Planning a Campus Portal: Where Strategy, Policy, and Technology Meet

Steve BarrettCornell University

Jonathan MarkowJA-SIG, Inc.

Ted DoddsUniversity of British Columbia

Robert SherrattUniversity of Hull

Ian DolphinUniversity of HullJA-SIG: Gateways & Pathways June 4, 2006

Agenda

8:30 Introductions8:45 Why a Portal?9:15 Strategy & implementation - Hull9:45 Break10:00 Strategy & implementation - UBC10.30 Technology issues11:15 Service Oriented Architecture11:45 Conclusion

Some Definitions

Portal: “A website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to a search engine.” -Answers.comVertical Portal: “A Web site that provides news, articles and services to a particular industry such as IT, finance and retail. It is the industry-specific equivalent of the general-purpose portal on the Web. Also called a "vortal."” -Answers.com

Definitions

A replacement for the campus Intranet?•“The University home site is its face to the world”•“The University portal is its face to its own community”•Membership•Proof of affiliation•Proof of identity

Definitions

Campus Portal: “A thin, secure, layer which aggregates, integrates, personalises, and presents information, transactions and applications to the user seamlessly, according to their role and preferences.” –University of Hull

Everyone’s Got a Portal

•Your ERP vendor•Your Third-party billing vendor•Your Business Intelligence vendor•Your e-Business vendor•The Business School•The Law School•The Department of Medieval Persian Literature

Multiple Portals – Good or Bad?

•Redundancy and Confusion•Multiple service frameworks•Federated Portals•“Portal Portfolio Management”•The “Master” Portal

Campus Portal Characteristics

•Aggregation•Combat information glut•Pull like content together and present it as common links and portlets•Forms•Employee Benefits•Campus Publications•Clubs•Library Resources

Portal Characteristics

•Personalization•Student Portal different from Staff Portal “logically” but use the same infrastructure•Engineering student’s layout not the same as Business School student’sStudent A subscribes to local sports news; Student

B prefers the Photography Club

•Pushed Content / Subscribed Content•Layout Flexibility

Portal Characteristics

•Single Sign-On

•Engineering student’s layout not the same as Business School student’sStudent A subscribes to local sports news; Student

B prefers the Photography Club

•Access Control•Roles•Groups/Permissions

Portal Characteristics

Other:•Content Management•Collaborative Workgroup Tools•Seeded Content•(See clearinghouse.ja-sig.org)

Making the Business Case

Three Important Tips:•Best if IT is not the owner•Executive sponsorship is essential•Exception: The “Stealth” Pilot

•Include costs and risks in addition to benefitsBonus Tip:•The Enterprise Portal has powerful strategic value. That can be the most difficult case to make, but don’t neglect it!

Making the Business Case

Two Perspectives:Return on Investment•“Hard” ROI – Financial benefit can be estimated•“Soft” ROI – Qualitative benefits (Colin White, BI-Research.com)Operational vs. Strategic Benefits•IT Infrastructure Savings (Easy to quantify)•Business Process Efficiencies (Moderate)•Strategic Objectives (Hard) (SCT: www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CSD3820)

Making the Business Case

“Hard” BenefitsMore efficient use of staff time

Self-service applications reduce cost of support visits and calls

Lower Computing Costs Enterprise frameworks for storing, sharing, accessing business content reduce costs

Reduced Travel Expenses

Collaboration services create effective remote communication

Making the Business Case

Sungard SCT “Word Formula” example calculation for Putting Student Grades online:To calculate cost savings that will accrue from student self-service, we need to know the following information:· Total number of students (e.g., 10,000) at your institution· Number of students (e.g., 8,000) who use the institution’s intranet· Number of times per year that students interact in person with the records office to view grade records (e.g., 2times per year)· Average time in minutes spent responding to in-person student request (e.g., 6 minutes per request)· Registrar’s office clerical labor cost per hour (e.g., $11.00/hour)· Estimated percentage of in-person student information requests that will be eliminated if grades are available for viewing via campus portal (e.g., 80%)

Making the Business Case

“Soft” BenefitsIncreased productivity

Users locate and manage their work more easily

Support strategic objectives

Building a paperless organization; enhancing research; improving teaching/learning

Increased student satisfaction

Institutions known for outstanding student services were early portal adopters

Making the Business Case

IT InfrastructureReduced Support Calls User Self-Service

Reduced System Integration Costs

Adaptable infrastructure; re-usable services

Lower Password Administration Costs

Single sign-on

Reduced redundancy HW/SW Purchase Avoidance

Reduced cost of changing vendors; increased choices

Open Standards

Reduced training costs

Collaboration tools

Making the Business Case

Business Process ImprovementIncreased Alumni Donations

Alumni portal builds school identity; online contributions

Increased Staff Productivity

Aggregation and Search foster easier access to information

Less costly to do business

Process automation

Easier to improve business processes

Integration, workflow, collaboration tools, aggregation

Reduced cost of changing vendors; increased choices

Open Standards

Making the Business Case

Meet Strategic ObjectivesImproved teaching and learning

Improved communication and collaboration

Tuition generation

Facilitate Research

Build community

Hull - Background 2001

MIS Application - Ageing, Ingres basedLibrary Systems - Innovative

Both with limited web interfacesInstitutional web content

Web sites by HeinzStaff Intranet -

Assorted mid-late 90s technologiesVirtual Learning Environments (aka LMS)

Low license level, monolithicBUT - Latter excepted, all within a converged service

For Hull, why a Portal?

Single point of call for usersSimplified sign-on

Target delivery to user needsNot all users need all content & apps

Common presentation layerUsers learn interface once

Abstract presentation layer from app

More productive use of development staff

The Digital University Project

Began in Student Intranet planningReview & renew institutional processesAddress user overload

Multiple passwords?Multiple interfaces?Accessibility?

Address development overloadEnable component / service re-use(Don’t re-invent presentation …)

Governance & Process

Establish common visionSenior Management buy-in

Examples, visualisations …Steering Group

Broad membership …Working Groups

Flexibly created for purposeDevolved project planning frameworkManaging expectations

Issues

Web-enabling applicationsNew developer skills?

Aggregation of web-based contentEnsuring timely and accurate content

Web content managementAccessibilityExternal content

The JISC Information EnvironmentStandards conformant, but …

Variable pace of standards development

What users wanted …

Content/Applicationsf2f/online SurveysFocus groupsCard sort prioritisation exercises

Joint Information Systems Committee ProjectsPresenting natiOnal Resources to Audiences Locally (PORTAL)Examine external content users want/needhttp://www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/Contextual Resource Evaluation Environment (CREE)Portlet-enabled search and X search toolsJSR 168, WSRP

http://www.hull.ac.uk/esig/cree/

Phase 1 > September 2003

Portal (uPortal) roll-out to staff and studentsInteract with personal information

Module registration, results, timetablesKey library informationWeb-based information

Web content management systemJava based, in-house + purchased

components Workflow embeddedAccessibility enhanced output

Web-based email integration

Phase 2 - Consolidation

Incremental adding apps/informationContent Management

Move from home grown to OSS (Hypercontent)Big Bumps

Examination resultsWhere does a portal stop? > Specialist App

User support > user profileDisplaying weaknesses in dataPortal as window

ImplicationsID Management and person profileArchitectural implications - SOA

CIO Perspective

The leadership question:Technology mechanic or business leader?

“Does IT matter?”Get executive attention to IT beyond problem

Lead to create demand and to supply solutionsDemand and supply roles are self-reinforcing

Leadership through influenceFormal positional power is not necessarily an option

KSF in decentralized environment (UBC)

The Role of the CIO: Demand/SupplyDemand-Side LeadershipUnderstand the fundamentals of the environmentCreate a shared visionShape and inform expectations for an IT-enabled enterpriseCreate clear and appropriate IT governanceWeave business and IT strategies together

“The New CIO Leader”, Broadbent and Evans, 2005

The Role of the CIO: Demand/Supply

Supply-Side LeadershipBuild a new IS organizationDevelop a high-performing IT teamManage enterprise and IT risksCommunicate performance and expectations

“The New CIO Leader”, Broadbent and Evans, 2005

uPortal Experience at UBC

Very early adopterSeptember 2000 uPortal Rev. 0.5?Decision drivers“free” e-Commerce portals vendor owned the data and hence the relationship Target audienceIncoming student cohortApproximately 5,000 people

see Moore, G. A. (1991) Crossing the Chasm, Harper Business, New York

Moore’s Technology Adoption Curve

uPortal Experience at UBC

One student focus groupWhat do you want from portal?Generated a very long list of ideasWhat will make you return to use the portal?Communication tools (webmail) Ability to interact with other students and with facultyAdoption was phased, starting with incoming cohortExploded and within a year we were over 30,000 users, 11,000 per day

uPortal Experience at UBC

Immediate challengeease of channel creation and management, content creationcountering the perceived risk of “centralization”immature tool setcreated new need for IdM strategy and toolstools did not exist at the time

Immediate reward“free” portal vendors forgottenwebmail unexpectedly successfulfaculty adoption and use (in addition to student)portal became focal point for broader IT strategy development

uPortal Experience at UBCLaunch of e-Strategy Framework in June 2001Portal implementation gave us a beach-headBuilding the community, the portal affords a natural focal point even though it doesn’t do most of the hard work!

IT Governance• Executive

Steering• Advisory

Communication• Annual Town Hall • e-Newsletter

Projects• myUBC• Network• WI-FI, VOIP• HR/FM• SIMPL• SOA

uPortal Experience at UBC

Since early daysLarge user base retained by webmail, some WebCTLack of appropriate and scalable IdM solution limited scope

Mini-portals successfully used in SIS (SSC and FSC)Fell behind curve

Focus shifted to other areasHR/FM, IT organization changes, university-wide network program

HR/FM project deployed PSFT management portalStand-alone or uPortal

Recent upgrades to improve infrastructure scalability & reliabilitySets stage for move to current software release in calendar 2006

Renewed interest in portalEmerging and renewed portal strategy

Not currently considering alternatives to uPortal

The Evolution of Open Source “up the stack”

Hype Cycle for Open Source Software – Gartner 2005

Service Oriented IT: What It IsService: a software component that carries out a specific part of a business processe.g. a credit card authorization. has a well defined, platform independent interfaceis reusable, autonomous, can be “orchestrated”Service Oriented Architectureloosely coupled services services use middleware to communicate and execute business processesuse standard schemas when they are availableThomas Erl, “Service Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design, Prentice-Hall, 2005

Service Oriented IT: Goals of the ArchitectureBreak business processes down into:process or control logicbusiness logicapplication functionsUse standard data models and schemasBuild reusable “services” to provide the business logic and application functionsUse rules engines for the internal logicUse workflow for the process logic Loosely couple components Agility - make process change easier!

Gartner Group, 2004

SOA in Higher Education

UBC Hosted Workshop - March 2006Participationheterogeneous, international group25 participants, 12 institutions, 3 countriesGoal of the workshopBuild the community knowledge base needed to create a Conceptual Framework of cross-cutting university services. OutcomesProof of concept: service analysis, decompositionhttp://educationcommons.org/projects/display/CSSSS/Home

MIT Hosted Workshop – July 10-14, 2006

Business Process: Apply for Admission

Preliminary Service Candidates: Apply for Admission

HighLevelofReuse

• Services all customers• Applicants• Students• Faculty• Administrators

• Provisioned according to• Roles• Permissions

Managed in the identity management system

The Portal

SIS as a series of loosely coupled applications

Portal Futures

Exposing weak business processes & renewalCan take “some time” to build consensus

Architectural Implications still being explored

Potential new requirements/refinements“A design is only complete when there is nothing left to take away”

Groups and permissions & uPortalTechnology renewal

UI work, customisation, richer interactionBreaking down silos, Web 2.0, Library 2.0…

Many implications from agility to permeabilityRequirements process