Respondent: What I'm going to say to you I have already said to them. So it does not matter. .. I'm very outspoken .. I've been here for 30 years on this campus, and at least 20 on this department full-time.
Interviewer: So you've been working with Banner Finance since it has rolled out in July, then?
R: Before even it rolled out, I've been on a committee .. I've been there from the very beginning.
I: Then, could you show us some of the things that you do with the Banner Finance system? .. that would be like everyday activity for you?
R: Well, I'm checking out grants.
I: .. so, could you show us that?
R: Sure. First, you have to get into Banner. It's a fun thing to do ..
I: Why do you say that?
R: Because, it's takes longer to get into Banner, than it used to get into FRS. But then, when FRS first started it was a total disaster. So.. you know. I've been through them all..
I: Is there an improvement then?
R: Of course! .. Now you get into Banner .. A lot of times, the Banner is getting better now, but my question is .. when everybody starts going entering stuff live .. I want to see what's the response time's going to be on this thing .. Now, if I were checking on just a regular account, I'd going to .. F. G. I. B. D. F. O. And that's going to take us into a budget. You can go by the menu, I go by the acronims ..
I: How many names do you remember?
R: Well .. I know the ones for grants and ... [names a few] Everything you do has to have a vendor ID number on it, or they won't pay it .. So if you get a vendor that .. you have to find out that vendor's ID number. You can go in here and check that .., but if they don't have it on their computer then you have to call the company and get it. And set up a brand-new system. On my program, I already have it already set up .., so I already have the numbers for mostly all of them that I need to check. But there are times, when new vendors come up and they need some .. in this department but you've never heard of them. Probably they may never used the one time, that type of thing. But this is your, this is your book .. this is a manual, as you can see it's quite large.. like that. It's going to take a good while for people to learn this and to get comfortable with it. Because I had advanced, because, I guess, I am more comfortable with it probably than a lot of .. I've worked so long at the university and I was on the FRS .. to redo FRS when it came in it was .. it did not meet any of our needs. We're having problems with this, they took away, they finally got FRS so that we could really use it .. now we are back at where we were .. because the reports coming off, they are not good. And I've already told them, have already talked to them three of four times, and when I go to the next meeting .. we'll bring it up again. Ah, just an instance this morning, a guy wanted to know how much we've got in travel, just in the travel. Well, there was no screen we could go to to just get it down from that particular account number. And account numbers are now what's used to be the object code numbers, then funds are really your grant numbers .. They changed all wording around. There used to be project, and object code, and departmental numbers, but now departments are organizations, you know, ..
I: Is there a problem with that? .. besides the learning curve?
R: I don't think. I think, the problem is that when you get people that have been here as long as I had, for instance, and who did not grow up in the computer world, like .. you did ..[laugh] .. I mean, it's very difficult for them to take on learning all of this, and then continue to do their job. It's very stressful for older employees, and then there's just some employees that just don't whant to learn it. For whatever reason, you know, I think it's difficult. I know that this opinion that's out there, anything that's going to make my job better -- I'm going to learn it. I mean one way or another, I'm going to learn it. Because, we had a huge volume in this department and I did it with a half-time assistance. And it's really, this department, great volume and money value and turnover there. There should be a full-time technical assistant .. and of course, you know .. So there's a frastration in a lot of places and then they've got .. their job going. And the transformation, .. we are doing it on a computer .. but yet, we are still, see all the paperwork we still have in the office .. But yet we haven't defined the information here. And it's very difficult. This gives you .. [Demonstrates on a computer] So what we used to get on one screen, now we are going onto another screen, do you see what I'm saying? .. and then you have to wait because it's working. And this is the thing that's concerning me when everybody's going to start do stuff on those .. those servers. How long are you going to be sitting waiting to get information? I'm going to bring that up again. Now see, it comes up, like this .. but where we used to have all these accounts, see they got account 1140, now it's added, .. that you have add all account .. five digits now. Then you got to go in and, for instance, if I want to know what's in .. now, I've got to go to the detailed transaction I wanted .. It says, "Field is protected against updates." I don't know what it's talking about. What I'm asking is for a detailed .. I want to know how much. .. it brings up a calculator. I'm just showing you these things, because ..
I: Seems like you've done this before!
R: See, so someone new using this they are thinking "Well, I can go to this and hit "Detailed transactions", right? Right. This should bring me up .. it says here, .. to place duplicate item to view transaction detailed activity .. So then, if you don't get to that, it puts you right back to this. And then you have to think, well, maybe I need to go to some other .. So what I'm saying is that .. but even I can't get in sometimes to get the information. I know as much as I've been working with it, and I think they are going to have to "tweak" the system. Well, I already know they are, I have already told them, we've already talked about it. My question was when we got this system, and I asked this question. I said, why can't we bring in someone to design the system for the university? Just for what we need, instead of buying the system, which was primarily design for business. They do have this system at some other universities, they looked at it. They've done a lot of research and went looking for this. But, they've had to put on extra people, .. programmers to keep this up. And just I cannot believe. I know they've told me it's more expensive, the cost is more prohibiting. I just don't understand, because they are going to have to do a lot of "tweaking" to this system to get it to work. To get it to the point where everybody's comfortable with it, like they've got to be comfortable with FRS. .. they have got this system where we were comfortable with everything, they finally got it where it was just absolutely right, then they switched to the new system because of the year 2000 .. I mean I understood when they had to switch, I understood why we couldn't stay with FRS, but I don't .. I still don't understand and I guess it's part of me that is being stubborn, but why can't they bring someone in here to design the system for the university.
I: Can you go back to that, the screen where you actually do .. the transaction?
R: Well ..
I: What if you were able to "tab" there, through all thise records, to "tab" down to the next block? Do you think that would ..?
R: I was just making sure that we hit all the things go through. You can actually hit, after you hit the percent type, you can go to the next block. I just do that to make sure I'm going to get in there.
I: But what I'm saying is, maybe an improvement, in which you could hit the "tab" there ..
R: Oh, instead of "next block"? You can actually hit F8.
I: Right.
R: You can hit F8 for next block. You can do it either way. Okay, now. [Shows something]. It's supposed to give me, when I hit "Detailed transaction", it's supposed to get it in there for me ..
I: Now, how did you get that different this time?
R: I hit it one time, double-clicking one time. And then, yeah, it gets me in there. Now, sometimes I don't get it up! And I had to go back and try again! You know, I mean, there are times when I can't do it. Now here is what you find out. It's been paid, and all... See, it used to be that you could look at one screen .. and your information was there. Now if you want to find that .. and I want to know that what account, which is now "fund", that we've paid it under and all. And then, here's the .. amount .. that's paid. Now, here's the important part for us if you are looking or checking something, it is the document number and the date. And now you can take that document number and go into another screen to find out if the check's been written.
I: But you can't?
R: Yeah, by picking up that document number and going into that other screen.
I: Can you show us that?
R: I'll try.
I: Ok.
R: [Does that for 3 min] Now, what I just looked up, that I need the invoice number from the company on that. Well, I don't have the invoice number on that because it's long gone. So, in the past when we looked up to find out if the check's been paid, we'd call the company and say, "Here's the accounting code, now, can you tell me if that check's been paid?". And they could go in there and tell me, but now we have to look it up ourselves. So, I'm trying to think, trying to remember how to look up that .. I'm trying to think how they told us to look up. We are supposed to do that. So, I'm just showing you, just giving you a general idea of when we have to look up something like that on a check .. And they say here, check that they want you to have, when you look at the ckeck they want you to have the invoice number. Year, when you usually look at the check we usually have that invoice .. If someone came and asked if we could look it up, but should have that ..