1ready, fire, aim!university of saskatchewan ready, fire, aim! presented by: lea pennock director,...

Ready, Fire, Aim! University of Saskatchewan1

Ready, Fire, Aim!

Presented by:Lea PennockDirector, Student Information SystemsSharon ScottManager of Communications, Student & Enrolment Services Division


Ready, Fire, Aim!A bold approach to implementing a

campus portal


Acting boldly, and seizing their chance,

With no promise of funds in advance

A team of mere mortals,

Unacquainted with portals

Put one in by the seats of their pants.


A bit about us…• Lea Pennock, Director of Student Information Systems• Sharon Scott, Manager of Communications (SESD)• University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

– 18,000 undergrads– 2,000 grad– 13 colleges, full range of programs– 1 of first 3 in the world and first in Canada to implement

Luminis Platform 3


Many IT professionals are rushing to produce portalware and portal-like web pages without fully understanding the scope of a portal undertaking for an institution or even really understanding what a web portal is or should do. —Howard Strauss, 2002


So…what is a portal?


Characteristics of Portal Technology

• Consolidation: multiple services via single sign on (SSO)

• Consistency: common look and feel

• Community: tailored to specific groups based on institutional role

• Customization: user-tailorable, in both content and form

• Channels: to deliver content and services

• Content Management: tools for managing/distributing content


And…what should a portal do?


Portal technology changes your institutional web environment…

“…from an institution-centric repository of information and applications into a dynamic user-centric collection of everything useful to a particular person in a particular role.”

—Howard Strauss


And… how did we do it?

• Just-in-time project management• Evolutionary budgeting• Tightly scoped - focused on quick wins• Soft rollout• Faculty pilot• Two launches - quiet launch first, loud launch later


Governance• Advice and Advocacy

– Advisory committee with broad campus representation

– Leveraged previous needs assessments

• Decisions and Work– Lean, mean steering committee

– Small, practical working team


Ready!


• Urging from Director of University Communications• Common desire to enhance campus web services

– Stakeholders develop preliminary business plan– Various technologies investigated

• Student dissatisfaction with telephone registration • External review recommends virtual one-stop• Colleges developing local solutions• SIS vendor selection process

– Scope — is portal in or out? Do we really need a portal?

Momentum Builds


Fire!


The Stars Align• May 8, 2003 - Board of Governors approves Banner Student

Project with portal

At this point…• We had the demand

• We had the technology

• We had the institutional will

But…


We didn’t have…

• A contract• A project team• Any funding• A governing structure


Other Challenges• What do we call this portal?• Coordination with Student Central and self-service goals• College-specific portals being developed• Jurisdiction/governance

– Need for high-level policy committee– Coordination with Si! Project and UniFI Project– How does the portal fit into the University structure?

• Content issues– Portal not a technical project, but the default is to assign to IT staff– Who has the authority to publish channels? To send e-mail, post

announcements, and to whom?– Who is in charge of the content development and maintenance?– What to put in the portal - establishing content/service priorities– Instructor data not consistently collected and stored


Decision Time

• Gather forces• Determine authority and responsibility• Determine scope - what will be included for soft launch?

You can’t always plan for opportunity—sometimes you just have to take a giant leap into the unknown! – Lea and Sharon (stranded in airport)


Aim!

How do you eat an elephant?


May – June 2003• Project Manager assigned

• SCT visit – rush meeting with advisory committee

• Review of previously gathered requirements

• What was “out of the box” and what would be doable?

• Charter document developed

• Project team established

• Technical training - Salt Lake City

• September 1st target launch date set - What? Are we crazy?

• Contract signed May 41st


July 2003• Technical training continues

• Content planning begins – Vendor consultants onsite– Broad campus representation

• Technical team tasks

• Realization that team needs to address content issues too

• Weekly Steering Committee meetings - amazing progress!


August 2003• Continued technical/channel development

• Content training is needed

• Scheduling challenges around summer vacations

• Look/feel design begins

• What will we call the portal? What do students think? Real cookies work!

– My.usask.ca– Paws.usask.ca– Mypaws.usask.ca


paws.usask.ca wins …paws down!

PAWS: Personalized Access to Web Services


Engaging the Campus• Luminis demos for stakeholders• Dog & pony show - 2-day, 6-presentation blitz across campus!• Content administrator training• Development & testing environment up and running

• Fall teaching institute – introduce PAWS to new faculty• Targeted Announcers assigned and trained• Developed training courses to be offered (ITS Training services) • We’re on the eve of the launch, all set to go, guns are loaded…


September 1, 2003

E-mail to Associate VP (ICT) from Technical Lead…

Rick,

The portal is not yet live due to an unforeseen requirement to re-install the entire portal

—Todd Trann, Technical Lead


September 4, 2003• Content is king - Content Lead assigned (officially)

• PAWS Team– Project Manager from ITS– Technical Lead from ITS (and technical staff)– Content Lead from SESD (and designers and writers)– Central Webmaster & WebCT Administrator– ITS Training Services staff– ITS Help Desk staff– Student Information Project Administrative Assistant

• Team begins meeting weekly to continue development and plan for official launch


Soft Launch Success!• Soft launch occurs, just 3 days off target date

– Allows for feedback and bug fixing– No hype means no expectations– Go ahead, get your paws wet…

• Steering Committee amazed at richness of initial release

• PAWS Team catches up on sleep…


The Launch Menu


For Students…


For Faculty and Staff…


For Faculty…


Groups Tools…


For Alumni…


If you build it…• Stats for week one - over 4,000 users!• 7,000 users by the end of October• Faculty pilot project begins• Fall development continues and more services continue to roll out

– Campus Arts Scene Channel– PAWS FAQs Channel– PAWS Training Channel– Huskie Headlines– Huskie Game Schedules– U of S Webcam– Weather Channel

• CBUC in Oct – PAWSitive feedback• Plans begin for “official” launch


Official Launch PlanningOctober to December

• Student Information Project Communications Task Force charged with launch planning

• Request from Student Central (one-stop) to co-launch

• Winter settles in


January – February 2004• Development continues

– AskUS! (Intelliresponse technology)– My Files– My Grades– My Exams– T2202A access– Transcript request with e-payment

• Winter continues…


Official Launch

• March 15-19, 2004• Student engagement (volunteers,

student newspaper, student societies)• Computer lab managers across

campus• ITS help desk• College staff representatives• Poster, banners, giveaways,

presentations, t-shirts, advertisements, announcements, balloon trees, brochures

• Winter continues…


Usage Statistics

• 37,000 accounts with 15,000 users• More than 4,000 courses• More than 75 unique special interest and administrative groups

—and growing!• More than 300 faculty, staff and students have taken training

courses offered by ITS Training Services


What did we learn?


Technology is the easy part• Need to address business process issues behind content

management• Need content lead• Collaboration is key – portal crosses lines of responsibility

– Overlaps in service areas

– Uncoordinated communications

– Faculty with existing web pages

– Colleges with own portals, etc


Needed a high-level policy committee

• Stewardship– of content, roles, communication, users, permissions…

• Responsibilities for data– Collection, storage, accuracy, distribution, updating, removal…

– Compliance with privacy requirements

• Image and message consistency• Identification of new potential users

– prospective students, researchers, service providers…


Risks can turn out to be strengths

• No plan– Could seize opportunities, quick wins, low-hanging fruit

• Tight timelines – Forced quick decisions

• No budget – Can’t go over budget! (don’t try this at home)

• Early adopter– Co-development with vendor team


Under-sell, Over-deliver!


Bulls eye!


With PAWS, we are…• Responding to expectations (students are ready for this)

– Meeting current needs

– Building a base for additional services and new audiences

• Advancing U of S image– Branding (leveraging existing awareness of UofS huskies)

– Reputation (among students, colleagues,etc)• Facilitating adoption of technology by more faculty (students

drive this)


With PAWS, we are…• Communicating more effectively with all constituents

– Targeted messaging– Reducing e-mail clutter

• Building communities– Portal users– Content providers

• Continuing to work with our vendor in feature development• Proving value through usage (system sells itself)


To what do we owe our success?

• Talented and committed staff• Campus was ready, prior work had been done• Commitment and persistence: “doggedness” (despite some

nay-sayers)• Agility in decision-making• Key campus units bought in

– Early adopters (SESD, Communications, Engineering…)• Vendor support• Enthusiastic project sponsor


Future Targets

• Delivery of ERP services through PAWS– New systems replacing legacy systems with a focus on

distributed self service• Content management strategy (as opposed to just Sharon)• New channels and services


We needed a portal because

Our website was riddled with flaws

So boldly we went

For leather hell bent

And we managed to limit faux PAWS!

1ready, fire, aim!university of saskatchewan ready, fire, aim! presented by: lea pennock director,...

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