs.........................................................................................255.6.2 Functional Areas.....................................................................................................25

5.7 What We Can Do Better..................................................................................................26

5.7.1 Programmers and DBAs.........................................................................................26



5.7.2 Functional Areas.....................................................................................................26

6 RECOMMENDATIONS IN DETAIL..............................................................27

6.1 Establish an Institutional Structure to Support Reporting..........................................27

6.1.1 Executive Sponsorship...........................................................................................276.1.2 Working Owner........................................................................................................276.1.3 ODS Administrator(s).............................................................................................276.1.4 Strategic Reporting Team.......................................................................................286.1.5 Data Stewards.........................................................................................................296.1.6 Technical Team.......................................................................................................29

6.2 Establish a Report Library.............................................................................................29

6.3 Institute a Training Plan.................................................................................................29

6.4 Use the Report Inventory...............................................................................................30

6.5 Conduct a Data Inventory...............................................................................................30

6.6 Consider Technology Implications................................................................................30

6.7 Select a Reporting Tool..................................................................................................31

6.8 Report from the Operational Data Store As Soon As It’s Available............................32

6.9 Use Strengths, Tools and People Effectively...............................................................32

7 ACRONYMS.................................................................................................32

8 DEFINITIONS...............................................................................................33

9 APPENDICES..............................................................................................34

9.1 Information: The Common Component........................................................................34

9.2 Banner Performance & Reporting Analytics Maturity Model......................................35

9.3 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Preparation Instructions................................................................................................................................. 36

9.4 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Interview Schedule...................................................................................................................................... 38

9.5 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Overview.........41



9.6 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Survey Instrument................................................................................................................................... 43

9.6.1 Programmers & DBAs............................................................................................459.6.1.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................459.6.1.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 459.6.1.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................46

9.6.2 Student Success.....................................................................................................489.6.2.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................489.6.2.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 489.6.2.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................50

9.6.3 Human Resources...................................................................................................529.6.3.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................529.6.3.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 529.6.3.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................53

9.6.4 Regulatory, State and Cross Functional Reporting.............................................549.6.4.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................549.6.4.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 549.6.4.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................55

9.6.5 Accounts Receivable..............................................................................................579.6.5.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................579.6.5.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 579.6.5.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................58

9.6.6 Student Recruitment & Admissions......................................................................599.6.6.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................599.6.6.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 599.6.6.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................60

9.6.7 Financial Aid............................................................................................................629.6.7.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................629.6.7.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 629.6.7.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................63

9.6.8 Enrollment, Registration, Course Management...................................................649.6.8.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................649.6.8.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 649.6.8.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................65

9.6.9 Instructional Support..............................................................................................669.6.9.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................669.6.9.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 669.6.9.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................66

9.6.10 Advancement...........................................................................................................689.6.10.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................689.6.10.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 689.6.10.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................69

9.6.11 Executive Committee..............................................................................................70



9.6.11.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................709.6.11.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 709.6.11.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................70

9.6.12 Budget Managers....................................................................................................719.6.12.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................719.6.12.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 719.6.12.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................71

9.6.13 Academic Assessment...........................................................................................739.6.13.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................739.6.13.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 739.6.13.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................73

9.6.14 Financial Services...................................................................................................759.6.14.1 Attendees..............................................................................................................759.6.14.2 Reports.................................................................................................................. 759.6.14.3 Additional Questions.............................................................................................75



1 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the interview participants at North Shore Community College for taking the time to provide thoughtful and insightful feedback for the purposes of completing this assessment. Let me offer a special thanks to Janice Forsstrom, Gary Ham and Patrick Thomas for their assistance and hospitality.

2 Executive Summary

2.1 Overview

In the 2006 Performance Management Report North Shore is described as:

“North Shore Community College (NSCC) blends tradition and innovation, liberal arts and career preparation, intellectual development and cultural growth, creating a community of learners where all are welcome and each is challenged. North Shore offers lifelong education responsive to evolving technology, a global economy, and the shifting roles faced by individuals and institutions”.1

The NSCC staff is an excellent example of the blend suggested above. They are certainly willing to learn the evolving technology so they can better perform their responsibilities. Each person was keenly interested in being able to respond quickly and effectively to questions about the college. Given the change in reporting capabilities, NSCC is on the brink of launching the institution to a much higher level. (See Level 3 on the BPRA model, Section 9.2)

In a review of the Strategic Plan, one of the strategic goals of NSCC states:

Institutional Resources: Preparation and Planning for Growth

“North Shore Community College will enable implementation of the College’s strategic goals by responsibly managing its resources and by planning and preparing a support system for growth”. 2

To this end, NSCC has taken a strategic step in selecting and implementing an enterprise wide solution to reporting for the campus. To utilize the available technology resources, as well as the personnel, places the college in line with planning for the future growth and development of the institution.

North Shore is employing a practical approach to creating the environment which will sustain effective information access. With the migration to SunGard Higher Education’s Operational Data Store, NSCC is making steady progress toward this goal. North Shore is wise to begin their implementation process with careful consideration of their long-term goals with respect to reporting and information access. With obvious commitment to providing excellent educational opportunities to students, the ability to access reliable, consistent reports and to grow in the development of true business intelligence will be a

1 2006 Performance Management Report, “North Shore Community College” (2006) p. 94, 2 NSCC Goals 2009-13, p. 1.Page 8 Confidential Business Information



critical factor that will contribute to NSCC’s future aspirations. The critical needs being addressed by the ODS include:

being able to readily access data for a growing complex organization with multiple campuses

maintaining consistent and accurate information for reporting across the institution

developing and maintaining authoritative data definitions across campus

For the greatest benefit in this area to be achieved, there will be a need to go beyond the collection of operational and management data to an analysis of data for strategic purposes across all educational and business units. Direct end user access to information contained in the Banner system through reports that will be available via the ODS will help to satisfy this objective.

Currently, North Shore Community College relies heavily on reporting that is largely operational in nature, most of which is provided through the efforts of the Office of Information Systems. Based on the feedback gathered during the focus group sessions, the majority of information access available at NSCC is currently at the staff (detailed) and management (trend and summary) levels of the information access pyramid (See Appendix 9.1). What’s needed is for data analysis to extend to the executive (performance) level of the pyramid.

North Shore’s plan is for Information Systems and identified power users to create and publish queries. It is hoped that as functional users capable of attaining report writing skills are identified and trained, reporting opportunities will be extended out to the business areas.

Once NSCC institutes the Operational Data Store, end users will be able to create their own ad hoc reports in an environment that offers the ability to access point-in-time data sets. The ODS extracts data from Banner and simplifies the data structures, making it much easier to access and generate consistent reports. In addition, the ODS will allow users to perform operational and ad hoc reporting with less involvement from IS, permitting a greater ability for end users to identify questions and explore answers within the information available.

NSCC, a long standing Banner client, wants to optimize the use of information and information systems to facilitate business and decision-making processes in order to better serve their various constituencies. This endeavor will not be without challenges as the current levels of operational support, which are in many instances driven by numerous locally written reports combining data extracts with some manual processes, may have to be maintained as the college transitions to newer processes. However, the end benefit of integrated information and end user information access autonomy far outweigh the growing pains to get there.

Focus groups across the institution highlighted a significant number of these manually maintained “shadow systems” currently in use to organize and format data into meaningful presentations. This translates into numerous data entry points and is likely (in part) to explain why “the same report doesn’t always provide the same results.” The desire to eliminate shadow systems, where possible, was identified in most groups. With respect to this objective, the implementation of the ODS is likely to have these Page 9 Confidential Business Information



outcomes. Dialogue will be sparked about process streamlining and improvement, which will ideally lead to the reduction or elimination of as many shadow processes via incorporation into the ODS when possible.

Without exception, there was acknowledgement of the need for the ODS, to establish a medium for ad hoc reporting capabilities and to make data available to end users.

Five keys to the success of North Shore’s evolving information access efforts will be to:

1. Prepare the campus for a culture change in reporting 2. Establish a Strategic Reporting Team to address reporting issues3. Create a Central Report Library4. Balance data access with security5. Develop an on-going training plan

The Operational Data Store is designed to empower end users to manage their own data retrieval needs. However training that specifically explains the data and, perhaps more importantly, the metadata (i.e., what the data means and how data can be tied together) will foster user confidence and promote more effective use of the administrative systems. NSCC end users are accustomed to depending on others to provide their reports and to retrieve data. To grow in ability to use information effectively, end users will need to gain experience and confidence in their abilities to obtain the information available efficiently.

2.2 Summary Observations and Solutions

Many of the comments made during the focus group interviews centered on the following concerns. Following each concern is an action step to address the concern. These are organized in order of importance to the initiative.

2.2.1 Establish Groundwork to Embrace a Culture of Change

Prepare the campus to welcome the changes that implementation of the ODS will usher in. Include Change Management in the training plan. NSCC is currently in a position of being heavily reliant upon the IS department for their reporting needs. Transitioning to an environment of more access will also lead to more responsibility of each department in validating, analyzing and actually using their own data for decision making and planning. Communicate, communicate, and communicate.

2.2.2 Appoint a Strategic Reporting Team

The creation of a Strategic Reporting Team is vital for NSCC and has the potential to solve many of the issues surrounding information access. In addition to supporting and improving reporting across both the educational and business units of North Shore, the team will immediately provide a conduit for communication. (See Section 6.1.4 for Strategic Reporting Team specifications.)

The Team can be developed from the existing Banner Implementation Team and its agenda should be built from the items in Section 2.2 “Summary Observations” and Section 2.3 “Summary Recommendations”. The team can be divided into task groups by

Page 10 Confidential Business Information



business area, with each task group charged with examining each item in Section 5.4.2 “The Desired State of Information Access” and prioritizing them.

2.2.3 Create a Central Report Library

Plan to create an organized, centralized report library, with descriptions of each report which will allow end users easy access to run reports. By planning the purpose, audience, and authors, the reports that can satisfy multiple users should reduce the overall number of individual reports that would be required. The library will also facilitate consistency in reporting as well as in delivery appearance of the data.This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team. (See section 6.2 for library guidelines link.)

2.2.4 Balance Data Access with Data Security

Develop a plan to broaden data access using the ODS while insuring data security. NSCC has a tremendous amount of valuable data that is not readily available to the owners of the data or to those whose jobs require data for analysis, planning or operational purposes. This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.

2.2.5 Develop and Implement a Training Plan

Training will be an important area to address for North Shore functional areas with respect to the ODS and the chosen reporting tool. To make the most of the investment the ODS represents, a formal training plan and process should be in place and regularly evaluated in light of effectiveness. Powerful systems, in the hands of end users who have limited understanding of system functionality or capacity, will not be used to maximum benefit. It is strongly suggested that training for reporting be included at several levels, and that all participants in training be given the opportunity to identify how they can obtain operation information that is important to their ongoing responsibilities. (See Section 6.3 for specifications.) This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.

2.2.6 Determine End User Reporting Capabilities

Decide the extent to which end users will be able to create their own reports. Not everyone will be a power user. Some will simply run reports from the report library. NSCC has a very capable staff that is ready to be responsible for their own data and reporting. Information Services staff will continue to be support and trainer for end users. This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.

2.2.7 Develop Common Data Definitions

Establish commonly agreed upon data definitions that apply to all business areas. This will lead to data standardization, which will yield big payoffs when using the reporting library. This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.




2.2.8 Review Insecure Data

Because reporting is not currently easily accessible to end-users, many shadow systems have been established across the institution. Some of these systems may hold important and/or sensitive data in various levels of security and stability. Such data may include personal identification and/or financial information. It is recommended that each functional area document data that is held in such systems, and that a practice of purging sensitive data from laptops or desktops that are not highly secure be established as soon as possible

2.2.9 Recognize the ODS as the Single Source for Ad hoc Reporting

To ensure data reporting integrity - multiple users receiving identical results – a plan to promote the Operational Data Store as the one and only source for ad hoc reporting would yield significant benefits.

2.2.10 Gain a more complete Knowledge of Banner Data Columns by Studying the ODS Metadata

Although Banner has been deployed for many years at NSCC, some Banner fields useful for analysis have not been populated. A thorough knowledge of data columns available in Banner will come with careful study of the ODS metadata. As staff members learn the ODS, they may realize there are some untapped Banner fields that will easily feed into the ODS, making reporting easier.

2.2.11 Assign a Working Owner of the ODS Initiative

This person will lead the implementation with excellent organizational, project management, and relationship building skills. They will build and manage the work of the Strategic Reporting Team. This person can be either technical or functional. They will be the point person for communication regarding the initiative.

2.2.12 Assign ODS Technical Tasks

Technical tasks such as installing and refreshing the ODS, reviewing logs and control files, installing patches, updating display rules, creating frozen data files, managing security, and managing reporting tool performance, should be assigned to someone in Information Systems. (See Section 6.1.3 for a list of all technical tasks associated with ODS administration.)

2.2.13 Assign ODS Functional Tasks

Functional tasks such as maintaining the metadata, coordinating the training plan, establishing and maintaining the report library, and communicating with end users about the initiative, can be divided among IS and the Working Owner. (See Section 6.1.3 for a list of all functional tasks associated with ODS administration.)




2.2.14 Brief the Executive Sponsor of the Strategic Reporting Initiative about the Importance of the Role

An information access initiative requires unwavering executive commitment from the highest level(s) of the organization. Executive level endorsement of the project is critical to its success. When issues arise, someone at the executive level will see to it that these issues are escalated and resolved. Janice Forsstrom, Vice President of Administration and Finance, has been identified for this role.

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2.3 Summary Recommendations

It is hoped that the engagement of the groups across the enterprise sparked further dialogue about redefining the culture of information access as North Shore moves forward with the implementation. The following additional recommendations are made in support of the development of an effective reporting environment at the North Shore Community College. These are not organized in order of importance to the initiative.

2.3.1 Allow for Time to Ascend the Learning Curve

Prevent frustration among staff as they attempt to balance their work day between ODS reporting and their regular duties by offering time set aside to gain knowledge of the ODS and the reporting tool.

2.3.2 Collaborate in the Report Writing Process

Plan for improved data sharing and de-emphasize the silo mentality of “this is my data and you can’t have it”. Fostering continued collaboration should be a main goal of the new Strategic Reporting Team.

2.3.3 Judge the Value of Shadow Systems

Use this opportunity to determine if data currently housed in a shadow system (either third party application, Access database or Excel spreadsheet) has a home in Banner, or not. For those shadow systems that must remain outside of Banner, a process to map them to the ODS should be developed if reporting is desired.

2.3.4 Consider Implementing the Enterprise Data Warehouse

While operational and ad hoc reporting needs are being met, it’s also wise to begin to examine historical data and look at trends, and the existing need to store and maintain such data. The Operational Data Store platform provides a snapshot of yesterday’s information. To provide comparisons of information over time requires such “snapshots” be stored for future reference. It is not too early to start projecting information needs now.




2.3.5 Cultivate a Process to Convert Operational Data into Strategic Data

In Section 5.4 “The Desired State of Information Access”, end users listed many data items that point to a desire for strategic data collection. Yet when one looks at the column marked “Strategic Planning and Research,” on the focus group survey questionnaire, few reports were mentioned. Apart from federal and state mandated collections, and college guidebook surveys, there is a large gap between management data that exists and strategic data that is desired. This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.

2.3.6 Identify Data to Assess Unique Outcomes of Success

Construct new measurements to capture successful student outcomes intrinsic to a community college, which replace traditional retention and graduation rate measurements. Many of the focus groups were interested in new and different measures to use in order to track success and accomplishment. Finding a way to code and enter those in Banner and then subsequently report on those elements will add validity and creativity to the mission of the college.

2.3.7 Contemplate Assigning ODS Functional Tasks to Institutional Research

Functional tasks such as maintaining the metadata, coordinating the training plan, establishing and maintaining the report library, and communicating with end users about the initiative, are frequently assigned to Institutional Research because they have developed excellent organizational, project management, and relationship building skills due to the nature of institutional research. (See Section 6.1.3 for a list of all technical and functional tasks associated with ODS administration.)

2.3.8 Identify Well-Developed Reporting Processes and Model Them

Identify business areas that are progressing nicely towards well developed reporting processes. From this, develop a template to design a university-wide process for training end users how to do reporting. Examine the strategy used to motivate and train the staff in these already successful areas and roll it out to other business areas. This should be an agenda item for the Strategic Reporting Team.

2.3.9 Improve Communication

The work of the Strategic Reporting Team should pave the way for improvements in university-wide communication concerning the ODS initiative. There should be three-way communication between the Team, End Users, and the university as a whole. Training schedules and committee agendas should be published to a central website. Clear expectations should be set at the Executive level for staff to stay informed about this initiative and to attend meetings and training opportunities. Effective communication is key to the success of this project.




2.3.10 Assure that all Business Areas Have “A Seat at the Table”

Address any concerns that a business area feels left out of the data planning, gathering and reporting processes.

2.3.11 Use This Report

Use the information in this report during the ODS implementation process. Provide the report, or portions of it, to consultants who work with NSCC. Use it as a guide when discussing interfaces and integrations. Use the observations and recommendations to fashion the agenda for the Strategic Reporting Team.

3 Objective

The objective of this engagement was to assess the requirements for and capabilities of business reporting in support of operational, management and executive needs for he North Shore Community College with concern for all areas of the enterprise. Based on the information gathered from the staff interviews, we are providing high-level observations and recommendations for strategic approaches to meet those needs and as appropriate, tactical approaches to meet more specific and critical short-term needs.

4 Assessment Process

Information to support the assessment was gathered using the following method:

Fourteen focus group interviews were scheduled over three days with representative members of the technical and business areas, as well as the Executive Committee. The interviews focused on the general information requirements for reporting in support of NSCC’s operational, management, executive, and planning needs. The interview schedule may be found in Appendix 9.3.

Various North Shore planning documents were also reviewed including:

2006 Performance Management Report

Strategic Plan 2003-2008

http://www.northshore.edu/profile/strategic.html

NSCC Strategic Plan 2009-2013 Goals

NSCC Planning and Institutional Research News Brief (2007)

NSCC Mission Statement

http://www.northshore.edu/profile/history.htmlf


http://www.ucok.edu/ir/Factbook/factbook0607.pdf

http://www.northshore.edu/profile/strategic.html



5 Observations in Detail

These observations are drawn from the content of the assessment interviews. The notes associated with the interview sessions may be found in Appendix 9.5.

5.1 Current Tools Used for Reporting

MS Access MS Excel IS applications Self Service

applications SQL Banner extracts Population Selections screen shots pencil and notepad shadow systems SPSS Banner Object

Access views

MS Word SQR PRO-C PRO-Cobol Java xml html SMART Blumen Information

Systems Canned Banner

reports State data warehouse LCM

Hard copy Document Direct HEIRS Cognos Pdf Job submission

messenger Pipeline

5.2 Control of Information Access

Supporting data and/or information is stored both locally under end users’ control and also stored and managed by Information Systems in Banner. Many business areas extract data from Banner using a variety of methods and then re-key the data into Excel or Access. Human Resources data is in a state-mandated system so extracts are handled through the state information data warehouse.

5.3 Current State of Information Access

5.3.1 Programmers and DBAs

This group described the current state as:

highly centralized fairly good regarding State warehouse HR is somewhat independent General Ledger not so independent – cross walk tables to get from Banner to

State System Ad hoc requests for data Functional departments vary in skills and desire to report Pop sels within departments data extracts using reconciliation reports that may not be reliable get it as we want and as quickly as we want




5.3.2 Functional Areas

Positive or neutral comments were:

some tracking done via paper (note-takers, sign language interpreters) using Access to track visits, contacts, who they saw, purpose of visit –

advising, tutoring, change of advisor, etc. shared data between Trio Student services and Student Services using Cohorts to identify Trio students data entry into Access comfortable satisfied with State data warehouse system good very good service from IS comfortable with Banner a strength in knowing and using Banner not terrible it’s working

Negative descriptions of information access were:

heavy data entry (some duplicated information that is in Banner) into Access databases for Student Support services from data sheets

not very user friendly or usable using In-take forms to gather data that may not be totally accurate manual data entry double data entry in multiple sources totally dependent on IS department too many steps to get one report cumbersome difficult to cross check data difficult to understand the processes in reports written long ago some of the programs have hard coded parameters, so hard to edit

programming discrepancy reporting wash data through state system for validation many ad hoc requests for data manual data manipulation convoluted reports very hard to deal with inflexible reporting using popsels to get data very old reports that need updating too many ad hoc requests very careful about asking for too much data from IS too many steps to get a report some old and inflexible reports graduation Reports don’t match don’t have complete confidence in some of the data inconsistency among data coding a little cumbersome in some reporting processes




tedious, time consuming using older prewritten reports manual data analysis Excel data bases extracting from Banner and putting in Excel not automatic on line is view only cumbersome can’t get exactly what we want, create a spreadsheet for each category to track payments have to keep separate database for some items (kilowatts, etc) labor intensive reactionary silos inconsistent time consuming incomplete tedious found work-arounds to meet needs inconsistent-can’t get all information from same report complicated

5.3.3 Executive Committee

IS and IR provide reports Stifling need to be able to get reports themselves

5.4 Desired State of Information Access


graduation petition reports re-writing reconciliation reports in Discoverer incorporating external data sources into ODS delivering reports automatically via Pipeline core definitions of data – FTF have users comfortable with ODS to extract their own data with ease IS will provide training technical assistance power users to become more proactive/less reactive have power users know where the data is coming from getting over fear of learning new system need budget development linking to student information regarding enrollment projected enrollments, projected revenues, etc, freeze data


Functional area users’ wish lists consisted of the following:Page 18 Confidential Business Information



5.4.2.1 From the Student Success area:

would like to be able track STEP, transfer/credit students reports on incoming transfer students- number of credits, number of colleges monitor outgoing transfer students be able to report about CAPP – curriculum committee changes generate activity transcripts and student portfolios would like report of IDs produced to be able to contact those who need ids better utilizing Banner need to code students for tracking purposes (Notetakers, etc) better able to document for reports finalize and get the Intake form data into Banner so data canned be shared

reliably among programs long term planning data DOE data differs number of students who receive advising, from what source, by campus, # of

contact, number of major changes retention data credits increased, gpa increased how do these questions relate to advising or other services correlation of services to results career placement by program of student who is employed and assisted by

office, contacts with CP office monthly report of Trio students articulated courses for tech prep students, list of students who take courses so

can follow up following special programs students by using cohorts to track need comments on advising referrals needed

5.4.2.2 From the Human Resources area:

automate Request For Employment (RFE) reporting time and attendance in a more efficient manner able to run course listing by department/ faculty member

5.4.2.3 From the Regulatory, Cross Functional area:

self service in creating reports ease of creation of reports ease of access executives able to view enrollment data at beginning of day enhancements to pies on Pipeline dashboards delivered to users flexibility to design my own queries Economic Impact Study upcoming faster




5.4.2.4 From the Accounts Receivable area:

speed accuracy AR and Financial Aid data combined easily no discrepancy in numbers list of AR details to link back to student accounts for audit being able to manipulate the data be able to create reports without having to get several canned reports and then

combine manually be able to generate reports such as : average amount of time for student to

pay, check for students who are 2 weeks/ 4 weeks overdue want more granularity in data link of faculty, credits and AR need reports to help isolate/identify problems need flexibility in reporting to handle different requests each day more timely responsiveness being able to do trend analysis on the data

5.4.2.5 From the Student Recruitment and Admissions area:

accepted and registered Report (current one is not accurate) report of prospects, applied, accepted, enrolled (funnel) yield rates of applied to accepted, accepted to enrolled focus attention on populations for recruitment purposes duplicates report able to sort OTSE (any cohort) students in a variety ways automatically able to produce lists of students by variety of fields (age, schools, city, etc) to

follow up for recruiting list of students with different residency codes report of applicants of non-credit and credit students registering on line number of students taking credit and non-credit classes easier demographic reports of non-credit students (age, zip, geo area, etc) two years of data for comparisons for trend analysis revenue divided by number of participants to get average spent in area discrepancy reports missing data reports easier way to send data of prospects to academic side of house weekly report of when prospects become applicants trend analysis on prospect pool create Career Center communications need number of attendees at Open Houses, appointments, etc consistency of data

5.4.2.6 From the Financial Aid area:

report to notify of changed matriculation status students coming in with prior degrees work-study report to track total expenditures FISAP total expenditures of on-campus vs off campus jobs




total expenditures for community service type jobs combined withdrawal report of federal and state funds alerts reports that will update tracking item in Banner able to design and do own reporting being more proactive trend data

5.4.2.7 From the Enrollment, Registration, Course Management area:

list of courses by department for planning courses offering capacity reports for credit and non-credit classes repeat-course report look at students who haven’t paid, but are registered cross check with financial aid list of students who web registered but not paid, schedule to printer by subject description course enrollment trends by campus, sections, total enrollment graduation reports bachelor’s reports with financial aid combined into one report students with over 45 hours in their program of study report of specialized groups with certain number of credit hours conditional report (students admitted conditionally) room usage with conflict indicators no-show list refund status report grade report – select grades to list

5.4.2.8 From the Instructional Support area:

health records of students in health professions (currently in Excel) CORI (Criminal Offense Record Id)- background, sexual offender records

(coding pass or no pass) able to pull data on each department’s course information credit and non-credit course analysis of drop rates by course/sections grade distribution of distance learning and by section class lists and contact info for program directors remote access to class lists for others than instructors student contact information for mailings by program of study improved assessment of distance ed courses zip code data by program (non credit and credit) repeat data of students who take non credit courses and now take credit

courses, how many courses they took and how much spent, type of courses taken for segment marketing

how do students align in taking non credit and credit courses track students with credentials coded tracking movement of students through college system collectively by cohorts

and individuals – courses, programs, grades, services used, demographic data, profiles of students to help with decisions about services provided

advisor information on student directory credits earned by student in programs




outside entity (OE) contract data part-time faculty class schedules information on students by level, by advisor, by cohort faculty and advisees assigned catalog changes in a time period to make sure done in CAPP curriculum change audit program to check/find changes advisor lists of students by level list of students by day/ day & evening/ evening only distance learning, non-credit etc., count of students by advisor/program departmental listing of students’ courses pre req report list of all students who haven’t passed specified prereq by program list of adjuncts and credentials for catalog/web publishing getting credentials of full and part time faculty credentials in Banner faculty courses taught over the last four years for accreditation managing, reporting on programs that have specialized competitive admissions

requirements students taking one on-line course vs taking all on-line courses student demographics – ft, withdrawal, retention, etc, number of students in on-line program, number of classroom credits, number of

on-line credits enrollment data automatic correlation of on-line students to services used better way to do master schedule faculty load classroom assignments by type of classroom room utilization have quicker response time

5.4.2.9 From the Advancement area:

Prospect Management Event Management quick and easy tracking donors, their history, visits, plans workflow reporting more staff

5.4.2.10 From the Budget Mangers area:

getting reports by vendors original purchase order activities getting original data to compare to current set up coding for items (by building ease of reporting reporting on projects reporting on activity codes reporting for budget planning year to dates expenses across fund code, activity, etc, pull grant data by specified fund type




be able to report on commodity codes across divisions, etc

5.4.2.11 From the Academic Assessment area:

able to get adjunct faculty lists able to list students taking service learning courses need to code SL courses in Banner may be going toward Trackdat include GED students in Banner follow up on students with placement scores and how they do in classes ability to follow up with students who have certain grades study of student success based on grades in certain courses tracking testing done off site by high school, by population following up on students courses by test location want to store CNET scores so they can follow up on number of nursing

students

5.4.2.12 From the Financial Services area: be able to enter account number and trace back to student side be able to print sort, etc on feed by detail codes, cashier session, feed docs be able to use activity code for tracking projects grant managers want beginning information ex can’t follow purchase order

through tracking requisition by grant easier way to prepare spreadsheets for year end financial reports for KPG manage re-class entries users can use simplified data for reporting be able to sort and manipulate bank check reports put payroll data into ODS part time employee payroll info budget and grant management ability to do Student Health Insurance payment and reconciliation better able to research detail behind account codes and attached to feed codes

5.4.3 Executive Committee graphical depiction of data dealing with requests for data in new formats faculty workloads routine running of expected reports (5 year data by program) obtainable information consistency of data accuracy of data quick success in reporting trend data

5.5 Information Access Challenges


Concerns expressed by this group included:

how to get everyone working toward same goalsPage 23 Confidential Business Information



variability among departments in readiness using ODS to offload some reporting from IS to departments not all business done in Banner – payroll in PS, GL in another system home grown systems in state using data extracts from all outsources how to use ODS to manage data from multiple data sources security making sure senior management treats project as a priority learning curve for ODS and reporting tool


Functional staff expressed the following concerns:

getting data into Banner that allows tracking of students and what services they use

can’t always get data on accommodations used security not duplicating data double validation of data bad data time to learn system documentation of definitions communication about changes in Banner definition issues (Freshmen nurses) culture change in way to get and produce reports knowledge of Banner tables and understanding of data getting access to the data to be more proactive Popsels too cumbersome currently information overload deciding priorities realistic expectations prospect data ownership of data data not quite what expected changing reporting requirements annually making sure coding is correct in Banner pressure on IS to get data asap understanding and correcting data discrepancy get the data and let data form policies cumbersome process of reporting so many steps to do alumni reports consistency of data time training security getting some data into Banner (activity codes for projects, test sources,

locations) managing encumbrances having to change purchase orders reporting confidential data




monthly shutdown of Banner causes problems with testing multiple sources of data do not want to mechanize program review data documentation of processes reconciliation between multiple systems financial aid and bookstore application of payment processes


institutional policies what will the follow up be after training training resources around training unionized issues with training time managing expectations

5.6 What We Do Well


everything responsive collective will power of the IS team treat every request seriously meet demands communicating with team, end users and management doing beyond their role descriptions – working with end users to get them to

understand look for long-term solutions


Staff reported that they do the following well when it comes to reporting:

IS department support helps articulate what data they need everything great support from IS team work exceed expectations, put out fires responsive to requests for data IS programmers provide good service meet expectations in a timely manner even with limited accessibility, consistent schedule communications careful not to over communicate good ideas events go well exceed enrollment goals




communicate well with prospects creative group departments work well together using Popsels know Banner work well with IS work well together get the data quickly Excel know the processes and Banner tables more self sufficient than others

5.7 What We Can Do Better


automatically generate reports accessible through Pipeline get out of business of running reports – into publishing reports getting more formalized process for departmental demands better distribution of reporting vs. access to data


They’d like to do a better job of:

agree on what data can be entered into Banner for services tracking (using the In Take form)

reduce data duplication and data entry be aware of confidentiality status of students securing data less dual data entry documentation cross functional reporting more reports without having to use hard copy reports to get data assessment and following through reaching agreements on what to measure and how to determine success assigning responsibility need more useful reports from the data communicating better analysis better efficiency less time on manual work more time on core responsibilities more proactive than reactive new creative services targeting new audiences with better time frames more independence with reporting do more with their data design their own reports that cross components independence more access to data to do their jobs be proactive anticipate what data may be needed for future reports




access more data more easily more accurate data end of semester reports alumni reporting with ease reporting themselves be more efficient, more timely without having to rely on others for the data forecast on utilities (when get in Banner) access data in Banner that is not available in self-service want to have comprehensive overview of department’s contribution to mission

and college access to data for broader distribution to president, vice presidents would like to get away from so much manual labor empowered users flexibility to query on fields and track back to source system

6 Recommendations in Detail

The following includes particulars of summary observations and recommendations made earlier in this report, as well as additional recommendations.

6.1 Establish an Institutional Structure to Support Reporting

As experience with the ODS and report writing tools progresses, employing the following should ensure success.

6.1.1 Executive Sponsorship

An information access initiative requires unwavering executive commitment from the highest level(s) of the organization. When snags occur, the executive sponsor keeps the organization focused and committed to the vision of the initiative.

6.1.2 Working Owner

In addition to the executive sponsor, a working owner of the initiative is critical to its success. The working owner leads the implementation of the vision and has excellent organizational, project management, and relationship building skills. The working owner builds and manages the work of the Strategic Reporting Team. The working owner’s duties may also include ODS administrator duties, providing the appropriate skill set is possessed. Or the working owner may be someone with cross-functional reporting responsibilities.

6.1.3 ODS Administrator(s)

Technical tasks

Install the ODS Review logs and control files Move ODS into production Install patches in a timely fashion




Update the MGRSDAX table Refresh the ODS Troubleshoot Extract/Transform/Load problems Freeze data at certain points in time Manage security Manage reporting tool performance, including the joins between the reporting

views

Functional tasks

Manage communication with the user community (executives, administrators, power-users, and end users) about data needs

o Change policies and procedureso Determine data access and securityo Establish and maintain a report library

Help choose the reporting tool(s)o Determine each reporting tool’s effective use

Train users on effective use of reporting tool(s), and report-buildingo Teach end users how to utilize the metadatao Teach end users how to use the reporting toolso Teach end users how to create reports

Customize and maintain the ODS metadatao Re-define data descriptionso Add customized reporting views to the Business Concept Diagrams

Assume the role as working owner of the ODS initiativeo Lead the implementation with excellent organizational, project

management, and relationship building skillso Build and manage the work of the Strategic Reporting Team

6.1.4 Strategic Reporting Team

Team Composition

Working Owner of the ODS ODS Administrator(s) Reporting Tool Administrator Key Report Writers Average End users Key Administrators – the people who have a broad knowledge of the university

and the ability to make or escalate key decisions regarding reporting on campus IS Representative

Team Goals

Identify the userso Power users – ad hoco Business users - managedo Casual users – directedo IT –enterprise support




Develop a Strategic Reporting Plan by using this report. Specifically, address the Summary Observations and Summary Recommendations in Sections 2.2 and 2.3

Select and monitor use of the reporting tool(s) Make recommendations on data access Assist the Technical Team with decision-making involving end users and

executives Develop a Training Plan and provide training opportunities Manage expectations of the reporting community

This team’s responsibilities will be ongoing. The team will support the development of a structure that provides a visible point of contact for decisions related to reporting, as well as for the establishment and maintenance of informal contacts among reporting experts as well as novices. These contacts will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and the accelerated development of skill in reporting. Experience has shown that such organizations can be very effective as agents of change in information use, can provide the required function of being a focal point for the initiation of change, and are very low-cost as far as incremental dollars are concerned. In fact, the efficiencies gained as one user learns from another generally far exceed the limited institutional hard cost associated with the organization.

6.1.5 Data Stewards

Each functional area should have a data steward responsible for the definition and quality of the data being entered into the system. The data stewards should function as a team to make decisions related to cross-functional data.

6.1.6 Technical Team

The technical team generally is comprised of members from Information Systems. It includes the DBA, Systems Administrator, ODS administrator, Programmer/Analysts, and Reporting Specialists. This team builds and supports the information access environment.

6.2 Establish a Report Library

A useful set of guidelines on how to setup a report library can be found in the White Paper written by Armstrong-Smith Consulting, a SunGard Higher Education partner. Although this paper pertains to the Oracle Discoverer reporting tool, the process is applicable to any report library, regardless of the tool. The URL is http://www.learndiscoverer.com/Library%20Concept.pdf

6.3 Institute a Training Plan

The successful implementation of a reporting strategy will require an investment in training. An on-going training program that keeps the user community current with the capabilities of Banner, the ODS, and any extension complements and reporting policies and procedures is recommended.


http://www.learndiscoverer.com/Library%20Concept.pdf



Training support for reporting environments requires multi-leveled approaches that address the varied requirements of effective reporting. That training includes curricula related to:

Basic concepts of reportingo critical nature of the business objectives of the reporto segregation of information content from presentationo use of concepts of selection to focus the report on specific business

questionso sorting of the information to provide appropriate order and/or

summarization of the datao re-organization of the data to satisfy drill down requirements

Advantages and disadvantages of different information stores as they relate to different business questions. Users should be able to determine when

o use of the transactional system is required and/or acceptable for a report (Banner delivered or ad hoc reports)

o static data is acceptable (ODS)o need for comparison of information across time periods is required (data

warehouse)o business issue suggests longitudinal forms of data organization are

required An ongoing training environment should also be established for the reporting tool.

6.4 Use the Report Inventory

Some NSCC business areas have already conducted a report inventory. The goal of this inventory should be to identify those that are important for the future. At the same time, it is important to recognize that there are reports that are being run routinely, but not used. If a report is no longer useful, it should be eliminated. The goal is to have ready access to useful information, without having to wade through data that is confusing or erroneous.

6.5 Conduct a Data Inventory

Data is held in several systems around the campus, aside from the centrally controlled and secured system. This data exists in a variety of states, and at varying levels of security. Some of this information is likely to contain personally identifying information, and/or financial data. It is strongly recommended that each department document data that is held locally as well as the format in which that information is held. It is recommended that a plan be developed to move appropriate data to the ODS wherever possible, to routinely purge information that is not necessary to hold locally, and to securely protect information that must be stored in local departments. The plan should include a backup strategy for important data.

6.6 Consider Technology Implications

It is recommended that the ODS be implemented in such a way as to build a strong foundation from which to expand.




Review data models to identify any areas that may need to be extended to meet the North Shore Community College’s needs. Such extensions should include data from any satellite databases and systems in use. For example, linking data from the state information warehouse to the ODS will serve several offices on campus that need data that is not currently readily available. Extension of the ODS to include non-Banner data to foster enterprise-wide data access will be key to comprehensive strategic planning.

Determine the report delivery model(s) to be initially supported, i.e. a common reporting repository with parameter driven reports, an ad hoc environment for more advanced users, electronically burst and distributed reports and the like.

Determine the priority of reports to be developed. Remember that the ODS will evolve. North Shore Community College will need

to identify data to “freeze” for point-in-time reporting and will identify data from other administrative applications with which to extend the ODS. SunGard Higher Education will also revise the ODS through product enhancements. However, the first phase is to implement the standard product, train those who will use it, and test the product so that there is confidence in the accuracy of the information.

Explore extending the infrastructure to more completely meet North Shore Community College’s needs once the standard products are implemented and in use.

Implement extensions in a way to reduce an impact of SunGard Higher Education product enhancements.

6.7 Select a Reporting Tool

Even though a tool has already been chosen, this describes a formal process which can be undertaken to select a reporting tool(s) in the future. (It may be necessary to select more than one.)

The tool(s) should be able to provide:1. Central support of and access to parameterized reports in support of standard

operational reporting requirements.2. Support for the development of ad hoc mailings to specific University

constituents, be they current students, faculty, staff, business partners, or alumni.3. Support for the development of ad hoc lists, sub-totaled as appropriate, in

support of operational activities.4. Ability for Management to run reports with easily executed, ad hoc comparative

reporting across fiscal and/or academic years.5. Support for statistical and analytical reporting.6. Each of the above reporting tools should support format and presentation control

appropriate for their purpose, as well as the required information control and manipulation tools.

It is suggested that the process include the following steps:

1. Confirm the types of reporting tools required using the categories identified in 1 through 6 above as guidelines.

2. Identify, within each category, the critical features that will enable the users to be successful in use of the reporting tool. Features might include:

a. font and format control,b. sorting, and grouping,




c. title and page setup control,d. support for accessing different forms of data,e. graphical as well as tabular display,f. dependency on technical skill sets (this is very critical),g. appropriate information manipulation and arithmetic functions,h. available training materials (this is also very critical),i. current base of successful use of the reporting tool,j. the value of the supported reporting (in other words, do you really need to

continue creating this particular report?)3. Evaluate the candidates against the standards noted above.4. Make ‘reference calls’ to users of the products at other colleges and universities.5. Make your choices and move on to the installation, implementation, and training

phases. (Sometimes institutions get stuck on the selection phase.)6.8 Report from the Operational Data Store As Soon As It’s Available

The ODS will provide North Shore with an image of information relevant to reporting needs for Banner, an image current to the last time that the ODS was refreshed. The focus of this information will be the detailed data required to support operational reporting.

Since the data and hardware for the ODS are separate from transactional systems, the computing resources consumed by reporting activities will not impact the updating of data in the transaction system (for example the student registering for a class or making a payment on a bill). Given the strain complex reporting queries can place on a transactional system, it is wise to begin reporting from the ODS as soon as it is feasible.

6.9 Use Strengths, Tools and People Effectively

North Shore Community College has a great deal of strength in several areas: a well defined educational mission, the commitment of administration and staff to do their jobs well, the high competency of administration and staff, and an institutional commitment to use technology to improve services. Leveraged effectively, these strengths have the potential to rapidly and directly impact the development of a stronger and more mature information access approach within the institution. To gain the most benefit in this area, it is strongly recommended that people be encouraged to use the tools that will be available to them to gather information - themselves. Because many functional users are accustomed to having information supplied by IS, obtaining reports personally will require some changes in process. Some end users may initially be intimidated by getting information themselves. While it might be extremely tempting for IS to take on a similar responsibility (e.g., making reports available for others) with a new system, this will not result in the greatest benefit. Instead, it is recommended that a strategy be developed to support end users to obtain information themselves whenever possible. In this way, IS and those with strong skills in reporting will be able to focus on more complex, ad hoc, or analytical issues, which require their level of expertise, thereby making forward progress in information access development.

7 AcronymsAcronym DescriptionAR Accounts ReceivableBIT Banner Implementation Team




BPRASA Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic AssessmentDBA Database AdministratorEDW Enterprise Data WarehouseHR Human ResourcesIPEDS Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (federal data

collection)IR Institutional ResearchIS Information SystemsODS Operational Data Store8 Definitions

Term DefinitionBanner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment

Upfront service designed to establish an explicit enterprise strategy for reporting that will support the institution’s mission and objectives.

Enterprise Data Warehouse

SunGard Higher Education’s Enterprise Data Warehouse is an extension of the Operational Data Store. It contains detailed, historical data transformed into formats to support ease of analytical reporting and analysis.

Operational Data Store

SunGard Higher Education’s Operational Data Store is a stable view of cleansed current operational data, formatted for ease of ad hoc reporting.




9 APPENDICES

9.1 Information: The Common Component

Information needed to address performance obligations.

Information by:

Executives: to monitor progress towards institutional priorities

Administrators: to monitor daily operations

IT: to provide enterprise intelligence and production reports

IRP: to monitor institutional trends, compliance

Information and institutional intelligence required for measurable performance improvements.




9.2 Banner Performance & Reporting Analytics Maturity Model

Every institution is at a different phase in the implementation and adoption of its administrative systems. Accordingly, the information access and business intelligence needs of each institution vary depending on where they are in the implementation cycle. SunGard Higher Education has defined five levels of administration system implementation and for each level identified the information access requirements of that level.

Level 1: Institutions early in the implementation process focus primarily on the adoption and implementation of baseline reports that are supplied by the administration system.

Level 2: At level 2, institutions begin to identify specific institutional reporting needs beyond those that are fulfilled with the administrative system’s baseline reports. To meet these needs, the institution’s IT department typically develops additional reports or performs customizations to the baseline reports.

Level 3: Institutions at level 3 in the implementation process have put power into the hands of end users who need information through the adoption of self-service reporting tools. Core to this capability is the Operational Data Store (ODS). The ODS extracts data from administrative systems and simplifies the data structures, making it much easier to access and generate consistent reports. In addition, the ODS allows users to perform operational and ad-hoc reporting without the involvement of the IT department.Page 35 Confidential Business Information

Information Access Maturity Model

SunGard Higher SunGard Higher Education Education PerformancePerformance Management Management SolutionsSolutions

SunGard SunGard Higher Higher EducationEducationEnterprise Enterprise DataData WarehouseWarehouse

SunGard Higher SunGard Higher Education Education Operational Operational Data StoreData Store

SunGard Higher SunGard Higher Education Education BannerBanner

Institution Adoption

Time

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

BaselineBaseline ReportsReports

CustomCustomReportsReports

Self-ServiceSelf-ServiceReportingReporting

Ad-HocAd-Hoc

AnalyticalAnalyticalReportingReporting

Historical TrendsHistorical TrendsForecastingForecasting

InstitutionalInstitutionalPerformancePerformanceManagementManagement

Process Process ImprovementImprovement

Dashboard/Score Dashboard/Score cardscards

Analytical Analytical ApplicationsApplications



Level 4: Institutions at this level want to use their data not only for operational reporting, but also to generate insight into their business needs, support the decision-making process, and business analytics that guide strategic planning such as forecasting and trend analysis. Because these more complex needs go beyond the capacity of the ODS, additional information infrastructure is necessary. This level of information consumption requires enterprise and historical data, which are captured in an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). The EDW formats data specifically for analytical processing, and analytical business intelligence tools help to provide decision makers with the insight they seek.

Level 5: At the most advanced information maturity level, institutions expand their use of business intelligence tools and the EDW by creating new “knowledge applications” that provide key metrics and information tailored to the needs of managers and decision makers. These metrics are pushed to end users through the use of portal channels,

9.3 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Preparation Instructions

October 29, 2007

Patrick,

My name is Debbie Head and I am scheduled to conduct on-site focus group interviews November 27-29, 2007 of reporting needs as they relate to the implementation of the Operational Data Store at North Shore Community College.

Here is a list of the documents attached, and brief instructions on what to do with each: 1) SA Agenda - This will aid you in establishing the focus group schedule for the week. It contains a list of Pre-work that should be done, a sample schedule, hour-by-hour, and a description of who should attend. Feel free to adopt this schedule, or adjust it to your needs. Please replace the description of those who should attend with their actual names, and indicate the location for each meeting. (The only equipment needs for each meeting room is a projector and screen.) When the schedule is finalized, please send me a copy and distribute it to all participants. FAQs about the agenda:

a) Who should attend the first session? The first session is an overview, so participants from ALL focus groups (except the President's Cabinet) should attend. Otherwise I will have to do a brief overview for each session, which takes up valuable data gathering time.

b) Who should attend the "Crossfunctional" session? The "Crossfunctional" session is for Institutional Research types. (Anyone who does reporting that dips into different business areas.)

c) Why should there be a projector in the room? In the first session I use a powerpoint presentation. In the other sessions I take notes on my computer and




display them on the screen so all participants can follow along. This helps stimulate the discussion.

d) Describe more about the working lunch session with the President's Cabinet on Day 3. For this session, I give a brief overview aimed at executives and then give them my top 3-4 impressions so far about issues affecting reporting and analytics at their institution. Then I ask them the questions on the bottom of the interview form. I've found if we do this session during lunch, people will attend. This is session is usually catered by the institution.

2) SA Process and You - This is a summary of the process and contains the form I use to collect information during the focus group interviews. Please distribute it to all participants. FAQ about the form:

a) Do participants need to fill-in the interview form ahead of time? No. They should just review it so they get a "heads-up" about what the focus groups are about. We will complete it during the interview sessions.

Feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have. If you'd like to have a pre-visit conference call, please contact Hector deZayas to schedule for us.

I look forward to working with you on this assessment.

Thank you for your help,Debbie

Debbie Head * Senior Functional Consultant * SunGard Higher Education * 4 Country View Road, Malvern, PA 19355 * Mobile (770) 845-3376 * Fax (610) 578-3034 [email protected] * www.sungardhe.com

CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this email from your system.


http://www.sungardhe.com/

mailto:[email protected]



9.4 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Interview Schedule

ScheduleTopic Time/

LocationAttendees

Day 1: Tuesday1) Overview of the engagement and Information Access.

8:30–9:30DH 119

All Session Participants

Break 9:30–10:002) Programmers & DBAs - Review of technical strategic plan and current environment.

10:00–11:00DB 343

Linda DayStephen LorenzThomas MayneAnn PesaturoNancy SherwoodDonna StefanoJohn Sun

3) Monitoring Student Success - Review of reporting support concerns and requirements.

11:00-12:30DB 343

Lisa MilsoMartha BrineLaura VentimigliaDan O’NeillGloria LopezSusan GrahamMaryanne Atkinson

Lunch 12:30–1:454) Human Resources: Review of reporting support concerns and related staff and faculty reporting requirements.

1:45-2:45DB 343

Barbara Plummer Tammy NguyenPamela Nolan YoungMadeleine WallisNancy SherwoodJoan Peabody

Break 2:45-3:155) Regulatory/State and Cross Functional Reporting - Review of federal, state, and system regulatory and statutory reporting support concerns and requirements..

3:15-4:45DB 343

Laurie LaChapelleSusan AndersonSusan KlemerCheryl GoodwinJanice ForsstromJoanne LightJohn Duff

Day 2: Wednesday6) Accounts Receivable: Review of reporting support concerns and requirements.

8:30-10:00DB 343

Heather MoresJoanna DanielHolly TerceiroNancy SherwoodTabatha Lord




Break 10:00–10:307) Student Recruitment and Admissions Services: Review of recruitment and admissions reporting support concerns and requirements.

10:30-12:00DB 343

Jen KirkJoanne LightKathy FaulknerLinda DayMartha WhiteTracy CallahanNiccole Welshimer

Lunch 12:00 – 1:158) Financial Aid: Review of financial aid reporting support concerns and requirements.

1:15–2:45DB 343

Heather MoresBrenda AllenCharlene RandomJeanne PurzyckiSusan SullivanSherron Heller

Break 2:45-3:159) Student Enrollment, Registration, and Course Management: Review of reporting support concerns and requirements.

3:15-4:45DB 343

John DuffMel PotoczakLaurie LachapelleKathy FaulknerJoanne LightJoan PeabodyMartha White

Day 3: Thursday10) Advancement/Development: Review of reporting support concerns and requirements for the Alumni and Advancement areas.

8:30–10:00DB 343

Cathy AndersonWendy KingTeresa LordSandra Rochon

Break 10:00–10:3011) Instructional Support - Review of reporting support concerns and requirements of faculty instruction, classroom management, and student/faculty communication.

10:30–12:00DB 343

Laura VentimigliaJoan PeabodyEllen O’DonnellTina LemoiDiane Palter-GillPatricia BrownMark Knutsen

12) Working Lunch with President’s Cabinet – Brief overview of ODS, review of campus-wide information access concerns, plus my observations of top areas for continued effort.

12:00-1:30DB 343

Sandra EdwardsJanice ForsstromPaul FrydrychMadeleine WallisDonna Richemond

13) Budget Managers 1:30–2:00DB 343

Holly TerceiroRick ReneyGary HamPossibly 1 More Person

Academic Assessment – CAS, CTLA 2:00 – 3:00DB 343

Jill ThorntonJane SaundersSusan BayardAlthea Smith1 More CAS




Susan Klemer 14) Financial Services: Review of reporting support concerns and requirements

3:15-4:30DB 343

Helen ClementsHolly TerceiroTabatha LordNancy SherwoodDonna ToleosPatty BourgeoisTrish Callahan




9.5 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Overview

This overview, and the accompanying survey format, is intended to provide you as a participant in the assessment for the North Shore Community College with an introduction to the assessment process and your part in it.

The Overview was presented at 8:30 a.m., November 27, 2007. Participants included:

Name Office EmailLisa Milso Student Life [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected] Atkinson Enrollment [email protected] White Corporate & Community Ed [email protected] Ham IS [email protected] Graham Disability Services [email protected] Faulkner Enrollment [email protected] Palter Gill Corporate & Community Ed [email protected] Steffano IS [email protected] Pesaturo IS [email protected] Clements Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Lord Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Callahan Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Day IS [email protected] Pvska Police [email protected] Peabody Academic Affairs [email protected] Ventimiglia Academic Affairs [email protected] Lopez Academic Affairs [email protected] Duff SAES [email protected] Potoczac SAES [email protected] Bourgeois Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Nguyen Human Resources [email protected] Random Financial Aid [email protected] Purzycki Financial Aid [email protected] Young Human Resources [email protected] Daniel Student Financial Services [email protected] Allen Financial Aid [email protected] Lord Institutional Advancement [email protected] Sherwood IS [email protected] Kimball CAS [email protected] Saunders CAS [email protected] Mayne IS [email protected] Thornton CAS [email protected] LaChapelle IR [email protected] Kirk Admissions/Recruit [email protected] Plummer HR/PR [email protected] Toleos Fiscal [email protected] Brine Student Services [email protected] Mores Student Financial Services [email protected] Sullivan Student Financial Services [email protected] Blundell Facilities [email protected] Reney Facilities [email protected]














































Patricia Brown Academic Affairs [email protected] Goodwin IR [email protected] Klemer IR [email protected] Anderson Advancement [email protected] Callahan Marketing/Advancement [email protected] King Advancement [email protected] O’Neill TRIO/SSS [email protected] Forsstrom VP Administration [email protected] Ham CIO [email protected]

No formal preparation for the interviews was required beyond the approximately ten minutes required to review the Strategic Reporting Assessment Survey shown on the following page. The survey will be will be completed by each focus group during the interview process.

The Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment will:

1. Identify and articulate at a high level operational, management, and strategic reporting requirements for financial reporting at the North Shore Community College.

2. Assess the current assets available at the North Shore Community College to meet those requirements.

3. Recommend approaches that might be taken by the North Shore Community College to present information content, technology, and staffing resource that meets those requirements.

The assessment will consider in general terms all areas of information as they influence operational, management, and administrative planning reporting and planning processes.

The high-level requirements for the reporting environment will be identified through a series of interviews with related constituencies at the North Shore Community College. The interviews will include business as well as technical staff with varied perspectives and levels of responsibility, and be complemented by a review of related North Shore Community College documents.

The interviews, conducted as focus groups of North Shore Community College professionals expected to have similar reporting concerns, will place in business context the kind of information required to support operational activity, management monitoring and control of that activity, and strategic and tactical planning processes. The interviews will focus on current as well as anticipated future reporting needs. In addition to identifying the required information content, the process will identify currently-used reporting tools as well as the functionality required of reporting tools for various types of reporting needs, and required training and support for the reporting environment.

The recommendations that are developed from the assessment will be delivered to the North Shore Community College within a month of the conclusion of the interviews.

Please feel free to address your questions to Debbie Head, SunGard Higher Education, via email at [email protected]













9.6 Banner Performance Reporting & Analytics Strategic Assessment Survey Instrument

(Please review the survey in preparation for the interview session.)

Please consider, within each of the cells in the table below, the frequency with which you use the business information content to meet the associated general purpose, and the value of that information as it relates to the mission and objectives of the North Shore Community College and your organization. Note that this list is intended to serve as a discussion and documentation guide. It is expected to be increased or reduced during the assessment process.

Information Content

Operational Support

(Daily, weekly, etc.)

Management Monitoring,

Control(Weekly, Monthly,

etc.)

Strategic Planning and

Research(Monthly, Term, Annual, Project,

etc.)Student RecruitmentStudent EnrollmentStudent RegistrationFinancial Aid Fund ManagementFinancial Aid Application ManagementFinancial Aid Award ManagementStudent ActivitiesBalance Sheet / General LedgerOperational / Subsidiary Ledger ActivityBudget DevelopmentAccounts PayableAccounts ReceivableEndowment ManagementCapital Asset ManagementGrant and Contract ApplicationGrant and Contract AdministrationPurchase Orders / Invoices




Information Content

Operational Support

(Daily, weekly, etc.)

Management Monitoring,

Control(Weekly, Monthly,

etc.)

Strategic Planning and

Research(Monthly, Term, Annual, Project,

etc.)Auxiliary EnterprisesEmployee RecruitmentEmployee / Salary AdministrationPersonnel Appointment AdministrationPayrollAdvancement and AlumniGiving Campaign ManagementOther Information Content as IdentifiedOther Information Content as Identified

What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements?

Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services?

Information Access

Current State:

Desired State:

Challenges:

What we do well:

What we can do better:




9.6.1 Programmers & DBAs

9.6.1.1 AttendeesName Office EmailAnn Pesaturo IS [email protected] Steffano IS [email protected] Ham IS [email protected] Day IS [email protected] Sherwood IS [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected] Bickford IS [email protected] Mayne IS [email protected]

9.6.1.2 Reports

Information Content

Operational Support(Daily, weekly, etc.)

Management Monitoring, Control(Weekly, Monthly, etc.)

Strategic Planning and Research(Monthly, Term, Annual, Project, etc.)

Student Recruitment Prospect Report: name, address, email, phone number app status, enrolled weekly,Guidance Counselors by school for contact information,Admissions cohorts set up (follow through to Retention/Grad study)

Event management – to track attendees at Open House, & other events,

Some applicant data provided to Admissions for trend analysis

Student Enrollment Student reports for accepted – not registered , Non-returning students,

QEs – take courses but not matriculated – target audience to follow up

Graduation Reports

Financial Aid Fund Management

Student employment- authorization, work history, updating on and off campus work-study fundsReconciliation reports for FA for funds and fund sources (state vs federal)

Populating Banner tables from state system – bi-weeklyMonitoring data weekly to determine $ left using canned Banner reports + state system,Credit hour status of students to adjust award – once a











week, check twice/week for loans delivered via Excel

Financial Aid Application Management

Report on status of FA applications using PopSels by Counselor

Listing of all FA applicants and status

Financial Aid Award Management

FA bible – used by administration to check awards by $, award type – year by year picture; Details by students delivered in Excel,

Balance Sheet / General Ledger

Canned Banner reports, Extraction views with Access,

Weekly and monthly reconciliations, audit reports,Stored in Access and Excel for reporting

Budget Development

Data comes in many different formats (excel, word, etc) to be entered into Banner

Accounts Receivable

Tracking credit/non-credit students, aging reports, billing hours, credit hours, get data from Banner job submission

Third party –contract information – linking finance and AR.

Report of AR trend analysis and bad debt analysis.

9.6.1.3 Additional Questions

What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? SQR, PLSQL, Excel, Access, PRO-C, PRO-Cobol. Java, xml, html

Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Yes, Banner, State Information Warehouse (payroll, general ledger, AR)

Information Access in my functional area:

What is the current state? Highly centralized, fairly good regarding State warehouse, HR is somewhat independent, General Ledger not so independent – cross walk tables to get from Banner to State System, Ad hoc requests for data, Functional departments vary in skills and desire to report, Pop sels within departments, data extracts, using reconciliation reports that may not be reliable. Page 46 Confidential Business Information



What is the desired state? Graduation petition reports, re-writing reconciliation reports in Discoverer, Incorporating external data sources into ODS, delivering reports automatically via Pipeline, Core Definitions of data – FTF, have users comfortable with ODS to extract their own data with ease, IS will provide training, technical assistance, power users, to become more proactive/less reactive, Have power users know where the data is coming from. Getting over fear of learning new system, Need budget development linking to student information regarding enrollment, projected enrollments, projected revenues, etc, Freeze data –

What are the challenges? How to get everyone working toward same goals. Variability among departments in readiness, Using ODS offload some reporting from IS to departments, Not all business done in Banner – payroll in PS, GL in another system, Home grown systems in state, Using data extracts from all outsources, How to use ODS to manage data from multiple data sources, Security, making sure senior management treats projects as a priority

What can I do better? Automatically generate reports accessible through Pipeline. Get out of business of running reports – into publishing reports, getting more formalized process for departmental demands




9.6.2 Student Success

9.6.2.1 Attendees Name Office EmailGloria Lopez Academic Affairs [email protected] Atkinson Enrollment Services [email protected] Ventimiglia Academic Affairs [email protected] Brine Student Services [email protected] Graham Disability Services [email protected] Milso Student Life [email protected] O’Neill TRIO/SSS [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.2.2 Reports

Information Content




Student Recruitment/Admissions

Health program admissions report: applied to health program, app status, program, contact info, Counts applicants to each program,Accepted Not Registered Report

Student Enrollment Graduation Report for commencement

Student Support Services

Access database for tracking TRIO, tracking student being served,

Student Activities Track students in clubs, attended events, etc. Check for academic standing, course schedules, Levels of interest in areas. In house reports

Which students meet criteria for an organization: name, gpas,Student Retention and Graduation committee,Report of number of student Ids produced by month

Provide list of students to Registrar for graduation, Student Retention Team Reports – registered, not returning, etc,












Information Content



Strategic Planning and Research(Monthly, Term, Annual, Project, etc.)demographics of students by programs, location

Advising Tracking students by program, what services are they usingTracking non-native speakers data

Advisor Reports – Faculty and advisees, programs of study,Advisees and their advisor

Special Programs Using Blumen for data gathering and reporting,Attendance reporting, services obtained (FA, college app completed)Beginning to cohort students in special programs (tech prep)

Performance reports on each program: GPA, year, college app status, acceptance rates, social/cultural/academic activity participation rates, attendance

Disability Services Track students with Banner reports, # students served, categories served (LD, mobility, etc), campus, counselor servicing the students,Contact with student throughout semester,Approved accommodations of students – weekly, Decisions about accommodations offered students,

Report on which students have activated accommodations, used as an intervention tool

Annual Report – count of student, etc.




Information Content




student letters sent, Faculty letters sent to notify about student decision


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Excel, Access, Canned Banner, IS written reports, Blumen Information Systems for data entry and reporting for specialized programs (talent search, Upward Bound), SMART system (ABE programs)

Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner, Also departmental data is collected and entered in Access for reporting – no place in Banner


1. What is the current state? Some tracking done via paper (note-takers, sign language interpreters), using Access to track visits, contacts, who they saw, purpose of visit – advising, tutoring, change of advisor, etc., Heavy data entry (some duplicated information that is in Banner) into Access databases for Student Support services from data sheets, shared data between Trio Student services and Student Services no very user friendly or usable, using Cohorts to identify Trio students, Using In-take forms to gather data that may not be totally accurate, manual data entry,

2. What is the desired state? Would like to be able track STEP, transfer/credit students, Reports on incoming transfer students- number of credits, number of colleges, Monitor outgoing transfer students, Be able to report about CAPP – curriculum committee changes, Generate activity transcripts and student portfolios., Would like report of IDs produced to be able to contact those who need ids, better utilizing Banner, need to code students for tracking purposes (Notetakers, etc), Better able to document for reports, Finalize and get the Intake form data into Banner so data canned be shared reliably among programs, Long term planning data, DOE data differs, Number of students who receive advising, from what source, by campus, # of contact, Number of major changes, Retention data, credits increased, gpa increased? How do these questions relate to advising or other services? Correlation of services to results, Career Placement by program of student who is employed and assisted by office, contacts with CP office, monthly report of Trio students, Articulated courses for tech prep students, list of students who take




courses so can follow up, Following special programs students by using cohorts to track, Need comments on advising, Referrals needed

3. What are the challenges? Getting data into Banner that allows tracking of students and what services they use, can’t always get data on accommodations used

4. What do I do well? IS department support, helps articulate what data they need,

5. What can I do better? Agree on what data can be entered into Banner for services tracking (using the InTake form), reduce data duplication and data entry, be aware of confidentiality status of students




9.6.3 Human Resources

9.6.3.1 AttendeesName Office EmailBarbara Plummer HR/PR [email protected] Young Human Resources [email protected] Nguyen Human Resources [email protected] Peabody Academic Affairs [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.3.2 Reports

Information Content




Employee / Faculty Labels for part-time, adjunct Labels for those currently teaching

List of employees by classification with hire-date, ethnicity, salary,Sections of classes taught by FT/Pt facultyList of students enrolled in academic departments,Run courses by department using Pipeline but have to enter each dept separately,Faculty salary by courses by students who are paying, waiving, financial aid

Salary reports for a specified group (ie. Pol Sci)Program Review data : faculty within the program, dob, ethnicityClassification StudyYears of service report

Personnel Appointment Administration

Access for part-time employees, work study students (need to check enrolled hours), Ad hoc reports: calculating hours worked, Work-Study report of how much has been spent;Leave balances sick time, vacation time

IPEDS, FTE, full-time, part-time, etc., Email reports to users, export to Excel spreadsheets, Campus directory information provided to IS;









Information Content




every month period for managersComp time report every pay period

Payroll Adjunct Payroll created in Academic Affairs, uploaded to HR system, employee id, record number, salary submitted to HR,

Faculty workload reporting (faculty enter data)


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? PeopleSoft HR system, local oracle tables, Access, Excel, LCM (labor cost management) for federal grants reporting, Excel, Document Direct – weekly reports from state, State Information Warehouse, paper and pencil

Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? PeopleSoft (state control), Access local data and local oracle tables


a) What is the current state? Data entry into Access, comfortable, double data entry in multiple sources, satisfied with State system,

b) What is the desired state? Automate Request For Employment (RFE), Reporting time and attendance in a more efficient manner, Able to run course listing by department/ faculty member

c) What are the challenges? Security, not duplicating data, double validation of data

d) What do I do well? Everything, Great support from IS, team work, exceed expectations

e) What can I do better? Less dual data entry




9.6.4 Regulatory, State and Cross Functional Reporting

9.6.4.1 AttendeesName Office EmailCheryl Goodwin IR [email protected] LaChapelle IR, Director [email protected] Klemer IR [email protected] Light Dean, Enrollment Services [email protected] Duff Enrollment Services [email protected] Anderson Grants [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.4.2 ReportsStudent Recruitment Marketing Reports:

demographic, applicants, age, ethnicity, high schools to help with marketing of school, looking at data to see where problems may exist.

Marketing Reports: demographic, applicants, age, ethnicity, high schools

Student Enrollment Ad hoc requests have to be directed to ISSchedule reportsEnrollment data: by program, demographic, disabled, FTF

Ad hoc inquiriesFake IPEDS reports – HEIRS database –send files up and get some data back through CognosCompletions data, courses by CIP code, Fall enrollments, Online course reports – problematic data for reporting- location based on faculty member, Program Accreditation reports as needed,Student Directories,American Student Lists (exclude non-credit, confidentiality, age questions),Marketing (demographic) reports

IPEDS, Annual file of data submitted in July – includes non-creditDept of Ed of Mass – tracking of students – retention data submitted via ExcelEnrollment Report each semesterGraduate ProfileNon-returning, non-graduate reportCourse Grade DistributionTracking of data from freeze to current enrollment,Student Clearinghouse,Annual Immunization Report to the State,Individual studies: communication, ESL, development,











Student Right to Know notification includes FTF and other cohortsPerkins Report done by IS using snapshot – Retention by race, special populations (single parent, limited English, displaced homemaker, etc)Placement data survey Program Review data

Student Registration Registration reports: Report of applied, accepted, enrolled, etc (funnel report)

Comparison of enrollment to last yearRequested audit reports


FA HEIRS file submitted IPEDSAudit Reports

Finance Finance HEIRS submitted, IPEDS

Budget Development Data pulled from student accounts to generate reports for state- tuition, waivers, fees, etc.

Grant and Contract Application

Ad hoc data requested from ISComparison of group of students to control groups,Performance measures

Employee / Salary Administration

IPEDS


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? HEIRS, Cognos, Excel, Access, SPSS, Canned Banner, SQR, SQL




Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner, using summary data from HR payroll system


a) What is the current state? Totally dependent on IS department, too many steps to get one report, cumbersome, difficult to cross check data, difficult to understand the processes in reports written long ago, some of the programs have hard coded parameters, so had to edit programming, discrepancy reporting, wash data through state system for validation, many ad hoc requests for data

b) What is the desired state? Executives able to view enrollment data at beginning of day, Enhancements to Pies on Pipeline, Dashboards delivered to users, Flexibility to design my own queries, Economic Impact Study upcoming

c) What are the challenges? Bad data, time to learn system, documentation of definitions, communication about changes in Banner, definition issues (Freshmen nurses), culture change in way to get and produce reports

d) What do I do well? Put out fires, responsive to requests for data, IS programmers provide good service

e) What can I do better? Documentation, cross functional reporting, more reports without having to use hard copy reports to get data, assessment and following through, reaching agreements on what to measure and how to determine success, assigning responsibility, Need more useful reports from the data, communicating




9.6.5 Accounts Receivable

9.6.5.1 AttendeesName Office EmailHelen Clements Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected] Lord Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Mores Student Financial

[email protected]

Joanna Daniel Student Financial Services

[email protected]

Holly Terceiro Fiscal Affairs [email protected]

9.6.5.2 Reports

Information Content




Accounts Receivable Reconciliation Reports: TGIACCD, Detail Codes, Feed Doc numbers, Student data, Third party contract info, Financial aid reports,Canned Banner Report Undistributed funds and charges from Application of payment weekly,Outstanding charges report as a combination of number of canned reports% of students on financial aid, but didn’t get paid,Status of students on installment payment plan

Student combined receivable: Detail receivables by student, by detail code, by term/detail codeTGRRCON: open receivables positive/negative balances, fed to GL and not fed to GL TGRAGES:, (used for analysis to see where receivables are, )Local Report for credits/ detail codes, $ paid, application of paymentReconciliation reports,Refund Reports,Student Health Insurance Report,MassPirg Report,Bookstore Charges Report

Student combined receivable: Detail receivables by student, by detail code, by term/detail code, TGRRCON: open receivables positive/negative balances, fed to GL and not fed to GL TGRAGES:, (used for analysis to see where receivables are, )Audit of AR on GL sideAnnual report on waiver information for Board of Higher Ed: number of students, type of waiver based on section of course











What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Access, Query, canned Banner reports, Excel

Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner


a) What is the current state? Dual data entry, manual, convoluted reports, very hard to deal with, inflexible reporting

b) What is the desired state? AR and Financial Aid data combined easily, No discrepancy in numbers, List of AR details to link back to student accounts for audit, Being able to manipulate the data, be able to create reports without having to get several canned reports and then combine manually, Be able to generate reports such as : Look at average amount of time for student to pay, Check for students who are 2 weeks/ 4 weeks overdue, Want more granularity in data, link of faculty, credits and AR, Need reports to help isolate/identify problems, Need flexibility in reporting to handle different requests each day, More timely responsiveness, being able to do trend analysis on the data

c) What are the challenges? Knowledge of Banner tables and understanding of data, getting access to the data to be more proactive

d) What do I do well? Meet expectations in a timely manner even with limited accessibility,

e) What can I do better? Better analysis, better efficiency, less time on manual work more time on core responsibilities, More proactive than reactive, new creative services




9.6.6 Student Recruitment & Admissions

9.6.6.1 AttendeesName Office EmailKathy Faulkner Enrollment [email protected] Welshimer Admissions [email protected] Kirk Admissions [email protected] Day IS [email protected] Callahan Marketing [email protected] Light Enrollment [email protected] White Corp & Comm Ed [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.6.2 Reports

Information Content




Student Admissions/Recruitment

List of prospects with contact information for mailing letters,List of prospects without email addresses,Report of accepted not registered, prospects, non-returning, current, financial aid offered sent to marketing; same reports used for other events (Open House)

Prospects by zip code assigned to admissions counselors with application status, demographic, contact info,Guidance Counselors List contact info,On the spot admissions event (OTSE) report,

Enrollment & Student Records

Accepted Not EnrolledApplied Not Accepted (IS written report)SWX0713-Term; id, name, accepted, status,Popsels of non credit and corporate students for marketing and targeted mailings,

Duplicates report












Information Content




Enrollment reports: what courses to cancelMaster schedule from Access enrollments by courses (downloaded everyday from Banner)


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? CSV files from Banner reports, Access, Excel, Word, SQL, SQR, Popsels eports, Access, Excel, Word, SQL, SQR, Popsels,



a) What is the current state? Using popsels to get data, manual, very old reports that need updating, too many ad hoc requests, very careful about asking for too much data from IS, too many steps to get a report,

b) What is the desired state? Accepted and Registered Report (current one is not accurate), Report of prospects, applied, accepted, enrolled (funnel). Yield rates of applied to accepted, accepted to enrolled, focus attention on populations for recruitment purposes, Duplicates report, Able to sort OTSE (any cohort) students in a variety ways automatically, Able to produce lists of students by variety of fields (age, schools, city, etc) to follow up for recruiting, List of students with different residency codes, Report of applicants of non-credit and credit students registering on line, Number of students taking credit and non-credit classes, easier demographic reports of non-credit students (age, zip, geo area, etc), Two years of data for comparisons for trend analysis, Revenue divided by number of participants to get average spend in area, Discrepancy reports, missing data reports, easier way to send data of prospects to academic side of house, weekly report of when prospects become applicants, trend analysis on prospect pool, create Career Center communications, Need number of attendees at Open Houses, appointments,

c) What are the challenges? Popsels too cumbersome currently, Information overload, deciding priorities, realistic expectations, prospect data, ownership of data,




d) What do I do well? Consistent, schedule communications, careful not to over communicate, good ideas, events go well, exceed enrollment goals, communicate well with prospects, creative group, departments work well together

e) What can I do better? Targeting new audiences with better time frames, more independence with reporting, do more with the data




9.6.7 Financial Aid

9.6.7.1 AttendeesName Office EmailBrenda Allen Financial Aid [email protected] Random Financial Aid [email protected] Purzycll Financial Aid [email protected] Mores Student Financial

[email protected]

Sherron Heller Student Financial Services

[email protected]

Susan Sullivan Student Financial Services

[email protected]

Linda Day IS [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.7.2 Reports

Information Content





RWP5009 Disbursement Reports students by fund (creates population to run through disbursement process)Ad hoc requests (nursing students with aid for year)Reconciliation reports

Academic competitiveness grant (data from admissions and enrollment)List of students potentially eligible for grant to send to Enrollment to review transcripts,Ad hoc requests such as students with need, women between certain ages.

Private reportingDevelopment Reporting

Financial Aid Application Management

List of students with early attendance alerts, List of students receiving loans,List of students ready to graduate

FISAP reportingHEIRS Report (state)Requests from IR for report s– IPEDS

Financial Aid Award Management

Popsels to check if student is admitted

Students with SAP issues,

F A Survey for BHE – students












Information Content




to program,Discrepancy report,Mass Grant address change list,List of students withdrawn from all courses,Caseload report: list of all students in each counselor’s workload,TRIO reporting

Financial bible – large report with lots of data fields residency, funds,F Report (all students earning 0 credits)SFRWDRL (baseline Banner report) picks up federal funds only,RPRTIVR – picks up federal and state funds

Reconciliation of State Funds (each fund has own reporting)Mass Part Time Grant reconciliation reportUnmet need report for BHE


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? SQR, Popsels, Word, Excel, job submission messenger, pdf



a) What is the current state? Good, very good service from IS, comfortable with Banner, a strength in knowing and using Banner

b) What is the desired state? A report to notify of changed matriculation status, Students coming in with prior degrees, Work Study Report to track total expenditures, For FISAP total expenditures of on-campus vs off campus jobs, total expenditures for community service type jobs, Combined withdrawal report of federal and state funds, Alerts reports that will update tracking item in Banner, able to design and do own reporting, being more proactive

c) What are the challenges? Data not quite what expected, changing reporting requirements annually, making sure coding is correct in Banner, pressure on IS to get data asap

d) What do I do well? Using Popsels, knowing Banner, working well with IS

e) What can I do better? Design their own reports that cross components, independence, more access to data to do their jobs, be proactive, look forward to what data may be needed for future reports




9.6.8 Enrollment, Registration, Course Management

9.6.8.1 AttendeesName Office EmailKathy Faulkner Enrollment [email protected] Peabody Academic Affairs [email protected] White Corp & Comm Ed [email protected] LaChapelle IR [email protected] Light Enrollment [email protected] Potoczak Enrollment [email protected] Duff Enrollment [email protected]

9.6.8.2 Reports

Information Content




Student Enrollment Discrepancy reportsMaster Schedulingto determine by term what courses each division is offering and enrollments,Capacity Reports,Schedule to printer: Course Descriptions, credits, sections

Room Usage,Report (live data),Mismatch report for full/part time faculty codes in courses,Prereqs Report for those who don’t pass the pre req and are registered for next course,List of students suspended, but don’t appeal, and are registered for classes,Graduates with holds,Graduates with GPAs,Local reports written by IS Graduate Reports with potentials, ineligibles, graduates,Bachelor degrees with financial aid,QEs hard copy report to find number of credits

Facilities Report (ad hoc)National Student Clearinghouse FERPA Reports (Student Directory) from IS











Information Content




earnedFaculty not turning in gradesSuspension and Probation reports (Banner)List of eligible students for Phi Theta Kappa,IP report


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Data extracts from Banner, IS written reports



a) What is the current state? Some old and inflexible reports, Graduation Reports don’t match

b) What is the desired state? List of courses by department for planning courses offering, Capacity Reports for credit and non-credit classes, Repeat course report, Look at students who haven’t paid, but are registered, Cross check with financial aid, List of students who web registered but not paid, Schedule to printer by subject description, Course enrollment trends by campus, sections, total enrollment, Graduation Reports, Bachelor’s reports with financial aid combined into one report, Students with over 45 hours in their program of study, Report of specialized groups with certain number of credit hours, Conditional Report (students admitted conditionally), Room Usage with conflict indicators, No show list, Refund Status Report, Grade Report – select grades to list

c) What are the challenges? Understanding data discrepancy, get the data and let data form policies

d) What do I do well? Work well together,

e) What can I do better? Access more data more easily, more accurate data, end of semester reports




9.6.9 Instructional Support

9.6.9.1 AttendeesName Office EmailDianne Palter Gill Corporate & Comm Ed [email protected] O’Donnell Human Services [email protected] Lemoi Academic Tech/Distance

[email protected]

Patrick Thomas IS [email protected] Knutsen Health Profession [email protected] Peabody Academic Affairs [email protected] Ventimiglia Academic Affairs [email protected] Brown AA-Business Sciences [email protected]

9.6.9.2 Reports

Information Content




Student Enrollment Labels of students by program (cumbersome)Manual admission data for competitive programs Room schedule (canned Banner)

Count of students by advisor/program, Departmental listing of students’ courses

Budget Development Managing budgets


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Excel, Access, Pipeline, hard copy

Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner, Need some data from HR database


a) What is the current state? Tedious, time consuming, not terrible, using older prewritten reports

b) What is the desired state? Health records of students in Health professions (currently in Excel), CORI (Criminal Offense Record Id)- background, sexual offender records (coding pass or no pass), able to pull data on each department’s course











information, credit and non-credit course analysis of drop rates by course/sections, grade distribution of distance learning and by section, class lists and contact info for program directors, remote access to class lists for others than instructors, student contact information for mailings by program of study, improved assessment of distance ed courses, zip code data by program (non credit and credit), repeat data of students who take non credit courses and now take credit courses, how many courses they took and how much spent, type of courses taken for segment marketing, how do students align in taking non credit and credit courses, track students with credentials coded, tracking movement of students through college system collectively by cohorts and individuals – courses, programs, grades, services used, demographic data, profiles of students to help with decisions about services provided, advisor information on student directory, credits earned by student in programs, Outside entity (OE) contract data, Part-time faculty class schedules, Information on students by level, by advisor, by cohort, Faculty and advisees assigned, catalog changes in a time period to make sure done in CAPP, curriculum change audit program to check/find changes, Advisor lists of students by level, list of students by day/ day & evening/ evening only, distance learning, non-credit etc., Count of students by advisor/program, Departmental listing of students’ courses, Pre req report, List of all students who haven’t passed specified prereq by program, list of adjuncts and credentials for catalog/web publishing, getting credentials of full and part time credentials in Banner, Faculty courses taught over the last four years for accreditation, Managing, reporting on programs that have specialized competitive admissions requirements, Students taking one on-line course vs taking all on-line courses, Student demographic – ft, withdrawal, retention, etc, Number of students in on-line program, number of classroom credits, number of on-line credits, enrollment data automatic, correlation of on-line students to services used, better way to do master schedule, faculty load, classroom assignments by type of classroom, room utilization

c) What are the challenges? We did not get to this question

d) What do I do well? We did not get to this question

e) What can I do better? We did not get to this question




9.6.10 Advancement

9.6.10.1 AttendeesName Office EmailCathy Anderson Advancement [email protected] King Advancement [email protected] Lord Advancement [email protected] Rochon Advancement [email protected] Edwards Advancement [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.10.2 Reports

Information Content




Development Giving Histories,Download donors,By dates, levels, by fund designation,Scholarship reporting by fund

Giving Campaign Management

Session Reports,Foundation Budget management (excel),

End of month report (local): individual, account, amount, date, gift #,Giving history of donors (excel) sort by fund, giver, etcSolicitation report: year to year comparison of giftsFoundation Reports (month to month)

Ad hoc requests: gifts by donors (banks),BHE reporting,Foundation agencies

Alumni Requests for alumni data by majors, for department chairs

Mailings to alumni in database download from Banner to Excel (twice a year),

Accreditation requests by department chairsAd hoc requests class year, zip code, age,











What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Canned Banner, Excel, pdf, SQR

Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner, Foundation spreadsheet, Access (scholarship database)


a) What is the current state? Get it as we want and as quickly as we want, don’t have complete confidence in some of the data, inconsistency among data coding, a little cumbersome in some reporting processes

b) What is the desired state? Prospect Management, Event Management, quick and easy, tracking donors, their history, visits, plans, Workflow reporting, More staff,

c) What are the challenges? Cumbersome process of reporting, so many steps to do alumni reports, consistency of data, time, training, security, institutional policies

d) What do I do well? Everything, get the data quickly

e) What can I do better? Alumni reporting with ease, not so many steps and reports to use





9.6.11.1 AttendeesName Office EmailSandy Edwards VP AdvancementJan Forsstrom VP AdministrationMadeleine Wallis VP Human ResourcesPaul Frydrych VP Academic AffairsDonna Richemond VP EnrollmentPatrick Thomas ISGary Ham CIO

9.6.11.2 Reports None Listed


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements?

Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services?


a) What is the current state? IS and IR provide reports, stifling, need to be able to get report themselves

b) What is the desired state? Graphical depiction of data, dealing with requests for data in new formats, (faculty workloads), routine running of expected reports (5 year data by program), obtainable information, consistency of data, accuracy of data, quick success in reporting

c) What are the challenges? What will the follow up be after training, training, resources around training, unionized issues with training, time, managing expectations

d) What do I do well? (we ran out of time for this question)

e) What can I do better? (we ran out of time for this question)




9.6.12 Budget Managers

9.6.12.1 AttendeesName Office EmailHolly Terceiro Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Reney Facilities [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected] Bickford IS [email protected] Ham IS [email protected]

9.6.12.2 Reports

Information Content




Budget Development On-line budget queries (screen shots from Luminis)

Pulling Banner data and into Excel,Modified report with budget data, activity codeData extracts from FGIBDST


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Excel, canned Banner Reports

Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Banner, and some Excel spreadsheets


a) What is the current state? Data extracting from Banner and putting in Excel, not automatic, on line is view only, cumbersome, can’t get exactly what we want, Create a spreadsheet for each category to track payments, have to keep separate database for some items (kilowatts, etc)

b) What is the desired state? Getting reports by vendors, Original purchase order activities, getting original data to compare to current, set up coding for items (by building), ease of reporting, reporting on projects, reporting on activity codes, reporting for budget planning, year to dates expenses across fund code, activity, etc,pull grant data by specified fund type, be able to report on commodity codes across divisions









c) What are the challenges? Getting some data into Banner (activity codes for projects), managing encumbrances, having to change Purchase Orders

d) What do I do well? Excel

e) What can I do better? Reporting themselves, more efficiently, more timely without having to rely on others for the data, Forecast on utilities (when get in Banner), access data in Banner that is not available in self-service




9.6.13 Academic Assessment

9.6.13.1 AttendeesName Office EmailJill Thornton CAS [email protected] Saunders CAS [email protected] Smith CTLA [email protected] Klemeer IR [email protected] Kimball CAS [email protected] Bayard CTLA [email protected] Ham CIO [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.13.2 Reports

Information Content




Teaching and Learning

List of students taking service learning courses,

Retention and graduation, enrollment data from IR,Faculty data (demographics, hire dates, pt/ft),Program Review data with retention, graduation, enrollment by program for a particular year, demographic, over 5 years

CAS Placement scores entered in BannerPre college, GED testsCNETscores entered in SOATEST as Y

Report of placement scores: numbers of students with particular score and/or range of scores,

Stats on tests delivered, comparison of year to year volume of testing doneAccuplacer has reporting capacity,


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Excel, Access












Are the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? Comes from Banner and from HR system, Excel (service learning database), GED national database


a) What is the current state? Manual data analysis, excel data bases

b) What is the desired state? Able to get adjunct faculty lists, able to list students taking service learning courses, need to code SL courses in Banner, may be going toward Trackdat, include GED students in Banner, Follow up on students with placement scores and how they do in classes, ability to follow up with students who have certain grades, study of student success based on grades in certain courses, tracking testing done off site by high school, by population, following up on students courses by test location, want to store CNET scores so they can follow up on number of nursing students

c) What are the challenges? Getting data into Banner, Reporting confidential data, security, monthly shutdown of Banner causes problems with testing, multiple sources of data, not mechanize program review data

d) What do I do well? No answer here

e) What can I do better? Want to have comprehensive overview of department’s contribution to mission and college, access to data for broader distribution to president, vice presidents, etc




9.6.14 Financial Services

9.6.14.1 AttendeesName Office EmailTabatha Lord Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Toleos Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Bourgeois Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Sherwood IS [email protected] Clements Fiscal Affairs [email protected] Forsstrom Administration [email protected] Thomas IS [email protected]

9.6.14.2 Reports

Information Content




Balance Sheet / General Ledger

FGRTBAL – General Ledger Report provides listing of all funds, fund balance by fund, trial balance, etcSee their listing for reports used,Accrual statements

Reconciliation with Student accounts for audit purposes – difficult to track back to studentStudent Health Insurance Report (reconciliation issues)

IPEDS Instruction, Academic Support, Support ServicesFinancial Year end report All elements of chart of accounts

Operational / Subsidiary Ledger Activity

Org detail reports

Grant and Contract Application

FGRODTA – detail by org

FGRODTA – detail by orgSummary Report of grant data

To grants office to follow up on grant management

Purchase Orders / Invoices

FWE303 – non 1099 vendor list1099s receiving checksVendors missing 1099 information


What tools do you now use to meet your reporting requirements? Access, Excel, canned Banner Reports

Is the supporting data and/or information stored locally under your control, or is it stored and managed by central computing services? BannerPage 75 Confidential Business Information











a) What is the current state? It’s working, labor intensive, customizes grant reports for grants managers, take Banner data and create lead schedules – tie accounts to financial statement line.

b) What is the desired state? Be able to enter account number and trace back to student side, be able to print sort, etc on feed by detail codes, cashier session, feed docs, be able to use activity code for tracking projects, Grant managers want beginning information ex can’t follow purchase order through, tracking requisition by grant, Easier way to prepare spreadsheets for year end financial reports for KPG, manage reclass entries, users can use simplified data for reporting, be able to sort and manipulate bank check reports, put payroll data into ODS, part time employee payroll info budget and grant management, ability to do Student Health Insurance payment and reconciliation, better able to research detail behind account codes and attached to feed codes

c) What are the challenges? Documentation of processes, reconciliation between multiple systems, Financial Aid and bookstore application of payment processes

d) What do I do well? Know the processes and Banner tables, more self sufficient than others

e) What can I do better? Could be more efficient, would like to get away from so much manual labor, empowered users, flexibility to query on fields and track back to source system.


Documents

LCC BPRASA Final Report - NSCC MyWeb 2.0myweb.northshore.edu/users/gham/ODS/NSCC-SA-Final-Report.doc · Web view2.2.6 Determine End User Reporting Capabilities 11 2.2.7 Develop Common