The company PeopleSoft has been selected to replace the University's Integrated Student Information System (ISIS).
Charles Grisham, director of the Student System Project, said yesterday that the new system will not be implemented immediately, as members of the University community need to study how to effectively install and use the system. According to Grisham, in the "worst case scenario," the new system will be ready for use in four years.
"It might be sooner," Grisham said. "We're working with literally hundreds of people around the University to agree on how the system should work."
The new system will be designed to provide maximum convenience to students, Grisham said.
A student committee will soon be formed in order to study the new system and offer input.
"We want [students] to be available to help us test this system and make sure that it works the way that is convenient and effective for students," Grisham said, adding that he hopes to involve a diverse group of students in order to best serve the needs of students in different schools.
Project advisor Stash Stanley said she would like the new system to be "invisible" to students.
"Students shouldn't even know there's a system in place," Stanley said.
Grisham said that the new system will be entirely web-based and will be more centralized than ISIS.
"From one Web page, you'll be able to go to any function you need," Grisham said.
The new system will not, however, immediately remedy the frustration that many students experience during registration, Grisham said.
"It will be more than just the system that comes into play for that to happen," Grisham said. "This is a people project, not a technology project."
Stanley agreed that the system would not automatically provide easy and quick registration options for students.
"There is no silver bullet in terms of a student system that will provide you with lightning-quick speed," Stanley said. "Speed usually requires that you would have to provide additional resources."
Grisham added that resolving the registration issue likely will require the development of a good waitlist system.
Grisham said that the total cost of the new system is not yet known, since the entire structure of the system has not yet been determined.
"It's a multi-million dollar project," Grisham said. "How much multi, that's really hard to tell."
PeopleSoft was selected after a lengthy analysis process, Grisham said. Throughout the past year, the Student System Project sought input from hundreds of University faculty and staff and then looked at various vendors' products, Grisham said.
The choice was narrowed to two options, Oracle's PeopleSoft and SunGard SCT's Banner. While the two systems were comparable in quality, Grisham said that PeopleSoft gained a slight advantage over Banner since representatives of other Universities using the two systems said that PeopleSoft was more flexible to use.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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