MONICA OLLSON: --format of our meeting slightly. So before we hit Record, I'll just go over a few things. We are using Zoom's auto captioning for our meetings, unless otherwise requested. So you can always turn on the captioning if you need that to follow along. 

We will record and post recordings online. And these meetings are now half an hour instead of a full hour. Okie-doke. I'm still adding folks, but we can go ahead and press-- or we are recording. So never mind. I'll hand it over to you now, Chris. 

CHRISTOPHER SOREN: Good morning, everybody. Chris Soren, application support manager here. Welcome to the July edition of our open forum. So just a couple of quick updates today-- stuff we got in progress. And should be a quick meeting. 

So as we chatted last time with the upcoming images. So first step is the HCM Image 55. That'll be coming in production on August 8. So we're working through all the different list of fixes that Oracle said that was related to accessibility. It's testing those, making sure it's actually fixed like they said it was. 

And there was a handful of them we needed a little more information on to figure out what exactly it is they updated. And so we reached out to them and got that information. So we're working to put together an image-- accessibility image overview document that'll be coming with the image. So showing what changed and got updated. 

So working through that now. And then right after that, we'll be working through the Campus Solutions Image 38 on the accessibility bug fixes that came in with that, as well as the high point campus experience, 26.2. So we call it HCX for short. But the mobile-- essentially the mobile app. And testing that out to see what fixes came in with that. 

And then reporting those out. So it's in the queue and being worked through at the moment-- what mode updates it. And then also with Conexed. So the student success software. So during the RFP, some accessibility testing was done. But this past week-- the last couple of weeks, some additional accessibility testing has been done. 

Justin working through some of the student-facing stuff. I'm getting access to test some faculty stuff. So he's working through and reporting anything he finds. Just trying to make sure they're staying compliant and fixing the stuff that they need to fix, as we do with all the different third-party vendors that integrate in with PeopleSoft. We're also working on the integration as well at the moment to getting that up and running. 

MONICA OLLSON: I see Josh is here. And he is the engineer who did the recent internal accessibility evaluation. Just very briefly, super high level, what happened during the RFP is there was-- Conexed is a huge platform software application with lots of pages and design elements. So internally testing and auditing every single page and component was beyond the scope of what we could do during that period of time. 

So Vicki, my Vicki Walton, angel on Earth, worked with DQ, our third-party accessibility partner at the time to create a scoping document. So thinking through pieces throughout the student experience specifically of using Conexed, what are the critical student functions or user workflows that we need to make sure is designed as accessibly as possible? 

So they created a scoping document. That's what that's called. And then what happened is both DQ, our third-party partner, and Vicki did their own audit and testing. So Vicki used their normal process that they do, and using various types of assistive technology, and writing up summary report document in Word. 

And DQ did the process that their testers follow. But they were looking at the same scoping document so that even if they were doing slightly different methodology of testing, they were actually still comparing apples to apples in terms of what they were testing. I hope that makes sense. And so that was part of the RFP evaluation. 

And during that period, as we were beginning to enter into formal agreement with Conexed said as the apparent winning bidder, the high leaders in the RFP process-- so above me, way above me. So our presidents, grant. They made a stipulation with Conexed that you will work to immediately resolve the high critical errors that DQ you reported on. So that would be your first order of business and your roadmap, so to speak. 

So that's what happened during that finite period of time. And that was-- Vicki and I, to the best of our ability, provided those updates and reports to the various groups that we are in communication with regularly. If you're on the call now and you're like, wow, I didn't hear that until today, I'm so sorry. And I'm glad you're hearing it today. 

And then Josh, who's on Chris's team, is also now doing additional accessibility audit and verification internally with Conexed. And we're going to keep those channels of communication open between myself, Josh, Vicki, Chris, and Conexed, the vendor. So I hope that additional context was helpful. Josh, if there's any comment or clarity you want to add, that's cool. But thanks for letting me say those things. 

JOSH: Wow. Thank you very much for that because I had no idea. I just had a little bit of the context. I didn't have all that information. That was very helpful. I've been trying to track down what came of Vicki's findings. They did a lot of work. And I was wondering if there was a commitment from Conexed. And if there's a list of things that they already fixed so we can start testing with those versus doing everything from square one. 

I did test like the bare student-facing interface. Like if a student were just to first sign up with Conexed and what they would see. And there's definitely some findings. 

So I waited until I finished my evaluation to go and look through Vicki's documentation. And I'm seeing some of the same-- or a lot of the same things. But I am finding a couple things that are different. So it would be really helpful to have a list from Conexed of what they've already started to address. 

MONICA OLLSON: That's good. That's helpful information, Josh. So I guess I'll just say here in front of everyone, probably what needs to happen behind the scenes is like an internal meeting to go over what you're seeing versus what Vicki and I documented and what was put in writing, and exchange with Conexed. 

And then have some follow-up conversation with Conexed of like, OK, where are you now, X months later, after the initial review period so that we can focus on that moving forward? And I do agree with you. Vicki's found some issues as well. 

There were-- I forget how many different vendors responded to the original RFP, but at least 10. I mean, it was a large-- it was maybe more-- 12. It was a while ago. So it was a lot to swim through. Accessibility was a key part of the rating, and it was weighted appropriately. 

I don't feel comfortable naming other vendors right now, especially since we're recorded. But I will say this, there were two plus-- maybe three if I'm feeling generous-- that bubbled up to the top in terms of their responses and documentation around accessibility work, and compliance, and culture. Out of 12 that we evaluated, two or three that bubbled up to the top for the group. 

Conexed was one of them. They were not the highest of that group of three. But I will say, there are-- accessibility was weighted fairly and there was other business needs that were part of the weighted calculation as well in terms of what does the product need to do from the college perspective for their administrators and their students? 

And so Vicki and I played our part diligently in terms of representing the accessibility interest and making sure it was calculated. And it was-- and that was also in the mix of weighing it against the other business needs and the preferences or needs of the VPs and presidents in part of the group. 

So what I'll say is, that played a part in Conexed bubbling up a little higher, in my opinion, than some of these-- the one other or two other vendors that were doing just as good, if not a little bit better in the accessibility game. 

So that's just some context. That's not bad information. This is how-- we've talked about this in the procurement sphere. The idea is to try to choose the most accessible option that meets all of the business needs, and the institution can afford. And so hitting those three things is challenging-- accessibility, money, vendor relationship. You pick two. 

And so I'm not going to go into more detail, but that is how we got here-- was we had to weigh all of those things, score all of those things. 

JOSH: It was never my question that you didn't pick the best option available out of-- just looking at Vicki's documentation, there's a lot of work there. So I imagine if there's that much done for that one, then it was weighed against the rest of them. 

KEVIN: So Monica, this is Kevin. So I set up that meeting this week once Vicki is back. And so we can go through and do a, kind of, a hey, where are we at with things with you and Josh and me and Vicky? So then I can go back to Conexed and say, hey, we need to still get these addressed. 

MONICA OLLSON: I think that internal side-by-side comparison and benchmarking, and then taking that information to Conexed, say, like this is where we're at in our current assessment understanding. And we need to weigh that against where-- your new VPAT, where you're saying you're at. Because they continued their own work with DQ beyond the RFP. I think they hired DQ on their own to continue some auditing. 

So it will be been informative for us to say to them, what, from our initial findings, has been fixed? What's still unfixed? And where's your updated roadmap for us? And then make sure that that information documentation is clearly shared with college stakeholders, too. 

KEVIN: And in the meantime, Josh, if you need anything from me, let me know-- or if you're missing anything, drop it down. 

JOSH: Will do. 

CHRISTOPHER SOREN: Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Josh. Thanks, Monica. 

MONICA OLLSON: Yeah, good conversation. 

CHRISTOPHER SOREN: That's the whole list of things that we're working on right now. And we'll continue to do some updates next month as we progress through those and as we learn some more. As always, feel free to email me or submit a form, and we can include any topics you'd like in next month's forum. And we'll meet again on August 11th. And we appreciate-- 

MONICA OLLSON: I believe next month is August. This summer is flying on by. So we'll see you back here in four weeks. Thank you everyone for your attendance and your listening ears. We appreciate you. OK. Bye, bye.