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History
SFASU purchased the Financial Reporting System (FRS), Student Information System (SIS), Financial Aid Management System (FAM), and Human Resources System (HRS) in 1994 from Systems and Computer Technology (SCT), which is now SunGard Higher Education (SGHE). These SCT Plus systems provided a level of technical support from a vendor that SFASU did not have previously with its in-house developed system (CP-6). In addition, the SCT Plus software suite had a large constituency in Texas and the nation, thus providing a user community allowing for collaboration with other institutions using these systems.
Over time, SFASU has enhanced the SCT Plus systems to provide web access to common functions. Also, many processes have been automated using FOCUS programs and batch transactions. Processes have been developed to allow departments to print many of their reports locally rather than on a centralized campus printer. Even with these continual enhancements, the SCT Plus systems are not able to meet customer needs and expectations in today’s changing technology. More current technologies utilizing web access with a centralized data repository provide more flexibility and efficiency for daily operations. These new technologies, which have become the standard in today’s higher education market, have the ability to deliver services to meet customer needs and expectations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The SCT Plus systems do not support full integration of data. They each utilize their own unique files and often require duplicate data entry of the same information, often resulting in inconsistent data between systems. Batch updating cannot be done while the online transaction processing system is operational, requiring system downtime at night in order to perform the batch processing functions. SFASU’s administrative systems are nearly fifteen years old and reaching the end of their life cycle.
SunGard Higher Education has announced that support for the SCT Plus systems will be discontinued on December 31, 2011. Additionally, the Texas Connection Consortium (TCC), which provides support for all Texas-mandated changes, will be phasing out support for the SCT Plus systems as more Texas schools migrate to Banner.
Losing software support from both SGHE and TCC are very critical reasons why SFASU must act quickly to move forward with its transition to a new ERP system. This move is also necessitated by the need to enhance the customer experience by offering more technologically sophisticated systems.