Thoughts from the LASER Project Director, Jennifer Gehrt

I became the Project Director for K-State’s LASER project in early June 2004. I quickly came to appreciate the quality project team that we have assembled to work on this immense project. The team is dedicated and works well together. K-State will be the largest and most complex university to implement the Oracle Student System. That has led to unique challenges to working with Oracle staff to develop solutions to gaps identified in the delivered functionality in order to meet K-State’s needs. In addition, the team is looking at some new ways of conducting business at K-State in order take advantage of new functionality, not only in the student system but in the financials system as well.

The financials system is a more mature product but we still have our challenges in learning the system, deciding implementation issues and determining new business processes. Team members have been meeting with the university business officers to keep them informed and to gather input on these new processes. Fortunately, many of the “rules” will not change, just how the end result is accomplished may change. For example, department personnel will still be able to process their payment vouchers online, it will just be accomplished utilizing a new system. Students will still receive their grades online, but the web page will look different.

My advice to the university faculty and staff to help them manage the changes in their workplace is to seize every opportunity to learn more about LASER. This can be accomplished by monitoring the LASER web site for new information postings, by attending informational sessions as they are offered, attending the on-line training sessions that will begin for the financials system in December/January timeframe and next spring for the student system. If you are a staff member from one of the central offices directly involved with these systems, set aside dedicated time to learn the system, practice working in the system, ask questions, and express any functionality concerns to your supervisor as early as possible. As Mark Twain said, “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”