BY TIFFANY CAPUANO

With the year 2000 quickly approaching, the university is busily preparing for its Administrative Information System Replacement (AIR), according to Catherine Austin, assistant vice president for administrative services and university controller.

This massive undertaking, which involves a changeover in the university's computer systems, is already in progress. The new system is called Banner 2000, an integrated software system for higher education. It is a client server rather than a mainframe, meaning that the system runs on fileserver machines and is distributed on PCs. "With a client server a lot of the actual processing is done at the desktop and transferred over the client server," said Austin. She witnessed the implementation of the university's current database system in 1984, and is now the project manager for the implementation of Banner 2000.

The university's old systems would not be able to understand "2000" as a year, so updating them to a newer, more advanced system was necessary. For the campus community, Banner 2000 will have more capability than the current systems and help provide for a more efficient, faster work flow.

A Windows-based system, Banner 2000 is different from the character-based system of the past. It allows several applications, such as word processing, e-mail and Banner 2000, to be running on the desktop simultaneously.

"The greatest challenge is that the other systems were all mainframe and not Year 2000 compliant," said Austin.

The project is designed to address administrative system needs and preferences expressed by the university community. More than 150 faculty and staff are currently working on the AIR project. As the student module begins to develop, Old Dominion students will also be involved in focus groups and planning sessions.

The Administrative/Financial System (formerly IFIS) was converted to Banner 2000 on July 1, the first step in the university's AIR project. The new system encompasses finance, payroll, student and financial aid records, all within one large database. It will replace the old IFIS, ISIS, HRIS and SAFE systems, which maintained separate databases.

"On the current systems, if students change their address with the financial aid office, that information doesn't go anywhere except to financial aid," said Austin. "Students then have to change the information with the registrar and if the students are also university employees, they may have to change their record in payroll." None of the current systems shared information like this, said Austin. The separate databases shared only critical information, such as financial transactions. "People were getting frustrated. They felt that they had already changed their address with the university," she noted.

With Banner 2000, a person's record will show up only one time in the database, although he or she may have payroll, registration or financial aid records.

"This is just another step in our customer service," said Austin. "This provides a system that allows us to serve the students better." While many schools that have gone through this process bring finance in at the tail end, Old Dominion began with the finance system for two reasons, according to Austin. First, the university already had policies and procedures in place, and accounts were staying the same. "Department budget numbers were not going to change, which made it simple to take what we were doing and roll it into the new system," Austin explained. "Since all the other systems are dependent on finance, it made sense to bring that piece up first. We knew it would be our easiest piece, and it was."

The other reason for the conversion had to do with state decentralization, she added. In the past all billing came from Richmond; now Old Dominion can process and issue checks to pay its vendors.

"All the local bills were paid by Old Dominion, but all the state bills, such as payroll and travel reimbursement, came from the state," Austin said.

Once Banner 2000 is fully implemented, Old Dominion will be able to cut all checks locally. "Eventually we'll be able to provide direct deposit for student refunds. We wouldn't have that capability without this new system," she added.

Implementation for other areas is moving forward. The human resources/payroll module will be converted and ready to go by January 1999, which includes the conversion of payroll. With decentralization, this means that paychecks will no longer be issued by the commonwealth of Virginia, but directly from Old Dominion University.

The financial aid module will go live in February 1999, and the student module, which will be divided into phases, will be fully operational by April 1999. The admissions piece of the student module was converted on Aug. 1. The first students will register using Banner 2000 in April 1999.

To explain the ins and outs of Banner 2000, the project team is offering training sessions aimed at those who handle budgets for their department or advise or work with students at Old Dominion. The three-hourlong sessions are scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30 and Oct 1, 5, 6 and 8.

In addition to training, the university has opened a Banner 2000 hotline . By calling 683-3030 and pressing 8, individuals can voice their questions or concerns by leaving a message. Since July 1, more than 60 users have called the hotline, noted Austin.

A Web application will be another added benefit once all systems are working, she added. The application will allow faculty to enter grades and advise students directly via the Web.