FIS BULLETIN Number 9

Announcements | Calendar | Status | T&T-Q&A | Training | Inside Peek | Odds & Ends

June 5, 1997

LOYAL READERS: Important fiscal closing information is included in the Announcements and the Calendar.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL:

INTER-SERVICE CENTER DISTRIBUTED TOE/TOF’S: As of June 1, 34 of the 36 UCSC Service Centers are up and running with on-line Transfers of Expense and Funds. TOEs and TOFs which cross Service Center organization codes may now be entered on-line. The remaining two service centers, Health Center and Housing Services, have opted to wait until after fiscal close to participate; transfers involving their orgs should continue to be done on paper. Over 3700 TOE and 1300 TOF transactions have been entered on-line by service center staff since the roll-out in March.

Please keep the following TOE/TOF related deadlines in mind as we proceed through fiscal close:

The entire schedule of fiscal closing deadlines can be found on the web at: http://www.ucsc.edu/ucsc/banner-manual/FISQA/yearendclose.htm

ACQUISITIONS: None

BANNER REPORTS:

STATUS OF NEW REPORT: FZRINOF - ORGANIZATION/FUND EXPENDITURES WITH NO BUDGET": We had hoped to run the FZRINOF report along with the usual April 30 "Big 5" reports. Unfortunately, we have been repeatedly unsuccessful in solving a vexing problem involving including non-budgeted balances carried forward from fiscal year 1995-96 in the report. Although we may not have the report ready to run with the May 31 reports, it will be distributed prior to June 30 so that any necessary expenditure transfers can be made.

OTHER FIS / BANNER ITEMS:

FISCAL CLOSING PROCESSING SCHEDULE: Banner FIS fiscal close processing will soon be underway. Due to heavy batch transaction processing and the need to validate that these processes ran correctly, access to Banner FIS will be restricted at times throughout July and August. In order to minimize the impact on on-line activity, all of the heavy processes are scheduled to take place on weekends. The schedule of these days/times is below. We will publish reminders as the dates get closer, and inform you promptly if there are any changes.

Please note that in addition to the fiscal close processes themselves, a large number of year-end reports will be produced for the next day or two after each process. This may have an adverse impact on system response time. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we move through this critical time period. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Monique Leduc at x5133 or mleduc@cats

CALENDAR OF FIS / BANNER EVENTS

FISCAL YEAR END FINANCIAL LEDGERS SCHEDULE: The planned schedule for production of June and July 1997 Ledgers is as follows:

Please note that period close-related dates are subject to change.

PROJECT STATUS

FISCAL CLOSING PROCESS TESTING: Work continues on this top priority project in the interest of better ensuring a smooth and minimally troublesome fiscal closing. Work to-date has resulted in a number of findings of anomalies, mostly involving reporting. None of them effected reports processed in June 1996. Additionally, programming for several processes has been improved.

As many of you might know, last year’s fiscal closing, our first with FIS, was extremely pressure-filled and hectic. By necessity, in order to meet deadlines, some processes including report production, were programmed more quickly (but accurately) than we would have liked. In doing this, long-term considerations were subordinated. We have been reviewing these processes and making programming modifications where necessary so that these fiscal closing processes will serve us well over the fiscal closings to come.

Our recent survey regarding budgetary carryforward options resulted in us receiving comments about allowing different carryforward options to be used for certain org codes within a Service Center. This will not be possible for this fiscal closing, but we will be investigating its feasibility for June 30, 1998 fiscal closing.

INVENTORIAL EQUIPMENT DATA CONVERSION: Work continues, on schedule, on this project. Data from the old system is scheduled to be converted and transferred to Oracle databases near the end of this month.

REPORT PRODUCTION COORDINATION: Work on report and processing production coordination has been put on hold in order to focus on Fiscal Closing Process Testing.

THE "STEALTH" AVAILABLE BALANCE QUERY FORM PROJECT: Successful overall testing of the Available Balance Query Form by a group of volunteer Service Center testers completed in May. Testing included a review of proposed user documentation. The user test group provided suggestions that will be used to improve this documentation. Additional suggestions about the form’s functionality were made that will likely be incorporated into enhanced versions of the query form planned for the future. Further work on this project has been put on hold in order to focus on Fiscal Closing Process Testing. We expect to resume work on this project in July with campuswide implementation planned for early August.

TIPS & TRICKS / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

TIPS & TRICKS: None submitted over the past month

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: None submitted over the past month

________________________
Questions or problems regarding the Banner system can be directed to:
Acquisitions, Accounts Payable - Karsen Jones kjones@cats
Ledger Reports, Fiscal Closing - Vicki Gutzwiller vickig@cats
Banner Security, Access, Other - Monique Leduc mleduc@cats

INSIDER’S PEEK AT FIS

NEWS FLASH:

BANNERSLUG ANNOUNCES MANAGEMENT SHAKEUP IN BANNERLAND UCSC SLUGWIRE

Headline: Management Shakeup in Bannerland
Category: FIS
HOTNEWS: Yes
Date: 6/4/1997
Contact: B. Slug

SURPRISE MOVE SHOULD RESULT IN IMPROVEMENTS
Late last week (this is slugwire, after all), it was announced that changes were being made in the management of Bannerland. Fearing that FIS Manager Kirk Lew has crossed over the boundaries of sanity, he has been removed from his day-to-day responsibilities. Senior management made this move based on reports that Mr. Lew had mentioned in a recent staff meeting that FIS-Banner appeared to have reached a level of being reasonably stable, though it was still in need of some improvements.

Reports from flabbergasted meeting participants indicated that Mr. Lew appeared completely calm and composed at the time. One participant noted disbelievingly, "I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked. He said it as if he really believed it. It’s so sad that he lost it so quickly. This shouldn’t have happened to him, at least not for another year." Another bug-eyed participant at the meeting expressed both surprise and confusion, "I don’t know what to believe anymore. What if it’s true? My whole view of the world and how I approach life would have to change. I don’t think I’m ready for that."

To fill the gap, some FIS management responsibilities have been reassigned. In making these moves, Bannerland senior management wishes to reassure all Bannerlanders that the quality of FIS fun will not diminish. Over the past year, a structure that includes standards, processes, and protocols has been developed within FIS to ensure that the quality of service to the campus remains high.

FIS User-Analysts - Karsen Jones, Vicki Gutzwiller, Monique Leduc - will assume greater roles in project management and decisionmaking. They have already been doing this over the past few months. Laura Martin will be reassuming a larger role in the day-to-day management of FIS. She was very much involved in these tasks during implementation and throughout the FIS’ first year. A Training and Documentation Coordinator, who will be responsible for organizing FIS-related training and user documentation, among other things, is in the process of being recruited. Should Mr. Lew overcome his, ahem, delusions, he will continue to play a role in overseeing FIS, but will not be as closely involved in day-to-day FIS management. Editorship of the FIS Bulletin will eventually pass into the hands of others over the succeeding months.

BANNERLAND SENIOR MANAGEMENT CONTINUES TO BE EXCITED ABOUT FUTURE BANNERLAND IMPROVEDMENTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997-98. A SAMPLING OF PLANNED PROJECTS INCLUDE:

Planning and implementation of a distributed budget reservation process (i.e. memo liens).
Planning and implementation, in collaboration with the Business Process and Practice Workgroup, of an improved direct vendor payment process.
Identification, design and development of additional basic FIS reports that will be of value to most Service Centers. Specialized reporting needs will continue to be met through the Data Warehouse.
The start of planning, analysis, and testing of the Banner upgrade to version 3.0, which is scheduled to take place in December 1998.
Completing the implementation of the available balance query form (FZIABAL).
Improvements to inception-to-date (ITD) financial reports and the planned development of on-line ITD query forms.

Senior Bannerland management has been pleased with the improvements in functionality that have been made so far to FIS and is confident that many additional improvements will be made to FIS over the upcoming fiscal year.

You will be pleased to know that Mr. Lew is recovering nicely, undergoing daily treatment, which includes repeated processing payments on blanket purchase orders (with trade-ins) and performing repeated calculations of available balances using information from the FGIBDST - Organization Budget Status screen. When he fully recovers, his duties will be expanded to include campus controls and accountability, and overseeing one of the Bannerland Ride Design Offices, Accounting (See FIS Bulletin #3).

# # #

IN THE NEXT ISSUE:
June 4, 1997: Chronology of a Crisis.
(Or Applying What Was Learned From Insider’s Peeks 1 - 3)

ODDS & ENDS

FIS / BANNER: None

REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK ISSUES: None

Contributors: Kirk Lew, Monique Leduc

Financial Affairs | Accounting Offices | Campus Controller | FIS

Comments to: controller@ucsc.edu - Maintained by FIS, Updated