Banner Implementation Project work continues

Work continues on the Banner Implementation Project, which is officially known as the UDC (Unified Digital Campus) project. Banner is the system that will replace our current Student Information System (SIS).

Since the project officially kicked off in August 2006 much has been accomplished including several training classes, according to Scott E. Bridges, an SIUC Information Technology coordinator.

To date, the emphasis of these training classes has been on system configuration, general person - a Banner term used to describe general records for students, faculty, or staff - recruiting, and admissions. Additionally, a platform kickoff was conducted for Luminis (web portal) as well as an organizational and technical workshop. Training classes have also begun in the financial aid area and will ramp up throughout the Spring and into the Summer.

In addition to the many training classes, 'test' hardware has been purchased and installed. A fully functioning 'test' environment is in place. Initial migration of legacy data has been loaded for testing purposes. Baseline system setup and validation tables are in place.

Other activities coming up include the testing of:

• Prospective student processing
• Communication plans
• Admissions processing including the online and paper applications
• Financial aid processing
• Accounts Receivable set up and testing
• Legacy data migration and conversion
• Luminis installation and configuration

Training and testing activities have predominately been directed toward functional offices within Woody Hall and staff from Information Technology. As the project continues to grow, additional campus offices will be included in training and planning sessions.

For a complete and detailed list of activities, as well as the status of the project, you may visit the project Web site.

If you would like to receive periodic announcements and status reports, please subscribe to the UDC-ANNOUNCE-L listserv. For more information on how to subscribe to a list, see "How a Subscriber Joins and Leaves a List."