IT

Where Are We Now?

Since the Board of Trustees approved the project in June 2004, much has been accomplished. A Banner Steering Committee has been created and is meeting monthly. A Banner Application Development Team has also been created and had its first meeting in November 2004.

As the Banner software vendor and as our partner in this project, SunGard SCT has been of great assistance. In addition to providing us with technical staff experienced with the Banner software who have implemented it at other schools, SunGard SCT is also providing us with a proven step-by-step method for implementing the software. This methodology has been developed and tested based on their experiences at other schools. We will be following this methodology for the for the Oakton Community College implementation. The methodology is called the the SunGard SCT Common Service Methodology (CSM).

The first document developed with this methodology is the Project Definition document (PDD). This document was completed in November 2004. As one of the first steps in the project, the PDD is significant because it defines the overall project objectives, scope, deliverables, ground rules, and respective responsibilities for Oakton Community College and SunGard SCT. Because it “sets the scene” for the remainder of the project, it is one of the most important documents developed during the project.

In support of Oakton's objective to go live with the new system in either February 2006 or November 2006, Oakton and Sungard SCT representatives have been busy preparing comprehensive implementation and support plans. Sungard SCT's experience with other clients and with the software has helped us ensure that our plans are realistic.

One of the first planning documents produced is a SCT consultant master schedule of visits to Oakton by SCT consultants. These visits include training sessions, configuration workshops, planning meetings, and others. The SCT consultant master schedule includes visits targeted specifically for the Banner Application Development Team and other more technical sessions targeted specifically for Information Technology staff.

The SCT consultant master schedule will be the framework for preparing other, more detailed plans. These plans will address the many other remaining tasks such as installing other software, configuring it to meet Oakton’s needs, designing and implementing interfaces with other systems, converting and loading historical data, testing the system to ensure that it works properly, training staff and students, and then using the system during a live registration.

The implementation will involve many different departments and constituencies at the College. To reach out to these different departments and constituencies, a number of presentations on the Banner project have already been conducted. The presentations already done include:

August 18, 2004 during Fall 2004 Orientation Week
September 20, 2004 to the Council of Chairs and Coordinators
September 28, 2004 to the Board of Student Affairs
September 30, 2004 to the Banner Steering Committee
October 4, 2004 to the Division of Science and Health Careers department chairs meeting
November 9, 2004 to the Oakton chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)
November 15, 2004 to the Division of Social Sciences and Business

More presentations will be done in the future.

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