1. Student Information System (SIS) Report
Presentation to the UTFAB
November 4, 2015
Bob Engmark, Director, Information Systems
Rusty Scott, Executive Associate Director ACNS
Chris Seng, Director, Registrar’s Office
Good afternoon everyone,
Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to give an update.
I represent many staff in this report and these are talented folks that keep student systems operations running term after term.

2. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Agenda
SIS review
Progress and Challenge
Future path
Funding review
Questions
While the agenda is simple, there is much to cover. I will hit things at a very high level. Please understand many of these items are major initiatives and require months of planning, coordination and implementation time.
Giving you detail in slides but won’t cover much of it.
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

3. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
SIS Background:
Collaboration with UTFAB began in 2004
ACNS, Information Systems, Enrollment & Access
Goal to update student system infrastructure
Project includes hardware, software and staff
Unique partnership involving many systems
ARIES – The Student Information System, Document Imaging, Workflow, Degree Audit Reporting, Course Roadmaps, Others…
Web Portal Layers
ARIESweb – Faculty and Staff self-service
RAMweb and RamRecords – Student and former student self-service
FAMweb – Parents or trusted individuals
Mobile
We, utfab and csu, colab began in Some of us were here then.
Your funding supports hardware, software and staffing, systems and databases
Very large infrastructure, not like a building you see everyday but a foundational part of any higher education institution.
Let’s look back to part of the presentation from 2003/4 at what drove this partnership:
Aged student system, ISIS, requires replacement
15 years old - not a modern, “real-time” system
Very intensive of staff time; limits progress in other areas
Runs on a mainframe together with FRS and several other applications
The SIS needs dedicated hardware
RAMweb (quasi-portal)
Complex interactions with eID and ISIS
System “constraints” exceeded Aug. 03, Jan. 04, …
See handout “RamWeb Overview, Spring 2004”
Additional enhancements very difficult due to ISIS and staffing limitations
SSN not used as Student PID
Closer to 24 x 7 access to RAMweb services
New web registration system
Degree Audit (GUIDE) on the web
Improved/integrated advising support for faculty and students
Fewer places to maintain personal data
Example - addresses integrated into one system
More web service options
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

4. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
SIS Users
Departments across campus
Academic Departments
Accounts Receivable
Admissions
Advising (CASA)
Graduate School
Online Plus (Continuing Education)
Registrar’s Office
Student Financial Services
People
Students
Faculty, advisors, staff
Recruits
Alumni
Parents
You should know that the SIS supports all on campus in one way or another.
Many use SIS without knowledge…example is emergency alert text message. Info stored in SIS
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

5. Fall 2015 University Enrollment
Undergraduate
21,010
23,009
Graduate
4,008
PVM
549
Employee
514
Guest 96
CSU Online
3,264
Study Abroad
168
Others
628
Total
32, (Fall 2014 – 31,725)
Also 1,172 banner users and 3,024 ariesweb and then ODS.
Important to highlight this affects all students
Grouped this way for reporting purposes
Also affects the work of 3090 who have some type of system access.
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

6. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
SIS Usage Examples
RAMweb Degree Audits AY 14/ ,841
Transcripts sent AY14/15: 28,278
Transcripts processed AY 14/ ,110
Financial Aid Processed AY 14/15 ~$275,000,000.00
Course sections scheduled AY 14/15 16,894
ARIESweb Student page hits AY 14/ ,364,771
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

7. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
RAMweb logins by year
Logins
Year
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8. Summary of Recent Activities
Hardware/software upgrades, numerous!
Banner XE modules (including faculty grade entry)
New online University Catalog
Curriculum management systems for courses and majors (impacts Registration)
RAMweb
Code update and new user interface planning
University Withdrawal
Worksheet for GI Bill recipients
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

9. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
More completed…
System enhancements and changes
Certificates, UG and GR , transcript, printed certificate
New law, resident tuition rates for all veterans
Transition to external provider for diploma printing
Improve system codes for tracking veterans
Integrate cross discipline academic unit organizations (majors not tied to a specific department or college)
Online form/workflow for University withdrawal
Banner/Slate integration
Alaska/CSU DVM program
135 other team tasks related to SIS by Registrar staff
327 team tasks completed by Information Systems
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

10. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
The August 24, 2015 Story
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11. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
How Ramweb Works
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12. When Services Stopped…
Analyzed network traffic (firewall, load balancer)
Studied web servers (CPU and Memory)
Monitored the database for CPU and Memory issues
Evaluated the storage system for I/O issues
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13. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
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14. The Problem, our Response
The Database server for Banner was overloaded.
One particular piece of Banner code was called 65 million times causing a bottleneck on the CPU.
Corrective Measures
Increase CPU from 4 cores to 6 cores
Remove offending Ellucian code from RamWeb
Consult with Ellucian
Move from AIX to Linux to increase processing power (over semester break)
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

15. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Results
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16. Initiatives underway…
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17. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Projects
Banner 8 and XE upgrades
Next Major version of Student System
2-3 year implementation
Upgrades every quarter, staff intensive
RAMweb redesign
Four year course planner
IPAS-2 Advisor portal enhancements
Gradesfirst integration
Additional data for advising support
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

18. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Semester at Sea
CSU is academic partner beginning Fall 2016 and forward
SaS students are CSU students
Integration with CSU SIS: Registration, courses, faculty, transcript all support by CSU
Key Project Milestones
Feb 1, 2016 Load SaS students to SIS
March SaS class schedule available
May Registration in RAMweb
Sept 11, 2016 voyage begins
Dec 22, 2016 voyage ends and final grades submitted
Dec 30, 2016 Transcripts mailed to home institution
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

19. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
RAMweb
New backend architecture
New User Interface…
Time for an upgrade
Both the code base and UI
User Interface Layer (UI) is the layer that the Students/Faculty accesses directly, i.e. the web pages.
Business Logic Layer (BL) is the layer that contains the business rules and data validation, i.e. Planned Leave is not available to Graduate Students.
Data Access Layer (DAL) is where the connections and access to the data sources are stored. Our environment will require two DAL’s, one for SQL Server and one for Oracle. This will centralize common data access functionality making the application secure, easier to configure and maintain.
3-tier Architecture Changes
User Interface (UI) - the web pages
Business Logic (BL) - business rules and data validation
Data Access (DAL) - accessing data from multiple sources
Completion target, calendar 2015
Improves security and eases ongoing maintenance
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

20. RAMready New Student Checklist
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

21. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
RAMweb UI
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22. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
RAMmobile…
~4,000 active users
~24,213 unique
Top Usage
CSU Maps
Schedule (Daily View) 
Academic Alerts
Down the road…
Registration
Student finances
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

23. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
FY 16 Funding
FY16 Total Budget $1,713,546
(UTFAB + Univ match + I.S. support)
FY16 UTFAB Support $689,789
Any additional costs absorbed centrally
University matches UTFAB support
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

24. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Projected SIS Budget
* - Projected Budget
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25. UTFAB Funding Criteria
1. Benefit as many students as possible
All students at CSU are benefiting.
2. Ability to effectively utilize the fee
Your decision.
3. Not funded by CFT
Check.
4. Adherence to budget and accountability
5. Potential for direct student use
Absolutely.
6. Effort, thought & clarity in the plan
7. Quantitative usage data
Several examples
8. Financial co-sponsorship
60% of total funded by the University.
9. Central/distributed balance
10. Cost/benefit ratio
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

26. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Summary
We appreciate your continued support of the project
The UTF and student support provided the original impetus for the project
The SIS is critical core infrastructure
The systems are performing exceptionally well and meeting all demands for service
Thank you for your support!
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation

27. UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation
Questions…
are most welcome.
Interested in volunteering to help test the new registration module in RAMweb?
Contact
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UTFAB SIS Fall 2015 Presentation