ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Technology for the
st
21
Century
Use of Intranets and Associated Web Based
Technologies in the Management of
Educational Institutions
Presented By:
Robin Maraj
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
The Internet
The Internet is a Vast Configuration of Interconnected
computers – a network of networks – stretching from
one end of the globe to the other, and everywhere
between.
It’s an infrastructure, a conglomeration of
transmission channels and control mechanisms. It
consists of computers, peripherals components,
telephone lines, satellites and an assortment of other
infra-structural services.
Websites, e-mail, e-commerce; these are a few of the
terms that we generally associate with the Internet.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Enough about the Internet. It’s time to discuss
those other ‘nets’
Intranets and Extranets.
Where do they fit into the Picture?
Intranets and Extranets are private networks that
provide access to shared data and resources,
including printers and back-up storage devices.
They may connect to the internet but aren’t
required by definition to do so.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
What are they used for in the general environment?
Most are maintained by businesses and public institutions
and they almost always contained classified information such
as payroll records, or personnel files, that isn’t for viewing
by unauthorized users.
Intranets vs. Extranets
An Intranet is an entirely private network.
An Extranet is a private network with some publicly
accessible control.
An Intranet is like a building with no doors.
An extranet has a door but the room into which that door
open is not connected to any other rooms in the building.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
An Extranet allows a company to publicize certain bits of
information, such as inventory records, or a corporate
calendar of events, while protecting classified information for
internal use.
Security: This is always a major issue. The most secure
intranet is one that isn’t connected to the Internet.
Firewalls and password protection are two of the most
common security measures employed in the protection of an
Intranet or Extranet.
To summarise: Intranets and extranets are becoming popular
as a way of distributing information and foster
communication and collaboration in medium to large
companies.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
They combine the advantages of using existing network
infrastructure as a communication medium and the ease
of use that has made the Web such a hot item.
Intranets and extranet sites reside on dedicated servers in
the form of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and
other Web-native formats, and users can access them
with web browser software like Internet Explorer that
most network PC’s have already.
If your organization has a LAN (Local Area Network)
then you already possess most of the hardware required,
to implement an Intranet.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Intranet as a Solution:
• Instantaneous access to information by
authorized users. (Administrators, Students,
Lecturers)
• Distribute resources efficiently, easily and
effectively. (Economically). (Quality
across the board).
• No more sneaker net.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Intranets save organizations money
Costs less because:
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Programming (much less)
Labour (less; update once)
Customizable
Printing (Print on demand) Timetables,
brochures, course details, transcript etc.)
• Expandable – when you made the move to
Extranets, a large part of your cost will already
have been incurred.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Intranets save organizations resources
Problems without the Intranet:
• Users do not have the time or energy to wade
through a flood of documentation.
• Hard to access and share electronic information
(Groupware)
• Information provided is not used because it is
too hard to access or search.
• Information is often out of date.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Private uses of Intranets
 Collaboration and Other Two-ways Communication
• Sharing Design Drawings
• Whiteboard
• Conferencing, either Video- or Text-based
• Project information and coordination
• Individual status sheets
• Progress inquires and reporting
• Surveys and feedback
• Memo Distribution, Comment, and Reply
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Human Resources
• Policies and Procedures
• Benefits – Read About or Check
• File Time Cards, Requests for Leave, and Travel
Forms
• Employment Opportunities
• Finance-Management Query
• Style Guides
• Quality Manual
• Orientation Materials
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Training and Help
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•
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Training Manuals and Tutorials
One-line Help
Task Request Forms
Quick Reference Guides
Software User Guides
Hardware Manuals
Seminars
Spreadsheet and other Document Templates
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Corporate Strategy
• Competitive Analysis
• Strategies
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Contacts and Scheduling
• Phone, Fax, and E-mail Directory
• Events Diary
• Scheduling Information
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Resource
and Asset Management
• Conference Room Scheduling
• Reservation of Video Equipment
and Car Pools.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Research Information
and Resources
• Text Libraries
• Access to Data Warehouse
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Managerial Information
• Employee Info-bases
• Performance Tracking
• Computer Reports
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
What you need to build an Intranet
•
•
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•
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Network Infrastructure
Client hardware
Client software
Server hardware
Server software
Network Operating System
Web server
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Apache
Microsoft Internet Information Server
Netscape’s Fast Tract server
Netpresenz
WebStar
• Other
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Planning and Intranet
Don’t just start creating an Intranet.
Map out your needs and plan of attack first
Questions to ask
• Who is responsible for …
–
–
–
–
–
Authoring the Web site?
Update the Web site?
Technical support?
Checking accuracy and appropriateness of content?
Site security
• What do you want to DO with/on your Intranet? Talk
to potential users and find out what they currently do
and what they could use.
• Who gets to access what materials?
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Things to do
• Inventory your equipment – can everyone
who needs to access the Intranet?
• Get a domain name
• Transfer over legacy data, especially that
found on mainframes
• Plan for several months ahead, if not
years.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Build the Intranet in Stages
3 Phases to the creation of an Intranet
1. Demo
2. Plot
3. Rollout
At every stage, test with users – this insures greater
acceptance by users, less training, and better
functionality.
3 levels of information/communication found on Intranet
1. Static displays of information, such as phonebooks
and newsletters – try it out
2. Basic business and workgroup applications – save
money
3. Web-enabled applications across the enterprise –
make money.
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
Issues in building the Intranet
Plain and useful wins out over glitz and showiness on
an intranet – remove anything that doesn’t contribute to
your business goals and user friendliness.
Provide easy access to the things people will use most
often – one good way to do this is to provide a Site Map.
Make sure everything works with all the browsers used
on your Intranet.
Plan for growth – your directory structure needs to be
orderly and your coding needs to be flexible and clean
Build security in the group up – include firewalls,
encryption, and passwords
ACHEA Conference July 2002
‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’
After the initial rollout of the Intranet
• Look for new technologies to help down the road
• IPV6 or Ipng (“IP next generation”) brings great
new benefits
– Replaces TCP/IP’s current 32-bit addressing scheme
with a 128-bit system
– New security features
– Better bandwidth management
– Real-time communications
– Multicasting
– Auto-configuration of IP addresses on demand
• XML: eXtensible Markup Language
• Java