ConnectND Colleagues, The good news is my learning continues. The better news (at least for me) is that, so far, there haven't been any hard lessons. Since my last newsletter, there have been a number of meetings and work sessions where we've continued planning of the various projects under the CND umbrella, and conveyed those plans to various governance, advisory, and constituent groups. The planning work being done by your ConnectND staff should enable us to effectively manage these projects and, in turn, alleviate some of your concerns as to their impact. With all these projects, we're trying to give as much notice as possible to campuses regarding their involvement. Once the project plans and high-level schedules are in place, we'll be working in 90-day windows. We'll publish key dates as soon as we can after the initial plans are complete. Each month, we'll publish the planned activities and rough estimates of dates for the next 90 days. Along with that, we'll provide detailed plans for the next 30 days. So, at any given time, there should be a good sense of what's happening in the subsequent month, and what we expect will happen in the two months beyond. As we move more heavily into these projects, we'll be working with the CAC and its co-chairs, Mark Lowe and Peggy Lucke, various user groups, and some special workgroups to examine areas where we can reduce complexity in the system. As Randall has noted in discussions with the Board and Cabinet, we have over 1000 customizations and modifications in the Student Admin system, and while some of those are undoubtedly necessary, they all need to be reviewed, and sometimes changed, as we apply patches and upgrades to the software. Any headway we can make in reducing those will allow us to use resources for other priorities. Here's a brief update on the various projects for which ConnectND is responsible. The Ten Recommendations 11.5 FTE positions - As I noted in the last update, the hiring processes are under way for all these positions. We've had some success - the new HRMS business analyst starts August 13, some disappointment - a candidate for the Financial business analyst position turned us down, and the rest either have applications being reviewed or interviews being scheduled. Financial System Upgrade - With fiscal year and biennium closing activities, the people who will be involved in this upgrade for both Higher Ed and the State have been busy providing production support and performing other day-to-day activities. Planning will resume in the coming month. Student Admin Data Center Upgrade - The hardware upgrade for the 8.0 Student Admin system was completed in late July. While some small issues remain, the upgrade went pretty smoothly and we're getting reports of better performance. Thanks to the Data Center staff at UND for the many hours of extra work to ensure this was completed well ahead of fall registration. Student Admin Application Upgrade & Consistent Toolset - Planning continues at a vigorous pace for the upgrade of our Student Admin 8.0 applications to Campus Solutions 9.0, the upgrade of PeopleTools from version 8.22 to version 8.49, and for the change of the database from SQL Server to Oracle. While this is already the #1 priority for some staff, once the Fall semester is underway, it will be for all the Campus Solutions team and the Data Center. Student Admin Security Risk Assessment - The working group has business case, identifying the items we'd like examined in the security risk assessment for the Student Admin system. We've found that different groups have different expectations of what a security risk assessment is, so we're currently reviewing the business case and will proceed with Requests for Information or Proposals. SA Data Center Disaster Recovery Planning - As noted previously, planning for a back-up data center site, which would be used in case of disaster, will occur as the application upgrade progresses. NDUS Data Warehouse - As noted in my last update, planning for an NDUS data warehouse will occur along with the application upgrades for Financials and Student Admin. CRM - The Recruiting and Admissions working group held vendor presentations from three CRM vendors August 2 & 3 in Valley City. UPK - Also as noted in my last update, Oracle's User Productivity Kit (UPK) will be used during the Financials and Campus Solutions upgrades for demonstrating new functionality and performing “fit-gap” analyses, and then will be available when those systems go live to provide documentation, job aids, and other support for users of those applications. Other Projects AppWorx - AppWorx, which is a scheduling tool that allows control over the scheduling and execution of processes and reports, will be used this Fall in the Student Admin system. Because of the current version of PeopleTools we're on, use is limited to one User ID. The Campus Solutions business analysts will be working with user groups to identify processes that could be run centrally to avoid potential conflicts and performance issues. TouchNet - The implementation of TouchNet, which is credit card processing software, continues with training sessions held over the last week or so. Phase 1, the acceptance of credit card payments on-line, will be available at the beginning of Fall semester. T2 Parking System Upgrade - Upgrading T2 to a web-based version is under way, with a completion date in the fall. Adirondack Housing System Upgrade - Web access to Adirondack will be available this summer. FAMIS Upgrade - Planning for this upgrade is in progress. HRMS Self-Service - The design for this project has taken place, and technical work will ramp up as new positions are hired. HRMS self-service includes e-Profile (employees can look up their own demographic data, and change some of it), e-Pay (employees can look up their current and previous paycheck information) and e-Benefits (employees can look up their benefits coverage and dependents' information). Because of training needed by new staff, the earliest rollouts to campuses will begin will be January, 2008. Kronos - The team is working on a business case to bring forward for upgrading the timeclock system in place at MISU, NDSU, and UND. If approved, the upgrade (a relatively small one, taking only a few weeks) would take place in the October/November timeframe. Other Stuff Campus Visits - Due to planning for these projects, our plans to visit campuses this summer didn't materialize. However, Randall, the ConnectND system directors, and I will be setting up visits to your campuses this Fall to hear about your needs and how things are going with ConnectND. We'll be contacting campuses for dates and times that would work best for these visits. Financial Systems Director - Unfortunately, the search for my replacement as Director of Financial Systems yielded no viable candidates, even after qualifications were changed and the position readvertised. We're discussing both interim and long-term possibilities to cover those responsibilities. There continues to be lots of activity with ConnectND. As the days and weeks in my new position turn to months, I again want to assure you that I'm here to listen and take your input. I'll continue to work formally with the Campus Advisory and Oversight committees, as well as sitting in on meetings with users, to understand your issues, and how we may be able to help address them. Mick Pytlik, CPA
Executive Director of ConnectND
North Dakota University System
Skills and Technology Training Center - Room 219
1305 19th Ave N
Fargo, ND 58102-1821
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The past couple of weeks proved to be a challenge for statewide travel . . . with threats of freezing rain. Therefore, rather than traveling to Bismarck, I met with the Student Records group via conference call this past week. This group asked very good questions about how CND development requests for new applications or capabilities are approved. They have several pending development requests that would provide better services to our students. The best I can determine is that there is not an approved process in place. This is an important issue for CND to improve its services. This will be discussed with the CND Directors, CAC and the CND Oversight Committee.Finally, under one roof! This past week, all the Fargo-based ConnectND staff and the HECN IVN Director moved into one of the newly remodeled rooms in the Skills and Technology Center. The remodeling of the second room will be completed about January 22. We celebrated the move and the holidays by having a pot-luck lunch. Special guests were three CND staff, their spouses and their new babies born in November.This past week, Randall and I postponed again due to weather a trip to visit the ConnectND users at UND. We will be rescheduling that visit in January. Monday, weather permitting, we travel to Mayville and visit their CND users. As always, these trips are very valuable and we so enjoy seeing and hearing about their CND experiences in their own environment.January will see the Oracle recommendations brought forward and our state's legislative body will begin its work. Both are expected to provide challenges yet bring about positive change.As I pause and look at the past year, a great deal has been accomplished . . . due to the diligent work by ConnectND staff and campus users . . . to provide the best possible service to our students. I look forward to working with all of you in continuing this trend in 2007.A blessed holiday season to you and yours.. . . until next year . . .BonnieInterim Deputy CIO & Executive Director for ConnectND
