1. September 7, 2016 Presented by Celeste Boudreaux,
Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Rice University

2. Brief Recap Replacing current Faculty Information System (FIS)
Project started in March 2014, with initial funding from Office of Research
Faculty feedback about old system collected
Deans interviewed about desirable features
Focus group, comprised of faculty and administrative staff, reviewed products on the market
You may ask………………………………………….

3. Why do we need a new FIS?

4. This is the old FIS. Any questions?
The current, homegrown FIS, which is 12 years old, is on a server that is out of warranty and no longer supported. Its code is also seriously outdated and we are already losing some of the reporting functionality.
This is the old FIS.
Any questions?

5. Promises to the University
Build a robust system that makes sense
Integrate with other systems as much as possible
Consolidate information
move away from siloed shadow systems
Facilitate strategic decision making
provide cleaner, more easily accessible data
Support the research enterprise
Promote faculty accomplishments and collaboration

6. Promises to Faculty
Have solid reasons for every piece of information collected
Create an intuitive and user friendly system
Bring in data as much as possible from other systems
Perform vast majority of the work of cleaning up and migrating legacy data on faculty’s behalf

7. Milestones
Last Senate report, Nov. 2014, focus group had narrowed selection to 2 finalists
New CIO and Provost, with ITEC, participated in Aug decision: Thomson Reuters’ Converis
Pilot with Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and School of Architecture, Feb. 2016
ITEC = Information Technology Executive Committee

8. Milestones
Last Senate report, Nov. 2014, focus group had narrowed selection to 2 finalists
New CIO and Provost, with ITEC, participated in Aug decision: Thomson Reuters’ Converis
Pilot with Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and School of Architecture, Feb. 2016
Usability tests conducted throughout configuration period
FARIS: Faculty and Researcher Information System
ITEC = Information Technology Executive Committee
 Thank you! 

9. Sponsors & Steering Committee
Executive Sponsors
Marie Lynn Miranda Provost
Paula Sanders Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Yousif Shamoo Vice Provost for Research
Klara Jelinkova Chief Information Officer
Steering Committee
Celeste Boudreaux, Project Manager Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Randy Castiglioni Associate Vice President, Administrative & Enterprise Systems & Services (IT)
Lisa Spiro Executive Director of Digital Scholarship Services, Fondren Library
William Turner Assistant Vice Provost for Research

10. FARIS Faculty Advisory Group
Mike Byrne PSYC Professor
Susan Cates BIOS Asst Chair, Lecturer
Andrew Colopy ARCH Asst Professor
Louma Ghandour OFD Director
Kathy Matthews BCB Professor, former Dean
Caleb McDaniel HIST Assoc Professor
Don Morrison PHIL Professor
Matteo Pasquali CHBE Professor
Edith Reed ENGR Asst Dean
Michael Schweinberger STAT Asst Professor
Evan Siemann BIOS Professor, Assoc Vice Provost
Lora Wildenthal HIST Professor, Assoc Dean

11. Examples of faculty input
Advised on structure, arrangement, and nomenclature of activity categories
Suggested/edited text for context sensitive help
Provided input about what kinds of information are significant in their fields
Debated and made recommendations on processes such as annual reports, P&T, including students in system, counting crosslisted courses and courses with multiple instructors, etc.

12. Timeline Project start, Sept 2015 Go Live, Nov 8, 2016
Phase Pilot
Phase Configuration/Rollout
Phase Additional Features
Project start, Sept 2015
Go Live, Nov 8, 2016
Annual Reports in FARIS, Jan-Feb 2017
Project end, July 2017

13. Parallel Rollout Plans
Sept 2016
Nov 2016
Oct 2016
Dec 2016
Jan 2017
Feb 2017
Mar 2017
Apr 2017
May 2017
Annual reports track
Configuration, testing, feedback
Training, support
When FARIS goes live on Nov. 8, we begin school-by-school training outreaches, with training and support efforts heaviest during Jan-Feb, annual reports season.

14. Parallel Rollout Plans
Sept 2016
Nov 2016
Oct 2016
Dec 2016
Jan 2017
Feb 2017
Mar 2017
Apr 2017
May 2017
Annual reports track
Configuration, testing, feedback
Legacy data cleanup/migration
Data verification (department by department)
Training, support
At the same time, part of our team is focused on cleaning up and migrating legacy data. As we complete a department, we will ask each faculty member to review their own data. If there are changes to be made, we will work with staff or faculty on making the edits. Notice that this effort will still be going on at the time that annual reports are due, but it will be completed by the end of the spring semester.
Legacy data track

15. Go-Live Communications
Presentations
Blasts
Sept 1: Dean’s Council
Sept 7: Faculty Senate
Sept 14: Assistant Deans
Sept 20: Department Chairs
Sept 5: To faculty
Sept 5: To academic staff
Oct 24: Reminder to both
You can help us spread the word! We’re happy to visit faculty meetings, etc.
Also, we will be inviting select department administrators to participate in a staff focus/ testing group, Sept-Oct 2016.
Web Info
Aug 25: Announcement on old FIS login page
Background info on VPAA website

16. ? Any s? More details at: http://vpaa.rice.edu/
Questions to ?
Any s?