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| Faculty & Staff Information System | October 2010 |
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Dear NU Faculty & Staff,
The
FASIS project has just passed its first anniversary. In this
Newsletter, we'd like to give you an update on where we
are and where we are going.
Please visit the FASIS web site to keep up with this important initiative. There you can access the ever-growing FASIS Manual, sign up for the FASIS listserv, read all the previous Newsletters, and look at the slides from the Town Hall Meetings.
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Summary of FASIS, Year One
The
FASIS project was initiated with a kickoff in September, 2009. The
planning and analysis phase included the Project Design and a
discovery process within the Schools to examine their local management
information systems and to speak with the key stakeholders. A
hard-working Functional and IT Task Force was formed, setting priorities
for the first phase, contributing ideas, and vetting the work as it
progressed.
The communications plan has included bimonthly Newsletters, a project web site,
a complex committee structure (Steering, Task Force, Data Definition
and Process Redesign, Team Project, and Town Hall), a listserv of 550
members, an e-mail presence, and the FASIS Manual.
To
build a strong foundation for FASIS, initial work has been focused
on Data Definitions and Process Redesign. These definitions
include faculty appointment types, appointment-related definitions,
transactions, and dates, and salary-related definitions. This work is
vetted by the FASIS business analysts, the Task Force subcommittees, the
Data Definition and Process Redesign Committee, and the Task Force. New
processes include those associated with Primary Role, Primary Academic
Appointments, Early Start, Emeritus, Home Department responsibilties,
and the 90-day early NetID. Enhancements to HRIS include a new
Appointment Indicator, Appointment/Appointment History pages (in
process), Employee Date History (in process), Academic and IPEDS Rank
(in process), Named Professorship and Awarded Appointments (in process),
Tenure History (in process), and Additional and Special Pay (in
process).
A
new Quality Assurance team was formed to clean up and clarify data and,
in particular, dates. It reviews and maintains a correction log and has
instituted a QA checklist procedure and process.
The
HRIS Data Mart is being built on the HRIS-FASIS data model. A source
system extract strategy and security requirements have been defined.
Work
is underway with NUIT to build the Portal for FASIS - the new,
efficient, and appealing interface to this valuable tool. Early work has
been done to differentiate roles for the Portal, and a demo of
capabilties was given to ESEC.
A
Research Networking Tool is being considered to collect, store, and
analyze data concerning scholarly output, collaboration, and faculty
networking. FASIS is working with NUCATS and Galter Health Sciences
Library on this possible initiative. A demo and survey were presented to
the Task Force and outreach to peer institutions regarding such an
initiative is underway.
The Task Force has spawned two critical subcommittees - Salary/Salary History and Appointment/Appointment History. These
subcommittees have analyzed the needs in the schools
and produced data and process/transaction
definitions. New fields and new pages for the FASIS-HRIS system are
in development as a result of this work.
Three
new subcommittees are about to begin their tasks: Training, Reporting,
and Student Data. Please see the descriptions of these subcommittees
below, and let us know if you or one of your colleagues would like
to participate. |
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FASIS Manual-Major Revisions
The FASIS Manual
has recently undergone a major set of revisions and additions: the new
definitions and transactions from the Appointment/Appointment History
subcommittee have been added. Please see the section entitled Appointment Transactions. The Faculty and Staff Information System (FASIS) Manual is a
compilation of Data Definitions, Procedural Descriptions, System
Enhancements, Policies, and Training Materials. The Manual is available
in PDF format, and as such, is easily searchable and is printable
in part or in full.
Each entry in the Manual is marked with both the "Effective Date"
and the "Last Updated" date, as this is a work in progress with
continuous revisions. There will be notifications and descriptions in
the FASIS Newsletter when major changes have been made to the
Manual.
The material in the Manual has been developed and vetted within the
Data Definitions and Process Redesign Team and the Functional
Academic/IT School Administrators Task Force.
If you have a mobile device with a browser, you can easily view the
manual wherever you are. On the iPad, iPhone, or iTouch, you can use
the links if you've installed GoodReader or a similar full-featured PDF
reader. For complete directions about how to get the most out of the
Manual, see http://www.northwestern.edu/hr/hris/fasis/fasis_manual_index.htm. |
Appointment/Appointment History and Salary/Salary History Subcommittees
Subcommittees of the Functional and Academic Task Force were formed
to advise and assist with appointment/appointment history and
salary/salary history functionality in FASIS. These committees include
members from every NU school, the Office of the Provost, and HRIS.
Appointment/Appointment History:
The
Appointment Subcommittee has finished gathering the business
requirements and design mockups, and it has vetted this information with
the FASIS
Functional/IT Task Force. The business requirements are in
the development stage and are tentatively scheduled to go live a month
or two after the HRIS 9.1 upgrade. The design mockups were shown at the
September/October FASIS Town Hall meetings.
Salary/Salary History:
The Salary Subcommittee is nearing the end of identifying which salary fields
are
needed for the Salary pages. The design of the Salary pages has been
reviewed at a high level, and some highlights include a view of the
appointment(s) and corresponding salary information with totals at the
bottom in a grid-like page. Upon finalizing the desired salary fields,
the design will be further vetted in the subcommittee meetings and then
vetted at the FASIS Functional/IT Task Force. |
The Quality Assurance Team
Towards
our goal of quality assurance, Payroll, HRIS and the Office of the
Provost continue to review data and processes involving faculty records
in HRIS. Thanks to all who have contributed to the identification of
these items. We encourage you to continue to communicate with our
offices regarding such issues. Please contact us with any questions
you may have regarding faculty appointments and processes.
For
questions regarding the QA process for faculty appointments, please
contact Laura Koepele-Tenges, Manager of Faculty Records and Business
Operations in the Office of the Provost, at 1-7042 or lkt@northwestern.edu. |
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HRIS Data Mart Update
We have spent the last
several months identifying and documenting the location of all fields in
HRIS that will be included in the HRIS data mart. This is a
complex process that includes validating the data and defining the
extraction logic for each field. Working closely with the BI team,
our next big task is to develop the data mart, using a process called
ETL, Extract-Transform-Load. This process will load data into the
data mart with a regularly scheduled process. It will include
HRIS data since January 1, 1997. As the BI team develops the ETL,
we will be working on reporting specifications for the Office of the
Provost and Institutional Reporting. |
| New Subcommittees for Training, Reporting, and Student Data
Three new subcommittees have been formed from the FASIS Functional and IT Task Force: Training, Reporting, and Student Data.
The
training subcommittee will address and develop a training plan for
FASIS and FASIS related content. As part of this subcommittee we will
look in detail at all aspects of training, from policy and procedures to
new system features. We will discuss the best means of communicating to
users and determine which training formats should be available. The
subcommittee will consist of representatives from the Office of the
Provost, HR (HRIS and Payroll), and representatives from several
schools.
The
reporting subcommittee will work on the various aspects of reporting as
they pertain to FASIS and to the HRIS Data Mart. This subcommittee will
consist of representatives of HRIS, the Office of the Provost, the
Schools, and other administrative units who expect to use FASIS for both
internal and external reporting.
The
student data subcommittee will discuss the use of student data as it
pertains to faculty appointments, attributing responsibility and credit
to faculty, and tracking faculty-student relationships. It will
discuss who is involved and how these data are used. This may
include a discussion of types of courses, types of students, and the
structure of teaching responsibilities including: course planning,
faculty teaching loads, teaching evaluations, undergraduate and graduate
advising and oversight, and reporting. |
| Town Hall Meetings-Slides Available
Town Hall Meetings were held on September 28 (Chicago Campus) and October 7 (Evanston Campus).
You can access the slides from these meetings at our web site. |
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