ISU Online Student Services receives Technology Resource Management Council IT Achievement Award

Idaho State University online student services have been recognized with a 2011 Idaho Technology Resource Management Council IT Achievement Award.

One of the goals of ISU's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project was to improve online services to students. Three people lead ISU's online student services project, including Laura McKenzie, registrar and team lead for student information system implementation; Jody Finnegan, associate director for financial aid and team lead for financial aid system implementation; and Paul Winder, assistant controller and team lead for student financial services.

The project integrated new student online services into the existing ISU computer system.  These new online services for students freed more than 1,500 hours of staff time per year to provide improved personal service to students, according to David Alexander, project manager of the ISU TIGERi Project, Information Technology Services.

These services include quick and easy online registration, opportunities to be placed on wait lists for closed classes, online payment and cashiering, direct depositing for refunds and excess financial aid, quicker access to final grades and Moodle, the University’s learning management system. 

In addition to the new and improved online tools, ISU is saving money with the new system. In prior years, ISU had to set up the Pond Student Union Ballroom to process student fee payment. Now that these activities are handled online using BengalWeb, ISU is saving more than $93,000 annually, Alexander said.

ISU staff received more than 3,000 hours of training and consulting on the configuration and implementation of the new systems. Many additional hours were spent building, configuring, and converting data. Many talented ISU staff dedicated a great deal of time to implement this new computer system.

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