Technology as the Foundation for Community: A Case Study Kim Round, M.Ed. Associate Director of Information Technology NERCOMP 06.

Technology as the Foundation for Community:

A Case Study

Kim Round, M.Ed.

Associate Director of Information Technology

NERCOMP 06

Copyright Kim Round and Olin College, 2006. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Olin Quick facts

Chartered: 1997

Location: Needham, Mass.,

adjacent to Babson College

Setting: 70 acre suburban campus –

14 miles from downtown Boston

Program: Undergraduate engineering

Student body: Approximately 300 (currently about 75 per incoming class)

Scholarship: four-year full-tuition (valued at $130,000) awarded to all

Funded by: F. W. Olin Foundation (in excess of $400 million)

Planning technology…

Implementing Technology at Olin

Like building an airplane, while it’s flying in the air!

Olin’s vision for an ERP system

Flexibility… flexibility… (did we say, FLEXIBILITY?)

Ability to customize, utilizing internal IT staff

Scalability to a web based environment

Vendor willingness to form a partnership with Olin

Affordability

Preparing for The Digital Natives

24x7 access to course materials on the web ATM machines Home banking E-commerce (groceries to cool techie toys) Using the Internet voice over ip to make “free” telephone calls Using cell phones to download material from the web to stay constantly in-touch

Napster and MP3s (“making their own music in their own portable format) Sending postcards via e-mail Receiving photos from a CD, not negatives Using a digital camera and skipping the photo development process entirely Watching TV or videos over the Internet LAN parties, playing “group” games, such as Quake and Doom3

Understanding expectations…

Services received from web-based companies lead students, faculty, and staff to increasingly expect real-time personalized services available around the clock

Students will expect to receive choices in registration based on past preferences, meeting time, learning style, academic area, prerequisites, co-requisites, impact on degree completion, previous student ratings, cost of textbooks and materials, etc.

Post graduate requirements…

Alumni will expect to retain access to College resources as they pursue their careers.

They will also want to utilize electronic resources to maintain personal relationships with faculty, staff, and students.

The College will need to maintain “in-touch” with alumni and know their preferences for college events, outside events, sports, books, etc. in order to better develop donor prospects.

Implementation Assumptions

It will be challenging!

Olin’s community will push the leading edge

Scope will change

Implementation will be out of vendor recommended order, based on what is needed first…

Partial implementations will exist in various departments

One-off applications will later need to be integrated

Olin’s decision

In 2001, Jenzabar was selected as the student information system.

In 2003, Jenzabar was selected to run financials and portal functionality

The assumptions were correct…

We implemented partially and backwards

REGISTRAR

PARTIAL ADMISSION

PARTIAL FINANCIAL AID

FINANCIALS

COMPLETE ADMISSION

BETA PORTAL

PhoenixNet takes flight

Making Connections…

Beta Portal facilitates Index of links to Olin web assets (cms, one-card, etc)

Single sign on to Ad Astra, Email, and Calendaring

Student access to web registration and grades

Faculty access to web grading/advising

Staff access to PO requisitioning, electronic approvals, and budget review

And much more…

Still evolving…

Coming this year

Institutional Advancement

Full Portal Roll-Out

Simplified Sign-On with External Access

Data Integrity between departments

Keeping it Positive!

Olin is now in adolescence There is no “We’ve always done it this way” (though

everyone brings their own best way to do things - baggage)

Everyone is sharing space on the same “clean slate” Budget implications now limit choices Fostering dialogue

Reaching beyond Olin…

The New England Jenzabar CX User Group

Strategic Partnerships

Olin shares additional web resources/consulting with St Mary’s

St Mary’s shares additional ERP resources/consulting with Olin

How are we doing?

Challenges…

Turnover in Olin and Jenzabar staff, project managers Backwards implementation “Type code” customization in accounting string Olin is an unusual client – does not always fit the business model Student and faculty perception that they can do it better!

How are we doing?

Accomplishments

Well functioning ERP and Data Integrity Groups All modules fully implemented by 3rd qtr this year Most users have transitioned – some still dealing with

resistance to change. Internal IT staff Jenzabar skill set solidifying Campus cultural awareness around sharing data Collaboration with students

Future expectations…

As the world of electronics, information technology, telecommunications, and e-business converges, the boundaries of the current market will be blurred as web-based expectations become the norm.

Colleges will be competing with other web presences such as entertainment providers, publisher, software vendors, training providers, etc.

With very special thanks to…

The IT Crew at Olin College, including Judith Cohen, ERP Manager Mary Fitzpatrick, Customer Service Manager Lannie He, Programmer/Analyst Joanne Kossuth, AVP and CIO Jeffrey Stern, Media Services Technician

George Waggoner, CIO, St Mary’s College of Maryland Pedro Perez, Director of Information Services, Polytechnic

University of Puerto Rico John Beahm, Jenzabar Tamina Painter, Jenzabar The New England Jenzabar CX User’s Group

Thank you for attending!

For more information, please contact:

Kim Round

Associate Director of Information Technology

[email protected]

781-292-2435