Banner Funding Report

July 20, 2008

Summary:

The New Mexico Higher Education Department (NMHED) received a one million dollar ($1,000,000) special appropriation within the General Appropriations Act of 2007 to consolidate Banner licenses at all institutions of higher education. In collaboration with the postsecondary institutions, the Department determined that the state Banner administrative system institutions were already licensed and requested language change to properly reflect the needs of the original institution request for Banner funding.

The General Appropriations Act of 2008 reflects the language change that reauthorizes and extends the funding to fiscal year 2010 “to bring institutions of higher education using banner to Version 8 of the enterprise resource planning system and to enhance the ability to share student data between higher education institutions and the student and teacher accountability reporting system (STARS) in the public education department”.

The NMHED Information Technology Division issued a request for proposals (RFP) to the institutions with the purpose of fairly distributing the $1,000,000 appropriation. All responders to the RFP were to articulate their compliance with the intent of the Banner legislation, and to consider recent legislative mandates to develop the overall solution for Banner.The criteria for the RFP evaluation included five key points: legislative intent, collaboration, the timeline for Banner 8 implementation, unique ID capture, and cost effectiveness by leveraging funding. The proposals were limited to Banner specific services and integrated products. Hardware and related equipment were not allowable within the proposal scope.

Proposal Results:

New Mexico’s postsecondary institutions have a two-decade history of collaboration on major technology projects and have been remarkably successful with numerous consortium initiatives. The NMHED received four quality proposals by the July 7 deadline. The proposals were a clear demonstration of creative collaboration and willful intent to leverage funding and shared resources. The process was difficult for the institutions to narrow down critical needs for their Banner student information system products. The institution’s information technology departments are currently juggling other major enterprise implementations so timing is a critical factor for beginning the upgrade to Banner 8. Additionally, the upgrade is not a simple undertaking, and dependencies include available technology skill setsfor staff, size of institution, vendor availability, user training, and complexity of configuration. Some institutions can complete their upgrade in 10 months; others can take as long as18 months.

Most importantly, all 21 Banner institutions were represented in the proposals, and will benefit from the funding. The proposals were numbered and scored accordingly. Each proposal required a fiscal agent and contact for the funds distribution. The proposals were submitted according to consortium membership, geographic areas, and types of need. As expected, all proposals included training and some variety of consulting services. Each response included innovative ways to share training through videoconferencing, ITV, and potentially the IDEAL program to avoid travel and lodging expenses. In addition, each proposal offered shared training services as budget and space allows.

Proposal 1 was a joint request from New Mexico Junior College, New Mexico Tech, Northern New Mexico College, Santa Fe Community College, Western New Mexico University, and New Mexico Highlands University. This proposal consists of the Hyperion reporting system upgrades, and Banner implementation and training services.

Proposal 2 is a joint request from New Mexico Highlands University and Western New Mexico University. These two institutions have product specific licenses for Oracle database and are requiring upgrades in order to convert the database to Banner 8.x.

Proposal 3 is from the New Mexico Banner Consortium: Central New Mexico Community College, New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, and Western New Mexico University. The proposal consists of the request for an Oracle monitoring tool - particularly important for the large institutions, consulting and implementation services, and multiple user training.

Proposal 4 is a request from the independent colleges in eastern New Mexico and includes Eastern New Mexico University Portales, Roswell, and Ruidoso, and Clovis Community College. The proposal consists of the sharing of a systems engineer consulting services, Banner 8 training, and the setup of an Oracle database to report STARS data from the institutions.

The table on the following page illustrates the proposal breakdown and the funding award based on the proposal criteria.

Proposal Description / Fiscal Agent / Collaboration Partners / Timeline / STARS ID Rating (of 25) / Award
Proposal 1 / NMJC
Bill Kunko / NMT
NNMC
SFCC
WNMU
NMHU
NMJC / 16 months / 15 pts / $261,000
  • Hyperion License Upgrade
(Ver. 9.x)
  • Banner 8 Implementation Consulting Services

  • Banner 8 Technical Training (DBA and Developer - Onsite)

  • Banner 8 Functional Training (Onsite)

  • Technical Training for (PL/SQL, Linux, and VMWare)

Proposal 2 / NMHU
Max Baca / NMHU
WNMU / 10 months / 15 pts / $168,600
  • Oracle License Upgrades

  • Additional Database and Application Server Licenses

  • Oracle Technical Training (online)

Proposal 3 / NMSU
Shaun Cooper / CNM
NMHU
NMSU
UNM
WNMU / 18 months / 25 pts / $372,531
  • Purchase Banner 8 & Hotsos CBT Training

  • Receive Banner 8 Functional Training (Onsite)

  • Banner 8 Implementation Consulting Services
  • Banner 8 Technical Support (Phone & Onsite)

Proposal 4 / ENMU
Clark Elswick / ENMU-Portales
ENMU-Ruidoso
ENMU-Roswell
Clovis CC / 12 months / 15 pts / $197,869
  • Purchase Oracle Database License

  • Banner 8 Functional Training (Onsite)

  • Banner 8 Technical Training (Onsite)

  • Purchase Banner 8 CBT Training

Total Budget: / $1,000,000

Distribution Timeline:

  1. Awards will be made accordingly by August 1, 2008.
  2. Request for certification of funds from the Department of Information Technology in August, 2008.
  3. Distribute the funds on or before September 1, 2008.

1 / Submitted by: Veronica Chavez-Neuman, Chief Information Officer, NMHED