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Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Datatel?
Datatel, Inc. is the one of the largest computer software company dedicated exclusively to providing advanced information management systems for institutions of higher education. Datatel has over 500 client institutions in the United States, Canada, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1968 and has headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. For more information about the company, click here to go to the Datatel Website - www.datatel.com.

What is Colleague?
Colleague is the name of an administrative software package designed by Datatel, Inc. to meet the advanced information management needs of institutions of higher education. With Colleague, information entered into the system immediately becomes online, real-time data for the end user to access. It also allows all of an institution's processes -- financial, purchasing, academic, human resources -- to more easily "talk to each other" and draw from a common database.

How will the change to Colleague affect me?
Many of our processes may change to some extent, perhaps with steps eliminated, or with a standardized method of data entry. Each of us will need to learn these changes as part of our Colleague training.

When will I be able to use Colleague?
The following systems will be operational on: · Finance, July 2001 · Human Resources, January 2002 · Financial Aid, February 2002 · Student Information, July 2002

What is the schedule for all the activities between now and when I will use the new Colleague administrative software?
It's difficult to give exact dates at this point, but a general Implementation Planning Schedule is available on this Website. Click here to go to the Project Calendar. This calendar will give you a general idea of the time frames for activities such as training/consulting; (This refers to training/consulting for those involved in the technical use and set-up of the new system, and for those who will become in-house trainers.); Consulting visits by Datatel; Testing the new system (called Decision Testing); Simulated use of the system (Mock Dates), and Live Processing (actual use). Activities listed on the calendar are revised and addition added periodically.

When will I be trained to use the new Colleague administrative software?
All end users of the new system will receive training appropriate to their job responsibilities. This so-called end-user training will take place immediately before the different parts of the system "go live." Training immediately before using the system should result in the best retention of the information and the most efficient use of the faculty and staff's time. Our own in-house experts will present the end-user training on campus. We will make every effort to offer training sessions with a broad schedule of days and times. All end-user training will be announced and scheduled in advance.

What is the Colleague training that has been going on for the last few months?
Colleague-related training so far has been for employees most closely involved in the start-up of the new software and hardware. Much of the training has been about technical aspects and setting up the core database on which all the end-user functions depend. Many of these employees will be our in-house trainers; drawing on the expertise they are developing in these initial training sessions.

Will more faculty representation be added to the teams?
When the implementation teams begin to address the details of areas that impact academics, they will get additional faculty input through one or more avenues which may include participation such as ad hoc sub-teams, adding members to teams, asking faculty to serve as resource members to teams, faculty focus groups, and/or questionnaires.

At any time anyone may submit an idea or concern to the Project Vision Team or Sherry Hendrix, Project Manager. Click here to e-mail Sherry Hendrix. (You may also send a paper mail message to Sherry Hendrix, Project Manager in the Information Technology Department. She will forward it to the appropriate team for study, and a response.