Consultants are on board, ISDS staff and others have been trained, and the upgrade effort is underway. 11i ­ here we come.

During the Integrated System implementation, users heard a common mantra: This will be better in 11i. Some of those better things will be offered to system users in May 2004, when the University completes the technical part of the 11i upgrade. More will be offered following the technical upgrade, as the University evaluates the additional functionality offered through this newest version of the software.

The most apparent changes to most users will be the improved "look and feel" of the applications, including a personal homepage, web-like features, and better help and error messages. Other new features include installment closeout notification, ability to cancel long-running queries, streamlined data entry capability for labor distributions, document copying for purchasing users, and direct drill-down from General Ledger to Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Grants Management.

The Central offices and ISDS demonstrated the new look and feel of release 11i to groups such as the Fiscal Administrators and HR/Payroll Users Group beginning in mid-October (to view the Power Point presentation, click here). Planned for March is a Users Fair in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom, where people will have the opportunity to navigate in the upgraded applications, ask questions, and hear about different features. Training for 11i is slated to begin March 22.

Members of the central offices, the system usability task forces, and the Integrated Systems Customer Support Center are all involved in helping ISDS design and test the upgrade. This is the first of many collaborative processes to work toward an ever more useful and user friendly administrative information system for the University.

Click here for more information on the 11i upgrade.