IT Matters

System Technology Initiatives Newsletter

October 24, 2007
Vol. 07-01
Technology Transformation Taskforce









Technology Transformation Taskforce:
Many efforts. One vision.

By Jan Yoshiwara, SBCTC Educational Services Director

We are a system of many technology initiatives and efforts. Here is a sampling of projects begun, in progress or completed during the past year:

Taken alone, each effort was distinct. Taken as a group, these and other information and educational technology-related efforts held a common focus: the needs of users—students, faculty, staff, community members and business owners.

These and other efforts are the foundation for the work of the Technology Transformation Taskforce.

The primary goals of the Taskforce are first, to build the case for support and funding, and second, to do long-term planning to advance eLearning and technology in the college system.

Most important, the underlying idea was that one cohesive system vision or plan positions us for an aggressive technology funding request in the 2009-2011 biennium.

The Technology Transformation Plan serves as a backdrop for stakeholders to pose questions:

The Technology Plan will look at functions and funding, while aiming for a forward-looking vision throughout community and technical college environments (e.g. administrative, teaching and learning, student services).

Why now?

Demand for eLearning is ever increasing and the need for technology-based services—in classrooms, support services, administrative functions and data-gathering—will become more and more central to all college functions.

Meanwhile, the 24/7 world and marketplace of ideas has exploded with new content and new approaches. Today’s technology allows users to unleash their own content, applications, services, products, purchasing and learning.

That level of functionality is the baseline against which our colleges are measured by students, employees and the communities we serve. We need the best systems possible to keep pace with the competition and remain relevant.

So what does that mean for me?

It means rethinking “how we do technology” in the Washington community and technical colleges. It means new ways to share information, train personnel and partner (perhaps teaming up with your nearby rival community college!) to maximize service to users.

New applications that will benefit students are being developed as part of the CAR project. The new applications will be ready for use in the re-hosted environment. The business process reengineering analysis of registration and admissions modules will serve as a pilot project that will lay the groundwork for the redesign of other administrative applications, such as Student Management Systems and Financial Management Systems.

Other new software applications under development are electronic disbursement of funds (that means no more standing in line for students), iCatalog online statewide catalog, and iSchedule class schedule.

Timeline

The timeline for development of the technology plan aligns with the state’s budget planning process, with a completion deadline of March 2008.

A draft will be available after Feb. 1, 2008, for system groups to review and to offer feedback.

The Taskforce will collect feedback at state commission and council meetings, WACTC and other groups. Full- and part-time faculty are being surveyed this fall to learn, among other things, how faculty want to use technology, the best ways for them to find out about new technology, and preferred modes of receiving technology training.

Task force membership

The task force has representation from State Board members and staff, WACTC, college staff, CIS, ITPG, faculty, K-12, and private sector technology entrepreneurs with expertise in public issues. Board Member, Reuven Carlyle, is the taskforce chair and David Borofsky, president of Bates Technical College, serves as vice chair. Learn more about the work of the Technology Transformation Taskforce.

Ideas or questions?

If you have questions or ideas, contact Cable Green, eLearning Director, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

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Re-Hosting: A long, strange trip coming to an end

By Corey Knutsen, Executive Director, Center for Information Services

For the last 25 years, the community and technical colleges have relied upon the HP3000 system to store and process data.

Over the years, a few attempts were made to move off this platform to something more modern, but none met the needs of the colleges and were abandoned.

The impetus to move to a new platform came early in 2000, when Hewlett-Packard announced that they would no longer manufacture the trusty old HP3000 systems.

Many employees—both at the colleges and at CIS—were approaching retirement age. When they left, much of the knowledge of the old systems and programs would leave with them. It also has become difficult to find employees with the technical knowledge and experience to program and maintain this retro (aka obsolete) equipment and applications.

So after two years of research and planning by campuses and the SBCTC, at the end of 2002 the Washington state Information Services Board voted unanimously to approve a Re-Hosting Project.

After a few false starts—e.g. vendor securing a bid on the project and later realizing it was beyond their scope—the Re-Hosting Project is on pace to go live with the first college in early 2008.

Looking forward

The CIS is moving the college administrative computer programs—Student Management Systems, Financial Aid, Financial, Payroll and Personnel—from the HP3000 computer platform to a modern one. This project lays the foundation for the technological future of the community and technical college system.

Many of the existing programs will look familiar, and at the same time, there will be new applications and capabilities introduced as a result of the move.

The project has already provided access to train and familiarize college staff to some of the new programs. For example, staff can log into the system and create reports using their college data from an earlier period.

More access and training will be provided as additional programs are completed, such as Degree Audit and Financial Aid.

To date, the project is completing the job of building infrastructure and testing the main administrative programs listed above. All programs have to be completed and thoroughly tested before the new systems can be used in a live setting at a college.

Learn more at the Re-Hosting Project website. Contact Corey Knutsen with questions or comments.

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ITPG collaborative process seeds new IT projects

By Laura Saunders, ITPG Chair, Vice President for Administrative Services at Bellevue Community College

The Information Technology Planning Group (ITPG) is charged by the CIS Executive Committee with evaluating and prioritizing long- and short-term technology priorities and initiatives with system-wide application.

Based on a successful test on the collaborative development process which resulted in ePortfolio, the CIS executive committee approved proceeding with seven additional projects in fall 2006.

What’s so special about this structure?

The collaborative research and development process uses a structure for each project that includes a:

This process is described more fully in the System Technology Plan.

Because re-hosting is the primary focus of CIS, the current round of projects needed to be largely independent of CIS support. In fall 2006, the CIS executive committee approved seven projects – at the recommendation of ITPG – and also authorized CIS to hire a project manager to support collaborative development. Jean Buckner joined CIS in February 2007 and now acts as project manager for all seven projects.

The ITPG web site describes the charter, membership and meeting dates. Track the progress of all the collaborative projects.

Finished projects

ePortfolio – In implementation on the campuses. Provides a student-based portfolio used by students to build an electronic portfolio of work that they can take with them after they graduate.

CMMS Computerized Maintenance Management System – Replaces home-built or purchased systems for tracking maintenance on a campus, processing work orders and analyzing the resources required. The CIS executive committee authorized adding this system to the centrally-supported core systems and it is now available for installation throughout the system.

Projects under development

Simplified Sign-On – The Simplified Sign-On aims to establish a foundation for a modern identity and access management framework for the CTC system and should enable streamlined maintenance of secured internet resources currently in use by the CTC members. This would enhance opportunities to cooperate with higher education, K-12, and third party solution vendors. Bill Storms, Walla Walla Community College, project lead.

Purchasing – Integrated purchasing system will provide automated access for ordering, tracking and receiving purchases. The project is well underway and an RFP will be released this fall to the vendor community. Laura Saunders, Bellevue Community College, project lead.

Online Advising – Provides an online (Web-based, mobile) suite of educational planning tools to support the student’s ability to plan and transition through the state’s educational systems. Rick MacLennan, Olympic College, project lead.

Online Application – Provides an efficient, effective electronic application to meet recruitment and student services requirements in a highly competitive market. Sue Williamson, Skagit Valley College, project lead.

Time and Attendance – An online time and attendance reporting system would allow for the electronic collection of hours worked, leave taken and related approvals. Rick Brumfield, Green River Community College, project lead.

Course Management System Review – A system-wide project to research and evaluate course management systems (CMS), including functionality, system architecture, costs and funding. The project will result in findings colleges can use to develop their local CMS strategy. The review builds the foundation to deliver services collaboratively and presents colleges with an opportunity to work as a large and united client to prospective vendors and potentially gain cost and performance advantages. Marc Lentini, Highline Community College, project lead.

E-Mail Retention – Changes in federal law regarding records retention have a major impact on all campuses. This project is researching system-wide solutions and is being assisted by the Attorney General’s office. Tom George, Bates Technical College, project lead.

If you have questions or ideas, contact an ITPG representative, project lead or Laura Saunders.

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CAR Project: Driven to innovate

By Russ Beard, CAR project sponsor, Director of Information Systems at Big Bend Community College

After a series of workshops facilitated by consultant Chris Handley and attended by 40 stakeholders from across the system, in March 2007, the CIS Executive Committee decided the community and technical college system needed to design a new way to develop applications.

Our college system had clearly lost its technological competitive advantage in the educational marketplace and needed to get back in the driver’s seat. As a result, the Competitive Advantage Reclamation (CAR) project was launched in April 2007 by the CIS Executive Committee.

CAR has three core activities to redesign and rethink how applications are developed for the system:

Based on input from Information Technology Planning Group and the Technology Transformation Taskforce, two applications were identified for development. Two additional applications will be identified for development in October.

Details on the progress of each of the three core activities are as follows:

Application Development

Online Searchable Catalog will allow catalogs and class schedules to be searched by current and prospective students. Users will be able to search catalogs and schedules at all 34 community and technical colleges by looking at an individual college or all of the colleges together. In the future, this will tie students and other users into an educational planning/online advising tool. This application should have the flexibility for the State Board to approve new programs and for colleges to create course outlines online. It will also support an application interface that gives colleges the flexibility to export electronic data to their print format of choice.

Electronic Funds Dispersal will allow colleges to disperse funds, such as financial aid awards, to the recipient’s bank of choice. In the end, a college should be able to choose whether or not they ever want to print a check again.

We are currently working on the functional requirements to build or buy the new applications. The goal is for these applications to be available to colleges after they migrate to the new .Net administrative application platform.

Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)

BPR is a management approach aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness of processes within and across organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate" perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they conduct business.

The activity to conduct the process analysis for re-engineering the Admissions and Registration module will begin by mid-October. A BPR facilitator/trainer has been contracted and a team of college representatives is being formed to conduct the analysis. This activity is expected to take approximately 10 to 14 weeks.

CIS Post Re-Hosting

Corey Knutsen, Center for Information Services, is working with consultants to analyze the structure of CIS and make recommendations on changes needed to best serve a post re-hosted system. This activity is being conducted in coordination with the Technology Transformation Taskforce subgroup on governance.

For more information, contact Russ Beard, CAR Project Sponsor.

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