Who – or What – is BOB?

By now many of you have probably heard about Project BOB either through some posting in USFconnect or through a colleague. But BOB has heard through the grapevine that there are still some questions as to what he’s all about. Project BOB is the name given to the University’s 3-year long project to replace its core administrative system, and BOB stands for Banner on Board. Banner is the SunGard Higher Education suite of products purchased by the University to replace our current administrative system, SunGard SCT Plus. The University’s administrative system, which is referred to as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, encompasses the following core administrative systems: Advancement, Finance, Human Resources, Student, and Financial Aid.

The administrative system is the core system for the University and we can’t live without it!

Our current administrative environment, SCT Plus (ADS, FRS, HRS, SIS), is reaching the end of its life (it’s about 20 years old – ancient in its world) and this is one of the core reasons why the University decided to replace the system. In addition to addressing the end-of-life issue, Banner will also bring significant improvements. Some enhancements will be full access through a web interface – no more DataComet or other telnet-like application will be needed – near 24/7 access, easier reporting capabilities, better opportunities to improve services to our students and expanded self-service capabilities such as online purchase requisitions, e-timesheets for staff, and more.

Once a more robust test environment is established, we will offer some demonstrations of the Banner system so the University Community can see Banner and get an idea of what this new world of information looks like. To learn more about the project, please check out our Project BOB website.

BOB Takes Advantage of the Summer Months

This summer the Project BOB team is hard at work taking advantage of some of the down time that comes during the summer months. Advancement is going strong with their training and consulting sessions, sessions critical to the configuration of the Banner Advancement system. The other implementation teams, Finance, Human Resources, Student and

Financial Aid, are all preparing for the start of their implementations by doing business process analysis and looking at ways to distribute workloads for team members before their training and consulting sessions begin. All in all, the summer months will be well utilized by Project BOB team members!

Tick Tock – Tick Tock: BOB Live at USF!

Project BOB officially began Dec. 1, 2005, following the signing of USF’s contract with SunGard Higher Education and includes five product areas: Advancement, Finance, Human Resources, Student, and Financial Aid. Except for Advancement and Human Resources, all product areas will be put in production gradually. For example, Banner Student will go live in June 2007 with Admissions related functions -- the remaining areas, such as registration and grading will go live later. The table provided here represents the month/year each product will have its initial production launch.

The high-level project timeline is available online and details more specifically when the various elements of Banner will go into production. While these dates are fairly set at this point in the project, there may be some adjustments to the timing of certain modules as the project progresses. The high-level timeline is updated regularly to reflect any changes.

BOB’s Home Improvement Plan

As noted in the “Who – or what – is BOB?” article, once all elements of Banner are up and running the University Community should see some noticeable improvements in how information is accessed and managed. Some key areas that will have a direct impact on community members are:

• access to the new Banner environment through the web (no more telnet)
• improved security of information (ours and our students’!)
• shared information – like addresses and other demographic information
• ability to submit a purchase requisition on-line
• staff e-timesheets
• greater web-based advising capabilities
• improved reporting capabilities – easier and faster access to data

• ability to associate electronic documents – images, .pdfs, word docs, etc. – to records within Banner for later reference (e.g. attach an image of a student transcript to a student record)
• integration of USFconnect and the new Banner environment through the use of special Banner channels
• and more…

As we roll-out each Banner product, we will be informing the USF Community of these new features and services and will, when appropriate, provide training. Keep your eye out for news and updates regarding Project BOB and be prepared for a better administrative system world!

Preparing for Improvement

The first step in analyzing business processes is to determine the current, or “as-is”, state. This is done by having a team of two BPA resources work together to facilitate an interview with those individuals involved in the process being documented. The facilitators document the process based on the interview, which is then used in conjunction with Banner consultants to help identify best-practices and how the existing process will need to be updated to work within the new Banner environment.

Key to this process is the role of "knowledge experts" -- those individuals who participate at some stage in the business process. For example, if the Student Team was doing a BPA on grade posting, they might request a faculty member participate in the BPA to understand what the faculty member goes through when posting grades. If you get a call and someone asks you to participate in a BPA interview, it's because you have information they need and we thank you in advance for the help you'll be providing!

Already Advancement has finished the current states for their key Banner-related business processes and all other areas have identified processes they plan to review and have begun to document their current states.

One of the buzz phrases you may hear as Project BOB progresses is document management. Document management is exactly that – the management of documents. We do this already whenever we take a piece of paper, stick it in a file folder and then put the file folder in a file cabinet. Document management in the Project BOB and Banner world refers to electronic document management. Using a Banner-integrated product called Xtender – a best of breed document management system – we will be able to take electronic documents and associate them to records within Banner. For example, Admissions will be able to associate all the various bits of paper related to the admissions process to an applicant’s record in Banner and will then be able to retrieve those documents at will. Housing will be able to take a signed student housing contract, scan it, and then attach the imaged document to that student’s record. Instead of keeping file cabinet after file cabinet of information, we will be able to store that information using Xtender’s capabilities and associate those records to the people or accounts within Banner. Benefits of electronic document management are many:

• reduce printing costs
• reduce paper over all (file folders, labels, paper)
• increase space availability (reduce number of file cabinets in the office)
• easier access to necessary documents (you’ll no longer have to come into the office to find that file)

And since Xtender is a best of breed system, it also provides document management capabilities that extend beyond Banner. It is possible to create custom applications that store information that may have nothing to do with the information stored in Banner. For example, a department managing an academic journal might want to keep article submissions archived in a special Xtender environment, or the Legal Affairs office may want to keep an archive of University contracts. There is great growth potential for this system.

All Work and No Play...

While the summer months will be full of BOB-related work, all work and no play makes BOB very dull indeed.

Thankfully, some team members will definitely be playing: camping trips, journeys abroad, exotic cruises, and just enjoying time at home to reload the batteries. Rest and relaxation is critical to keeping team members refreshed and focused!

Project BOB | BOB's USF Intranet | USF | ITS