Goal VI. Provide integrated, easy-to-use, cost-effective applications that share secure, accurate, and timely data for the conduct of business

For many years, the University has applied information technologies to better serving the business needs of faculty, staff, and students. ITC staff have a strong history of collaboration with faculty and staff from across the Grounds in developing digital solutions to maximize efficiencies in such areas as student registration, financial services, and management and planning functions. During the past year, ITC implemented a new U.Va.-wide centralized scheduling program that provides a single point of contact for room usage information and a simplified process to request space. Staff also devoted considerable effort to improving the performance of the University's Integrated Student Information System (ISIS), which enables students to register for courses on the Web. They also continued their involvement in assisting with development of the new student system that will eventually replace ISIS. These and other programs that advance the University business processes are described below.

Information Warehouse

During 2005-06, ITC staff worked to enhance the security of data contained in U.Va.'s Information Warehouse. A central repository for data in the University's operational systems, the warehouse employs an open, client-server architecture that enables authorized users to run reports with pre-defined templates or to create their own custom reports. In spring 2006, the database's security was strengthened when the system was placed behind a Level II network firewall. Persons accessing the Information Warehouse now must use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The changeover was invisible to most users, who already were using a VPN to access other resources. Work to enhance security continues. Staff are moving other related servers to more secure locations, and they are working with University Registrar staff to further restrict access to student ID numbers in the Warehouse, including the use of masked and encrypted IDs.

Also during 2005-06, staff completed the implementation of Oracle Discoverer, which enables Information Warehouse users to create reports from information in the operational data store. New test score data were added, as well as concurrent course information. New columns were added to certain existing tables, and new views were added that enable users to check the status of data running in automated processes.

Use of the Information Warehouse has been changing over the past several years with implementation of the Integrated Systems Oracle-based applications, described elsewhere in this section. Institutional financial and human resource data that previously were part of the warehouse now are in the Oracle applications. Most of the remaining information in the warehouse is student data. As data have been shifted to the Integrated Systems, the numbers of warehouse users has declined. Some 475 persons now use the Information Warehouse, down from 650 in 2001-02.

Forms Directory

Implemented by ITC eight years ago, the Forms Directory is a central online repository for nearly 250 forms used by dozens of U.Va. departments and external entities, such as state and federal tax agencies. Students, faculty, and staff use forms from the directory to accomplish transactions with offices such as admissions, payroll, procurement services, and intramural sports. Some forms are submitted online, while others must be printed and submitted in hard copy. Forms can be located by searching with keywords or browsing through titles listed by department. Not all of the forms listed in the directory reside on the Forms Directory server. Most of the procurement services and Integrated Systems forms, for example, are links to the forms or files on their respective departments' Web servers. ITC staff add, delete, and modify forms annually as needs change. In 2005-06, five existing forms were deleted, one new form was added, and 31 forms were updated.

Corporate Time

During 2005-06, ITC staff continued enhancing the Corporate Time scheduling system, which has been used at U.Va. for several years. Also during the year, staff upgraded the system's hardware and pursued additional improvements and initiatives that will be rolled out during the coming year. ITC staff are working on upgrading the Corporate Time server software to Oracle Calendar server software.

For-fee Applications Development Services

The Departmental Applications Development (DAD) Group in ITC partners with other U.Va. units and departments that need research-related programming. DAD staff work on a cost-recovery basis with researchers and others who need specialized Web-based applications, surveys, databases, technical advice, and implementation services for commercial IT products. During 2005-06, DAD projects ranged in size from a few hours to more than 1,000. DAD staff worked during the year with some 45 departments and University-affiliated foundations, many of which have multiple ventures ongoing with the group. Roughly three-fourths are returning customers. Two DAD projects - the Residents, Attendings, Fellows, Tracking System for the hospital and the SOURCE (System of University Reservations and Calendar of Events) - are described below. A long-term partnership with the Cancer Center is described in Goal IV.

Residents, Attendings, Fellows Tracking System

Staff in the Departmental Applications Development Group continue to refine the Residents, Attendings, Fellows Tracking System (RAFT), a Web-based application they created for the University hospital. RAFT is used by some 50 U.Va. departments to track and analyze data related to physician training. The system enables the hospital to prove compliance with federal laws regulating the time residents are allowed to work. It also provides attendings, residents, and fellows the ability to evaluate one another online, enables program directors to view evaluation summaries in graphical format, and tracks and provides feedback on medical procedures. Keeping current with federally mandated staff evaluations is required for hospitals to maintain their accreditation. Before seeking ITC's help in creating the online application, each of the University's hospital departments had it own paper-based evaluation system. In 2006, U.Va.'s Graduate Medical Education Office reorganized to include the Housestaff Office. ITC is collaborating with Graduate Medical Education staff to enhance the RAFT system by adding reporting capabilities to more fully meet requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

SOURCE

In July 2005, ITC implemented the new U.Va.-wide centralized scheduling program known as SOURCE (System of University Reservations and Calendar of Events). The database, which was created in partnership with the Registrar's Office, provides a single point of contact for room usage information, a simplified process to request space, improved potential to maximize space usage, and strategic concentration of events into a core group of buildings. Users can search for spaces according to several variables, including room size, location, and date and time. Weekly calendars display when particular spaces are booked, so users can adjust requests for specific spaces. Requests for space are sent to the appropriate schedulers, who send confirmation notices once requests are approved. Special equipment and staffing needs also can be requested via the SOURCE.

Facilities initially included in the database are those managed by Newcomb Hall, the Registrar's Office, and Intramural-Recreational Sports. Spaces include classrooms, meeting rooms, auditoria, and outdoor spaces such as playing fields and tennis courts. The SOURCE is being used extensively by students, faculty, and staff, and other spaces may be added to the system. The SOURCE replaces an earlier system known as COMPASS (Catalog of Meeting Places and Student Spaces), which was introduced by ITC in 2003.

Database Management and Support

During 2005-06, ITC expanded its role as a provider of Oracle database administration (DBA) services. Since 2000, ITC has offered for-fee Oracle DBA services to schools and administrative departments. The service-level agreement includes installation, configuration, security, tuning, and maintenance of the Oracle database server software; database application schema maintenance; database navigation and design consultations; and specialized database backups and recoveries.

During the past year, ITC established the first two for-fee service agreements for Oracle DBA services. In fall of 2005, ITC and the School of Medicine established a service-level agreement to support the school's deployment of Vanderbilt University's Core Ordering and Reporting Enterprise System (CORES). The production CORES application became operational in April 2006. In addition, during spring 2006, ITC and Parking and Transportation (P&T) reached a similar agreement whereby responsibility for the existing P&T production Oracle databases would be transferred to ITC. ITC is currently in the process of assuming DBA responsibilities for the two P&T production databases.

ITC initiated work during 2005-06 to review current policies for database security initiatives. The objective of the review is the restoration of security authorization to the data steward model that was in place prior to implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite for financial accounting, grants management, procurement, and human resource functions. Also during the year, the joint ITC-Integrated Systems initiative to develop a new application system to support the security authorization streamlining effort was suspended. The June 2006 suspension of the software development activities is due to the re-allocation of resources to other priorities.

Parents as Partners

In June 2006, a new Web site was introduced in support of Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs' Parents as Partners initiative. Staff in ITC's Applications and Data Services Division developed the site, which features a quarterly electronic newsletter to keep parents and guardians of students well-informed about the University. Recent editions of the newsletter have included articles about online social networks, alcohol use among students, the University's John Paul Jones Arena, progress on the Student Information System, and new academic programs.

Online Student Elections Support

Staff from ITC's Applications and Data Services Division worked during 2005-06 to develop and implement enhancements to the electronic student elections system it created two years ago. First used in spring 2004, the system enables students to vote in Student Council and other elections via the Web. Several enhancements were completed in time for the October 2005 student elections. The application allows for secure administration of the voting site by the University Board of Elections, provides for instant run-off voting in tightly contested races, and prevents the possibility of election tampering. Staff continue to work with persons from the University Board of Elections to determine the necessity of any additional enhancements.

Federal Reporting Systems

Applications and Data Services staff pursued their ongoing work to update the University's computing systems that are used to satisfy annual federal reporting requirements. ITC staff perform yearly maintenance and collaborate with persons from the Office of Student Financial Services, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and the College at Wise to accommodate changes in such things as tax credit information, which is transferred electronically to the Internal Revenue Service. Staff also make the annual changes required for compliance with federally mandated revisions to reporting federal grant and loan program activity, and routinely install new releases of commercial software that U.Va. uses to assist with determining student financial aid eligibility and examining aid package options.

Grants Submission System

During 2005-06, ITC staff worked with persons from U.Va.'s Office of Sponsored Programs to create a Web-based system for compliance with the mandate to submit grant applications to federal government agencies via the Grants.gov Web site. This new Web application will allow University researchers to send their proposals through a protected Web site to one universal U.Va./OSP server for all schools. The system will automatically put the proposal in the correct school reviewer's "bin" to be processed. Once it is approved by the school, the system will automatically move the application to the appropriate OSP bin for review. OSP staff will then take the final application and upload it from the U.Va./OSP server to the Grants.gov system. This system will also include an archive capability.

Integrated Systems

For the past several years, ITC staff have worked to support the University's ongoing Integrated Systems project. The Integrated Systems are replacing numerous disparate information systems from across the Grounds with a flexible, cost-effective set of integrated applications. The applications, developed by Oracle, provide self-service tools for entering data and for retrieving and assembling them into reports. Phase I was introduced in 2001 and provides financial systems applications. Phase II was implemented in fall 2002 and includes human resources and payroll systems. The third phase will provide the new student system.

During 2005-06, ITC staff deployed new data storage solutions that improved performance of the nightly refresh of the operational reporting environment; assisted in the functional upgrade of the Integrated Systems software; and collaborated in the development of plans for server equipment replacements for the next fiscal year. ITC staff continue to deliver information technology, database infrastructure, application administration, and data security services for the production, development, and training environments of the Integrated Systems. ITC staff also resolve technical problems, perform other system administration and security authorization, and manage the Oracle database instances.

ITC staff have been actively involved in developing the final phase of the Integrated Systems - the student information system replacement project that will eventually replace ISIS Online (described below). During 2005-06, the University selected Oracle PeopleSoft as the software product for the new student system, which will include admission, financial aid, registration, transcripts, billing, and other student administrative functions. During the forthcoming fiscal year, ITC staff will begin preparing to deliver technology infrastructure services that will support the system deployment activities of the Student System Project staff and that will eventually support the production roll-out of the new student system to the University.

ISIS Online Enhancements

ITC staff worked through spring and summer 2006 to improve the performance of the University's Integrated Student Information System (ISIS), which enables students to register for courses on the Web. The system is a collaboration among ITC, the Registrar's Office, the Provost's Office, Student Financial Services, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Engineering School, among others. ISIS has operated for more than a dozen years and links to such offices as admissions and financial aid, facilitates students' selection of majors and advisors, and accommodates inquiries about grades and financial aid. The system also assists with University record-keeping tasks, such as those required by federal homeland security regulations. Despite continuous improvements to ISIS, the system has been unable to keep pace with increasing demands.

Among the many enhancements made by ITC during 2006 are improving the code efficiency, tuning of the mainframe and its systems, and adding memory in the mainframe. Staff also have increased the number of users who are able to be processed in the system at the same time, developed Wait List functionality, and implemented a "swap feature" that will only drop a course if the course being added is available. A high-level Grounds-wide committee of ISIS stakeholders has worked concurrently to plan, recommend, and implement non-technical enhancements - involving such issues as course offering supply and demand and policy matters - that will help alleviate strain on the system. These changes are being communicated to faculty and students.

Archived Legacy System Data

ITC staff continued work on a multi-year project to convert data from U.Va.'s mainframe legacy systems for continued preservation. The conversion effort will enable the University to access and use legacy system data after the mainframe is retired. The current ITC effort is focused on the files from the retired Human Resource System (HRS) and the retired Personnel Payroll (PPY) System. In 2002, ITC identified the existence of 9,183 archived data files from these two systems. However, University Human Resources requested only 89 archived HRS employee earnings files from 1994-2002, 87 archived PPY database strip files from 1977-1998, and 2,404 archived PPY detail transaction files from 1988-1998 for conversion. During 2005-06, ITC staff completed the conversion of the 89 HRS and 87 PPY files. During summer 2006, ITC staff are beginning analysis and software development work for the remaining 2,404 PPY detail transaction files.

Online Transcript Requests

During 2005-06, minor enhancements were made to the system with which students order transcripts online. Developed by staff in ITC's Enabling Technologies Group, the Web-based system is available for use by current students and those who have been students since 1985; those enrolled prior to 1985 must request transcripts by mail or in person. One of the improvements made during the year is the addition to the site of an announcement area, where the Registrar's Office can post timely information for customers. First made available five years ago, the online transcript request Web site now accounts for three-fourths of all requests for transcripts received by the Registrar's Office. Payment for transcripts is processed with the Credit Card Gateway, described below.

Credit Card Gateway

ITC's Enabling Technologies Group developed the Credit Card Gateway several years ago to provide University departments a secure, electronic method for accepting credit card payments. The encrypted system is used to pay for such things as summer session registration, tuition in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and transcript copies from the Registrar's Office. Use of the system grows annually, with 39 different merchant accounts being active in 2005-06, up from 27 accounts the previous year. Nearly 30,000 transactions were processed during the year. ITC staff continue to maintain and enhance the gateway Web site and software. They are working on an enhancement to accept American Express and Discover credit cards.

Access U.Va.

Staff in the Applications and Data Services Division continued work begun three years ago on applications support for the University's Access U.Va. financial assistance program. Staff have been enhancing and refining the financial aid packaging software that supports Access U.Va., as well as modifying ISIS to accurately identify and track all relevant information to provide loan caps and cap tracking for all qualified students. In spring 2006, staff completed modifications to the interface with the third-party software that the University uses to package financial aid resources.

Federal Family Education Loan Program

In 2005-06 ITC staff continued to support the Federal Family Education Loan Program at the University. In August 2005, federal loan data for two concurrent active award years was accurately disbursed and recorded in U.Va.'s Oracle Financial system using the new program. Modifications were completed in June 2006 under an aggressive schedule to satisfy new federal requirements for loan fees and graduate PLUS loans.