Functional Group Questions Team Comments

Task Force on Reporting Strategies Functional Group Questions – UMKC

What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Administration &  Querying with PS has  In facilities – using an old DOS system. Need to  We need a data warehouse. Finance been better than before – upgrade for customers.  Some way to get data for And Student we can be proactive –  Lots of cutting and pasting and creating reports international students. Affairs better than previous  The bookstore has a Prism data system – interface  Facilities also need a data continued system for getting is difficult warehouse connection to People information on payments.  Infrequently we have trouble with upload from the Soft especially with budget data.  Request reports from student side – it has gotten better – first year was  Student addresses and where the Wilson and get them rough – second year, much better students came from - Need to and they are good – that  Position management – interface as it relates to contact students and collect student is my reporting system. payroll encumbrances – how much budget do we loans.  Budgeting information really have left  Need bridge builders to other is available and fairly  Senior level management reporting is not there – applications. easy to access. we are having to prepare a lot of manual reports.  We, as supervisors, need to be able  Journal entry process  Getting good revenue information. to view a screen and see if people seems to work well – it  Validity of the data. actually have the vacation to take is easier to go in and  Everything is in a state of flux – we are between off – rather than approve it and make changes – quicker systems – it is frustrating some times but we are then send and find out they don’t than the old paper getting there. have the time to cover it. process.  Need clean up of the existing data – the old system  Support from financial side to help  Vouchers work well – is 25 years old and so we have been cleaning up us manage the accounting for bills are paid in a timely data so it can be converted and we are hoping to be auxiliaries. fashion okay – but it is slow – but we understand.  Training.  We can put in all the  I would like to have more access to HR data  Commitment of resources to international students  It bothers me on travel and reimbursement to have making PS and reporting work birthdays. to get information out of the system, put it on a  Training has worked but there is  Timeliness and accuracy form and then put it back in – redundant data. lots more to learn is good for international  Biggest problem, is, we run our own system for  Continuing to have opportunities to students recreation center. So, when an audit comes, we discuss, like we are today: what is  Financials and have to pull everything out, do manual work with working and what is not working. budgeting seems to the data between two systems and then don’t know  Continued cooperation between work well. which numbers are correct. campuses. We bought software  Institutional research.  Approvals and people – when I send an expense with UMC – have the same one – it  New grants new module form, someone leaves it on their desk for a month would be nice to communicate with that just went on line– it or two and don’t get it back to me. We don’t have them as to what they have done and looks good. any one person to work on PS – they have to do what works for them. What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement?  We rely on other other things.  The communication of what is Administration & departments – we are  There is a multi-step process that we have to keep available out there – people keep Finance not connected with several layers of reports. saying, “there is probably And Student people soft.  Being able to name the reports - because new ones something out there that will help Affairs  Application is working get saved over the old ones. me but I don’t know where it is”. continued well. Very user friendly  Connectivity has been interrupted – the buildings  More collaboration. – data at fingertips. are not all wire they way they should be.  Bookstore implementation.  Recent enhancement on  Archiving of legacy data and the keeping shadow  Residential feeding. data on balance sheet is systems. We need to put to rest legacy systems –  Department meetings with others to good. tables etc. - but still be able to get to them for share information and techniques  Can write reports reporting. with each other. against data easily.  Duplication of information and effort to get data  Getting more pieces on with PS –  Other universities that into PS just so you can report on it. there is a drag – go ahead with it – are using PS and don’t  There needs to be more standardization – time and we are waiting on legacy and it is have our web reports money were saved with facilities – centralization stagnant. and are having trouble. has been key – but it is hard.  PS party – Did you know if you do  Voucher system is easy  Querying is very good – but it is not as good as it this, you can do this – support and and works better than could be - nVision (new type) would be better. excitement is needed. what we had.  Encumbrances.  Update – status of things getting  We don’t use PS, we  In the past we got audited statements by campus. ready to happen could be on the have a system that ties Now we only get system and we have been web. in with UMC’s in promised and promised – but we haven’t yet gotten  User groups. collaboration and it the reports.  Blackboard training. works very well.  We need our own “nVision” system – we get it  Cheat sheet on web – so can look  I am in charge of from other units that have it. up things on deptids, chartfields. sending the feeds to PS  HR module is frustrating – why do I have to do all  Tools to help people to learn and the web interface this and then download, print and send by mail – things. for charges to very inefficient process  Two levels of training – training departments works very  Lack of knowledge of new system. for people doing it day in and day well and can be shown  Not using PS but we don’t have a web application out and then another type training to someone in a couple for students that want to apply to UMKC – so for senior management. of minutes it is accurate. students can enter their own data and it will be  Current applications are so paper  System wide web there where we can all get it. More students would intensive – document imaging – interface accounting for apply if it were easier. There are some data entry technology advancement – so we facilities – space errors because the students don’t do it – someone can eliminate paper. utilization else does and the errors just keep coming up.  Need a budget variance report that  Paris works well on the  Property management – every bit of income and shows current year-to-date and last budget – he does good. expense has to be entered twice – at end of month, fiscal year-to-date. This will What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement?  We used to have a long have to try to make these two agree. No dedicated provide ready comparisons for paper trail – this is much project support. For example, rent – we should be accounts compared to last year. Administration & better – we don’t have able to enter it once – now has to be entered and Finance to worry about loosing a then re – entered in PS – entering things twice – And Student piece of paper – it is a twice as much change for mistakes. Affairs new thing – nice.  No standardization of what software each continued  Financial reporting and department is using. journal entries - they  Application for budgeting is not helpful to move work well. into ecommerce.  We work through Paris  Application for budgeting is just a data entry tool – and Wilson – their it is not helping reporting. timeliness and accuracy are good.  Data warehouse is essential – it can be matter of minutes to get data.  The staff we have are tremendous – very knowledge and very experienced.  Good working relationships between academic, administrative and student side.  Good system-wide relationships and cooperation.  Mary Ann was great at providing us a tool with web applications and it works well  Facilities applications work well.  Integrated system works well.  Current system is easily What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? to use – Mary Ann and staff have done a great job of training and Administration & developing stuff that Finance people can use at their And Student desk. Affairs  Query helps greatly with continued daily money managing.  Chart fields that we are using to capture the reporting information – much better than the legacy system – easier to explain – organizes reporting information better.  Done away with some of the shadow systems.  Key budget  Transaction checklist –  Grant reporting for benchmarking is not working –  Need a data warehouse – have managers and can look at checklist not user friendly and information from them is off asked and asked. staff  Drill down is working  Projects are not working well.  More timely update of  Integration with campus  Some people do not think the HR panels are encumbrance. facility charges and etc. working – vacation/sick is NOT working well  Fix all the things we said didn’t works  Budget variance balance sheet and income – no work.  ACT system for way to navigate back and forth.  More consistent across campuses – facilities  Transaction checklist when you click the save so when you run comparable data  Reporting tools that function, you don’t know if it really saved for reports it is comparable. institutional research has  Document Direct Reports – some doesn’t work –  Some of the canned reports, if they access to. some can’t get into it – there are different versions could just prompt for it.  OBDC access to PS of PS and not all work.  More training. data.  Grants module is not a complete report.  Make queries so it is in English –  Queries that are already  Query is not user friendly and it is time consuming not in some un-understandable out there – canned – canned ones work well but it is hard to find out if language – non-programmers queries. it is there and does what you want. HAVE to use this and so the  Report regarding student  Tables and data need to be better defined. language should be appropriate to demographics and  Ability to run summary report on all the dept id’s – the user. statistics. mid-year financials are great – but isn’t automated  End users need to get together and  Summaries in PS. – that type thing, once automated, would be good. say this is what I need and this is What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement?  Key budget  Reports probably work  Expense reports not available and not working. how I need it and then approve managers and overall as they are  Time off report is not working. what has been written and get it staff continued intended but maybe it is  When drilling down on payroll – and the first drill right for the end users. not the information that down, you get a summary and click on this and  Improve response time. we need. what you pull up, for detail, is everything in that  Make timeouts not occur.  Income statements. file – not necessarily just what makes up that total.  Have more automated functions.  Once you have training,  Employee look up in web time – don’t always  Drill down on summary reports. queries work well. know the details.  Combine some data – make a  Web reports are  Unpaid leaves. department summary for budget, working – but they are  Student payroll doesn’t drill down by deptid. not PS reports – they are  Can’t see detail on campuses facilities – need to be  Better descriptions on the queries user friendly – much combined so you look at a list and know what better than legacy  Query tool – both good and bad – with grants – try it is – maybe even a verbal system. to join too many tables and it just timeout’s. description as well as an image  Chart fields are better  Department security for HR is not in place.  Reporting – drilling down for high way of organizing data  Vacation/sick leave reporting really bad. level people than legacy.  Voucher hits account before the checks are  Basic reporting that allows you to  Budget variance reports actually released. report by MOCODE – not totally but  Can’t report down to class level without getting  Grant reporting – for example, reasonably well. everything else with it. when does the grant end  Web time is okay.  We need more technical support on the HR side  Not all university employees have  Aging report in account reporting – it is uneven. access to e mail receivable.  Income summary reports seems to overstate the  Access to system information  Salary encumbrances revenue – it doubles it.  Recording of revenue as it relates but bad timing.  Timeout sessions in PS Query. by school  Within the grants  Grants and budget screens are not user friendly –  3 years of history module – the cumbersome.  Navigational tool information is working  Grant reporting and hard to read – frustrating –  Add an asset module – and let us okay – just not far takes lots of time – doesn’t save information from know about it enough. one to the other.  All the things in the “problem”  HR panels are working  Encumbrances don’t appear on all finance reports column – fix them and are very user – they are on some but not on others. friendly.  No ad hoc reporting for HR.  Very little technical support for HR.  Particularly on GTA or GRA – not PAF driven so overstates salary and benefits – it takes them out to the life of the project and not just like a 6-month appointment. What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement?  Key budget  Fiscal year reports. managers and  FRS isn’t very responsive these days. staff continued  Summary level data on finance transfers.  No data warehouse.  Training was obsolete and inconsistent.  Can’t do refreshers of the data instance.  Sometimes no good data for reporting all day.  Drill down doesn’t match and so then we don’t trust the data.  Feeder systems.  Direct billing for airfare.  Revenue coming in.  Lots of data re-entered for reporting.  Project reporting is inconsistent.  Quality of presentation – cannot just get it and give to Dean or upper level people.  Trend analysis.  Employees classified inconsistently.  Lack of information for family leave.  Duplicating entries because of delay – since submit button is detailed.  On web time – there is no alpha index and so can’t go to an entry – must scroll through whole thing.  Fiscal year controlled budget – in new year, goes to zero, because it is not report in correct place.

Campus Fiscal  Vouchers.  Even bosses – department heads – don’t have the  More generic terms on accounts Officers  Old FRS data is still access to see reports – they only see totals.  Make PS reporting panels available there and it helps me a  Cumbersome – because some times you only need to the end users - it is still not lot. MOBIUS to get information and sometimes have there.  MOCODE Process – it to use chart string – it would help to have a total  Fix the fact that they are restricting is a shorter number and report system. our access and keeping us from easier than it use to be.  Timeouts. doing our job and spending money  PS financial module is  Journal entries are out and so you can’t get the rest that the university doesn’t have. great. of your work done.  Making sure that how you access  Accounts receivable –  Sometimes PS is very frustrating. information is the same across the once I read the 4-inch  The drill down list of FRS descriptions – I could board. Example when I process reports to hire people I have to What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Campus Fiscal manual and read and re- then go to the old records for history. have multiple screens open at all Officers read all the e-mails  The MOCODE is not consistent. times – you should be able to drill continued about the changes in it.  We thought that with PS we would have less down. And there is no way to tell  Drill down to vendors shadow systems but we have more – we don’t trust where it is – it should be online. works. the data.  Everyone should get a foam brick  List on invalid  The purchasing module is cumbersome and time to throw at things when we are MOCODES that is put consuming and frustrating – and it is hard to track frustrated with doing this. out by financial and it is hard to report.  The boss only wants to know – services.  Auto-feeds – could whoever does puts these in – how much money do I have – how  That we are being asked you can’t hit the one line item that applies to you – much have I spent, How much do I what we need – this is finally find it and then have to go down and find it have left and I have to say to her, an improvement- you and then it still doesn’t have what you need. well, in a few days, I can tell you – are asking!  Terminology is assumed and people don’t use because there are so many places those same terms again. Columbia was the driving and I have to put it all together to force on lots of the old things and then we used it see. but it made no sense.  We have to remember what hasn’t  No standardization of the terminology – if you go come in – in order to give any kind in and look for something and it is not there, then I of accurate report – we have to put just have to make up something - and it might not a disclaimer on it. be correct.  Maybe a field that would allow you  Why can’t we still modify the account number – it to go in and make a pre- seems names were transferred from the old system. encumbrance – pre-commitment. In the old system, we could go in there and make  Maybe a way to do a pre-sort as up names. related to the feeder application  For example, there is an account that says Travel that would tell you that there was a Big 12 conference – now this isn’t helpful to us. problem with a MOCODE and not  The description line that appears in the report is hold up the whole thing. often blank from the feeder system; that is not  Maybe if more people knew about accurate. the test (of feeders), they could do  We need ways to break down all the charges – this and then get back to those with from work orders to long distance … so you have errors but not hold up the whole to have a shadow system so you know what these thing. charges are & how they are broken down.  Better/more knowledge of tests  Categories do not always fit the PS accounts and environment for users. so the reporting is not accurate. When you don’t  Better training of what is out there, trust the data and so you keep a shadow system. what you have access to, and what  It is also cumbersome to do a feeder system. We it can and can’t provide. wanted to customize our detail to what our  If you don’t use it, you lose it – the queries don’t always work – the What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Campus Fiscal customers but they said we could only use what training isn’t geared to the person’s Officers applies to Columbia departments. job or different levels. We need to continued  You have to go into DOS to put what you have to be able to have training based on send to Columbia and then go back – new your job. technology should be so you just enter it one.  The 3-inch manuals are just too  It is so cumbersome that we can’t get everything much. done before the grant has to close and then expense  Updates on the training – we find comes in after the fact. by the grapevine – or doing  Procards – can’t tell what the expenses were for – something wrong that it has been it was a nightmare – and procard is reconciled once updated. per month – so if you are trying to give a report,  I keep the email updates in the 4- you won’t have accurate information – unless you inch manual – can’t updates be get it from your spreadsheet. automated?  Sometimes we have to decide – do we learn more  Need a system-wide way to share, about this system and how to use it or do we work “look what I found today” on getting a person paid – well…  Universal access to reports that we  Payroll encumbrances are so wrong. We need a need to use – they are mostly way to know how to fix them and know how public information anyway. others have fixed them.  When you pull one report, you  Different types of personnel are hard to track – might think you have accurate they stay the same in the system, even though they information but you may need may have changed jobs. several to get the true picture.  Faculty need to be able to do this – they are not always realizing that they need to do it themselves.  Incentives or requirements for academics to go and look at the information.  Need user groups. Additional fiscal  Query is my favorite  The voucher process is pretty labor intensive and  Support systems. officers tool – I use it daily – it takes lots of paper work and sometimes  We need to know who has been is a wonderful tool to duplication of paper work paid from grants. get what you want.  I started out trying to pay someone with voucher  Query classes – need to be repeated  I like the web reports – and they told me that I needed another paper and several times. you can change them to so I did it and I waited and waited and then  We need more professional reports give you reports in any someone else told me – no, you can’t do it that than we get out of query – so then format you want. way. And it went on and on and the person still you need nVision and it is very  Payment net is working hasn’t gotten paid. complicated. We need a middle What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Additional fiscal well – credit card  Some people are not patient with the training – report – or lots more training on officers reports those over me are very impatient and tell me that it nVision. continued  Outlook web reports are is my problem – so I try to read the book.  A list of reports available for working well for us.  Internal service order – worked so well but then printing – I wanted to be able to put  Voucher function is tried to put money back in and it will not let me in my parameters and check the good and everyone tells me, “You screwed up”. reports I want from a list and then  Web time pay roll  Some people said they could help her - others said have them printed. function you need to go and asks someone else – some are  Training.  PS search option nice – we need a support system.  Departments have out dated  I didn’t ever do the old  The query system is not working so well for me – information – if there was a list that system so lots of this is it looks like it is a great feature – we can’t seem to told us which of these had no or old fine with me get what we need (especially with grants) – so we information – so we wouldn’t have  Employee look up finally had to get a shadow system. We thought to go there searching. A date that it  Pay roll we would have less shadow systems with PS but was last updated would be helpful.  List serves are working we have more.  Hiring documents for academic and well Example – Payroll information for particular non-academic staff – the  Help desk works well projects. procedures are different – but there for technical in the  We have been using quick books but it is double are no set guidelines – each time system – real good entry but we had to have it – also we use some you hire a new person, there are response and very Excel worksheets for shadow systems. different people who sign things – helpful  Our fiscal yr end is different than the university we need standardization of policies one. - A checklist of how to do each hire  You can set up the reports to print the checklist would be great. report etc. – you have to do it individually and then  Could someone create a way to each report has to be able to be printed separately. print a list of the vendor list for just  Web time payroll function – you cannot print my department? Using PS can attendance – pay time leave, vacation, (you can do only get one at a time. it but not without cutting and pasting and checking  Vendor lists for my department with personnel that takes lots of time and may only also because when I do search, be accurate since last month and not this monthly. have to wait a long time. So we definitely have to have a system. When  Accounts receivable search is very people leave, it needs to be able to calculate what slow. you have to pay them.  Payroll – would be nice to have a  System is very slow – everything I do, takes time. list of employees, SS, employ date, Maybe I need a better computer. I have been told accrual date – sick time etc. either to have computer people to come and re-set it. through PS or somewhere and it  We have an officer of advancement, she always comes to us routinely – not 6 needs the current university budget – and it is on months down the road and late at night. What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Additional fiscal the system web site but not able to find it right  The information is there but need officers there and then it is a huge pdf file. to know how to get it in a continued  Grants – being able to get a report. convenient, useable way.  Entering journal entries – we used to be able to  A way to record people’s check your journal entries at one time and with this information when they are working you have to be able to have time to go back in and primary for one department and check each one separately. secondary for another and maybe  Payroll entries you have to record everything – it even a third. takes a long time if you have to make several  Could we use less paper some how entries – because on the screen, you can only enter – some pages have only one word one transaction at a time. on it – print formatting so we don’t do this.

Deans and  Have had success in  Cost recovery is a problem. We have service  Data on where students are a few Chancellor getting information on teaching as well as other teaching and how to years out – this would be good to Cabinet, student academic interpretation. We have the numbers but we get have – we are trying to be better Assistant Vice records two sets of formulation of the numbers. about our graduate students – Chancellors  Salary information is  Slow to get detail report on students – for funding where they came from – where fairly clear sources. they went – why they did not come  Student academic  Faculty Load Report – it would be nice to have a – be nice to have some trends – records summary by department & by rank. helpful for recruiting and quality  Internal spending  Cost recovery formula is a complete mystery to  If we had access to student report – records me. The formula is held in secret – much like the details, we could get them  Income or revenue that Kentucky friend chicken formula. ourselves. we generate is clear and  In our own system – we are understaffed and need  Better coordination between us and easy to access new hardware to run PS on our desktops. CBHE  Enrollment data we get  Frustration is getting access to Delaware data and  In my perfect world this is what fairly promptly – don’t having such distrust of the data there. It seems to would occur – at any point that our understand it all have what people would want and need to make student credit hours would be able  Research annual funding comparisons, but there are about 3 different sets of to be transferred into a formula and reports are good – trend books floating around and the data in them are all with this amount of students, we data different. The Delaware data has led to some could expect in budget at this time  Academic records classic misunderstandings. The information has of year.  Student records are very good potential but we have 3 sets of books.  Have a faculty load printout as it generally pretty There are no formulas provided as to how FTE’s relates to productivity – so we have accessible were even calculated. The numbers are not a unit target – maybe print out the  Faculty Load Report is anywhere close to the numbers we have for student full time faculty – and we have a generally accessible we credit hours and teaching loads – there was some target of 270 credit hours in a Deans and confusion about where they got the numbers. I had semester, then it would be there. What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Chancellor need to make sure we difficulty locating the hard copy – I wish it could  Cost recovery – what is the formula Cabinet, are meeting our be up somewhere we could get it. – what are the elements and Assistant Vice projected workload  Cost recovery – we treat it as one size fits all – we generate it on a regular basis. Chancellors reports. don’t look at different types of programs either.  Petersons – why did I get this – this  FRS was working well. The definitions are fuzzy about what it means. should be generated centrally.  Student enrollment  Some sort of benchmarks. We need to relate them  Scholarship reports. management to where we are going instead of where we have  Transparent admission process – so data/reports is working been. If you look at cost recovery for the School that at any point we could call up well. It is not fully of Medicine, it is quite high but that is on the backs the admission process and see developed yet but has of students. But we need to think of where the exactly what this student needs to provided some help in number comes from – compare our campuses with get in UMKC – tracking of the recruiting students and others by fair means – St. Louis came out fine on status of the students – faculty get writing them letters and cost recovery before. Is this cost recovery formula very frustrated trying to get good trying to get them to the one we can really use or is it skewed? students in and can’t tell why they come to campus.  There is a cultural distinction that is fuzzy – we can’t be admitted.  In the Law School we have 3 sets of comparator schools – this is a  Student Retention reports. are getting all this data moving target. We have 2 ways of looking at  Information on what other schools internally and we want these comparator schools, some people say let us are doing as far as raising tuition - to keep our own student be challenged and others say that we need to look by specialized schools records and it is all there good on this and so use another set. We need  Sometimes when we have special – life is good – I would discussion on this and decide what is good and put needs, the computer people and not want the central it out there. registrar sometimes have a university to get into it.  I disagree, I think we need one official benchmark template and refuse to put things on  Registrar – does good and here are the things we are looking too and we that we need – ex non-credit CU’s job and we get good, can measure ourselves by it. so we have to keep our own system timely information -  Comparative data. for keeping track of this. good programs.  Student records – we have been frustrated about  A better understanding of the what can go on official records – we need them to template – where did the data come include service experiences and honors. from.  Access to data – finding out how to get the data  Largest frustrations are cost you need and who to go to get the data – some recovery. It is a black hole – how times people hold on to the data – in a timely do they get the numbers – what is fashion. the situation at any given time – if  Ease of use – I cannot make sense out of PS – there was a fee increase what  Prioritization of data – we get good data from the would be the implications – we registrar – excellent programmers – but we aren’t need it and need it in real time. high enough in the food chain – or close enough in  We need information on how our Deans and the building to get data and get it on time. law school compares to other What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Chancellor  Inventory reports – assets – keeping track of schools and to MU – and with Cabinet, computers – whose is getting old and who needs a scholarship we have and how they Assistant Vice new one. – Procurement should be able to keep compare to others. Chancellors track of that – ex professor Smith is due for a new  Need to be able to track co- Continued computer – I assume the data is being kept but curricular activities of, students, where is this data kept and how can I get it are scholars, and achievements so we mysteries. can target alumni to help us  PeopleSoft requires a certain level of computer financially with our program. skills and we need to budget some money to get  Funding for Results – we read that these people trained and retain them. we are to get 600 per  Tracking of alumni – we aren’t doing that at all – underrepresented students that we and not certainly as good as the ones I graduated graduated – we don’t get the from. dollars.  Grants management – that module is a problem – it  Comparative data is very important has slowed everything down not knowing what is to us – tenured faculty numbers and going on and how much we have. where we are and where we are going.  A better system of tracking alumni – a university or campus wide – or by school. We also need a profile of our students. I had a chance to work on an alumni effort and I had no idea that we had no data on our successful graduates.  Student retention information – especially transfer students – many have transferred from other institutions –  Room usage – needed to recalculate the indirect cost recovery rate – trying to find the information that we need to determine which were closets and not research labs. We need a central room inventory and who is in them. We had to get actually employee id numbers and how they were being paid. Deans and  Space issues for externally funded What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Chancellor research. Cabinet,  Development records – we need to Assistant Vice know what goes on in this office Chancellors and how it relates to us. Access to Continued the office of development records on what are they doing for us – who have they contacted and have they gotten money – and who has given money.  Duplication of effort – with the budgets – we keep records because we need to have them quickly and at certain times.  Definition of terms.  Taking a look at definition of terms to be sure they aren’t outdated as time changes – example, on campus – what is that? With a huge outreach program it effects cost allocations and we are always changing our delivery methods.  We should be a learning institution and there should be a consensus of what we are learning about ourselves – in the big picture of the university – we need to know why are we collecting the data and going back to those closest to the students – what do we need. For ex. When we are coming up for review, we need something to come out automatically. Ex there is a section on resources – we have to have library costs available, and history of institution etc. and it is just not there – it should be available central – Need very current information about public Deans and information that we all use for What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Chancellor grants and accreditation. Cabinet,  Work place of choice – we need Assistant Vice some community data – salaries for Chancellors staff – we have to not only compete Continued with other universities but those in the community – they can make a lot more out there.  Why are we collecting what we are collecting  Institutions that are trying to improve themselves on the rankings, really work at getting the right data and reporting it in certain ways – make this a priority.  Inventory of furniture and equipment – how do you find out if there is something available that has been put in surplus – so I am not buying new stuff when something else is available that someone doesn’t want.  Life cycle computer plan  Duplications of effort effects budget – we are spending lots of time and effort to track this – several people are keeping this data – one central place for this information and data.  I really want to emphasize that we have a national security problem – we have so much data and no analyst to work the data. We need some warm bodies to actually look at this data and tell us what it means. We need to add some assistants to the university to do this – in the last year, I have seen regular reports full of data and then Deans and I am asked for this same What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Chancellor information again – either they Cabinet, don’t have the people to look at Assistant Vice this or the people don’t know how Chancellors to do it. Big companies like IBM continued can sell us software that will take all these reports and put them together – indexing system. This has been available for at least the last 5 years, and we don’t have it – and you can control who has access to these databases.  If we are to produce meaningful reports from the data, the data must be reliable. Associate Deans,  On line class list is the  Accruals - this thing doesn’t work – I have spent a  A way to tell which reports are Assistant Deans only thing working – lot of time trying to do it – salaries are docked – generated by the system and by and Department don’t get rid of it – it is vacation doesn’t work – it is a mess – can we just local. – Report documentation Chairs great for the current go back to the other type of reporting before PS. should be given at the bottom of students.  Internal bookkeeping is a problem each report.  I think the query tool  Profiles were messed up in PS. People are trying  An inventory of what that is out there is okay to take an old system and make the new system data/information exists – what for us to use. work that way and so they took the PS and messed resources are there and how to find  Class codes –being able it up trying to make it do what the old system did. them. to set up class codes These mistakes have messed up things for other  Need a central (UM) ID system for with the owners of the people – can wipe out someone else work with students. money in an account – these integrated systems. In order to have a true  Need a catalogue of what is out will tell you by class, integrated system, there has to be the chance that there for use with the query tool. how much money each someone can go in and mess up other people’s  Need good training for query. spent work.  We need to share with each other  Being paid our salaries  People Soft. what works. works.  Security of the system – it is not as secure as it  It is great getting continual reports  Salary workarounds – could be – we know we can get stuff we probably (even though they are not readable) manual checks. shouldn’t be able to get. Which data can you read – if we could read one thing – the  Student credit hours and and which data can you change – often there is not BALANCE - and it would say that head counts reports. enough data you can look at and too much data on the report – I cannot do my job  Printed class lists that you can change. Need more read only access and without it. faculty get. more secure data entry.  Need comparative data.  Star system in getting  Training issues  We need history. We have to go grades and updating  Transfer of old data to new system What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Associate Deans, addresses.  Financial report gave the element – government fish this out – the administrators Assistant Deans  Capsule reports for reporting not giving you details like a business should be telling us – not us telling and Department advising. reporting – we would like it readable. We want it them. Chairs continued  Transfer credit table is so the budget is a fixed reference point.  Training – better training for all used.  Cash vs accrual accounting – but you should still types of users  Linda Newton is good. get balance.  Near information year, by year, by  Update catalog.  People need to read the sources – and put them on year, for our whole life – history is  Class schedule – except electronic reports also. PROVIDE THE important to do our reports for timing – getting it FOOTNOTES – AND WHO IS THERE AT THE  Like to be able to account for printed works. TABLE WHERE THEY MADE THE income out of tuition.  Community of scholars DEFINITIONS.  Need a list of student majors – now that identifies funding  Lots of accounts need to be done manually because you have to inquire from registrars sources works – part of at end of year, it is dumped back in the pool. RIF and it is two weeks late and then the community of accounts – it should be coded in a way that it can you don’t know if it is right. science list – and who is be tracked and it should be able to be carried over  Need students progress – what do doing what around the  Can get annual expenditures after the fact but can’t they still need to take – when can I country. get it during the year – there must be a way so we graduate.  Library system works can get expenditures and income on a year bases –  Training – there needs to be some -Merlin and MOBIUS our reports are based on yearly and not project kind of training that gives one a  Interlibrary loan. bases. sense of what training do I need –  Electronic travel grants.  Total costing report – we can’t go to the dept what decisions can I make as a  Outlook look up levels because it becomes absolute nonsense result of this training – how does it Function works.  There are too many shadow systems – can’t get it all fit together. if you need to make applications and need central  There is no training for chair data – but they are good for stuff that you don’t departments or dean training – want to enter everything into PS – for ex what should they do – what is their prospective students. role.  Duplication of effort.  Centralized support service of  Class schedule as it is being produced – the reason people that are trained to do PS is that you get 3 times written in materials –the  Need user input green sheet – this seems to some like merely an  We would really like 24/7 help on annoyance – but whole classes of student (50 of this. so) are cancelled because it shows that there are  We need a system that accounts for only 5 in them – students can’t graduate because the fact that our people may be in they can’t find the students. one place, one time and in another  What is given students is not correct. place at another time. Other places  Obtaining a list of majors from departments. have figured this out.  Administrative assistants run the university. The  The University of Missouri should What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? Associate Deans, department head is at the mercy of the be the University of Missouri and Assistant Deans administrative assistant – that would be great – not one thing one place and one and Department except the buck stops with me – so it causes thing another. Chairs continued administrative assistants to be making decisions  Online faculty activity reports. that they should not be making both academic and  Add annual salaries to PAF. financial decisions that they shouldn’t –  Need HR reports specifically information is power though and they have it – designed to support academic whether they are qualified or not – faculty by pass administration – for example, those the chair and go to the people using . faculty coming up for mandatory  Nancy may be the only person who can use the tenure review and promotion as query! well as for better academic  If it were something we used every day we could planning & management. do it – but it is something we only use once in  Need reporting to track the status awhile and so can’t remember it. of Work-Study students from  Proposals take lots longer to do than before – grant Financial Aid office – many leave data forms. with little warning and we need to  How much general operating funds have we spent be on top of who is where and who and what have we not spent. needs to be replaced.  HR system is taking so much more money and time than it did before.  Not having real time student reports.

SEMT Student  The system IR office  Always a different slice and so it has to be given  More regular reports with same Enrollment works very well – I use different ways. With my “making do” information everyone needs – age, Management the reports they do to background, I have had to do this but Wilson’s gender, class, major, how many make and give other office is really helping by giving me stuff of… reports electronically.  List of what is out there.  Ad hoc requests are  Even though the regular reports are good, there is  Knowing how to ask so people get what I use lots and I too much I need and couldn’t read it all. what they really want. have learned to get what  The data that is not out there – I keep running  Requests could come to only one they need double checks and then people tell me I have a place – duplication is happening.  Student Affairs staff – ½ 25% error.  Data dictionary. positive and ½ negative  Knowing the difference between frozen data and  Clarification of requests. – I know which ones to when you do need data that has changed.  I would like to know what fields go to get what I need  Everyone tracks data differently there are – you just happen to go to  Relationships on  Access and timeliness – Faculty & administrators a meeting and find out that you can campus need to have data in their computer so that when get data you had no idea was there  Regular reports help they are working at midnight and need to figure – if we only knew what data is out What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? SEMT Student  People oriented systems. something out. They can do it & not have to wait there. Enrollment on a report from someone and get in line.  Fields need to be named so people Management  A programmer is required to do too much when can understand what they are. continued others can do it in their pajamas.  Groups to meet with to learn.  We still have to have shadow systems because lots  A coordinated list of what is of information we need is not there – bar exam needed and what is there and how scores. to get new fields in.  Can only push a programmer so far and they start  Transfer students – who are they getting mad. where are they – are they  There are several things we don’t have in order to successful? be accountable.  Which students were denied – we  Retention reporting. need this information.  High level of time spent doing entering and  We need to be able to download tracking is a high cost to the State of Missouri – data and look at it and work with it just to get what we don’t know and what we need ourselves and not have to bother a to do our jobs and the information never comes out computer – would save incredible right. time and money.  When we go through this process of  A clear understanding of where and communicating with the programmer, even those how to make data requests of us who are pretty literate don’t get what we  A list of who is entitled to what want until after several attempts. information – FERPA – faculty  Say we ask for a list of freshmen – I have never want all sorts of stuff they can’t get gotten a list of this after frozen file that was on students – we need an official accurate – students that were enrolled and hadn’t list. – We need guidelines – dropped. It is important to the reputation of the official guidelines of who can have UM that if we say a certain percentage is here and access. they aren’t, we look bad – maybe they weren’t  The boundaries of what we are to admitted ever – or whatever reason. give – I shouldn’t have to argue  We are using compliance definition to make with faculty every time. decisions and that isn’t right.  Other side of the coin here is we do  The internal data are incorrect. need the guidelines and we need to  Unclear to students how they should update things. be consistent. I don’t want some  Dual credit high school students are counted when group to make a decision about this they shouldn’t be – we shouldn’t be held without looking at the needs of the accountable for these – it is expected that they will university and what we have to go somewhere else. report. I have heard of rumors that  FERPA – faculty want stuff they can’t get. would restrict access to student  Northland campus – can’t get good data for information on the part of people What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? SEMT Student enrollment management. It affects our numbers who need it – people who advise Enrollment and dollars. I need to know how many students and students can’t do their job – if I, as Management how that fits into the cost. a faculty, don’t know everything, I continued  Difficulty getting good budget data and what our can’t help the student. All this expenses are. revolves around our ability to be  What about primary and secondary majors? able to help students. We do have  The system from which we get the data is a needs for data to do our job. problem – fields.  Need reasonable guidelines and  A campus policy – if you enroll in Northland (off flexibility. campus) and on campus – we need to revisit this  CICS is down at odd times. policy.  Alumni data is needed – we need to  CBHE doesn’t give reports in the way that we update it. need them.  Ability to track enrollment by  We do not have an institutional research staff to do school by cost. all these things – we have one person in that  Noncredit activity – do we department. recognize that? How do we budget plan around this? What unit of analysis do you want us to use – sometimes money goes by number of students and not by credit hour and then someone wants it.  Consistent definitions.  Communicate about issues – user groups  Helpful to have a list of students regularly received reports by category, by department, by major of students who are from historically underrepresented backgrounds. We don’t even get, without asking, a list of our graduates.  Classroom space utilization report.  Training – some faculty can’t do Excel and Assess.  Share groups so each other can learn what others know - Like people in same room with like What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? SEMT Student needs. Enrollment  Advisory group to institutional Management research that could make up a list continued of reports that all need. Get all people together with their list of reports they do and see which are the best and how could we make it into a report all get.  Beef up system IR office and maybe they could do some student data – but they do different things – they do national reports.  Service units to accommodate requests. Technical  The biggest strength for  Lack of documentation.  We need a supported reporting Support Staff technical skills is there  No data warehouse. system – and software and is direct access to the  People are comparing data and reports from licensing - so that when folks need data – experienced user; different places. access, we can say, here this is and tools can impede getting  HOD (Host on Demand) (does not work well) this is how you do that – but things done. especially the send receive – being sure that it is on sometimes we need some things  The legacy systems are everyone’s desktop and it reduces productivity. (like SAS, and graphical query well documented in  People accessing CICS. generator that was any good) – that terms of what means  Selective access to Oracle tables people are being way we could say that we will what. screened out that really should have it – who get it support this one – if you want to  The fiscal reports that and who doesn’t. use something else (or need it for we can access  Key people need key access and it is being something, go ahead, but we may  The checklists are great. restricted. not be able to support you).  Can easily access SQL –  Table definitions.  Information repository. UMDW.  Data ownership for people on multiple campuses.  Communication – needs to be communicated multiple times in  A knowledge and  Jurisdiction field is a problem – when we convert multiple formats in hopes that it dedicated staff. legacy to People Soft it is a problem. will stick. Can’t just do things  There is a real  Gender codes in people Software. once in one format to one group. professional  Ethnic codes. interdepartmental There are new people and people  PeopleSoft still have data silos – and an end user who have been here for 5 years and working relationship. cannot do a cross silo query – we thought we were  Oracle software works sometimes they aren’t getting an integrated system but…. communicating what they need and well.  Reporting between PS and legacy is almost  Excel works well – what is available. impossible - can’t compare between legacy and PS  Written and spoken What suggestions do you have for Team What is working well? What is not working well? improvement? people ask us to build. – any longitudinal data – we have to tell people not communication. Technical to compare the data from the two systems.  Documenting what is out there. Support Staff  Creating reports across silos.  Canned queries – people need to continued  Two high end users can ask 2 technical people to know what these queries do. get information and come out with 2 different  Formatting is important. things.  End users need to spend some  Difference between data and information. times discussing the details of the reports.  A good working relationships between technical & functional staff.  A list (standardization) of who to go to for what.