Keeping Current with Banner Advancement OBUG 20181022 Smittle Current with... · Online Training -...

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Keeping Current with Banner Advancement

Ohio Banner Users GroupOct. 22, 2018

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David SmittleSenior ConsultantStrata Information Group

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SIG Background

Established in 1987, headquarters located in San Diego, California

Largest privately held consulting firm in the US focused exclusively on higher education

First and largest Ellucian ‘Authorized Services Partner’ in the U.S.

Successfully provided services to over 400 colleges and universities in more than 40 states and 5 countries

Over 375 Banner® clients SIG product experience includes: Banner, Colleague,

Oracle, Workday, and various CRM’s

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SIG Services

• Banner 9 Implementations• Procurement/Product Selection• Business Process Analysis and Improvement• Optimization of ERP systems• ERP Implementations• Integrations/Interfaces• Functional & Technical Consulting • Identity Management• Reporting & Business Intelligence• Remote Database Administration• Staff Augmentation• Project Management• Back-to-Basics, Re-implementations and staff training• Many other custom services

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• The target audience for this session are users from institutions who have been in production for many years…

• The session is primarily targeted to those who’ve been a client for many years, but, all are welcome and should benefit in the material being covered…

• Keeping up with new features and changes to the product can sometimes be a challenge

• We’ll share ideas and suggestions for how to help you and your institution mature right along with the Banner product itself

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Introduction

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Agenda

1 How to Continually Learn

2 How to Keep Current, i.e. upgrades

3 How to Network

4 How to Ask Questions & Report Problems

5 How to Get Help

6 How to Complain, if necessary

7 Your Needs and Q&A

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How to Continually Learn

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Ellucian offers many opportunities for you to obtain training on the Banner products…

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How to Continually Learn

Use the User Documentation! Often overlooked, but a LOT of good information!

The chapters

722 pages!Annoying PDF stuff

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How to Learn, con’t.

In Banner 8, the Online Help is in the ribbon with the other icons

Or, pull-down the Help Menu, and select Online Help

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In Banner 9, Help is only available from the Left Navigation bar…

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How Online Help looks in Banner 9

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Here are the most recent versions of the documentation available, as of Oct. 2018…

• Banner Advancement User Guide 8.10• Banner Advancement Release Guide 8.11• Banner Advancement Web Services Handbook 8.8• Banner Advancement TRM Supplement 8.8• Banner Advancement Data Load/Extract Handbook 8.11

• Banner Advancement User Guide 9.3.3• Banner Advancement Release Guide 9.3.3, 9.3.2, 9.3.1

and 9.3• Banner Advancement Data Load/Extract Handbook 9.3.3

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If your institution doesn’t store the User Documentation locally (I believe most do), download it from the EllucianSupport Center, within the Ellucian Hub…

This feature went live Spring of 2013

Information for all products, support services and knowledge repositories are now located in The Hub

Replaces the former “Customer Support Center” (heritage SunGard Higher Education) and “AnswerNet” (heritage Datatel)

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The Ellucian Hub …

Has a user interface that is intuitive and flexible

Can generally help you find what you need

Uses rich text format, including screenshots

Has FAQs which now also include embedded screenshots and formatted text

The software download process is new and improved

What were previously known as RPEs (Request for Product Enhancement) are now called “Ideas.” Users can easily vote “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on ideas; however, only very few future enhancements are planned for Banner going forward

How to you access the Ellucian Hub, you ask?

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Logged in to The Ellucian Hub

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The Ellucian Hub

Let’s go through the tabs in The Hub…

• My Account – Offers your account information, such as

• Account Name

• Customer Account Number

• Ellucian Contacts, such as…

• Account Executive

• Customer Success Manager

• Regional Delivery Director

• And your “My Institution Contacts”

• Employment Confirmation Contact

• System Administrator Support Center

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The Ellucian Hub

Let’s go through the tabs in The Hub, con’t.

• Request App – Let’s you request additional access to features not normally granted to casual users of The Hub

• Customer Information – CCE

• Your Ellucian Updates and Statistics - The Ellucian Support Center allows you to:

• Open a case or share an idea• View case statistics and status by product line or product or• Review knowledge articles and documentation

• Ellucian Resources – As an Ellucian customer, we want to ensure that you have all the information you need in order to recognize the full value of your solutions. Here you will find resources to support adoption, communication, collaboration and education.

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The Ellucian Hub

To utilize Ellucian Education Services -- use the Customer Information Center tab in The Hub…

Takes burden of delivering training off of your institution

Provides flexible training options tailored to meet your users’ individual needs and timelines

Basic to advanced courses for technical, functional, and managerial personnel

(Or, I am able to do training for you, through Strata Information Group…)

www.sigcorp.com

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The Ellucian Hub

• eCommunities

• Welcome to your community! Want to collaborate on projects or initiatives? Want to know how other institutions are coming up with innovative ways to leverage Ellucian solutions at their campuses? Want to read the latest from our product management and research and development teams? Visit eCommunities to find out…

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The Ellucian Hub


• Banner 9 Guide

• This site is your one-stop-shop for deploying Banner 9 applications

• Banner 9's strategy makes it easier and more efficient for institutions to implement, manage, and extend our solutions

• This innovative strategy supports improved functionality, better integration, more agile development, expanded points of access for users, and innovative delivery methods

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Banner 9 Guide

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Banner 9 Guide, con’t.

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The Ellucian Hub, con’t.


• Ellucian Resources

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• On Demand Training

The most useful part of this page…

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The Ellucian Hub

• Ellucian Education Services

• Staying current on a solution in order to take advantage of the latest features and benefits is critical to getting the maximum return on your investment.

• Equally important is the investment in your team. As employees come and go, as you add new components to your existing solutions, or as you upgrade solutions, having the right kind of training when you need it helps institution manage change and growth.

• See a sample of courses by delivery options…

• For traditional or scheduled training, we offer virtual, classroom or blended training options

• For training when you need it, look at our On-Demand Subscription Library (ODSL) listing of courses

• Ellucian On-Demand Webinars

• Learn about a wide range of topics, from product updates and upgrade assistance, to customer stories and in-depth Q&As with our product experts

• Webinars are recorded and available to review, at your convenience

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• Ellucian Training Services

Education options: On-Demand Subscription Library - more than 4,000 lessons for Ellucian solutions

used the most. Delivered in pre-defined sets of courses referred to as Knowledge Packs

Online Training - convenient anytime, anywhere desktop access to self-paced, short training segments and hosted training helps users understand how best to use the tools

Classroom Training - hands-on training in an interactive campus environment at a regional location or can be brought to your campus. Also available in the form of pre-conferences during larger regional user group meetings or at eLiveconferences

Training Credits - Enables you to budget by purchasing a certain amount which can be used throughout the year. Any combination of online or classroom training channels can be used!

“Implementation of software marks the beginning – not the end – of training. Keeping users up-to-date on the latest functionality and leveraging the solution to its fullest means improved business processes throughout the institution and an increased ROI.”

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• Ellucian Training Services, con’t.

Determines customized training plans for your institution

They can do the training for you

Or, you can do it yourself…

Work with your Customer Relationship Manager to arrange

Training Workbooks

May or may not be located where you’d find your local user documentation stored

If not, download them from the Ellucian Support Center

Regional training centers are located in… Fairfax (VA), Malvern (PA), Salt Lake City (UT), Frisco (TX), Maitland (FL), Waltham (MA), and, Haman Bin Mohammed Smart University (Dubai, UAE)

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• Ellucian XEMostly pertains to and is used primarily by IT staff…

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• Support Center – (Here, you’ll want to Notice the tabs near the top…)

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How to Learn – Wrap up

So, we’ve used The Ellucian Hub to get to these services…

Account Details

Customer Information Center

eCommunities Recent News, product or systems announcements Ask a question, share your thoughts, send someone a message Product Roadmaps, videos

Banner 9 Guide

Ellucian Resources and XE Registry

Locate and take advantage of developed API’s, etc.

Education Services, a.k.a. On-Demand Training, which is new

Ellucian Support Center Research problems, potential bugs, suggested resolutions Search function has been enhanced and very robust Report a problem or request technical assistance Submit an Idea for future change/enhancement

We will spend more time on the Support Center in a few mintues…

If you need to gain access to any of these, use the Request Apps button!

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Another Great Way to Learn

Advancement Education Week!

Live, Web Seminars, usually held late summer, annually

Advancement Education Week materials are accessed through eCommunities

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Advancement Education Week, con’t. All sessions are recorded. Can participate live or replay later, at your

convenience...

To find recordings, scroll down under the above post in eCommunities

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How to Upgrade

It’s good to stay current with the latest releases…

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How to Upgrade, con’t.

How do you know when to upgrade or apply a patch?

Search using the Customer Support Center

Banner Advancement Upgrade and Patch – Easy for Banner 8…

Banner 8

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How do you know when to upgrade or apply a patch?

Search using the Customer Support Center

Not so easy for Banner 9… Search Banner 9, then, use checkboxes on the left to narrow the search down to what you want!

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Interested more long-term?

Refer to the Product Roadmap instead

Use the big link in eCommunities…

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CRM Advance

Notice, no BannerAdvancement any longer

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Here is the last Banner Advancement Roadmap found in eCommunities

• It’s dated September 2017

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My question would be, where is the CRM roadmap post 2018?

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Product Roadmap, con’t.

Important to note…

We use the term confidence level to describe the likelihood that the items on the roadmap will be delivered at the dates shown on the timeline. There are many factors that impact our ability to predict delivery including but not limited to:

Customer priorities – Our releases are driven by customer feedback and prioritization. Sometimes the priorities change due to any number of external factors. At any time, we may change the priorities in any given future release to better reflect our customers’ interests.

Quality Targets – Each of our product releases undergoes a stringent quality assurance process prior to release.Should a particular capability not meet our quality targets, we may choose to defer that specific capability to a future release or not complete the development of that capability at all.

Design Constraints – In response to customer feedback, we attempt to provide visibility beyond the next product release. In doing so, we share capabilities that reflect customer requests but have not gone through the technical design phase. In some cases, the technical design phase will reveal a larger level of effort and dependencies that make the original timeframe infeasible. Further, the design phase could reveal that the capability is not technically feasible at all or not cost effective resulting in abandonment of effort.

Budget Cycles – For roadmaps that might include visibility beyond the current Ellucian fiscal year budget, all items are subject to financial progress against goals and the availability of funds for that particular project in future budget cycles.

Engineering Forecasting Accuracy – All roadmap items are subject to some level of forecasting accuracy imprecision resulting in certain functionality pushing out to later releases on a roadmap timeline.

The further out the release date, the higher the likelihood that one or more of these factors will impact the accuracy of our roadmaps. That is why we clearly indicate less than 100% confidence for our next release even though it may be released in the short-term, and why we use decreasing confidence levels for items that are further out on the roadmap.

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Now, going back to… How do you know when to upgrade?

Go to eCommunities

Click on Places (at the top)

Banner Advancement is currently back on Page 3 (of many)

I suggest you search for it instead…

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By searching for Banner Advancement, it greatly shortens the list and makes it easier to find.

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How do you know when to upgrade?

The info at the top right is probably the most timely info available

If you’ve not yet moved to Banner 9, you should pay particular attention to other resources circled!

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Or, you could be totally old-school and join the BPOST listserv and know about every release as it comes out for each module

BPOST may be the last of the really old listservs!

Content comes via an e-mail digest, usually, weekly… Banner Advancement rarely is listed (last one was 3/1/2018)

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BPOST example

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You can also watch for official postings in eCommunities; I have mine pushed via e-mail…

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Once you know an upgrade is available (no matter how you find out…), coordinate a timely implementation with your IT staff

Before upgrading, read the Release Notes for the new version… For instance, 8.8 was a 20-page PDF…

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Read the Release Guides!

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Things to Keep in Mind…

If you’ve made local modifications to Banner forms, reports or processes, you need review, modify or edit these before doing an upgrade. Involve IT!

Review the Release Guides to learn about new functionality being introduced

New forms or reports – consult with your IT staff to ensure you have the needed Banner security or you’ll never see them show up on the menus

Ask IT to load new versions into Test/Development instance(s) to test new features.

Plan for any staff training needed on new features

Change local/existing documentation, as needed

Test! … (How, you might ask? …)

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Search the words “Advancement Test Plan” in eCommunities!

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An advancement test plan worksheet…

Note the numerous tabs at the bottom…

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How to Network

Why blaze a new trail when someone’s already gone ahead of you and probably has experience to share…

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How to Network

You’re here! Start right now, here at your Ohio Banner Users Group (OBUG) Conference!

A great opportunity to network and learn; held annually

Exchange bus. cards and make plans to follow-up afterwards

Go to the annual Ellucian Live Conference!

The annual users’ group conference for Banner software

Will be held April 7-10, New Orleans, LA

CoHEsion (formerly SETA)

http://cohesioncentral.org/

Encourages a direct, informal approach/exchange of ideas

Holds 2 conferences a year... (Advancement track is only at one of these, not both)

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How to Network

Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP)

http://www.advserv.org Member benefits, benchmarking, best practices, regional symposia Hosts an awesome annual conference, Chicago, Nov. 14-16, 2018

This is the conference I go to to learn!

Independent College Advancement Associates

http://myicaa.org Scope of the organization has broadened to include all advancement

professionals working at private institutions 120 member institutions in Ohio and surrounding states, 1,600 staff Mission is to enhance the professional development of members and their

understanding of issues facing private higher education and institutional advancement

Professional development opportunities include an annual Summer Conference plus several Drive-In Workshops, usually each fall and spring

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How to Network, con’t.

It’s generally OK to attend other Regional Banner User Groups…

Arkansas, Mountain States, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, Upper Midwest, Georgia, New England, Mississippi, North Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma/Arkansas/Missouri/Kansas, Texas, Alabama, and, Northern/Southern California Community Colleges; plus, Canadian, European, Latin America/Caribbean and the Middle East…

Each usually have their own regional Web pages Google [State name] Banner Users

Some are available in eCommunities under the “All Places” tab

These groups usually meet once or twice a year… Good opportunity to network closer to home

I used to like to take my support staff to these because they’re usually so affordable, which allowed more staff to attend and benefit from the experience!

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How to Network, con’t.

And, remember eCommunities!

A good place to start is to watch the short video on how to Follow People, Places and Content

Re: Follow People – Be sure to follow Carla Norris, so as to not miss the important messages she sends out!

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How to Network, con’t. “Ask It”

• To Post something, remember to start with Places, then, search for and select Banner Advancment (because, you want what you send to be part of the Banner Advancement community…

Search by Keyword or Topicis a required field

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“Ask It / Post It,” con’t.

Use the WYSIWYG box to compose your question, comment or suggestion…

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“Start a Discussion,” con’t.

Assign a Place, Tags and Categories…

“Place” is where you associate it with the “Banner Advancement” module

Be liberal with the “Tags” -- this will make it easier to find when others search for it

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Most often heard: “I don’t like to log in…”

• Instead, set up your preferences to receive an e-mail instead of having to log in to the site to read messages…

Click

Select

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“I don’t like to log in…”

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How to Ask Questions or Report Problems

It’s easy to ask, and, responses are generally prompt…

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How to Ask Questions/Report Problems

Use “eCommunities” Support Center to Create a New Case

Page will open up to Create a New Case with the ActionLine

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Or, use “Ellucian XE Registry”, the “Extensible Ecosystem…”

Primarily for developers and IT staff Learn coding and other training-related material

Obtain API’s and related-documentation

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How to Ask Questions/Report Prob, con’t.

Ellucian Support Center terminology

A Case is for an existing product’s form or process (formerly known as a Service Request)

An Idea is for something new (formerly an RPE)

An Article was formerly known as an FAQ or Support Solutions

Documentation Library has product documentation

Change Requests show defects or enhancements

Global Search lets you search everything at once

A Feed in eCommunities (is Facebook-like) with ongoing details, analyst comments, others can chime in, etc.

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How to Get Help

Hey, throw me that life preserver, I think I’m drowning out here…

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There are Many Ways to Get Help

• Consult the User Documentation and/or Online Help

• Read the Release Guides

• Take a Class or View a Recorded Session

• Use the Training Workbooks or Consulting Services of Ellucian or SIG

• Use the Ellucian Support Center to search for Known Issues or a FAQ

• Use eCommunities to Start a Discussion with Peers and Advancement leadership at Ellucian

• Telephone or e-mail peers at other institutions (that you’ve networked with!)

• Ask your Ellucian project trainer / consultant

• Use one of the 6 International Solution Centers or 5 regional domestic offices

• Use the Ellucian Partner Program? … What’s that?

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How to Get Help, con’t.

The Ellucian Partner Program

A formal network of companies committed to providing additional hardware / software solutions. There’s a “catalog” of them online…

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Ellucian Partner Program, con’t.

Scroll down until you see…

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Ellucian Partner Program, con’t.

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How to Get Help, con’t.

Lastly, if you think your institution is really screwed up…

Request a Business Process Management/Analysis be done…

Consultant visits and covers area(s) of need/concern

Formal report is provided by the consultant to your administration/management with recommendations

Often done prior to (or, as part of) a personalized, targeted and structured consulting project

Ellucian or SIG can perform these type of services… A Banner “Back-to-Basics” is a popular consulting approach A Business Process Analysis evaluation is also very popular

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How to Complain

Sometimes you just need to talk to someone in charge…

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How to Complain, in order of preference…

If you’re actively working with a consultant, ask them…

Use the Customer Relationship Manager assigned to your institution. If you don’t know, call 800-223-7036 to ask who it is, or, use the Ellucian Hub, My Account (example, next page)

Use the Banner Advancement management team…

Carla Norris, Banner Advancement Product Owner

[email protected]

513-573-1468

Kim Coelho, Director Product Management, Advancement

[email protected]

Jeff Ralyea, Senior Vice President & G.M., Cloud

[email protected]

703-449-6997

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ex. My Account

How to find Ellucian staff assigned to your institution…• (Your’s will look very different from mine, since we’re a Partner…)

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Your Needs and Q&A

Let’s use the time remaining to answer any questions you may have…

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Questions & Answers

What questions do you have?

What would you like to suggest or offer comments on?

What would you like to share for the benefit of others?

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• We’ve reviewed ways to keep up with new features and changes in the Banner Advancement product

• We’ve shared ideas for how to help your institution mature right along with the Banner product itself

• We’ve discussed

• How to Continually Learn

• How to Keep Current with Upgrades

• How to Network

• How to Ask Questions, Report Problems, Get Help or Complain

• Your Needs

• Hopefully, now you feel more up-to-date! 83

Summary

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Thank You!

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David SmittleSenior ConsultantStrata Information Group

[email protected]

Keeping Current with Banner Advancement OBUG 20181022 Smittle Current with... · Online Training -...

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