May 11, 2021
Dear SRJC Colleagues:
As you may be aware, the current Student Information System (SIS) at SRJC is a ‘home grown’ system developed by the college and originally designed for use by a consortium of colleges. Today, we are the sole college using the system, as other colleges have migrated to commercial integrated systems. Our system impacts everything we do, including Payroll, Human Resources, Finance, Financial Aid, Registration, Curriculum, Scheduling and State Reporting. SRJC has greatly benefited from an extremely talented IT staff that have been able to respond to our needs to better serve students using the technology that was available. However, our homegrown system requires large and unsustainable efforts to retain the integration between all the various programs. As our programming staff continue to retire, the original pioneers of the consortium team are being lost as is our ability to fully support our SIS. Additionally, the current technology base is not easily able to provide the integrated and contemporary systems environment we want to provide our students, faculty and staff. As SRJC has moved toward a more modern technology infrastructure, it has taken an increasingly large effort to retain the integration between all the various programs. These technology factors, plus upcoming retirements, put our current technology on a near-term end-of-life path.
The technology available in higher education to serve students, faculty and staff is evolving rapidly. There is competition for students and as part of their search for colleges to attend, more and more students look at the technology available to them at prospective colleges. Student expectations are increasing and they want to perform college-related functions on their phones or computers. Students wish to have a single source for the things that are important to them: appointments with counselors, registration, personal calendars, financial aid, fees, account balances, program completion status, etc. Additionally, all systems are required to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design, which states that all electronic and information technology must be designed and accessible to people with disabilities.
In 2017, we underwent a system selection process that resulted in a decision to wait a few years to allow software providers to complete design changes to ensure we selected a system that meets our students’ and the college’s needs. We are now there and ready to restart the process. To assist us, we have brought Strata Information Group (SIG) onboard. For over 33 years, SIG has assisted more than 550 higher education institutions, including better than 90 California Community Colleges, realize the full potential of technology to transform the student experience, achieve operational agility, and ensure business continuity. SIG specializes in project-based IT consulting, staff augmentation, managed services, business process, technical support, and technology procurement services.
Also, as part of this process, and in line with the commitment of the recent reorganization to assess our processes, we will be conducting an analysis of our current business processes to find tasks that can be eliminated, streamlined or assisted with technology. This analysis will occur first, after which, the outcomes will be used for “scripts” that will be used for the vendors to prepare demonstrations of their products for us and so we may evaluate their presentations. We currently anticipate these demonstrations to occur early fall 2021.
We recognize that this decision touches every employee and student in this college and are committed to creating an inclusive, transparent and participatory process. We will be forming evaluation teams to assess all system modules, and vendor demonstrations will be open to any employee interested in participating. We will also identify various ways to have your thoughts heard and keep you updated as we progress through this process.
Sincerely,
The ERP/SIS Steering Committee
Debbie Weatherly
Don Webb
Jane Saldana-Talley
Julie Thompson
Kate Jolley
Kevin Snyder
Pedro Avila
Sarah Hopkins