A Unified Digital Campus - The FSC Initiative
Announcements
The Framingham State College Board of Trustees recently approved the necessary funding for a new administrative and student information system. The College implemented the current system (a.k.a. Ingres) in 1990. Even though the current system has served the College well over the past 16 years, it is now time to transition to a new system that will better serve our needs for the future.
The new system will provide students with direct access to appropriate information, and make new online self-service applications for students such as online registration and online bill presentation and payment possible. College operations will also benefit from the availability of a single integrated information system. More complete and reliable data will also be available for making day-to-day management and planning decisions.
Framingham State College selected SunGard Higher Education Corporation to provide the software and related services to replace the existing administrative and student information systems. This decision was based on information gathered during an extensive process that involved many people from nearly all areas of the College.
During the next 3 years, implementation of SunGard Higher Education’s “Unified Digital Campus” solution will involve replacing the core administrative and student information systems of the College, including; the custom developed Ingres application, a number of departmental systems, and the underlying technology used for the myFSC portal. Applications such as Blackboard and the Financial Aid system (PowerFAIDs) will continue to be used but will need to be integrated with the new system.
Two organizations will provide project management, training, technical services, and consulting to assist with planning and implementation. The professional services firm Strata Information Group (SIG) will augment FSC staff and provide subject area experts. SunGard Higher Education professional services will also be employed to work in conjunction with FSC and SIG staff to deliver training and configure the systems for our use.
The implementation of a new, campus-wide information system is a major undertaking for any college. There will be time consuming and hard work involved. At some points, the transition will require us to re-think how we gather and store information and how we make decisions. At the same time, it offers an exciting opportunity for the growth and development of our institution, allowing for increased access to information and the ability to better serve our students, faculty and staff. This initiative is not just an information technology project. It is an institutional priority.
More information about the project and what will be involved with the conversion will be shared with the community soon. A kick-off event is scheduled for September 15th. Details of this event will be shared in a separate announcement. Preliminary planning for the implementation of the new system is getting started, and many of you will be asked to participate in this process.
I look forward to working with you on Framingham State College’s important “Unified Digital Campus” initiative.
Thank you.
President Timothy J. Flanagan