Ithaca College

The Homer Production Management Committee (HPMC) recognizes that the need to upgrade the Homer (Banner) student information system to SunGard Banner version 8 has become an overriding priority.  Installation of the upgrade to version 8 needs to be completed by June 2010 as SunGard will no longer support the current version the College is using.  This target date was established by looking at the most opportune times within the various cycles of the constituencies using the system.

In order to reduce distractions from this important task, HPMC is imposing a temporary hold on all Homer projects (enhancements or maintenance) that are not directly related to the effort to implement SunGard Banner version 8. During this temporary hold, Homer project requests will not be considered unless the requestor(s) can demonstrate that:

• The need for the enhancement is immediate; and
• The change is mission critical to our operations; and/or
• The request is due to an external mandate

As a Homer user or administrator, you may have been contemplating one or more system enhancement requests. If you believe your enhancement request fits the above criteria, please contact Brian Scholten (ext. 4-3075 or bscholten@ithaca.edu) to determine whether you should submit a request for an exception. Any request estimated to take more than three (3) days of ITS staff time to implement will require approval by the HPMC. Requests requiring less ITS staff time will be scheduled at the discretion of the Director of Enterprise Application Services (EAS) within ITS in consultation with the chair of HPMC.

HPMC appreciates your understanding and cooperation with this temporary hold. We feel it is necessary in order to modernize our student information system and ensure that we can continue to conduct business, uninterrupted, with the Homer system.