Achieving Operational Excellence

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2 Introduction Like the world around us, higher education institutions are facing a transformative moment. Technology can be the foundation for creative transformation that we know. But, as David Packard, Industrialist and co-founder of Hewlett Packard, once pointed out, the driving force for transformation is not technology not money but the imagination of people. Institutional leaders and educators charged with setting the standard for the next generation of learners will need to embrace technology imaginatively to drive transformative change. But do we fully understand how the application of that technology and the extent to which it is embraced can drive improvement? Through the creative application of technology, higher education institutions can achieve operational excellence. That means working more efficiently and cost-effectively toward shared goals, leveraging technology and tools to accomplish tasks, and knowing that your institution is flexible enough to accommodate new challenges and new ventures. It also means that your key constituents students, faculty, and staff can more easily get what they need. For example, students gain mobility and quick access to real-time information; faculty realize improved productivity and can collaborate digitally; administrators have accurate data and secure information access, and CIOs spend their time on strategic projects rather than maintaining systems. Achieving operational excellence isn t easy. But through deliberate and careful systems integration planning it is possible to bring new and existing technologies together seamlessly and realize your vision of a digital campus that serves the needs of every constituent. Still, few institutions have documented and approved systems integration strategies in place. Why? Campuses are typically divided into departments, creating silos of information. Education is not viewed as a business and decisions are driven by often-conflicting needs and priorities. Evolving government regulations can stall existing processes. A stressed economy in which layoffs are common prompts fears that efficiency improvements will lead to staff reductions. What s more, those institutions that recognize the need for systems integration want to ensure that new implementations and developments do not compromise progress to date. Over the past several years, many institutions have moved from using information systems predominantly built and maintained in-house to purchasing products from vendors that may be maintained in-house, hosted off-site, or delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). Making these myriad systems and services work together is increasingly crucial to an institution s long-term success. Systems integration is a mechanism for colleges, universities, and foundations to unite their numerous applications, services, and systems to improve and automate business processes, to streamline day-to-day tasks, to create better ways to access and use information, and to facilitate secure access to information. In short, it can improve how your institution teaches, learns, manages, and connects. Understanding how your technological tools can be best integrated and applied to solve your business and operational challenges can help your institution achieve this vision. The first step is to formalize an integration strategy. Systems Integration Defining Your Vision Not only does your institution have integration needs today, it will have more in the future as traditional boundaries between institutions and systems disappear. The key to any higher education institution s success will be how it plans for its application architecture to grow and evolve over time (See Figure 1). Figure 1 - Integration without a strategy and long-term architectural plan creates chaos 2

3 Starting with a blueprint for on-campus integration prepares the campus for future growth. With a transparent plan, institutions are able to add new applications, features, business processes, and mash-ups to their architecture with ease. And they can more readily monitor, route, and transform information while maintaining and expanding the application architecture and adjust that architecture incrementally as business needs evolve. Today, many institutions rely on point-to-point integration. While point-to-point integration is common, it often uses multiple, proprietary approaches and technologies that are not reused across the application architecture nor are they supported by industry standards. This results in solutions that are neither interoperable nor extendable for new application integration. The resulting environment is difficult to maintain, requiring multiple layers of confusing and often unnecessary integration tactics. On the other hand, integration that is standardized across the enterprise and not tightly coupled with the application can be orchestrated and reused for other integration challenges whether those challenges exist on your campuses or between and among institutions. An enterprise-wide integration strategy leveraging Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) promotes agility, enabling institutions to react to change more easily. Because SOA employs standard tools and approaches, business process management (BPM) technologies can be used to facilitate application integration and business process automation across the enterprise application portfolio. For example, your administrative suite is often integrated with third-party applications to replicate student information, but each of those applications likely has a different integration protocol from batch extracts to proprietary messaging architectures. This requires the institution to maintain multiple interfaces for each of these separate systems. In contrast, an SOA approach to integration dictates that the interface is built once, exposing and publishing relevant information in a standards-based format to common middleware so that each application consumes the information as it is integrated into the application environment. Consider the process of assigning a student a dorm room (See Figure 2) where a housing application needs to obtain and update information with the administrative system managing the student s bio-demographic information. When the student is assigned a dorm room, a number of web services could be exposed from each application to facilitate automating this process. The process might include: Checking student eligibility for a room assignment Assigning room Creating a new student address Charging student housing fees Many of these same services could be reused for other systems integration needs on campus. For example, Figure 2 - The process for assigning a student a dorm room the web service that allows the housing system to publish debits to the student s account for the housing fees can also be reused for the campus bookstore, library, and cafeteria applications to publish fees or credits to the student s account. Any third-party application that has been identified to consume the account transaction service can publish to the student account in a common, standard manner, regardless of the application that is trying to talk to the administrative system. Services can be built once and reused for many different purposes. 3

4 One way to achieve this is by implementing business process management technologies, which standardize processes to make institutional applications more Figure 3 - Reusing services for multiple integration problems reduces redundancy and lowers maintenance costs interoperable (See Figure 3). Think of business process management as serving the same function as a universal remote. For example, home entertainment systems often are composed of multiple vendor components. The speakers are from one vendor, TVs from another, DVD players from another and every system comes with its own remote. To simplify the experience, a universal remote can act as one common tool that operates all of the different systems. Today many business processes are embedded in applications if a change to the business process occurs, a developer is needed to make the modification to the application. In an SOA environment, we would instead have each step of the business process exposed as a service and have a business process management tool orchestrate those services in the order to automate the business process. If a change occurs to the process due to a new business process owner or a new regulation, the business user can make that change in days rather than months and with less development effort. The benefits of SOA are clear. SOA eliminates redundancies by standardizing how information operates with other systems. And with business process management tools, you can increase agility and flexibility, allowing your institution to quickly execute change as processes and business requirements change. SOA can help you realize your vision for a better digital campus by providing a rich, robust, agile integration application environment that allows your institution to change as your business requirements evolve. Reaping the Benefits of Improved Systems Integration Clearly identifying and articulating your business drivers for an integration strategy can serve as the foundation for your vision of an improved institutional architecture. You can clearly define the benefits your institution will realize, determine the degree of flexibility you need, and establish a baseline for measuring return on investment. Plymouth State University and Wayne State University are successful with their technology projects because they begin with business drivers and then support those needs with the appropriate technology. They are leaders in maximizing the value of effective integration. Recognizing the benefits of campuswide cooperation, each has taken significant steps to integrate their systems in support of campus goals, whether decreased costs, reduced paperwork, faster service, or an improved overall brand experience. For example, Plymouth State University (PSU) turned to using human workflow technology to provide an open, flexible tool that unites processes, information, and people. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) defines workflow as the automation of a business process, in whole or in part, during which documents, information, or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules. By using workflow technology, PSU is better able to serve its constituents while decreasing costs and manual labor. Successfully deploying more than 20 workflows in various departments, PSU has realized significant results: Quicker application-to-hire time for student employees Improved customer service Decreased amount of clerical work Improved accuracy of data Reduction in paper flow 4

5 After reducing the amount of paper generated by incorporating workflow tools (See Figure 4), the university sought a way to improve communications with students and parents. The PSU Financial Aid team responded, creating a workflow that generates s automatically and immediately to students and parents to alert them when specific information is changed. The system tracks when and to whom the was sent. According to Crystal Finefrock, senior associate director of Financial Aid at PSU, The immediacy of the communication allows students and parents to react to requests for information more quickly, and this helps speed up the financial aid process. Figure 4 - The amount of paper generated during a manual process can be greatly Families and students are very appreciative of the reduced through systems integration immediacy and availability of information, which helps reduce some of their anxiety with the process. And by giving them access to more information in an electronic format, we have reduced our reliance on paper. Also, the volume of phone calls coming in to our office has decreased. These changes allow our staff additional time for one-on-one counseling with families who need our assistance with other financial aid related issues. PSU also implemented a workflow to automate the student employment hiring process. The administrative requirements for the student hiring process were labor intensive and paper heavy. By automating the process, PSU reduced the time it takes to hire a student from an entire week to just 10 minutes. That means the university can now electronically hire approximately 500 students within a matter of days, knowing that the data is accurate and that students will be paid promptly. The supervisor is automatically provided with the student s federal work-study award and information on any other departments where the student is working. This information, along with timely reporting, has reduced the number of adjustments required for students who exceed their Federal work study authorization. If the hire is approved based upon automated system checks, the data is accessible by HR and entered into the HR system. When needed, staff can easily retrieve and print the information for auditing purposes. PSU staff is freed from verifying data, entering data, filing, and r ing forms. [Workflow is] a great example of a solution that lets us leverage the content that is already in our [Banner] environment to provide better services to our constituents, says Zachary Tirrell, MIS manager, PSU. It automates, simplifies, and directs the flow of information through the entire enterprise. The results are efficient operations, increased automation and visibility, institution-wide consistency, and easy exception handling. Wayne State University (WSU) also is capitalizing on workflow solutions, accelerating processes and improving student services. By implementing workflow technology to automate the grade-change process, WSU has condensed the process for making grade changes from 23 steps to four. What once took several weeks now happens in one minute. The university has sustained notable results: Grade change requests are processed and posted within one minute Information is more accurate and is posted faster to academic history Students and faculty are kept informed of the process Faculty has direct control over when and how their changes are handled Grade changes are automatically posted to the student system of record GPAs and hours are automatically recalculated Academic policy is enforced better Audit risks are mitigated 5

6 Prior to creating the workflow, the grade change process was manual and timeconsuming. The person initiating the change submitted a multi-part, carbon copy paper form. The paper form was then physically routed around campus to the grading coordinator, department chair, and others who needed to approve the grade change and sign the form. During peak periods, up to 300 grade changes were delivered daily to the Registrar s Office, taking weeks to a month to complete the request and preventing students from registering for courses. In addition, the Registrar s Office had no way to verify whether the signatures were legitimate. Thus, there was a potential for fraudulent grade changes. Figure 5 - Process improvement through workflow: eliminate multiple steps and save valuable time Today, grade changes (See Figure 5) are initiated by faculty members through WSUPipeline, WSU s portal. Faculty accesses the web form in the Faculty tab within the portal. When the request is made, the web form validates the student information against the data stored in the administrative system. Grade change requests made by full-time faculty members are validated through the system, require no further approval, and the request is processed within one minute. When the new grade is posted, a notice is sent automatically to all involved parties including the student and faculty member. Grade changes are automatically posted, and GPAs and hours are automatically recalculated. WSU plans to automate more processes, including creating a workflow for declaration of major. According to Kurt Kruschinska, Office of the Registrar, Wayne State University, Any process that is labor intensive, complicated, and takes a lot of time for people to do is ripe. These universities demonstrate the value of using technology to provide better access to information and to work more efficiently across the organization. More opportunities are possible. For example, institutions are looking for ways to leverage social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. A more flexible systems integration plan can facilitate new and innovative partnerships to build stronger, lifelong relationships with your constituents. One of the greatest challenges in any systems integration project is ensuring that the implementation of each delivered service addresses high-level business objectives such as continuity, security, and better business processes. Attaining these strategic goals requires, on a fundamental level, that the concept of service be defined outside of technology. Only then can institutions identify systems already in place and determine how to synchronize those existing systems with new, advanced technologies. Challenge or Opportunity? Systems integration represents a significant and growing challenge for higher education institutions. Institutions grapple with hard-to-answer questions such as: Where do we start? Do we have to rip and replace all of the systems we invested in? Will our technology talk to new technologies? How do we measure the return on investment? How do we identify which processes take priority? 6

7 Yet, as respected higher education institutions have demonstrated, systems integration also offers tremendous opportunity. What business processes take a lot of time for your staff to complete that could be automated? Where can you notify students and staff to take action in real time? Where do you need to reduce risk to access to information? What can you do digitally to create new revenue generation opportunities such as offering classes online? Where can you eliminate duplicate data entry? Where can you reduce moving paper between departments and instead leverage technology to facilitate transfer of information and collaboration? How can you better provide your students with the information they need? Effective systems integration can answer these questions and more (See Figure 6). By focusing on the needs of key constituents, institutions can create solutions, fostering an environment of cooperation, leadership, teamwork, and problem solving trademarks of operational excellence. The institutions that accept the opportunity (and the challenge) will not continue to take an ad hoc approach to systems integration. They will be the ones that develop the institution s architecture in line with their business needs. User expectations necessitate information systems that support a Figure 6 - A well-placed integration architecture improves information access wide range of interactions including those that extend beyond the defined boundaries of the institution. Applying SOA helps to develop shared services that are the basis for making these interactions possible, thus strengthening information sharing and promoting a cooperative environment. Just as each institution is unique, systems integration solutions must be adaptive enough to help institutions respond to changing requirements. Throwing technology at a problem won t solve anything. But thinking through the issues that need to be addressed, defining the ultimate goals, and enabling those solutions through technology will take higher education to the next level...so that we can be better tomorrow than we are today. Accept the challenge. Be the driving force of transformation. Imagine... What will your integration strategy enable? About the Author Jaime Chambron, general manager for SunGard Higher Education s Systems Integration Consulting Services, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Harvard University. Jaime s diverse career has evolved from developer to project manager to entrepreneur to IT consultant and allows her to be a creative problem solver in today s evolving technology climate. EWHT-049 (12/09) SunGard, the SunGard logo, the Open Digital Campus, Banner, Luminis, and PowerCAMPUS are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries SunGard. All rights reserved. About SunGard Higher Education SunGard Higher Education serves colleges and universities worldwide, helping them build the resources they need to support new communities of learners. Every day our customers rely on our broad portfolio of solutions and expert guidance to find better ways to teach, learn, manage and connect. To learn more, please visit 7

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