Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Online Student Services receives Technology Resource Management Council IT Achievement Award
July 21, 2011
Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ online student services have been recognized with a 2011 Idaho Technology Resource Management Council IT Achievement Award.
One of the goals of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project was to improve online services to students. Three people lead Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ's online student services project, including Laura McKenzie, registrar and team lead for student information system implementation; Jody Finnegan, associate director for financial aid and team lead for financial aid system implementation; and Paul Winder, assistant controller and team lead for student financial services.
The project integrated new student online services into the existing Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ computer system. These new online services for students freed more than 1,500 hours of staff time per year to provide improved personal service to students, according to David Alexander, project manager of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ TIGERi Project, Information Technology Services.
These services include quick and easy online registration, opportunities to be placed on wait lists for closed classes, online payment and cashiering, direct depositing for refunds and excess financial aid, quicker access to final grades and Moodle, the University’s learning management system.
In addition to the new and improved online tools, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ is saving money with the new system. In prior years, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ had to set up the Pond Student Union Ballroom to process student fee payment. Now that these activities are handled online using BengalWeb, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ is saving more than $93,000 annually, Alexander said.
Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ staff received more than 3,000 hours of training and consulting on the configuration and implementation of the new systems. Many additional hours were spent building, configuring, and converting data. Many talented Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ staff dedicated a great deal of time to implement this new computer system.
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