Fresh Data on Students and Information Technology

The annual ECAR (Educause Center for Applied Research) Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology was recently released. How does IT affect the college experience? Take a look at the findings below.

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EKF/EKF0906.pdf - Key Findings

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0906/rs/ERS0906w.pdf - Full Study

Future Projects

The IT Department and our partners are working on some other important projects that will make their appearance in the near future. Two of the more noteworthy projects are our upgrade to Blackboard Release 9 (aka: Blackboard NG or Blackboard Learn Release 9) and release of our new website design. The two projects are slated for completion in late May and June/July 2010 respectively.

Learn about Blackboard Release 9 - http://www.blackboard.com/release9/

Banner (Project Galaxy) ERP Update - 10-28-09

Banner (Project Galaxy)

The Advancement system (Fundraising Campaign Management, Donor/Constituent Tracking, etc) is up and running. Thanks to everyone who worked to make this project successful. Special recognition needs to go out to Jeanne Welch and Mike Denkevitz for all of their hard work and commitment. Banner Advancement integrates with all of our other Banner systems and gives us many future opportunities to enhance our engagement with donors and alumni. Great Job!

Banner Human Resources/Payroll is our last core Banner system to launch. Our go-live date is January 1, 2010. Last week we ran our first parallel payroll test and have several more tests planned before the end of the year. We recognize the importance of making this transition as smooth as possible so we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal. I strongly encourage you to attend the upcoming HR/Payroll ‘Sneak Peek’ meetings and future time entry training sessions. I appreciate all of the great work done so far by everyone on the HR/Payroll team.

While we finish implementing Banner 7 we will be simultaneously working on Banner 8. Presently, we are scheduled to officially launch Banner 8 in late March of 2010. Release 8 introduces some substantial new technical changes as well as new functional capabilities.

Banner (Project Galaxy) ERP Update - 08-26-09

The beginning of the Fall semester has been very exciting for the Banner ERP team because this is the first semester start since our transition to Sungard Banner.  With the exception of some minor issues, everything worked as advertised and we are pleased with the product and our efforts.  We have made a concerted effort to provide enhanced services online for students and the change has yielded many positive returns.  Over the last five years we have averaged around 22% of registrations online, but the number dramatically increased to over 99% with the new Banner system and the implementation of registration kiosks.  In addition, the new integrated Touchnet online payment system, which went live July 1st with the Banner Finance System, has been a fantastic addition to our environment and has made the payment process simple and easy to use for students.

Below are some of the more noteworthy figures associated with YC’s transition to Banner for the Fall 2009 semester and our continued efforts developing and promoting the myYC portal:

• Banner has processed almost 20,000 registration transactions with no unscheduled downtime or performance issues
• Over 550 people have been logged into the myYC portal concurrently
• More than 800 different people have used the new YC kiosks to admit/register/login to the myYC portal
• More than 6400 students, faculty, and staff have accessed the myYC portal since August 24, 2009
• YC has processed almost 8800 payments via Touchnet with over 65% of payments completed via the online process
• Over 1000 students have taken advantage of the easier to use online payment plan option

Easy Reading – Microblogging

Check out Educause’s pithy article ‘7 things you should know about …. Microblogging’ (Twitter).  The text contains information on how Microblogging can be used in Higher Education.

Click the link below for the PDF:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7051.pdf

Banner (Project Galaxy) ERP Update - 07-22-09

Finance Go-Live
Congratulations to the Finance Team, IT Team, Liaisons, and Budget Managers for a successful launch of our Banner Finance System on July 1st.  There was a great deal of forethought, training, and testing that went into the launch and all of that preparation paid off.  A special thanks to Frank D’Angelo, Paula Hammer, Mike Denkevitz, and Jeanne Welch for all of their hard work.   This month we have completed well over 100 purchase orders and about 200 requisitions in the new system to date.  In the future we will augment the system by adding Banner Workflows and Portal Channels to gain efficiencies and provide easier access to frequently used functions.

On July 1st we also unveiled the Touchnet Payment System (‘My Bills and Payments’) via the myYC portal, which has dramatically improved our online payment process for students.  Since the beginning of the month we have used Touchnet to process well over a million dollars in roughly 3000 separate transactions.  In addition, setting up payment plans is now a much more streamlined experience.  Presently, about 500 students have utilized the payment plan option.

To view the ‘My Bills and Payments’ tutorial click the link below:
http://www.yc.edu/content/opi/mybills.htm

Summer Vacations - Out-of Office Messages

As many of us have vacations scheduled this summer, it is important to remember to set your out-office message on your voicemail and email.  This helps our constituents and internal co-workers know what kind of time-frame to expect for a reply.  Outlook 2007 contains the easy to use ‘Out of Office Assistant’ to help you set up your auto-replies to emails.  For more information, please visit the following webpage that has detailed instructions:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290846