TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS COUNCIL

Transcription

1 TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: 8 DATE: December 15, 2016 ****************************************************************************** SUBJECT: Banner Student Proposal PREPARED BY: Monte R. Kramer For approximately two years, Dave Hansen, System CIO and Monte Kramer, System VP of Finance and Administration, have been meeting quarterly with our executive sponsors from Ellucian. During those meetings, we discussed challenges related to the delivery of education in a higher education environment and how Ellucian can better help us be successful going forward. We reviewed the opportunities that were going to be available as a result of our migration to the Oracle environment for all our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. The focus of our discussion was largely centered on the success of that effort during that time period. With that migration cutover completed and efforts underway to complete remaining tasks and initiate projects to leverage opportunities on that platform, we have returned our focus to the long-term plan. We continue to field concerns from Colleague Student users as well as the Academic Affairs Council about needed enhancements relative to supporting student success and operational expectations and efficiencies. The goal is to improve delivery of software enhancements in a timely way without significant modifications. We have illustrated those concerns using Student Planning as an example. That implementation demonstrated our inability to deploy their software enhancements in a timely, cost effective manner. It is unacceptable to us and our user community that it takes three years and hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to implement one module that was released for the Colleague system. We are aware there is a new Financial Aid self-service module available today that we should deploy. But, given our experience with Student Planning and knowing the changes we ve made to our financial aid area, the time and dollar commitment to implement that module will certainly eclipse our investment associated with the Student Planning implementation. It seems we have become paralyzed and unless something changes, we will not be able to continue to function as a system using the Colleague software. In response, Ellucian spent time evaluating, in greater detail, the issues we surfaced. We provided them documentation related to our modifications on maintenance, modifications not on maintenance, operational documentation constructed in consideration of Colleague functionality, comments from users, and our concerns regarding future directions if nothing changes. A few months passed and they contacted us to schedule a meeting to review their recommendation. In that meeting, they surfaced the challenges we face in Colleague are due to the demands we place on that system and the fact it was not designed to support our type of usage. We, of course, challenged that position and their commitment to support our unique single integrated system approach. Regardless, the position being represented is we can continue to operate as we do today and modify new releases when available to support the functionality we want/need. Or, we can consider migrating to the Banner system that has recently been updated to include multientity processing (MEP) capability as part of the baseline product. Formerly, MEP capability

2 Banner Student Proposal December 15, 2016 Page 2 of 4 was available but setup/configured/managed specifically for each client. That functionality allows us to identify which areas of the student system we want to operate independently by university and those we want to operate as a unified system. A software vendor promoting further software purchases to solve our problems was concerning. But, we also know something has to change from our current position so we allowed this discussion to continue. We have challenged Ellucian to provide similar MEP functionality in the Colleague System and alternatively to provide costs that would make a conversion to Banner Student a good business decision. Ellucian has been clear that they are not going to make the investment in Colleague for MEP functionality that they have already made in Banner. South Dakota is the only client using Colleague Student and Banner Finance. The current proposal from Ellucian consists of the Banner Student XE solution. This is a recently upgraded version of the product line that includes the multi-entity processing (MEP) capability. The MEP capability along with the enhanced features of the XE product line are being represented as the better option for South Dakota in consideration of our diverse system needs. Further, if we did agree to move forward with this migration, how do we know Banner Student would actually address the problems we ve outlined/are experiencing? For the last three months, Ellucian leadership has been evaluating our current modifications to Colleague to assess if they can be addressed in Banner using the MEP functionality and working on a conversion plan and pricing. On November 2, the Ellucian team met with leadership and system experts from South Dakota to discuss the Banner solution and to identify additional concerns and strategies regarding a potential conversion. The group included key people from Ellucian, each university, and key functional users of the student ERP system. Ellucian Team Brian Knotts, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist (on-site) Jody Jackman, Account Executive (on-site) Brent Johnson, Director Solutions Consulting, Banner (on-site) Joseph Harple, Principal Consultant, Technical (on-site) Kim Fisher, Director Solutions Consulting, Colleague (On-site) Sue Stern, Vice President Operations (Webinar) Cindy Martini, Director Strategic Solutions (Webinar) Serena Hyche, Principal Consultant, Banner Financial Aid (On-site) Paul Tupis, Strategic Services Advisor (Webinar) South Dakota Team and Area Represented Mike Rush BOR (Board) Monte Kramer BOR (Finance and Administration) Dave Hansen RIS (CIO) Jill Christian RIS (Technical) Jay Perry BOR (Academic Affairs) Paul Turman BOR (Academic Affairs) Molly Weisgram BOR (Student Affairs)

3 Banner Student Proposal December 15, 2016 Page 3 of 4 Mary Ellen Garrett BOR (Finance and Accounting) Roxy Schmit BHSU Data Processing Supervisor (Technical & Reporting) Marilyn Halgerson DSU Director of Administrative Computing Services (Technical and Reporting) Sharon Kienow NSU Financial Aid Director (Financial Aid) Molly Moore SDSM&T Assoc. Provost for Academic Administration (Admissions) Aaron Aure SDSU Technology and Data Management Coordinator (Registrar) Shelley Brunick USD (Tuition Assessment, collections and accounting) Sheila Gestring USD (BAC) The Ellucian team gave a Banner overview discussing Mobile and Portal, financial aid, integration and reporting, navigation and users, general Banner Student functionality, current modification and MEP functionality, pricing and a conversion timeline. The South Dakota team challenged them with a number of concerns and there were 21 outstanding items for follow-up. Ellucian prepared responses to each of the items and a follow-up meeting was held on November 18 via webinar with the South Dakota representatives. The Ellucian team had also investigated options on how South Dakota might be able to utilize the studio reports and Colleague ODS in the Banner environment, avoiding the pain of moving to a new data store and the rewriting of reports against that data. Data and report conversion would be major undertakings for RIS and the universities. The conclusion was that there was no good way to map the data from Colleague to Banner, but the universities continue to use the Cognos report tool against the Banner ODS. We must continue to investigate issues being raised and challenge the solutions being promoted by Ellucian. Some members of the team are cautious about the conversion and others have already indicated their support. The biggest concern is the investment in people and time to get the conversion done. While that is certainly a drawback, it is not an appropriate reason to maintain the status quo. There has been no final decision made on whether we will move to Banner Student, although it is evident that it offers us a better path to meet the expectations of the universities and to provide solutions to support students while maintaining our system approach. Dr. Rush, Dr. Turman, Dr. Kramer and Dave Hansen feel that it is not a question of whether or not to move to Banner Student, but when to start the conversion and how to prioritize the work ahead. The next step is to broaden the inclusion of campus personnel in the discussion and to demo Banner Student to the many users across the system to get buy-in. In summary, we have presented Ellucian with our long-term use concerns related to the Colleague solution. We have asked our Ellucian client advocates to provide recommendations to support how we move forward in an effective, efficient manner to support the needs of the Board and universities of our system. Ellucian has provided us a viable solution and we must now assess and confirm that it will meet our needs and move the universities and system forward. Ellucian provided us the total software, support, conversion and maintenance costs. You will find that information in the attached PowerPoint presentation titled Enabling SDBOR s Goals (Attachment I). While there is still work to do, and we believe there are additional costs

4 Banner Student Proposal December 15, 2016 Page 4 of 4 that we would incur due to our complex data structure, the initial implementation costs are within resources that have been identified for the project. Based on the current estimate of $1,958,028, the project provides a payback over a seven-year period, given the savings on maintenance from our current heavily modified student system. The funds to support the implementation services would come from the System Technology Fund which is funded by a $1.50 per credit hour fee, generating around $900,000 per year. The uncommitted balance projection for FY17 for that fund is $1,952,887. Additional funds might be available from the Academic Initiative Funds in the board office as well as the RIS capital investment funds maintained for equipment and software investments. It is believed the conversion costs would likely reach $2.5M for direct contract costs and central supplemental staffing costs. The campuses would incur staffing costs and potentially contract costs should they outsource any of their local work. The local staffing costs and RIS staffing commitments would not be a direct cost of the project, although the investment on a major ERP conversion is significant. Attachment II is an estimated timeline should SDBOR decide to move forward with Banner Student. Attachment III is a draft of the roadmap and the potential projects that could be impacted if SDBOR moves forward with Banner Student. The timeline and roadmap have not been circulated to the various councils. RECOMMENDATION: Information and discussion.

5 Enabling SDBOR s Goals Standardization, Optimization, Modernization Cindy Martini, Director Strategic Solutions Sue Stern, VP Operations ATTACHMENT I 5

6 Agenda 1 SDBOR Project Goals 2 Proposed Approach 3 Implementation Services 4 Project Governance 5 Software and Maintenance Pricing & Cost Savings 6 Questions ATTACHMENT I 6

7 SDBOR Project Goals Standardize Standardize on a single technology platform, leading to lower total cost of ownership Optimize Extend functionality currently available to drive outcomes and efficiencies Modernize Eliminate customizations that are complicating upgrades to modern software Standardize user experience Student Success ATTACHMENT I 7

8 Project Considerations Banner Knowledge SDBOR has staff knowledgeable on the functional and technical aspects of the Banner solutions Efficiency SDBOR goal is to implement standard, baseline configuration across institutions. Strong Partnership Partners with SDBOR for 20 years, Ellucian understands your unique environment and business requirements. ATTACHMENT I 8

9 Proposed Approach Project Governance Drive adoption and standardization Manage project quality Minimize project risk Manage communications and change Define Future State Define requirements aligned with Ellucian best practices, assuming no customizations and a MEP environment. Drive change across campuses in light of Banner XE and functional enhancements Solution Deployment Design, configure, test, and deploy Banner Student and Financial Aid in alignment with defined future state Deploy modern technology, including Banner XE Deploy new, integrated solutions including DegreeWorks ATTACHMENT I 9

10 Implementation Services Solution Area High Level Approach Banner Student / FA 100% shared service model; A single configuration and business process Baseline functionality only (including XE) Standard data migration services Degree Works 100% shared service model; A single configuration and business process Scribing for Undergraduates Finance / HR XE Services Support deployment of Finance/HR XE Document Management / Luminis / Mobile SDBOR extends current configuration to support Student/FA/AR Technical Architecture Advisory level services only Database Administration / Identity Management Implementation Services: $1,884,228 SDBOR provides all additional DBA and Identity tasks during implementation ATTACHMENT I 10

11 Additional Optional Data Migration Support SDBOR has requested additional services support during the data migration process to mitigate risk and support their data complexities. Additional Optional Data Migration Services: $73,800 Proposed Additional Services Data Migration Assessment Detailed assessment of current data and environment. Colleague Legacy Extract Advisory Services Proposed hours may adjust based on results of assessment service. Proposed Hours 60 hours 350 hours ATTACHMENT I 11

12 Proposed Timeline Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Kickoff Define Requirements Project Management & Governance Close- Out Banner Recruitment / Admissions (Banner XE) Financial Aid NOTES: Financial Aid ISIR pull n February / March per historically traditional model. Banner Recruitment / Admissions usage would begin in December. Approach dependent on desired start date. Registration / Records Accounts Receivable Advising (DegreeWorks) Extend Current Solutions (Luminis, Doc Mgmt, Mobile) ATTACHMENT I 12

13 Project Governance and Alignment Alignment of SDBOR and Ellucian Teams is foundation of strong governance model. System-Wide Executive Sponsor System-Wide Steering Committee Executive Leadership Coordinated Implementation Team Ellucian Regional VP Services (Wesley Matthews) Ellucian Regional Delivery Dir. (Kevin Jones) Executive Team Ellucian SDBOR Ellucian Extended Team Campus Project Admins / Mgrs System-Wide Project Director Ellucian Program Manager Product Management Implementation Team Lead for each Business Area Cross Institution Process Teams Technical Teams Data Migration Teams Implementation Team Lead for each Business Area Subject Matter Experts Technical Consultants Data Migration Consultants R&D Support Services ATTACHMENT I 13

14 Software and Maintenance Pricing & Cost Savings ATTACHMENT I 14

15 Questions ATTACHMENT I 15

16 ATTACHMENT II 16

17 ATTACHMENT III 17 Discover report rewrite to Cognos BI Publisher report rewrite to Cognos SDBOR website RFP Publish standards documents Federated ID (includes ETHOS Identity)

18 Banner XE Modules (Date to be defined after tech. discovery meeting) Banner workflow upgrade (Date to be defined after tech. discovery meeting) Discover report rewrite to Cognos Xtender Upgrade ECAP upgrades Install SQL12 Oracle 12 C upgrade ADG (Active Data Guard) ETHOS Integration Hub New Library System Migration Ellucian Travel Expense Module High School Dual Credit SDOS (South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship) rewrite TouchNet Migrate NelNet off Web Wizard Cisco Router & Firewall Vermillion 100 G Reed Network Data Centers upgrade to 10 G QRADAR update Colleague Financial Aid Self Service Unified Portal (Banner/Colleague) ATTACHMENT III 18 Non-critical Colleague enhancement requests will be put on hold.