1. Software Upgrade
While many folks are getting comfortable with the current Banner 3.x
releases, plans are in the works to upgrade to Banner 4.x in mid-July.
This new software release will greatly increase the functionality in the
Finance module as well as offering new features in other areas as well.
Upgrading to Banner 4.x will also resolve many of the known bugs in the
current release and will allow for a more stable production environment
for the Financial Aid, Admissions, Alumni, and Student systems. As
you may have read previously, "change is the name of the game" with automated
systems and this is just the beginning of periodic upgrades to the software
for the LEWIS project. Currently, the target date for this upgrade
is July 15th, but watch for further announcements.
2. LEWIS Training--Banner 4.0 Preview for Current
Users
In preparation for the move to Banner 2000 version 4, a short seminar
will be offered to all clients who are current users of the BANNER system.
This seminar will feature a short presentation on the new "look and feel"
of BANNER including navigational enhancements and searching techniques.
Following this presentation will be an open lab where attendees will be
encouraged to "test drive" the new version in
order to prepare for this move.
The dates and times are as follows:
Tuesday 7/11 10:30 - 12:00, 3-4:30
Wednesday 7/12 9-10:30, 10:30 - 12:00, 3-4:30
Thursday 7/13 9-10:30, 10:30 - 12:00, 3-4:30
Friday 7/14 9-10:30, 10:30 - 12:00, 3-4:30
All sessions will be held in Rauch 70.
No advance registration is required.
3. Training Update #2--New Users
After the system has been upgraded to the new 4.x release, training
will resume the last week in July or the first week in August. Details
on how to request training for yourself or your staff will soon be added
to the LEWIS Web page.
4. Streamlining
The Enterprise Systems Implementation team with the help of its constituents
is pleased to report success in its "massive weight loss program."
With the mandate from the LEWIS Executive Committee that Lehigh's implementation
be as "vanilla" as possible, they have reduced the number of customized
forms [screens] to be brought forward to the new Banner version to approximately
ten or fewer. This is a notable achievement and will directly translate
to easier installations of future software upgrades and releases from SCT.
5. Testing, Testing, Testing
As Lehigh moves farther down the road with the Banner software, it
becomes increasingly more important that all staff who use the system be
vigilant and thorough in testing the functionality in their modules.
Technical staff can do some testing, but no one knows the inner workings
of the functionality as well as those of you who use the system every day
for your daily work. Therefore, whether you work in the Financial
Aid, Student, Alumni/Development, Finance, or Human Resources/Payroll module,
please take the time to test the system when requested. Testing and reporting
of any problems or anomalies should go on all the time, but when fixes
or software upgrades are installed, specific test scripts may be made available
to assist in a systematic evaluation of the module.
Information concerning testing Banner 4.x has been sent to core users
by Tom Smull. These core users have the opportunity to test Banner
4.x using a test database instance that contains Lehigh data. Any
problems associated with the Banner 4.x testing should be reported to Tom
at tjs5@lehigh.edu (8-3007).
6. State of the Enterprise
Now that the LEWIS project is roughly half way there, it seems appropriate
to provide an update on where we are in each module.
Student: Students are registered for Fall 2000 in Banner, and Web for Student installation training took place the week of June 12th.
Financial Aid: Two test files have been sent to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA)-- one for electronic data corrections and one for loan processing. The Electronic Data Exchange file was successfully tested and an actual file was sent Friday. A second loan test file was sent last week and we are awaiting the response from PHEAA. The financial aid office staff are nearing completion of the upperclass student review and hope to have financial aid award letters mailed to upperclass students by the end of June.
Finance: Training in several modules (endowment management in late May and grants and accounts in mid-July) is ongoing or already scheduled, and the chart of accounts is mostly built. The target date for implementation is July 2001.
Human Resources/Payroll: Training continues in June, and staff have already begun creating employee records in production in the current instance of Banner. Once version 4.x is up, then other tasks will be moved to Banner production as well.
Alumni/Development: Staff in this area are working
to maximize use of their current version Banner. Refresher training is
ongoing and planning for an SCT consultant visit. Testing on Banner
4.x is in progress, and members of the alumni team are reviewing validation
tables for the prospect management module.
If you have comments or questions on this newsletter or about communication
about LEWIS, contact Jean Farrington at jwf3@lehigh.edu