Tag Archives: banner

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.

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

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 Commons.

Some of you may remember the older Sun Guard Higher Education ListServ that used to allow Banner schools and users to communicate, collaborate, and stay connected.  Although some of those older ListServ threads still exist they have largely been replaced and augmented by the new Ellucian Commons system.

From the Ellucian Commons website – “…The Commons is an online community where Ellucian customers, partners, and employees can share experiences, ask questions, find answers, and connect to a collaborative and informed network.  Articles, news, blogs, best practices, reference materials, document libraries, discussion threads, and more provide the community with tools to share, learn, explore, and create.”

See more at: http://www.edu1world.org/submitform/CommonsInvitation/

Banner Hosting to Move Off-Campus

We have decided to move the hosting of Banner, our main administrative system, to a facility managed by SunGard, the developers of Banner. We have decided this for three main reasons:

  1. SunGard understands Banner better than anyone in the world, and we will be able to benefit from this expertise as we manage the application, and perform upgrades.
  2. The data center where Banner will reside is a world-class facility that will provide us with a level of protection, security, and up-time that is a major improvement over how we manage Banner today.
  3. SunGard provides a disaster-recovery facility where we can recover should their primary data center fail.

This change will have only minimal impact on campus. For the most part, users of Banner will notice no real differences. GO shortcuts will remain the same and will point users to the new Banner hosted servers. As we go through the migration of the system from our facility to the SunGard facility, we will at some point have to freeze all development efforts for a period of about 6 weeks. This is currently scheduled for the October – November time frame. Functional areas are already planning around this schedule with the understanding that any patches required for regulatory compliance or tax updates will be granted an exception. Once the migration is complete, we will be back in business and able to continue with our development efforts.

The timeline for this project is as follows:

  • from now until October: LIS is working with SunGard to establish the hosting environment
  • November: Testing of the new installation will be done by administrative offices
  • Mid-December: Go live on the new system

We feel confident that this decision will improve the performance and reliability of this critical system, and will allow us to focus our precious human resources on Middlebury-specific issues, as we no longer have to spend time thinking about the system optimization, back-ups, and other critical but aspects of running this system. While this may seem like a radical move, it is in fact part of an on-going trend in Information Technology in Higher Education, as schools leverage the power of the Internet, the cloud, and hosting services to provide improved services to their campus.

Banner/Web Prioritization Committee Introduction

We are writing to alert you to a new process for requesting web projects work from LIS.

When the new www.middlebury.edu site was launched this spring, with a new look and new features to support the activity of the College, we sifted through the many good ideas people had for improving our old website, and kept a running list of possible projects and improvements, which you will find here: go.middlebury.edu/web/projects. We are now turning our attention to that list. The new platform has also changed how our community thinks about the web, generating even more ideas. To make decisions about how we use the web to educate, communicate and run the business of the College, we need to engage in thoughtful planning that includes the perspective of all areas of the College.

To that end, we have formed a new group, the Banner/Web Prioritization Committee, that will look at medium-sized Banner and web programming projects to make sure we use our staffing and technology resources in ways that best serve the mission of the College.

The members of the committee are:

Joe Antonioli (Co-Chair), Library and Information Services
LeRoy Graham (Co-Chair), Registrar’s Office
Doug Adams, Center for Campus Activities & Leadership
Greg Buckles, Admissions
Tim Etchells, Communications
Donna McDurfee, Academic Affairs
Amy McGill, Monterey Institute of International Studies
Jason Mittell, Film and Media Culture
Jamie Northrup, Language Schools
Maggie Paine, College Advancement
Mike Roy, Library and Information Services
Susan Simmons, Budget Office
A student (TBD)

Once a month, this group will meet to look at project requests and evaluate them on the following criteria:

  • Does this help serve the academic mission? (teaching and learning)
  • How many people will be served by this? Is the technology reusable? Are there other departments that could, and should, use this? (all members of the campus community and beyond vs. one department)
  • How much time will it take to accomplish this? (One week or 18 months)
  • Are there other non-personnel expenses associated with this? (licenses, servers, training, etc.)
  • How hard will it be to support this on an on-going basis? Does it require deep technical knowledge? Will the solution grow with our needs?
  • Does it help promote administrative efficiency? Will it help members of the community to communicate? Will it save time? Will it remove complex paper-based processes? Does it keep us in compliance with the law or with campus policy?
  • Can it help us recruit and retain the very best students?
  • Can it help us raise money for the College more effectively?
  • Will it increase revenue for the College?
  • Have the appropriate departments been consulted?
  • Does it help the College toward its goal of carbon neutrality?

If you would like to submit a project request you may either use the online form:

online project request form

or you may download an electronic version of the form here:

web project request form

and email the completed form to Joe Antonioli ( jantonio@middlebury.edu ). Since some of the questions that need to be answered are technical in nature, we will be available to help you complete the form.

For the committee to have time to look at project requests, the form must be completed two weeks before the next meeting. The current deadline to be considered at the August meeting is July 22. You will be notified within a week of the meeting as to the status of your request.

We hope that this new process will ensure that we spend our time on the highest priority projects, and that the process itself will help us improve the College’s use of the web as a platform for accomplishing many of our ambitious goals.

Introducing: The Identity Management Project

The Identity Management Project kicked off in December of 2009. The current project team (small ‘t’) is Tom Cutter, Adam Franco, Mike Lynch, Chris Norris, Carol Peddie, Mark Pyfrom, Jeff Rehbach, Mike Roy, and Marcy Smith.

The Identity Management (IDM) project seeks to organize our concept of a “person” or “identity” among our various systems (including Banner, the Active Directory, web-applications, hosted systems, and others). This project focuses on three facets of each identity: Continue reading →

“Display Name” Updating Automatically

The “display name” (or alpha name) shown in the web directory, Outlook address book, etc. had in the past been set so that it could only be corrected or changed manually. This process has now been modified so name changes entered into the Banner database are flowing through the Active Directory table and are subsequently updating the web directory, Outlook, Segue, etc. in the format Last, First Middle.

One enhancement which should help people out as a result of this change involves the “Preferred First Name” field in the Banner database. For records that have had this data entered into Banner, the “Preferred First Name” is now appended to the “display name” and enclosed in parentheses in the format Last, First Middle (Preferred First).

Requests for “display name” changes should now be sent to the following:

  • Middlebury college staff or academic year faculty:  hr@middlebury.edu
  • Middlebury college undergrad students:  Commons coordinators
  • MIIS staff or faculty: hrmiis@middlebury.edu
  • MIIS students:  Seamus Dorrian
  • BLSE students or faculty:  Elaine Lathrop
  • Language School summer staff or faculty:  Sandy Bonomo
  • Language School students: Kara Genarelli

It would be helpful to include the words “change display name” in the subject line of the e-mail message.

Update from Database Applications & Systems

This will be my last post as the workgroup leader for the DAS workgroup, as we move into the new organizational structure announced by Mike Roy at the last all-LIS staff meeting.  Here are some of the projects and tasks that DAS staff members have been working on during the past month…

Mike Schuster
– Several Revisions to Room Draw SSB forms and lots of testing
– Added new student search dropdown box and removed boxes used by students to enter group member IDs.
– Modified procedures so as each student is selected, several eligibility checks are made.
– Modified message text displayed when students are ineligible.
– Modified WebTailor Infotext for links.
– Added logic to allow the group representative to remove group members when they’ve accidentally selected one.
– Created a database view of instructors to be used by new online catalog web page.
– Modified web directory script to correctly select on leave graduate students during winter term.
– Created database tables that will be used by custom Monterey web admissions applications forms.
– Assisted the registrar’s office with running the Term Student Type Update program(SHRTYPE) and the Learner Curriculum Conversion Program(SOPLCCV).
– After the registrar’s office runs SHRTYPE for a particular term, I create a population selection in Banner and run SOPLCCV with that popsel.
– Reviewed Clearinghouse Self-Service Authentication documentation and sample code.

Liz Whitaker-Freitas
– Supporting Hyperion BI+ for functional & technical users

Ian McBride (Full list at: https://www.yammer.com/users/imcbride)
– Completed MiddMedia plugin for WordPress
– Assisted with completion of RFP for Web Makeover
– Created conference registration form for VCC
– Developed payment form for Print Management
– Modified Athletics Recruiting application to remove Primary Sport
– Designed database sync script for the Course Catalog
– Launched CSO and Judicial Boards sites
– Upgraded Key Survey to version 7.1

Travis Stafford
– Troubleshooting cForms issue
– Testing cForms 10.3
– Two cforms trainings (Chemistry Department, Institutional Planning and Diversity)
– Finished first wave of BLM implementation (is now live) as well as fixed various bugs
– List Manager Configuration for newsletters / MiddCMS Newsletter support
– General support and Heat tickets

Rob Pekor
– Re-aligned parent Donor codes for “Feb” students.
– Removed obsolete region codes related to “CA Mailing”.
– Enhanced existing “pledge installment” view.
– Investigate poor query execution between databases (production and non-production).
– Created table to hold local data for the Harris Online Community project.
– Sent sample dataset to Harris thus enabling them to begin on data mapping on their side of the implementation project.
– Continued to fine tune the web pages for Phonathon segment creation
– Created new indicator for “young Alumni” (alumni for only 1-10 years) for the Banner List Manager project.
– Create stewardship project codes for Athletics (ATHSTW) and the Axinn Center (AXNSTW)
– Rewrote of slow performing fiscal data view for CA

Chris Norris
Staffing
– Transition planning for organizational re-structuring with DAS staff, Area Directors, and workgroup leaders
Project Work
– Reviewed Phoenix BIA summary presentation
– Drafted spec for remote DR web presence
– Revised Banner-ListManager project requirements with DAS staff
– Revised Broadcast Email Newsletter request document
– Configured four new Broadcast Email Newsletter editions with DAS staff
– Completed work on 2008 Summary Web Statistics for Web Makeover project
– Completed work on Stakeholder Reports for Web Makeover project
– Completed work on GSA (Google Search) for MIIS sites
– Began configuration and setup of Google Apps for Education (alpha instance)
Meetings
– Participated in Web Makeover project team meetings
– Met with HR staff regarding OpenHire “internal job site” project
– Met with Brett Wilhelm regarding departure considerations
– Met with members of the web subcommittee of the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee regarding a new web presence
– Participated in College Advancement Operations team meetings
– Participated in Harris online community project team meetings
– Participated in Pay for Print project team meetings
– Participated in MIIS technology team meeting
– Participated in College Data Workshop with IR, Faculty, and other LIS staff
– Conducted final DAS staff check-in meetings
Systems Administration
– Ongoing monitoring and problem resolution of online services
– Configured new GO rewrite rules
– Ongoing tuning of GSA to improve search results
– Renewals of College-owned domain names
– Transferred UWAC domains to College-managed account
Help, Support, Training, Workshops
– Updated Middlebury’s United Way web presence (campaign stats)
– Provided support for Broadcast Email Newsletters, CMS editing, BLWC Submission Manager, HEAT tix, and various ad-hoc help calls
– Conducted a Broadcast Email Newsletter training with Young Alumni staff
– Conducted a Broadcast Email (advanced) workshop for CA staff
Vendor Related Activities
– Participated in Sun-Guard/SCT Banner DBA weekly status calls
– Participated in Velaris Hyperion SysAdmin weekly status calls
– Participated in Google Apps for Education project team call with Google
– Transitioned Hyperion SysAdmin vendor (Velaris) relationship managment to Jeff Rehbach
– Provided IMA (eCommerce) details for Harris online community project