Four hundred and fifty of our 1,900 Integrated System users responded to the I.S. User Survey distributed in April. While work on the 11i upgrade forced us to delay the publishing of the results, you can now view them on the survey website.

The bulk of the responses were from departmental users and those who use the system frequently. The response average in all cases was neutral or better, though there are a few areas with higher negatives than the rest. These areas were highlighted by many of the 154 respondents who included comments.

Approximately 61 separate types of comments emerged from the survey, some positive, and most constructive criticism (click here for a breakdown of issue type). Twelve of these were noted by four or more individuals. Five of those 12 were noted by 10 or more individuals. Those 5 key issues are:

• Reports
• Time it takes to do transactions
• Cumbersome nature of data entry
• Need to streamline purchasing
• Hours of system availability for HR users

“We and the central offices certainly have been aware of all of these concerns with the system,” notes Virginia Evans, Assistant Vice President for Integrated System Deployment & Support (ISDS). “We know the 11i upgrade helped with some of them. Others will be improved by items on our enhancement and upgrade lists. Some issues will remain, however, based on the nature of the system and the need to obtain the information the University requires.”

Reports have been a top priority for users and ISDS since the system’s inception, and the completion of the upgrade is allowing more resources to move in that direction as well, according to Rose Chisholm, ISDS Director of Usability (see Current Usability Task Force Projects). “The survey comments, and more precisely, the feedback we are receiving when speaking with the individuals who provided their names with their survey, are being incorporated into the work of the task forces to make reports more useful and easier to use,” says Chisholm. “ISDS also has a major initiative underway to improve reports run times. We are glad to be out of the upgrade freeze period and are looking forward to responding wherever possible to the specific needs of the University community.”

Eighty-two respondents included their names so that ISDS staff could contact them for additional input. That process is taking longer than hoped, but a number of those respondents have been contacted, and the rest will hear from ISDS this summer.

“The information users provided by responding to the survey is very useful,” concludes Evans. “We appreciate hearing from them, and their responses will help guide our work. We hope that improvements in system performance will be the evidence that we have been listening.”