Report to the Lane Community College Board
LASR Project
May, 2003

The project is on schedule and within budget.

FINANCE
Finance has finalized the year-end close process and has published it in the traditional "Yellow Memo" to the campus. The team has also transferred Lane's Fixed Assets from the COCO system to the Banner System in the TEST database, and will begin testing fixed asset management, including adding, deleting, transferring and depreciating assets.  The team is also planning for additional staff support during the year-end close process and for more training.  Contact: Stan Barker Ext. 5608.

HUMAN RESOURCES
Processing semi-monthly Banner HR payroll through ExpressLane Web self-serve time entry has now become more routine.  A Human Resources staff person from the Banner HR core team has been assigned to attend the weekly Finance Implementation Team (FIT) meetings in order to ensure cooperation and integration between the Banner Finance and Banner HR modules. Additional staff training and problem-solving support has also been put in place between staff from the College Student Enrollment Services, Finance and HR departments to establish protocols for high levels of communication and cooperation working with respective Banner modules. These additional training and inter-departmental communication and cooperation efforts are intended to assure accurate payroll, benefits and budget accounting information using the Banner program. Thwing Havens, Lane's Banner HR programmer, continues to provide an exceptional level of support for all Banner HR functions. In response to questions that have been raised to the Board about the ìcost, efficiency and return-on-investmentî of the Banner project, it is important to clarify that College Human Resources is conducting the same level of business as in previous years, and in many ways doing more business, with 2.0 FTE (16 hours/day) less personnel than was previously required to complete HR functions. Two management support positions have been eliminated in HR amounting to substantially over $150,000.00 savings (including OPE) per year for the College. Data entry timelines for semi-monthly payroll processes have been established and published for the calendar year and reminders are sent to all Lane employees via email immediately before each payroll deadline. Contact: Dennis Carr Ext. 5585.

STUDENT
The Student Team is in the final stages of implementation before the go-live date of Monday, June 2nd. Implementation efforts are focused on fine-tuning how students and staff will use ExpressLane, and on staff use of native Banner for processes such as building class sections and admitting and registering students.  In addition to fine-tuning the system, activities in May will also focus on training for faculty, staff and students.  The team is also gearing up for the final Mock Registration the week of May 5, which will include an opportunity for staff outside the project team and for students to test registration using ExpressLane.  The purpose of this testing is to make sure that written instructions and screen messages make sense to people who do not know the Banner system.  Because the written instructions for registering using ExpressLane as well as other changes related to the Banner Student implementation are included in the Summer Class Schedule, the Student Team encourages all college employees to read through this publication when it appears in mailboxes in late May.  The implementation of the student module in Banner has generated a significant number of administrative changes that will impact students, and staff can provide better assistance to students if they become familiar with these changes.  Contact: Helen Barker Garrett Ext. 5686.

SERIES 25 AND SCHEDULING
The Series 25 software package has two components ñ classroom scheduling and events scheduling ñ and it is designed to operate with our Banner software.  Our primary goal with this project is to design and implement an effective and efficient room-scheduling system at Lane.  The software will be used to schedule events and classes beginning with Summer term 2003.

FINANCIAL AID
The financial aid system has been "live" since March 4, processing for the 2003-2004 academic year is proceeding normally.  The Financial Aid Office continues to load approximately 500 applicant records weekly, and send initial requirement requests to those students. The Financial Aid Banner Team is working on finalizing fund set-up, packaging rules and parameters, award letter development and is working on the information that accompanies the award letter. Packaging, or the process of assigning specific award amounts to students based on system rules and student eligibility, is the next major milestone for Financial Aid.  Disbursement will follow in July.  Contact Bert Logan, Ext. 5266.

For more information about the project, contact Linda DeWitt, Ext. 3006, or visit our web site at: http://2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/lasr/.