101 BEST PRACTICES >> Administrative IT

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101 BEST PRACTICES >> Administrative IT

11/24/2006

Edited By Katherine Grayson

When it comes to Administrative IT solutions and processes, best practices run the gamut. Enterprise resource planning (ERP), student information systems (SIS), and tech support are obvious areas of focus. But just think about the change that could be accomplished via the implementation of campuswide document imaging and sharing, a new approach to RFP writing, or the reassessment of disaster recovery strategies and tools Never let it be said, however, that the smallest, seemingly innocuous alteration in practice can’t make a difference: Even a new user-friendly interface that invites recalcitrant fundraising officials to actually use their advancement software, or washing machines that announce from cyberspace that they’re ready to be unloaded, can dramatically change life on campus as we know it.

68 :: WANT ADMIN IT DONE RIGHT? DIY

MULTIPLE BEST practices from
San Joaquin Delta's Belarmino.

At San Joaquin Delta College (CA), Lee Belarmino, associate VP of IT, and his peers couldn’t find an administrative system that worked for them, so they built their own. “We weren’t just interested in the latest technology for technology’s sake, so we protected our legacy investment in processing on a very large mainframe Unisys system while we did our research on all the major players in the administrative world,” Belarmino recalls. “We found the choices extremely pricey for what they were delivering. So, we developed our own administrative system—almost a full suite: a student information system, a human resources system, and a payroll system. As the first large-scale administrative system based on object-oriented development, it took a number of industry awards.” The college also has an off-the-shelf Oracle financial system.

Belarmino admits that his review of existing products was discouraging, but now other institutions will benefit, too; see “Partnering for Community Source Financials,” page 49 in our magazine. More info here.

69 :: ‘REAL’ EXPERIENCE FOR PROSPECTS

Franklin & Marshall College (PA) administrators decided that installing a formal software portal for recruiting wasn’t worth the expense. But they’ve gotten savvy about using webbased technology to serve up a personalized experience of the college. Using Macromedia Flash animations and streaming video, along with humor, the college tries to help prospective students feel personally involved with the school. The most recent innovation is student video blogs, or vlogs. The concept is risky: Give video cameras to four university students and let them chronicle what is happening in their lives, behind the scenes and hanging out in the dorms. “No scripts, no rehearsals,” the vlog homepage promises. Visitors can even pick a student tour guide by viewing four video selfintroductions. Then, as they cruise the campus looking at the facilities, they can get their tour guide’s impromptu comments. Dennis Trotter, VP for enrollment at Franklin & Marshall, calls the approach “experience marketing,” adding, “We try to use technology to let the personality of the college shine through.” More info here.

70 :: SELF-RECRUITING = YIELD BOOM

With 40,000-plus unique website visitors each month, Massachusetts’ North Shore Community College saw an untapped opportunity to connect with potential students surfing the college website. The solution was a self-service eRecruitment system that school administrators developed, with the following components: 1) A web interface was created that allows potential students to identify themselves to the college, access a customized web page with links to resources that match their interests, and subscribe to the college’s electronic mailing list. 2) The recruitment component of the college’s SunGard Higher Education enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was activated and connected to the web interface. All potential student information is now captured and transparently passed through to the ERP system, and potential students are placed in communication tracks. 3) The college developed an eMarketing system that allows personalized e-mails to be sent to target populations. E-mail campaigns are developed and managed by a communications team, in cooperation with the college’s Marketing department.

The results: In the first year of operation, more than 5,400 visitors self-recruited and recruit numbers went up more than 800 percent. A subsequent eMarketing campaign yielded a 30 percent increase in early enrollments for the fall semester. Now, all communications are tracked using the school’s ERP system, which allows the college to make strategic decisions based on hard data as recruitment efforts are refined over time.

71 :: BI NEEDS SENIOR-LEVEL CHAMPION

TDWI's Wells on BI

Launching a business intelligence initiative is tough enough in private industry. But higher ed institutions face some extra hurdles in rolling out a data warehouse for business intelligence, according to David Wells, director of education with The Data Warehousing Institute, a training and educational institute for business and IT professionals. Among the challenges Wells and others cite is that of gathering consensus. Unlike a typical large business, a university isn’t a single enterprise, Wells points out. It can be politically difficult if not impossible to get various entities across campuses to agree on basic issues, such as what the end-purpose of the data warehouse is, what data to share, and who should be in charge. “I think it’s a more challenging business case to make,” Wells says, partly because institutions typically divide immediately at the top into academic and administrative sectors. Because a data warehouse has to integrate across organizational boundaries, he says, the arguments that might sell administrators usually don’t resonate with the academic community, and vice versa. “It takes a real believer driving from the top to make it happen.” More info here.

72 :: IT SECURITY ON CAMPUS

DARTMOUTH makes a token effort.

Dartmouth College (NH) has been one of the “early adopters” of public key infrastructure (PKI) technology among higher ed institutions. Toward this end, administrators opted to utilize “tokens”—specifically, eToken technology from Aladdin Knowledge Systems. eTokens include a USBbased token, a hybrid USB and OTP token, a token with flash memory, and more. The key-sized tokens simply plug into a USB port to enable on-board generation and secure storage of keys, passwords, and certificates for digital signing and encryption.

Dartmouth has issued eTokens for the past two years to all incoming freshmen, and is planning to issue tokens for all undergraduates and graduate students within the next two years, as well as to all faculty, staff, and even alumni. The school had also considered smart cards for authentication and password management, but went with USB token devices because smart cards require readers, and there would have been additional cost and maintenance compared to the USB ports available on nearly all computers. The technology is getting less complex and more affordable, say campus spokespeople.