Dear MCC Community:
As many of you know, the Chancellor’s Executive Council has decided to move the go-live date for the New Student Information System to Spring 2008. Below are answers to some of the questions you may have regarding the decision to move the implementation date and how this decision affects MCC.
Q & A PROVIDED BY MCC’S SIS COLLEGE IMPLEMENTATION TEAM
1. Will the college move forward with training MCC employees on how to use the system?
- At this point, the plan is to continue training for certain modules such as Academic Advising, Financial Aid, and Student Records. Discussions will begin immediately as to a revised training schedule based on the new deployment time frame.
2. Will the MCC registration dates change for the Spring ’08 semester?
- The registration dates will stay the same. Pre-registration for continuing students will begin October 22. Open registration will begin October 29.
3. When will student tuition be due for Spring ‘08?
- The first tuition due date will be November 28.
4. What will happen to the College Implementation Team?
- The College Implementation Team will remain intact to ensure successful deployment at the college level in Spring 2008.
5. Will the delay in implementation result in additional costs to the college?
- The College Implementation Team will be reviewing any costs associated with the delay and will provide the findings to MCC’s Administration.
6. Will the roles and expectations of the many MCC employees involved with this project continue to be the same?
- Yes.
7. How will this impact MyMCC?
- MyMCC will remain the same as it is today until further notice.
Q & A PROVIDED BY THE DISTRICT OFFICE
1. What was the CEC’s decision and why was it made?
- The CEC decided to move the go-live date for the new Student Information System to some time after the completion of normal registration for the spring semester. This decision was made in order to avoid any potential disruptions of student and faculty utilization. We will not deliver the system until we can assure users that there will not be interruptions in service.
2. Why was the date moved?
- As we continued to test the new Student Information System, we found a number of factors which, when taken together, could have disrupted our students’ ability to register for next semester’s courses. Because we are focused on creating successful experiences for our students, we decided to avoid the possibility of that disruption.
3. Why move the date until after registration for next semester?
- When you look at a college schedule, you find there are only a few windows of time when you can implement a major change such as the Student Information System without running into such activities as registration. To minimize potential disruptions, our goal is to introduce the system at a time when traffic is not at its high point, nor is it as critical to the registration process.
4. What caused this change?
- A number of factors contributed to this decision. The core issue is that we want to provide a fully tested and fully stable SIS in order to ensure the best experience possible for our students. The best way to accomplish that is to change the go-live date. The process of testing a system involves running it under load, and troubleshooting any issues that develop. We have been carrying out this process, but the number and complexity of the issues we are dealing with exceeded our expectations.
5. Could you foresee the factors that have contributed to this schedule change?
- We could and did anticipate the kinds of issues that have arisen, and we have been able to deal with them. What we did not anticipate were the number of them and their complexity. Given their number and complexity, we could not be sure we could eliminate all the obstacles before the October go-live date. Rather than face that risk, we decided to move the date.
6. Do you have confidence that you can deliver the system early next year?
- We have confidence that we can bring the system on-line early next year. We know this because we know how other organizations have accomplished these tasks with similar systems. There are multiple steps to be taken. We know what they are and how to accomplish them. Dealing with the issues that arise might be thought of as detective work -- identifying and solving a series of problems. We have been proceeding successfully with that work. Based on our progress and the work of other people with other systems, we’re confident we can deliver an effective system by the time the next “window” opens.
7. Do you anticipate additional costs?
There may be additional costs, which would be paid from the proceeds of the 2004 bond issue. However, if those costs involve updated hardware, they could involve purchasing items that we were planning to purchase, anyway. IT systems are constantly being updated and upgraded, so it would not be a surprise if an investment that we need to bring the SIS on-line is something we planned to do in 2008.