Business Systems

Web forms and business applications

Equipment Activity: Return to Campus
The University tracks the return to campus of off-campus equipment. Based on a need identified by departments, the Equipment Activity Web Form has been enhanced to allow an equipment tag number to be entered to initiate a return. Previously, the Web Form request ID associated with equipment’s move off campus was required to initiate a Return to Campus form. This change also accommodates the return of equipment that was transferred off-campus without a Web Form.

New Excused Absence Notification Web Form
The Excused Absence Notification form has been added to the Web Forms system. IT-Web Development (IT-WD) partnered with the Office of the Registrar for this change, as part of the launch of the Blue Hen Success Collaborative (BHSC). Assistant deans who look for the Excused Absence Notification form in its former location in the Advising Notes Manager will be redirected to the new Web Form.

The new Excused Absence Notification Web Form still includes the absence date and a customized message for a student’s instructors. However, instead of receiving the results in email, instructors will need to log in to Web Forms to view the absence information. This process ensures the security of private information that may relate to a student’s absence.

Courses Search update
Courses Search allows students to search for course information for current, future, and past semesters. The Courses Search application was updated to include additional search options for Capstone Requirements, map links with improved accuracy, and a link to My UD in the navigation bar. In addition, the application was upgraded to use the responsive Bootstrap framework, making Courses Search more mobile friendly.

Haven and AlcoholEdu
Before the start of the fall 2017 semester, IT-WD collaborated with the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Office of Student Wellness and Health Promotion to move those programs behind UD’s Central Authentication Service (CAS). “Haven: Understanding Sexual Assault” is a program required for all incoming students and new employees. “AlcoholEdu,” an alcohol misuse prevention program, is mandatory for all incoming undergraduates under the age of 26.

Previously, access to the AlcoholEdu and Haven programs was through the old UD Network page. IT-WD set up a database to manage students and employees required to complete the programs. Now when a user tries to access one of the new Haven or AlcoholEdu programs, they are required to authenticate through CAS, and if their ID is included in the new database they will be allowed to access the appropriate programs. Additionally, IT-WD now maintains and sends reminder emails about these programs to both students and employees

Photo Roster
IT-WD recently partnered with the Office of the University Registrar to update Photo Roster, an application which permits faculty to view the UD ONEcard photo of students enrolled in courses they are teaching. Updates included adding responsive design and a new search feature that allows authorized users to request the photo of a specific student or subset of students. The new search feature can also filter results for larger course sections. Prior to the update, faculty could only view a single student photo at a time. Now, faculty can view a course’s complete photo roster.

Database Administration (DBA) report

PeopleSoft and software upgrade
The Financial Accounting PeopleSoft Tools and application software is being upgraded to the latest version. Currently, changes have been made in the test environment. Updating the production version is scheduled for spring 2018.

PeopleSoft databases moved

• The Financial Accounting PeopleSoft production database will be moving this month to the new Supercluster hardware environment. It will join the Campus Solution student administration database which has been on the Supercluster since July. As a result of the move, users should see noticeable performance improvements.
• The UD Time test and production Oracle databases have been moved to new Linux-based servers that have improved performance and have allowed more consistent procedures for backup and recovery, as well as on-demand rebuilding of test databases to improve testing procedures. The same processes and environment changes have been completed for the BSR/Advance application for alumni processing requirements.

UDSIS updates

• BHSC Phase II was rolled out to campus in late September, and enhancements to support the rollout are in place. IT Management Information Services (IT-MIS) worked with the BHSC office and the Registrar's office to get the data into the system to support this rollout.
• Data extracts for the Maxient implementation were put in place by IT-MIS in collaboration with the Registrar's Office. Document migration from the Dean of Students office system, Symplicity, to the new system, Maxient, is currently in progress.
• IT-MIS worked with the OISS office to implement extracts of SEVIS data from UDSIS to Terra Dotta Systems for more efficient processing of international student/scholar data. The Terra Dotta system is now in production.
• UDSIS was recently upgraded to PeopleTools 8.55. The new tools version puts us in position to upgrade UDSIS to PeopleSoft version 9.2, which will provide new and enhanced features for the students, faculty, and staff.

Financial systems update

Cash management implementation
IT-MIS deployed the PeopleSoft Cash Management (Treasury) module for the Cashier's office in June. With this module in place, cash forecasting, cash positioning, fund transfers, and wire payments can be done within the PeopleSoft Cash Management module. The Cashier's office is now able to automate the bank statement reconciliation process with enhanced business rules.

At the same time, IT-MIS also deployed PeopleSoft Financial Gateway functionality for the Procurement office. This functionality centralizes payment processing. It is a single platform for processing all payments and receipts from payables, receivables, and third-party systems.

Facility online manager billing
IT-MIS has automated the Controller Office’s process of creating journals for the UD NanoFab Facility. The new process Integrates NanoFab's application “Facility Online Manager” (FOM) with the PeopleSoft General Ledger application. This process notifies the departments with chartfield exceptions and provides the capability to correct those exceptions online.

Incremental data warehouse load for UDataGlance
To improve "All Funds" report performance on UDataGlance, IT-MIS has built a data warehouse in PeopleSoft Financials and an incremental load process to update that warehouse data every night. After each update is completed, the warehouse data will be moved into the report instance for UDataGlance users to access. This new process will reduce concurrent data access on the production database, thereby improving performance.

Tic and Tie comparison reports
IT-MIS has developed a new report to compare General Ledger balances in production with data warehouse tables in the report instance of UD Financials, thereby validating the accuracy of data warehouse tables each night. Existing “Tic and Tie” reports between General Ledger and the Balances Reporting table had a flaw that generated a warning at the beginning of a new fiscal year when the prior year was still open for adjustments.

Utility to delete journals
IT-MIS has developed a utility for the Controller's office to search for and delete journals which were erroneously uploaded. This utility reduces staff effort to correct these errors.

New bill type (NIIMBL)
IT-MIS modified the non-student bill load process to generate invoices with the new NIIMBL bill type for University researchers.