Whether you’re an employee performing daily administrative duties or part of a group with specialized IT requirements, OIT touches your university life every day. In this new column, we’ll feature projects that illustrate how OIT affects more aspects of the university than you may have realized.

For All University Employees:
Online Earning Statements Save Paper

By Carrie Bredenkamp

Early this summer, Payroll and Human Resources (PHR) began giving university employees the option to suppress the printing of their employee earnings statements. This program was implemented in conjunction with a similar State of Maryland initiative. University employees have been able to view their employee earnings statements online since August 2005. As part of our role developing, implementing, and supporting the online PHR Payroll system, OIT Administrative and Enterprise Applications worked to ensure that these online earnings statements reflect the same information as the printed statements, and, more recently, implemented the system changes that allow employees the ability to decide whether or not to receive their printed statements.

During the first two months that the option has been available, approximately 7.5 percent of university employees have elected to suppress the printing of their employee earnings statement. If you would like to stop receiving printed employee earnings statements, you can select that preference at http://ares.umd.edu/earningstatement.

For Advisors:
New and Improved ADVISE System on the Web

By Eloy Areu

About 20 years ago, a system called DEANS/ADVISE was implemented to allow advisors to look up student information online, enter advising notes, query data, create and download reports, and do mail merges. This system is still in use today because of the richness of functionality, despite an older-looking interface that lacks the flair of a Web display.

Now, working with input from the advising community, OIT is implementing a new Web-based advising system. ADVISE on the Web is available through the ARES menu under “Advisor Services.” The student lookup function has been fully implemented and is available for advising use. It provides more user-friendly features than its predecessor, offering real time access to student data, and providing a seamless interface to Degree Navigator. The search capability will be phased in over the next year. Working from the Student Data Warehouse, the search function allows users to create queries using drop-down menus instead of having to memorize field names.

In order to deliver the best ADVISE on the Web possible, feedback from users of the system is welcomed. There is a feedback mechanism for suggestions and comments built into the system.