Systems store only basic data, do not provide data for local needs such as cost accounting, are not connected to departments, and cannot create or monitor mailings or other local processing. The systems' report generators are difficult to use and require extensive training. This deters individuals from generating their own reports and places added work on CCIT and administrative offices. This causes effort to be wasted on double checking and error tracking and, duplicate and inaccurately addressed mailings. Most systems lack second order edits so entered information is inconsistent with information already in the system, and errors that should be caught immediately are not even identified.
Error recovery is cumbersome and error messages are cryptic.
Some fields in SIS that are not used in transactions are never checked for error. This results in large-scale erroneous data. The result is that there is no overall prioritization and it is not unusual for casual requests to take precedence over major system improvement projects, often using the worse possible tools for the purpose. The complete lack of focus of this process means that different people use different data sets to answer related questions giving rise to inconsistency in the basic facts reported about the University. Late requests often give rise to the need for entirely new data forcing us back to stages 2 and 3. 5.