December 2007 Archives

During the Christmas Break, University IT Services has been busy upgrading a number of IT systems and services.

The campus email and calendar system, currently based on Lotus Notes, was upgraded to provide access to users accounts via IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). This provides another way for users to access their email. In addition to WebMail and the Lotus Notes client, users can now access their email using any standard IMAP client, including Microsoft Outlook. Not only does this provide additional flexibility for users of the campus email system, but this will be a significant advantage when we migrate to the Microsoft Exchange email system next summer. Users who shift to accessing their Lotus Notes mail through Microsoft Outlook will experience no interruption in service as the campus moves to the new Microsoft Exchange email system.

University IT Services also upgraded the network in the data center in Corrigan Hall. This network upgrade will enable University IT Services to install redundant servers for most of the University's key applications (such as Banner, the University's Web site, and the Blackboard Learning System). One of the goals for IT in the 2007-08 academic year is to install redundant servers for key applications, ensuring that service won't be interrupted if one server is down.

Happy Holidays from the IT Management Team.

Please remember that University IT Services will be performing upgrades to several systems over the Christmas Break.

The Banner Enrollment Management Suite (EMS) is a new product, scheduled for release in March 2008, and intended to provide Banner campuses with a broad set of tools to track and manage communications with students, prospective students, and alumni. For the past year, Seton Hall University has been participating with nine other institutions on the Sungard Enrollment Management Suite (EMS) Development Partners Group. As part of this group, representatives from Seton Hall have been working with Sungard's software development teams to prioritize the features and review the functionality of the Banner EMS system. While the University had initially planned to implement Banner EMS in Spring 2008, the University's executive team has decided to postpone implementation for this academic year in order to focus on completing the implementation of the Banner core modules (Student, Financial Aid, Finance, and HR/Payroll) and the Banner helper applications already acquired (the Banner data warehouse, portal, document imaging / document management, and workflow systems).

The Banner Operational Data Store (ODS) is a tool designed to make it easier for functional areas and end users to extract and analyze data from Banner and write reports for distribution to the University community. Banner ODS extracts Banner data nightly and presents it to users in a much more intuitive data structure. The Banner ODS is being configured and the first reports for distribution are being developed by a cross functional team led by Connie Beale, Director of Institutional Research in the Provost's Office. It is expected that the first Banner reports from ODS will be available to the University community in late January.

More information on Banner ODS can be found at: http://www.sungardhe.com/Products/Product.aspx?id=1130

University's executive team approves Banner infrastructure plans for "Phase II" of the Banner Project.

The Banner Project was designed to replace the University's aging administrative system with a state-of-the-art system that would enable the University to improve service, streamline business and academic processes, increase access to institutional information, and provide better decision support. As with any large administrative system replacement project, the first priority was to replace existing administrative system functionality.

Seton Hall University is on target for the "go live"of the final Banner core module -the Banner HR/Payroll module - at the end of this month.