University upgrades its computer system: UI-Opinions
Within the last couple of years, the UI integrate effort has been nothing but defamed in the local media, and I'm quite sure it was from a stance of ignorance.
I haven't read one positive thing about UI-Integrate since I actually heard about the project.
After my investigation, I discovered that the problems with the computer system were typical of any new system. People were simply not used to using it, and thus found it difficult to use and understand.
From what I gather, the people that went through extensive training, particularly in the financial aid office, had few problems picking up the use of the system with a bit of time.
SCT is schedule to give the University a major update by December of this year. The update is speculated that it will completely centralize all aspects of the Banner system into a web based portal for the self-service users.
This will remove the hassle of having to reenter University Identification Numbers, whenever a student or faculty member needs to move to a different department in Banner.
The complaints I received about the system were more based on opinion then fact. After getting a personal demonstration of a few of the things in Banner, I discovered that using it wasn't impossible; it would just take a bit of time to adjust to.
Now, this is not to say that say that the program is a piece of cake in all sense, it's quiet the contrary.
As explained in my stories, the Banner program has its strengths and weakness. The strengths undeniably lie in the student self-service registration portion of the Banner site.
As Bob Anderson, associate director for student financial aid says, "the registration department got the Cadillac while the financial aid office got the Volkswagen."
The customization portions of the registration and self-service sites have far more versatility then the straightforwardness of the financial aid displays.
Furthermore, as far as I can tell, the problems attributed to the UI-Integrate system are slowly but surely fleeting.
"Once you fix something in Banner, it usually stays fixed," said Andersen.
I always thought it was the job of a journalist to all themselves to go where ever the facts take them. Now certainly there was a bit of controversy over the original financial aid and payroll issues that occurred in the late summer early fall of last year, but that was before the official production models of each system were placed into full implementation.
The payroll system had a backup when it went live in December where as the registration system didn't have one at all when it went live.
The reason for this was the fact that the University had bought another Surplus mainframe a year after the UI-Integrate project developed -- because the last one completely broke -- to run keep running the Legacy system as a hold over until the Banner implementation could be completed.
The University did not want to waste the money on applying all class changes to the old registration system, so there was no backup if the Banner registrations system would have failed -- that would have been hell on the University administration.
Applying the new class codes and titles to the old system would have been a worthless effort in any case, and probably would have put them over on their UI-Integrate budget, so I can't really blame them.
The future is in the web interface; it makes things that much easier and quicker. That's not to mention that people love graphical interfaces. Text based programs are a thing of the past. Long, long past, it's about time this University has started to catch up to the rest of the populous.
I always found it amusing how this could be one of this university could be one of the best research facilities in the country, yet still used such outdated systems for so many of it's practices. Then again,$200 million dollar expenditure is nothing to laugh at.
Whatever the case, I think journalists around this town need to wake up from their slumber and stop attempting to throw defamatory spin upon every subject they can.
UI-Integrate hasn't been a waste of money in any sense, it's almost like people are just looking for something to pick on. Then again, I suppose I could just have been the victim some special blend U of I, "we're not the bad guy routine."
That's why we all have opinions though right? I could be wrong, but my reporting has rarely led me astray.