The FRESH Journey    August 27, 2001

With our first go-live date less than five months away, Project FRESH is on a fast and steady course.  The individual paths that the project teams have been traveling on are quickly coming together and detailed information about the project, and more specifically Banner, will be communicated to a wider audience.  In the next few months as we adventure on to our full-system testing and training stage of the project, more of you will become directly involved with the project and will gain first-hand experience with Banner.  But first, let’s take a moment to recap our itinerary and briefly reflect on the progress that has been made. 

Project FRESH has been an incredibly participatory process that has involved well over 100 people from every campus and major area.  They have come together to not only learn and configure the system, but also helped define the system requirements, select the vendor, and document the differences between current systems and the Banner system. In addition, they have contributed thousands of person-hours, often driving miles each day or meeting over the PictureTel teleconferencing facilities, to design the common USNH solutions that will serve all of the institutions for many years to come.

The Project FRESH journey began back in February 1999 with the system requirements definition and vendor selection process stage.  The project mobilization and gap analysis stage took place from October 1999 through September 2000.  Since that time, project teams have been busy learning, documenting and configuring the new system. 

Now, in the case of the Finance system, nearly all the major decisions on business functionality have been made.  “We are currently entering the ‘decide, test and train’ stage of the project,” explains Ken Cody, Assistant Vice President for Finance and Administration and USNH Controller.  “The time for lengthy brainstorming of alternative configurations or process flow decisions is over for Finance.”  All hands are needed on deck to (1) create technical documentation that can be turned into training materials for the many end-user training sessions that will be conducted on every USNH campus beginning in October; (2) design and develop standard financial control and compliance reports needed by central and campus offices on day one of go-live; (3) code electronic security and approval tables so that transactions can be entered and approved properly by responsible persons on each campus; (4) convert thousands of data records, such as vendor accounts, open POs, CUFS orgs, etc. from the old system to Banner; and (5) test, test, test the Banner system to make sure it works the way we think it will.

The end result will be an effective administrative system that every financial administrative staff member on every campus can use efficiently.  But this won't happen magically overnight.  As you have just read, so far this has been a process that is already more than two years in the making.  The Project FRESH journey will not end at go-live; it will most certainly take another several months, if not a year or two, for USNH to realize the promise of an efficient and effective integrated system, complete with full-fledged, easy to get at management information.  We predict that we may even take a half step backward in functionality and productivity for a few months. 

But remember why USNH decided to replace its current CUFS system in the first place; it was totally obsolete architecture on a very shaky technological foundation.  According to Cody, “We had tweaked CUFS and 1032 to the fullest extent of its technology. We were in essence driving around in a car that didn't look bad from the outside, until you opened the hood and saw the smoke pouring out. The CUFS vehicle is nearing its time for junk pile.”  In purchasing Banner, we have bought a solid technology infrastructure that has basic integrated functions between finance and human resources, and to which we can add all sorts of better bells and whistles over the next few months and years. Cody adds, “We couldn't afford the brand new, fully-loaded BMW, so we bought a well-equipped Toyota Camry and we intend to add features to it over time as we can afford it."  Adding these features is just another step towards the common goal of all USNH campuses to have effective, simple, standardized, and automated administrative systems that provide the most value for the least cost.