Author Archives: David Ludwig

Please welcome Sonny Cloward to ITS

Everyone, please join me in welcoming Sonny Cloward to ITS.  Sonny joined the ITS team on April 24th as a new Salesforce Administrator- Analyst in Enterprise Applications.

Sonny brings over 17 years of IT experience including over 12 years dedicated to the Salesforce platform in government, for-profit, non-profit, and higher education environments.   Sonny has participated in the implementing over 50 Salesforce systems including working with some of our partners in the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium.

Sonny will be located in Painter House with the Enterprise Application, but will work primarily remotely from his home in Montpelier.

Please join me in welcoming Sonny to ITS.

Please welcome Melissa Floyd in her new role as a Business Analyst in ITS

We are very excited to announce that Melissa Floyd has accepted the position as a Business Analyst on the Administrative Systems Team in Enterprise Applications.  Melissa will move into her new role effective April 1st.

Melissa has been at Middlebury since November 2015 where she has worked as a Software Engineer on the Web Technologies and Services Team.   Prior to coming to Middlebury, Melissa spent 13 years at IBM filling numerous roles including Project Manager, Software Engineer, and Solutions Architect.

We are very excited to see Melissa transitioning into her new role as a Business Analyst.

Please join me in welcoming Tom Cutter to ITS

We are pleased to announce the recent addition of Tom Cutter to the staff of ITS.   Tom will be taking on the responsibilities of an Application Administrator – Project Manager- Business Analyst within Enterprise Applications.

Tom brings over 30 years of diverse IT experience to ITS including 23+ years serving the Middlebury College community.   Tom will be transferring from his current position in Facilities Services where he has been working as Information Systems Manager since 2009.  Prior to working with Facilities Services Tom filled numerous roles within Information Technology Services and Library and Information Services from 1993-2009.

Tom’s transition to ITS will occur on Monday March 28th.  Tom’s office will be located in Painter House with the Enterprise Application team.

Please join me in welcoming Tom to ITS.  We are excited to have Tom’s rich experience on our team and we are looking forward to Tom’s contributions to our organization.

Want to learn more about the Argos reporting platform?

Our current reporting system, Hyperion EPM 11 (formerly Brio), is being discontinued and will no longer be supported by the current vendor after Fall of 2018. We’ve been examining several products over the past few years as we consider potential replacement options.  Of the systems we’ve examined we are particularly excited about the reporting system Argos made by Evisions.

If you would like to learn more about Argos they are offering the following upcoming webinar on Tuesday,February 23rd at 2:00pm ET. The webinar will be recorded, so if you are interested but not able to attend at that time, just sign up using the link below and Evisions will send you a link to the recorded session.

Want to learn more about Argos? Attend a webinar that provides client examples as to how the Argos reporting solution empowers users to easily run and view Banner reports, charts and dashboards.

We will be showing client examples of HR, Finance, Financial Aid, Admissions and Advancement department reports, charts and dashboards.

Sign up for Argos Case Studies for Banner
Tuesday, February 23rd – 2:00PM EDT

Case study examples include:
• Student Progression/Dropout Prevention
• Course Utilization
• Advancement Constituent Information
• Financial Aid Award Management
• Budget/Financial Reporting
• DegreeWorks Reportin
• And much more.
The webinar will be available On Demand following the live date.

Interested in learning more about Banner? Join the Ellucian eCommunities.

Are you interested in learning more about Banner?  Have questions about best practices?  Want to connect with colleagues at other Banner schools to learn how they have addressed challenging problems?  Consider joining the Ellucian eCommunities.

Some of you may remember the older Sun Guard Higher Education ListServ and Banner Commons that used to allow Banner schools and users to communicate, collaborate, and stay connected.  These have largely been replaced and augmented by the new Ellucian eCommunities system which is now integrated with the Ellucian Support Center.

The Ellucian Hub can be used to get to all Ellucian resources.   If you’ve used their “Action Line”, you have a Hub account.  If not, you will need to have an account created.

Main URL to access the Hub:  https://ecommunities.okta.com

To sign up for Hub account:  https://clientapps.ellucian.com/signup

For help if Hub password has been forgotten: https://ellucian.okta.com/reset-password

To access eCommunities directly without going to the Hub: https://ecommunities.ellucian.com

From there, you should see a page with a list of “Getting Started” videos which you can watch to learn about the eCommunities system.

NOTE:   The information from Banner Commons was not able to be moved directly over to eCommunities.  If you had been using Banner Commons, you’ll need to do the “Edit Profile” step in eCommunities like you had previously done in Banner Commons.  Data about your name, e-mail address, title and company name come from the Ellucian Support Center so it’s important for you to have a Hub account there.

You’ll also need to set e-mail preferences and select the “Places” you’d like to follow.  You can click on “All Places” near the top of the page to see all the groups/streams and then click on the “gear” icon to the right of those you’re interested in to “Follow”.  If you “Follow in Daily Digest”, you will get an e-mail message with links to each posting once each morning.

If you have problems with this, please e-mail ecommunities@ellucian.com.

ITS will be upgrading our Hyperion EPM 11 Reporting System this Sunday

ITS will be performing an minor upgrade of the Hyperion EPM 11 reporting system on Sunday, August 9th, between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. (noon) ET.  The main benefit of this upgrade will be to allow us to run Hyperion on Internet Explorer 11.

This upgrade will require a new browser plug-in installation in order to run the newer version of the Hyperion workspace.

Will you need to install the browser plug-in manually?

Middlebury users – No.  The new browser plug-in will be pushed out automatically by User Services on Thursday, August 6th and Friday, August 7th. Windows users (including those who do not use Hyperion) will see a pop-up as the new plugin installs. This is expected.

Monterey users – Possibly.  We are working with Monterey Helpdesk to determine whether this will be installed for you or if you will need to download the plug-in through the workspace.  

How will we make sure Hyperion reporting is working normally?

ITS has gathered a group of Hyperion users to perform testing between 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 9th.  During this time, we will use testing plans to determine if all is working as it should.  This will include running reports, jobs, scheduling reports, and checking access to folders, among other tasks.

What will ITS do if the upgrade fails or if critical issues are found?

In the unlikely event a problem is discovered during our testing phase we have the option of rolling back to the previous version of Hyperion.  There is no risk of data loss should a rollback be required however report changes made during this testing period may need to be recreated post roll-back.  The decision to roll back to the previous version will be made by no later than 12 p.m. ET Sunday, August 9th.  It would then take approximately one hour to put the previous version back in place, followed by testing to ensure all access and services are running normally. 

Please welcome Joe Langevin to ITS

We are pleased to announce the recent addition of Joe Langevin to the staff of ITS.  Joe joins us in the role of Senior Programmer Analyst on the Administrative Systems team in Enterprise Applications.  Joe spent the previous 15+ years working as a Senior Technical Consultant for Ellucian and Sun Guard Higher Education.  During this time Joe provided consulting services to over 150 schools in the areas of Banner Student, Advancement and Self Service.   Prior to his time at Ellucian Joe spent 10 years as a Senior Project Analyst at the University of Vermont.

Some of you may also know Joe from his time here at Middlebury.  As an Ellucian employee Joe participated as a consultant and programmer to guide Middlebury’s original implementation of the Banner Student module.

Please take an opportunity to say hello and introduce yourselves to Joe.  We’re very excited to have Joe on our team and look forward to the benefits of the vast experience he brings to our organization.