New Info System Ready to Launch

By Caroline Barnhill

Like the ground crew preparing for a satellite launch, staff members in the Department of Registration and Records and the Office of Information Technology are excited as they get ready to go live with the launch of a new student information system (SIS) next week that will impact approximately 40,000 campus users.

There's a lot riding on the outcome. SIS is used for the storage and maintenance of all student academic records including addresses, classroom scheduling, student registration, transcripts, class rosters and grade submission. The new system, based on the PeopleSoft software program, should make everything run smoother, faster and more efficiently. But progress doesn't come easily. The staff has been hard at work for the past three years, preparing for the transition from one complex system to another.

The new student information system will reduce paperwork and allow faculty members to post grades immediately.

The process began with a detailed fit/gap analysis comparing every function that is completed throughout the course of an academic year in the old student system with how that process is handled by the new system. Any gaps in functionality then had to be addressed by either a change to the business process or a customization to the system. Detailed testing of the system, including the conversion of hundreds of thousands of student data rows, began last February. In addition to this work, Registration and Records staff started providing training on campus in January 2009 and will continue to offer classes until March.

"This has been a huge cross-campus effort with faculty and staff in colleges across the university assisting in the testing of the upgraded system," says Dr. Louis Hunt, vice provost and university registrar. "While many people's first reaction is one of resisting change, they will see the reality is that the old system had many limitations that simply aren't present in the new system."

For example, the upgraded system has more robust prerequisite checking to keep students from enrolling in classes without the proper academic preparation. The new system will allow for students to be auto-enrolled into labs when one is required with a course. Students will no longer have to submit paper applications for graduation; it will be available to them online.

And there are many advantages to faculty and advisors as well.

Professors can post grades immediately, without waiting for an overnight batch process. Also, faculty will be able to continue to access information from previous years, such as class rosters and grades submitted. Advisors no longer have to hand out 4-digit PINs to students for registration access. Instead they will simply remove a hold from the student's record.

"This system will also position us to develop workflow," says Hunt. "Processes that previously involved paper being routed around campus for signatures will soon be handled online. It will be a major timesaver for students and faculty."

"We were deliberate in our timing for launching this upgraded system," says Michelle Johnson, associate registrar. "When we implemented MyPack Portal in 2007, it was to prepare us for this system upgrade. The navigation to the system will be the same, it will just look different when you get there."

Also taken into consideration, Hunt says, is allowing faculty and students time to get used to the upgraded system before summer/fall registration ramps up in March.

"Our previous system was an aging mainframe environment. The university devoted a lot of resources to bridge from that system to the Internet, where students and faculty are used to retrieving information," Johnson says. "The new application is Web-based, so our resources won't have to go toward building the bridge, but rather toward continually improving the system. Plus, many major universities across the country are using this system and sharing best practices with each other."

And differences can already be seen.

"The vet school implemented a new grading system," Hunt says. "With this new system, functional users can build the new requirements in 30 minutes – something that would have taken months of work from both technical and functional staff in the old system."

Tutorials for the new system are available in the portal and at www.ncsu.edu/sis. Any questions? Call the help desk at 515-HELP.