Director of Change Management Jane Beatty

Let’s continue to explore some of the aspects of what will change when we go live on ctcLink in May 2015. Some of us here at the college don’t use the legacy systems (PPMS, SMS or FMS). But even in those cases, ctcLink will improve our work lives. All employees will have access to a new self-service online portal, where you can change basic information–things like your address or phone number–without hunting down the right contact person or form.

There will be separate areas in the portal designed for Clark employees, students, and faculty, to adjust to their different needs. But if you’re both a student and an employee at Clark, good news! Your information will be automatically updated throughout the system–no more having to submit the same update to multiple systems.

Here is an example of an employee self-service screen shot–this is a mockup, but shows an example of what will be available in ctcLink self-service centers.

For those people at the college who use the legacy systems every day, the improvements will be more dramatic. Staff in Corporate & Continuing Education, for example, anticipate a significant change. CCE has been using a separate student management system for over six years; with ctcLink, they will all be using the same system the rest of the college uses, making everything from class management to student management much more streamlined and easily managed.

Faculty, meanwhile, can look forward to having a system that can apply a prerequisite screen for students’ registration after grades are submitted. Currently, faculty often wind up spending a lot of the first day of classes checking the prerequisites for each student, because students who passed the prerequisite class registered before the preceding quarter’s grade was submitted. Often faculty don’t even know students lack the prerequisite for the class, so they have to identify those students and find a way of speaking privately with them the first day. This just adds to the number of overwhelming tasks associated with the first week.

These are just a few examples of the changes that the new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system will bring to Clark College. Stay tuned for more examples and information on this change that Clark College, and all 34 community and technical colleges in Washington, will experience.

For more information on Clark’s adoption of ctcLink, visit the Change Management area on Clark’s intranet (login required).

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

As Clark College’s Director of Change Management, one of my goals is to increase awareness of the Community and Technical Link (ctcLink) project at our college. This project will change our working environment in a big–but positive–way. Please read below for more information. If you have any questions about the project, I am always available to help answer them for you.

What is it ctcLink

ctcLink is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project that will modernize, centralize, and standardize the Washington Community & Technical Colleges’ administrative systems. Our current legacy systems (Student Management, Financial Management, Payroll & Personnel Management, and Financial Aid) will be replaced by Oracle Peoplesoft applications.

Why do we need to replace our current systems?

Our current administrative system is over 30 years old. As most of you have experienced, it is usually offline for several hours each night, and it has very little flexibility or support for modern technologies and needs, such as mobile device support or 24/7 access for students and employees. If you have stories you’d like to share regarding the current system and its limitations, please send them to me. I’d love to share with everyone next month how some of these limitations can be resolved with ctcLink.

When is all this happening?

This changeover will take place in May 2015, but we have a lot to do before that happens: Cleaning up all of our current data from the old system, convert that data for the new system, and understanding how the new software will change how we do business at the college. In August 2014 (yes, just seven months away!) the SBCTC and Ciber (a vendor helping us implement the changeover) will arrive at Clark College and start taking us through a plethora of activities to get us ready. Between now and then, we have a lot of work to do to better understand the software’s functionality and to make sure our data will move over to the new system successfully. The timeline below gives a clear idea of how the change will be structured.

Who will be affected?

The short answer is: everyone! Everyone who accesses and/or administers any part of our current systems (including class, employee, financial, procurement, and student systems) will be affected. Once the ctcLink project is completed, you will be using entirely new systems. (Don’t worry: There will be training available for everyone. Training needs and schedules will vary depending on your role at the college.)

Additional Information and Resources

The Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (SBCTC) has a dedicated ctcLink website with lots of resources and information.

Clark College also has an intranet web area for Change Management and ctcLink (ClarkNet login required). You can go to this website to find out more information and links to further information. This website also contains the names of many people who have been working diligently to help get some foundational decisions made regarding the overall architecture and infrastructure of how the system must work to comply with regulations and college policies. These are our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). You can find someone in the area in which you work.

Thanks,

Jane Beatty
Directory of Change Management
X2903
jbeatty@clark.edu