Leaping Forward: Positioning Yourself for a Successful System Implementation The Pennsylvania State...

Leaping Forward:Positioning Yourself for a Successful

System Implementation

The Pennsylvania State UniversityDawn Boyer, ITS

Carol Findley, OURMelanie Schuster, ITS

ISIS History

• Electronic Data Systems (EDS)• Went Live in 1983 with Admissions• Considered “State of the Art” System at the

time• Built to reflect processes and University

structure in early 1980s

“State of the Art”

What is ISIS?

• From Penn State Newswire, March 21, 2013

• ISIS is integral to the work and academic needs of tens of thousands of Penn State community members daily. Not only is ISIS used to manage billing, student aid awarding, course scheduling, transcripts, and student records for Penn State students from admission through graduation, but it is also the backbone for eLion, Penn State's Web-based system for students, advisers and faculty.

eLion Background

• Web-based application (portal)o Students (Current and Former), Advisers, Faculty,

Parent/Othero Access to Information and Services

• Web front-end to legacy SIS• Timeline

o 1994 – Project Team Formedo 1996 – Prototype Releaseo 1997 – Production Release

eLion Student

ISIS Statistics

• Some brief statistics– 23 Campus locations, including World Campus– 96,000 Students University Wide – 1 Medical and 2 Law Schools– 21,000 Degrees awarded per year

– 1,839 unique student batch procedures – 17,000 batch student procedures run per month– 500,000 emails sent out in last 180 days– 11,000 file transfers in/out per month.– 5000+ unique report definitions in our electronic document

system

ISIS Current Interfaces

ISIS

DatabaseDatabase

Database

Student Aid

eLion

MyPenn State

Ug Adm

EASIS

STROBE

Grad School

Univ. Outreach

Registrar

eISIS

Student Affairs Univ.

Libraries

Bursar

Budget Office

Schreyer HonorsCollege

Hershey Medical

Global Pgms

Central Person

Rep.

CACTUS

GI Services

Sched. of Courses

Degree Audit

ANGEL

EISEngineering

iTWO(Data WH)

eSteward

Dickinson Law

8

CSRS

PSU Unique Functionality

• Undergraduate Admissions Decision Process• eSteward (Donor gift stewardship)• SRTE (Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness)• Early Progress Reporting• Loan Processing• The Graduate School Application/GRADS• Automated Collection Process

Option A – Do NothingOption B – Rebuild ISISOption C – Open SourceOption D – Purchase a vendor SIS

Build vs. Buy

Each option was evaluated using• Technical skills of IT staff• Skills of functional staff• Viability of current technology & architecture • Functional capability of current software • Risks and benefits

Build vs. Buy

Option Risk Viability

A Extremely High Not Viable

B Extremely High Viable

C Extremely High Not Viable

D High Viable

Build vs. Buy

• Modern System • Faster access to new functionality• Software compliance with federal

regulatory requirements• Vendors constantly enhance their

products• Support the needs of distance and

continuing education learners

Benefits of Buy

Business Process Review

• Mapped Current Processes• Defined Future State Processes• Goals

o Reduce number of steps in a processo Reduce/Eliminate duplicate taskso Reduce time/effort to complete tasko Increase accuracy and qualityo Increase user satisfactiono Ensure consistency

Future State –Registrar Examples

• Non-Degree Enrollment – one entry point for all types

• Registration – integrate with student plan, degree audit, and course schedule; shopping cart functionality; prereq checking; waitlisting

• Re-enrollment – incorporate workflow in evaluation process

• Holds – alerts within Student Portal

Policy Review

• Engaged Faculty Senate• Faculty Focus Groups• Evaluating current policies• Process to expedite policy changes• Examples

o Academic Drop Policyo Course Scheduling Policyo Hold Policy

Goal - acquire and install a new Student Information System that supports Penn State’s traditional brick and mortar and World Campus student services for the next 15 years or more.

Request for Proposal (RFP)

3 Parts : • Software Vendor• RDBMS • Systems Implementation Partner

Request for Proposal (RFP)

• Inclusive process• Vanilla implementation• University System• Opportunity for change• Utilize best practices• Enable consistency• Things will be different but better• Will not achieve perfection

Guiding Principles

Project StaffingPSU and Implementation Partner

• Project Management team• Functional Area teams

o Cross-Module Functionso Recruiting & Admissionso Records & Enrollment Advisingo Student Aido Bursar

• Technical team• Change Management team• Training team

Proposed Project Org Chart

Project Management Team

Cross-Module Functions

Recruiting & Admissions

Records & Enrollment Advising

Student Aid

Bursar

Training

Change Management

Technical

Impact to Functional Areas

• Experienced / Senior-level staff moving to Project Teamo Operational and Technical staffo Full time commitment

• Staff remaining in officeo Assume additional and/or higher-level

responsibilitieso Assist Project Team

• Current State:• 13 to 1 is a tie• Too many people have veto power• No time limits on discussions

• Future State:• 100% consensus is not required • Effective & timely decision reduces cost• Formal documented process

Governance – Decision Making

Proposed Governance StructureExecutive Co-Sponsors

ProvostSr. VP Finance and Business

Executive Committee

Steering Committee

Project Management Team

PSUCommunity

Advisory Committees

- Advising- Student- Faculty- Reporting- Other Adhoc

Request

ExecLiaison

The new, student-centered information system will foster transformative thinking, increased efficiency and agile delivery of excellent and consistent services to students, faculty and staff. The system will enable robust strategic planning and data-informed decision-making across Penn State. Penn State will leverage best practices and adopt uniform business processes in support of the diversity of education delivery models and needs of the University community.

Vision

Project LionPATH

• Student Contest to name the project• Penn State Academic Technology Hub • http://projectlionpath.psu.edu/

• Questions?• Advice for us?

Dawn Boyer dmb1@psu.eduCarol Findley csf3@psu.edu

Melanie Schuster mus2@psu.edu