2. Welcome! Using Argos for Letter Generation Presented By Jim Ollerhead Banner & Argos Support Team Leader University of Salford, England, UK

3. Please remember to silence your telephone Thank You!

4. A bit about me… 1995 – 2001 Banner Developer 2001 – 2004 Various Other Oracle Roles 2004 onward Banner Support Team Leader

5. The University of Salford is in the North West of England close to Manchester The University was founded in 1896 and has a student population of approximately 19,000 SunGard HE products (Banner Student, Financial Aid and Accounts Receivable) have been in use at the University of Salford to hold information about our students since 1999 We began trialling the use of Argos at the beginning of 2007 University of Salford, England, UK

6. The Joy of Banner Letter Generation… Before you begin….  Find the User Guides! (General, Chapters 3, 5 and 6)  Learn about the Banner ‘mark-up’ language  Teach yourself SQL

7. Finding the User Guides  Open up the Banner Bookshelf  Index the PDF’s if necessary  Perform an advanced search for ‘Letter’  Find the relevant sections from the 2884 hits  Read them!

8. Learn the Banner ‘Mark-up’ Language  23 ‘tags’ some of which have a multiple parameter format (e.g. tables)  Complex syntax needed for simplest things, e.g: #CONCAT x Concatenate — Place x next to the preceding word without inserting a space between them. Frequently used to place punctuation after a variable Note: A backslash (\) is required to concatenate a period (.), for example: *VARIABLE #CONCAT, *VARIABLE #CONCAT ! *VARIABLE #CONCAT \. Note: A trailing space is required after the #CONCAT command and before the x string.

9. Teach yourself SQL for 368 Pages 0.66kg

10. Teach yourself SQL for 432 Pages 0.54kg

11. Building your Letter (1) Create an Application in GLRAPPL

12. Building your Letter (2) Create Variables in GLRVRBL

13. Building your Letter (3) Create a Letter Code in GTVLETR

14. Building your Letter (4) Create Paragraph Codes in GTVPARA

15. Building your Letter (5) Create Paragraphs in GUAPARA

16. Building your Letter (6) Assemble Letter in GUALETR

17. I can print my letter now, Yes? Dear Sir… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Yours, ~~~~~~~~~~

18. NON, NEIN, NADA, NOPE! Dear Sir… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Yours, ~~~~~~~~~~

19. Deciding who to send your Letter to (1) Create a Population Selection in GLRSLCT

20. Deciding who to send your Letter to (2) Check PopSel is OK in GLIEXTR

21. NOW I can print my letter, Yes? Dear Sir… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Yours, ~~~~~~~~~~

22. NON, NEIN, NADA, NOPE! Dear Sir… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Yours, ~~~~~~~~~~

23. Running the built-in processes (1) Run the Population Extract GLBDATA

24. Running the built-in processes (2) Run the Letter Extract GLBLSEL

25. Running the built-in processes (3) Run the Letter Print Process GLRLETR

26. Finally – Do I get my Letter now??? Dear Sir… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Yours, ~~~~~~~~~~

27. OUI, JA, SI, YES, AT LAST! Wasn’t that fun?

28. Pre-Argos Solution Use 3 rd -party Reporting tool To build list of recipients Extract Into Excel Mail-merge Into Word

29. Drawbacks with MS solution  Users must have (and be able to use!) MS Office  Only addresses are extracted – other data will require additional programming  Ownership and uniformity of template letters  Data can be changed after letter production  No record of letters sent/produced held within Banner

30. Argos in France

31. Argos in Greece

32. Argos in the UK

33. USA on trial in the UK Another Acronym! Problem In Chair Not In Computer Beyond Any Normal Need for Education Records Another Reason for Going Off Sick Ad-Hoc Report Generation and Output Solution

34. Up-front advantages  Web interface – no installation needed  Training? What training?  Control over who can change what  Central store for letters facilitates good CM  PDF Output = no post-production changes  User empowerment ( = less work for IT support!)

35. How we implemented Argos at Salford Initial decisions:  Single user sign-on to the Banner database  All Argos-specific objects held in the ARGOS_USER schema  Setting up of Argos key-users  Creation of a BI Data Dictionary

36. Single-User Sign-on  All users connect as ARGOS_USER  ARGOS_USER given full query-only access  Access to individual Banner tables controlled by BI Data Dictionary views (mostly!)  No impact from Banner upgrades

37. Advantages of Argos-specific objects  No impact from Banner upgrades  Facilitates ‘soft parameter’ reporting  Objects created so far: 6 Business Intelligence Views GYRSIGN table for recording signatories Argos package containing 5 functions

38. BI Data Dictionary (Views)  Evolving with time and usage  Six objects so far (roughly chronological order): SYRAPPL- Applications SYRDEMO- (Person) Demographics SYRSTPR- Students against Programs SYRMODL- Academic History Module Marks SYRINTR- Interruptions to Study SYRSTOU- Learning Outcome

39. Example BI View: SYRSTPR  Students against Programs  Joins 16 tables  Uses library functions to look up coded values  Additional User-friendly definition document

40. New table for Signatories of letters

41. Connect in seconds

42. First Version of Offer Letter Parameters

43. Second Version of Offer Letter Parameters

44. Quickview for record of sent letters

45. Users Q & A on Argos… Q. Can we have separate letters for overseas? A.No. Q. Can we have separate letters for conditional offers? A.No. Q. Can we have different letters for different signatories? A.No. Q. Can we have a separate report for Address Labels? A. No

46. Why Not??? Because we don’t need them!

47. Sample Output from Offer Letter Three Samples, One Letter! ‘Home’ Student, Unconditional Offer ‘Home’ Student, Conditional Offer Overseas Student, Conditional Offer

48. Mailing Labels from same Datablock

49. But what if the wording isn’t right…  Is it the wording, conditions or the source data?  Wording: Change it but be aware that we only version control the Master Copy  Conditions: Speak to business process owner then Key User to change it  Source Data: Speak to IT support

55. Pictorial Class List using same Datablock as for Letters and Report

56. Overall Argos User Experience  Log in (Double-click Icon)< 1 minute  Choose the letter to run< 1 minute  Enter parameters< 1 minute  Run preview1-3 minutes  PrintDone!

57. Difference to User Community Banner MS MergeArgos

58. Thank you for your Attention! Any Questions?

59. Contact Me at… j.ollerhead@salford.ac.uk