Date of last update: January 5, 2004

Administrative Information Systems Migration

For over 25 years, Union University has used Hewlett Packard's (HP) HP3000 line of minicomputers to store and manipulate the primary administrative information of the university. In the early days, we used student-written or student-enhanced software. Beginning in 1988, we began using academic software systems from Software Research Northwest (SRN) and financial software from BiTech. SRN and BiTech are now part of one company known as Sungard-BiTech. All this software is supported by the MPE operating system.

In November 2001, HP announced it would no longer sell HP3000s after October 31, 2003, and would no longer support HP3000s or MPE after December 31, 2006. HP is wanting to focus all its efforts on the Unix operating system and related hardware. Unix is a system most every computer manufacturer supports now. HP, the world's second largest computer company, has sold Unix systems for years. In fact, Union uses a small Unix system to generate student IDs (Dawg Tags). This change for HP is not a "whim", but instead is a long-term strategic decision.

Because of the changes at HP, Union must look to change as well. This is a very large, broad-based issue for the university. It is not a project only for Computing Services or only for Union staff. It will affect every person associated with the university - every student, every staff member, and every faculty member. It will require input from and planning by many across the university, from President Dockery, from students, from vice presidents, from staff, and from faculty. It will require training for many. It may take up to four years to complete the initial migration, but will be an ongoing process of institutional improvement well beyond the initial migration.

It is a major undertaking! We need your help!

This site will serve as the central web-based information source throughout the project. As progress is planned and made, you can read about it here.

Progress to date

November 14, 2001 - HP announces planned phase-out of HP3000s and MPE
Spring, 2002 - Computing Services begins initial research into impact and options
May 15-17, 2002 - Ms. Karen McWherter, Associate Director of Computing Services, attends BiTech Regional Conference, learning about future options
July 22, 2002 - Ms. McWherter and John David Barham, Director of Computing Services, give first formal executive presentation to Dr. Carla Sanderson, Provost, and Mr. Gary Carter, Senior Vice President for Business and Financial Services
August 16, 2002 - Computing Services completes a phone survey of other university administrative computing environment/plans, as requested by Dr. Sanderson and Mr. Carter
August 28, 2002 - Mr. Barham and Dr. Sanderson give overview to Dr. David Dockery, President
September 23, 2002 - Mr. Barham and Ms. McWherter give PowerPoint overview to President Council (approximately 40 campus administrators)
October 1-4, 2002 - Mr. Barham and Ms. McWherter attend EDUCause National Convention in Atlanta, GA, learning about migration options from major vendors and end users
October 13-16, 2002 - Ms. McWherter, her staff, and other administrative staff attend SRN National Convention in Seattle, WA to learn about current systems and future options
October 23-26, 2002 - Ms. McWherter and Ms. Connie Magers, Systems Analyst, attend BiTech National Conference in San Francisco, CA to learn about current systems and future options
November 20, 2002 - Initial presentation by Sungard-BiTech, Inc. (SBI) to Core Migration Team (Karen McWherter, Connie Magers, Mike Smith (Programmer Analyst), Katrina Bradfield (Director of Advancement Services, Institutional Advancement), David Porter (Director of Data Management, Office of the Provost), John David Barham) - SBI provides Union's current administrative information systems, including IRISLink - SBI's Wayne Holt, Senior Executive for Higher Education, and James Bennett, VP for Technologies, were present
November 26, 2002 - Initial presentation by Datatel to Core Migration Team - Datatel's Matt Alonzo and Stephen Scott were present
December 3, 2002 - Initial presentation (remotely) by Jenzabar to Core Migration Team
December 4, 2002 - Initial presentation by SCT to Core Migration Team - SCT's John McAllister and Rhodes College's Brian Hummer were present
December 6, 2002 - Overview presentation by John David Barham to Academic/Technology Subcommittee, Business Services Subcommittee of Board of Trustees
December, 2002 - Datatel, SBI, SCT selected as top 3 choices
January, 2003 - Second round of vendor demonstrations scheduled for March-April, 2003; Migration committees formed; Cam Tracy added to Core Migration Team
February 7 - Core Migration Team met to discuss project goals
February 13 - Core Migration Team met again to discuss project goals
February 19, March 4 - Overview Presentation by John David Barham, Karen McWherter to Administrative Migration Team members; project notebooks distributed
February, 2003 - Due to issues involving Union's contract with eCollege, additional focus is given to the relationship of online course management (e-learning) to this project
March 13 - Datatel - Preliminary scheduled meetings with Core Migration Team and individual directors/staff to determine content and format of later meetings
March 18-20 - Datatel - First-day overview of Datatel for all committee members; detailed demonstrations scheduled each day for various departments; Coburn Dining Room
April 1-4 - SCT - First-day overview of SCT for all committee members; detailed demonstrations scheduled each day for various departments - D-3

April 16-17 - SBI - First-day overview of SBI for all committee members; detailed demonstrations scheduled each day for various departments - Coburn Dining Room
Late April - June - Discussions with departments; communication/visits with other schools
May 13 - Jenzabar - One-day demonstration to Core Migration Team
June 4-5 - Jenzabar - Detailed demonstrations scheduled each day for various departments
June 16-19 – Visit Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, TN to learn about Datatel Colleague, Benefactor; visit Datatel’s headquarters in Fairfax, VA
June 30 – July 2 – Visit Georgetown College (KY) to learn about Jenzabar CX; visit Jenzabar’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA
July 16 - Official recommendation for a new system made to ARIS Council; CMT asked to evaluate SCT PowerCampus
Late July – early August – Talk with SCT and other schools about PowerCampus
August 6 – CMT, others met with Frank Vastola, Adam Lenhart of SCT regarding PowerCampus
August - December - Contract negotiations, final preliminary work
December 4, 2003 – Union University signs a contract with Datatel to become a beta site for its Microsoft SQL Server implementation of Colleague/Benefactor; appreciation lunch for Core Migration Team hosted by Senior Leadership Team.
December 5, 2003 – Board of Trustees informed of decision
December 9-10 – Karen McWherter and John David Barham attend project management class at Datatel’s Fairfax VA office
December 11 – Karen McWherter appointed Project Manager
December 17 – Jenzabar, SCT, and SBI thanked for their involvement
December 18 – Meeting to discuss employee training lab
December 22 – Some server hardware arrives and is installed in machine room; year-long agreement reached with New Horizons in Memphis to provide non-Datatel training needed by technical staff
January 5, 2004 – Karen McWheter has first conversation with Datatel Project Manager Tammy Hunt

Plans

2004 - 2006 - Purchasing, training, implementation, data conversion for selected modules/offices

September 1, 2004 – Financial module
Fall 2004 – Admissions module
Spring 2005 – Registration module
2006 – Institutional Advancement modules

December 31, 2006 - All support by HP and SBI for HP3000 and related systems ends