Enrollment Management Electronic Newsletter

Update on the EMS Campus project

The EMS Campus scheduling product includes four different modules or functions:

EMS Campus 2.0 database (the core of it all)

Virtual EMS (the online interface for viewing/requesting spaces)

Academic Scheduling function (the interface with Banner for academic courses)

Master Calendar (which integrates with our main Web site)

Each function requires a separate set of configuration processes before they roll out "live." We have established an EMS Campus Admin group which will share in the configuration, testing, implementation, and user training for these systems:

Don Rohel, Haydon Rudolf, and Libby Shanton (Student Center--current experts for EMS Campus and Virtual EMS)
Matt Gorman (IT Services--DBA)
Tracy Seffers, Cindy Snyder, and Pam Swope (Registrar--Academic Scheduling)
Tim Haines and Kathryn Young (External Affairs--Master Calendar)

This group has had an initial meeting already and has laid out a timeline in very broad strokes:

February 2009

At the end of our four-day site visit from the EMS Campus trainer Jesse Myers, the IT department migrated the existing EMS database (used primarily by the Student Center for its reservations) to the new EMS Campus 2.0 version in a test environment. The Student Center staff has taken a week or two to become familiar with it before the system goes live at the end of the month. This testing period was crucial so that they could remain functional during the database transition!
By the end of February, the existing EMS database will have been migrated to the new version, EMS Campus 2.0.
That "go live" date kicks off a very busy time of setting system configurations to ensure that both the existing Student Center functions AND the new academic space functionality will work properly. Once that is done, we hope to be able to pull in the existing spring/summer 2009 academic course data from Banner.

March 2009

In March, we will be focused on Virtual EMS (the online interface for the rest of us!)--establishing user templates and system settings, making sure that spaces are defined properly.
We will also be moving out to the schools and departments, to accomplish several things on a rolling basis (watch for this!):
1. Importing each academic building coordinator's existing non-course reservations to the new database.
2. Reviewing and refining departmental database configurations to make sure that the appropriate controls are in place for their spaces and courses.
3. Make the building's general academic spaces visible to and "request-able" online through Virtual EMS (which will automatically route the requests to the appropriate scheduling person).
4. Training and testing as needed to ensure that the building coordinators are connected and functional in the new system.

April 2009

April will continue this process until each of the academic buildings is "live" and the departments are ready to roll!
By the end of April, we hope to have done a "dry run" (TEST environment only) of the academic scheduling process for Spring 2010's courses.

Summer 2009

We will use the dry run experience, and any related problems and issues that arise, to refine processes and configurations during summer 2009. We are also anticipating that an interim release in summer 2009 will address some functionality issues that were identified during the four-day on-site visit last week.
The Master Calendar module will gradually roll out during the summer as well.

Fall 2009

In August/September 2009, we will GO LIVE with the academic scheduling process on spring 2010.

These dates are deliberately broad and flexible as needed to accommodate our other work (!) as well as that of the other departments whose cooperation and assistance we'll rely on during these months. We want to get it right--but we'll need your help and support.

Thanks to all of you who have been interested and involved and supportive--we all look forward to seeing this work progress.

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