We need a program that can deal with our current store of financial, recruitment, student and alumni information, cope with the inevitable growth of the University, and above all , be a “self service” program giving administrators, faculty, staff and students direct access to appropriate parts of the new integrated database. At the end of this three year journey we will have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system integrating all University information. It will transform our service to students, our communications within the University and speed the flow of crucial information by giving users access to the database.

Members of the faculty and staff in SGU in Grenada along with staff in University Support Services (USS) in New York will be working on the development of our ERP system with:

1. The SunGard Higher Education (Banner software team), and
2. Collegiate Project Services, Arthur Herbert of CPS being our SGU Beyond 30 project Manager bridging the gap between SunGard and SGU/USS.

SGU, CPS and Sungard will be working together over the next three years to design and implement the ERP system.  This preparation involves:

• A review of how each office in SGU does business
• Decision-taking about how SGU should operate with Banner
• Organising our business to answer questions about how the new ERP system should function during its design and implementation

We will have to master unfamiliar terms that are rooted in the new way of thinking about how our database is organized and how we will use it.  A glossary of some new terms is appended.

Bringing about the changes required for our new ERP system will require team work, dedication, initiative, communication and hard work.  But the record shows that SGU is good at rising to this kind of challenge.  We believe that the transformation in our working lives will be huge and our constituents – the students – will be better served.

The design and implementation will take up to three years and has already started with the Finance section (expected to Go Live in June 2008).  The other sections are:  Student (Recruitment, Admissions, Student Records, Student Finances), Financial Aid, Human Resources, and Alumni Development.   SGU is hiring people to “backfill” SGU and USS employees designated to spend full time on the SGU Beyond 30 project.  The overall expected timeline is posted on this site. 

The Banner implementation teams will be holding meetings and mounting discussions in Grenada and at USS in New York as they work towards their implementation goals.

The sheer growth of SGU demands that we should abandon the Legacy database, that has served us well in the past, for a new ERP system that will serve SGU by offering self service to all members of the SGU community who need access to the database. For example, in the new system the applications, submitted by candidates, will input data right into the system.  It will allow students to log in and have access to their grades, accounts, and to communications from administration and faculty on screen.  The new ERP system will also integrate all student data with the finances and financial aid segments.  It will mean that SGU has on-line registration and on-line updates of addresses, etc.  The upshot will be that staff time will be released from demanding  “mechanical duties” and diverted to productive ones.  

We invite you to contact the email address  sgubeyond30@sgu.edu to ask questions about this SGU Beyond 30 project.   We will also be developing a FAQ section on the website, http://etalk.sgu.edu/sgu-beyond-30/, and be regularly updating the University community on the progress of the SGU Beyond 30 project.