Administrative Computer Services Service Area Review/Planning Document March 23, Section I. Mission and Goals

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1 Administrative Computer Services Service Area Review/Planning Document March 23, 2008 Section I. Mission and Goals The Mission of OTC Ozarks Technical Community College's primary mission is to provide accessible, high quality, affordable technical and general education that is responsive to the educational needs of the community and its diverse constituencies. 1. What is the mission of the service area? Administrative Computer Services (ACS) mission is to provide efficient and effective automation support with reliable and consistent information to the academic and administrative divisions of the college to enhance student learning. 2. How does this mission support the overall mission of the college? ACS supports the overall mission of the college by enhancing administrative and support processes. This support directly contributes to the high quality, affordable technical and general education in the college mission and provides data that is organized and aggregated in a manner that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the college. The ACS department supports data delivery and information to all college constituents to support knowledgeable decision making. 3. What are the primary goals of the unit? Consider these questions when responding: Who are your clients? What are their expectations? How do you deliver or provide learning? How do you know how well you are doing? How do you measure quality? (Example: The primary goal of the financial aid unit is to enable students to obtain the financial assistance needed to accomplish their educational goals.) The primary goals of the ACS department are: To provide reliable, accurate processes to support the strategic goals of the institution. To provide consistent, reliable data delivery to all college constituents. To provide efficient and effective automation support for administrative, financial, human resources, and student college processes in order to enhance learning support. To provide internal information technology consulting services to the college. The following college constituents expect reliable and consistent data and automated processes that will support the college mission: 1

2 Student constituents expect smooth, reliable automated processes that will enhance learning. Business partner constituents expect access to college information to support business transactions. (Banks, Procurement Card Vendors, Purchasing Vendors, etc ) Community constituents expect appropriate curatorship of personal and public information as well as frugal administration of dollars from the public coffers. Administrative and staff constituents expect reliable processes that support the college administrative functions. Local, State and Federal government constituents expect timely and accurate information to support legislated and regulatory requirements. 4. How does the department support student learning and/or what should students be able to do as a result of utilization of the services/functions provided by the unit? ACS support enables automation and remote access for all college administrative and academic functions. The OTC Information System enables automation for all major administrative units. This includes direct support for the following: Student services Admissions & Recruitment Advising and E-advising Financial Aid Career Advancement Degree Audit Registration Finance and Accounting Budget Management Payroll General Ledger Accounts Payable Account Receivable Cash Receipts Student Online Payments Fixed Assets Purchasing Academic Services Curriculum Management Course Scheduling Student Grades Student Historical Data Verification of Attendance 2

3 On-line Registration Integration Blackboard Nelnet - (online payment) OTC Account Management System AccessOTC (Portal) OTC Bookstore E-commerce Online Registration ImageNow Document Imaging Government Information Systems State DHE State Retirement Federal DOE Insurance Cafeteria Procurement Card (Implementation Stage) The ACS Department supports students through the retention of accurate student data that can be retrieved by the student through AccessOTC. Students are able to register for classes, run a degree audit to see where they are in the completion of their degree, and view grades for completed courses via the web. Student Services staff are also able to access this information for students in a one-on-one environment. The ACS Department supports the financial aid software that shortens the turn-around time from the completion of the FAFSA to the issuance of money either to the student s account or directly to the student. 5. What are the key quality indicators (KQI) for the unit? The success of the ACS Department can be measured by the transactions within the individual supported modules (as listed above). Three specific, measurable examples follow: 1) AccessOTC is an important student support module at Ozarks Technical Community College. It is an interactive web application that enables students to view their individual academic information from the Internet. Online registration began through AccessOTC during the 02/FA semester with 1,314 students utilizing the web feature. A total of 509 students registered through AccessOTC on the first day of registration. The most recent registration numbers show a total of 1,165 students registered through AccessOTC on the first day of registration for 08/SP. Since the inaugural semester, AccessOTC has become the dominate means for students to register for classes. In addition, students can drop classes, pay for classes, view their academic progress through a degree check, and view their financial aid status. Ozarks Technical Community College remains on the cutting edge in the application and use of AccessOTC. AccesOTC has been modified by the staff at Ozarks Technical Community College to perform the institutional functions of the college. Currently, Ozarks Technical Community College is the only college using the product to allow all students access to online registration on opening day. 3

4 AccessOTC also provides staff and faculty access to their sick leave and vacation balances. Advisors can view their student s information through the web to assist in scheduling the student. Ozarks Technical Community College is in the process of implementing e-advising which will allow advisors to see all student records, not just their advisees, help students plan the course they will need to complete/accomplish their goals at Ozarks Technical Community College. 2) The Financial Aid module in combination with ACS written computer programs enables approximately 60% of our students to qualify for State and Federal Aid. The Financial Aid year runs Fall and Spring with Summer as a trailer. Based on these criteria, 7,030 students received some form of financial aid in the 2006 Financial Aid year that ended in 07/SU. The unduplicated headcount for this period was 13,236. The ACS Department implemented the financial aid package in the fall of During the initial implementation, 999 students were awarded Pell grants worth $1,291,327 and 479 students received $1,088,219 in student loans. The most recent financial aid year ended with the 2007 summer semester. 4,300 students received over $8,811,000 in Pell Grants and 3,054 students received over $11,367,000 in student loans. The ACS Department continually reworks and adds processes to increase efficiency in order to support this annual increased volume. For example, the ACS staff has reworked, automated and implemented an online collection process for attendance tracking of financial aid students. This automated system replaced a cumbersome manual process and enabled support of a regulatory requirement for an increased student population and without any subsequent increase in staff. 3) The ACS Department serves the entire college with the 5,000+ custom programs and processes written by the staff. These programs are designed for the following: tabulate and store state reporting for the college provide results of course evaluation and student satisfaction surveys process probation and suspension status of students process Deans and Presidents lists provide employee lists for birthdays, convocation, and mailings provide monthly Board reports print transcripts print lists for Graduation processing complete year-end closeout of the general ledger process Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Processing 4

5 Section II. Accreditation, User Evaluation, and Facilities 1. Is the service area subject to accreditation by state, regional or national accrediting agencies? If yes, please answer questions 2 and 3. If no, skip to question 4. The ACS Department is not subject to accreditation by state, regional or national accrediting agencies. 2. What accrediting agency/agencies recognize the unit and when is the next scheduled accreditation review? 3. Indicate recommendations of the most recent accreditation evaluation of the service area and actions taken or planned. Recommendation Action Taken/Planned 4. Have service area materials, equipment and working environment received favorable evaluations? Indicate what supporting documentation is available. Not applicable to ACS 5. How has overall delivery of services from this area been evaluated by users? At this time, there is no evaluation process for ACS. 6. Based on the evaluations discussed in questions 4 and 5, summarize how successful the area has been in carrying out its purpose(s) and serving its clientele. Not applicable to ACS. 7. Are the facilities, workspace, and equipment adequate to support service area goals and objectives? Please explain. The Administration at Ozarks Technical Community College has always provided faculty and staff with above average equipment to perform their jobs. The college recently purchased a new IBM p5 560Q to process the college administrative software. ACS constantly monitors processor and storage utilization and procures upgrades as needed. The goal is to insure high levels of reliability, maintainability and availability from the computer that hosts the college administrative software. The ACS staff recently (April 12, 2008) added four processors and additional internal memory to the system. This will increase the system capacity for the additional users that are anticipated from the installation and integration of the E-Advising module. The staff also maintains the software upgrades generated by the college s software vendor. 5

6 The ACS Department enjoys modern, secure office facilities in the Information Commons building. The original design of the computer facility provided office accommodations for a staff of four individuals. Currently, the department has a staff of six employees with two employee desks in the main, outer, common area. The personnel required to work in the open area suffer from a lack of privacy and quiet, and thus find it very difficult to program. This is not in keeping with known best practices in computer operations and results in lost productivity. Open access in the ACS offices is very disruptive to staff members and also results in lost concentration and productivity. One employee is taking programming work home in order to have a quiet work environment where she can concentrate. Modifications to the available space will enable two additional offices which would provide an adequate work environment. Section III. Staffing 1. Do staff possess the skills required to support the service area? If no, please explain. The cumulative years of service of the ACS staff at Ozarks Technical Community College in the Information Technology Department is approximately 75 years. The mean years of employment in the department is The cumulative years of service of the ACS staff in the field of information technology is approximately 98 years. This experience is invaluable to the college. The department staff constantly works to keep their skills updated and relevant to meet OTC needs. They are engaged in annual training plans to ensure adequate and proper skills development. New technologies are viewed as opportunities to increase support and decrease service delivery time. The staff currently participates in both the regional Datatel Users Group (MRDUG) and the national group (DUG). The department sends employees to these meetings in order to stay abreast of Datatel applications. They also endeavor to understand future directions in order to position the college to take advantage of anticipated changes in the operational art of the college automation business. The ACS staff currently consists of six full-time employees, with experience and qualifications as indicated in the following table. Name Years Education Experience Bill Bischoff 41 Business Certificate Data Processing & Education Beth Berns 19 Education Bachelor Business Education Masters in Business Administration - Expected to complete Dec. 08 Don Kleier 13 - Education Associates Degree OTC Computer Information Technology Associates Degree Business Management. Pursuing Bachelor in Business Administration with an Anticipated graduation date of May, 2009 Lavonna Franklin 6 - Education Associates Degree Business and Marketing, Bachelor Business Administration Rebecca Smallwood 7 Education Associates Degree Computer Information Technology Associates Degree Business and Marketing Alan Church 12 Education Bachelor of Arts Bible 6

7 The ACS staff is dedicated to providing timely, accurate and dependable assistance to the Ozarks Technical Community College administration and staff. To ensure new processes are accurate and productive for the end user, the ACS staff conducts research and training. New applications and modules are both optimized and customized to better meet the college needs. The department also provides a Help Desk function by offering specific assistance to end users when new processes are added or questions occur regarding the use of the software. 2. In what professional organizations do staff in this service area participate? Name of Organization Number Participating Datatel Users Group 6 Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) 6 Leadership OTC 1 3. Are adequate professional development opportunities available for members of the unit? Please explain. The ACS staff relies on professional development opportunities provided by their software provider through webinars, consulting, and by attending both regional and national users meetings. Training Number Participating Consultants with knowledge transfer 6 Vendor Webinars 6 Purchased training courses 3 Training Classes 2 Section IV. Service Area Evaluation and Planning Summary 1. List and comment on the major strengths of the service area. The ACS staff has great depth of knowledge in community college operations and structure. This knowledge is essential when identifying the impact as well as subsequent integration of new processes and systems thus allowing the ACS staff to quickly implement new operational capabilities. The ACS staff has developed skills in moving data from the Datatel Colleague system to other, internal and external systems. Some examples of internal systems include Blackboard course management, institutional research office and foundation office support. Examples of external data movement includes: E-Commerce transactions with credit card companies National Student Clearinghouse State Reporting that determines funding for the college Enhanced Missouri Student Achievement Study (EMSAS) statewide student-level database Pre-note and direct deposit files with the college s banking system Student FAFSA information both to and from the Department of Education Retirement records submitted to the state s retirement system Nelnet payment plan for college tuition 7

8 The staff is knowledgeable in the processing of year-end Federal reporting such as 1098-T, 1099, and W-2 information. When changes to these processes occur, the staff adjusts the college s processes to accommodate the new additions. The ACS staff is very adept at learning entirely new functions that the college undertakes and makes the processes productive. Current projects include e-advising and Document Imaging. Both projects are new to the staff and learning these processes are examples of the types of systems implemented by the department. 2. List and comment on the major areas or needs for improvement for the service area. 1) ACS needs to provide support for additional analytic capability and the underlying data to support this analysis. This capability is needed by the college to support assessment. This assessment will allow the faculty, staff and college administrators to measure the effectiveness of changes in structure, resources, or operations. 2) Additional fiscal resources for training 3. What additional equipment or facility needs exist to enhance support for services? The addition of separate, private office space for all employees in the department would benefit the department and lead to an increase in productivity. 4. List recommendations for improving the service area and strategies or goals designed to meet these challenges. Academic Computer Services needs to meet and brainstorm with our major users to identify areas for additional automation to support our constantly changing operational procedures. These meetings should occur at least once a semester and might be a focus for one of the two IT council meetings held each semester. An analytics committee needs to be formed to help formulate the additional college data required for measuring success. The underlying transactional data that will support these measures of success must be identified. 8

9 5. Describe the goals and objectives the unit will accomplish over the next five years? Please describe plans in place to help unit accomplish these goals? Goal/Objective Plan for Accomplishing e-advising Currently in Testing Document Imaging Board approval March 08 Training March & April 08 Initial implementation - June 08 Single sign-on access to the IBM 1. LDAP/Active Directory integration Fall Single Sign-on Portal integration Feasibility study is on hold until a new portal programmer is hired and trained. Integrate Procurement Card Timeline under development in coordination with Finance division Data Warehouse In conjunction with analytics. Budget submitted for FY Common Platform Move from IBM to Wintel platform with MS SQL database. Integrate into a SharePoint Portal system for collaboration. 1. Test SharePoint Portal in FY Implement SharePoint in FY Budget and implement Servers and MSSQL in FY Transition Datatel and Unidata in FY 11-9