Our lady of Victory Chapel at College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota

Smooth, Speedy & Successful

Installation, setup and training
in just four months

Our goals were simple: Install RMS, complete training, develop the Profile, Finance and Assignments interfaces and set up the Student Web for applications and room selection. The catch? Do this all in only four months. Housing folks at smaller schools with limited staff and funding are familiar with this type of situation, and take it in stride. Our Residence Life and IT staff were committed to this goal, but we wondered if RMS was up to the challenge.

When Dhani Shattuck traveled to our St. Paul, Minnesota campus at the end of June to install the RMS software, we were admittedly a bit anxious. This first visit needed to go well to establish a positive and congenial working relationship with RMS representatives. Dhani did not disappoint; he exhibited the amiable yet professional attitude and work ethic that we now associate with all the folks at RMS. Our software installation was smooth, speedy and successful.

Pawel Kalinowski arrived in July for the Fit Gap session and returned soon after for End User Training. The manuals he brought were intimidating at first, but Pawel led us through every module. Between visits Pawel managed to break his wrist, yet boarded a plane to St. Paul only hours after leaving the emergency room. We marveled at his dedication.

By August, we were eager to import student data and begin testing the assignments, finance and other processes. Greg Schlierf came for an intense week of set-up and training and, as with Pawel and Dhani, seemed like an old friend when he left. We took a much-needed break for opening in September, and throughout October Greg and our staff finished developing and testing the interfaces.

Soon it was November and Rick Bashaw arrived for Student Web and Mail Merge training and Cut-over. When he left, we were armed with the knowledge needed to set up the Student Web and to use Mail Merge effectively. Rick returned for Cut-over Review and was, of course, another good friend when he left.
Because of the excellent training and support provided by our friends at RMS, we met our goals: Acceptance letters were sent to Fall 2009 first-year students in November, and we celebrated when on-line applications started rolling in. Winter semester housing and meal plan charges will be sent to Banner via the Finance Export later this month, and the Assignment Export and Profile Import interfaces regularly send data between Banner and RMS.

Since Cut-over we’ve made use of the friendly and knowledgeable HelpStar staff that have expertly managed our requests for assistance. We’ll utilize additional RMS features as we continue to revise our business practices. And we hope to incorporate the Judicial module in a year or two.

As you can see, our initial concerns were unfounded: RMS honored their commitment to work with us every step of the way to meet our goals on time. We’re pleased that we chose RMS and attribute our successful implementation to the comprehensive training, service and support provided by our friends at RMS.