Case Study
Purdue University
“As we went through the assessment process, it was remarkable how
closely aligned Active Data was to our initial requirements. We knew there
were many opportunities as we went through the planning process and
evaluation. We determined that Active Data was a complete solution that
met all our needs.”
Robin Jones, Director of Technical Services
Purdue University
The simplicity and
ease of use was
evident and
refreshing. The
evaluation team
found the system to
be intuitive and
logical.
The calendar has
been an ideal solution
serving as the de
facto source for all
trustworthy event
content for visitors,
users and subscribers.
The richness and
flexibility of Active
Data Calendar
created new
opportunities for
Purdue.
Active Data Exchange
190 Brodhead Rd.
Suite 300
Bethlehem, PA
18017
610.997.8100
info@activedatax.com
www.activedatax.com
The Challenge
Purdue University, recognized internationally for academic excellence in science,
technology, and agriculture along with collegiate sports, had a web event solution
in place that was difficult to use with no reasonable ability to expand or add
additional features.
Given the importance of the many on-campus events and activities occurring at
the school, coupled with the limitations of the existing solution, staff and
administration realized that it was vital to find a new approach.
From early discussions it was agreed that the goal for the new approach was to
manage and provide detailed event and activity related information to the
general public, including people who were coming to campus for the weekend
and prospective students. Everyone involved in the project also agreed that the
process needed to be easy and the user experience delightful.
Beyond the general public, everyone felt that it would be useful to provide
complete campus related event and activity information so those who don’t have
regular access to campus information could stay up-to-date on all events and
activities occurring at the school at any time.
The Approach
With the need for change in the works, the University Calendar Steering Committee
developed a set of goals and objectives for identifying, evaluating and deciding
on a new approach to address this critical aspect of their overall web strategy.
The basis for the new third-party solution included:
1. The school would not build their own system because of limited time and
resources
2. Because of diverse and numerous events and activities taking place across
campus, the University Calendar Steering Committee knew it was
strategically important to have one centralized master calendar as a
starting point for managing every event and activity
3. After being limited with the existing solution, the school wanted a state-ofthe-art system that was flexible enough to interface with other
calendars such as Microsoft SharePoint and internally developed
options that were written in different languages like PHP
4. The new system had to be able to extend the reach of the event content
found within it for different types of applications and web services
Case Study: Purdue University
About Purdue University
Purdue University, located
in West Lafayette, Indiana,
U.S., is the flagship University
of the six-campus Purdue
University System.
Purdue was founded on
May 6, 1869, as a landgrant University when the
Indiana General Assembly,
taking advantage of the
Morrill Act, accepted a
donation of land and
money from Lafayette
businessman John Purdue
to establish a college of
science, technology, and
agriculture in his name. The
first classes were held on
September 16, 1874, with
three buildings, six
instructors, and 39 students.
Today, Purdue enrolls the
second largest student
body of any University in
Indiana as well as the
second largest
international student
population of any public
University in the United
States.
About Active Data
Exchange
Active Data Exchange is a leading
provider of advanced web-based
unified master calendar platform
products and services that align
and create value for organizations
of any size by delivering a
combined view of date
information that can be drawn
from multiple sources.
The company was founded in
1999 and is located in Bethlehem,
PA.
Enter Active Data Exchange
At the outset, the goal was to implement a calendar with a set of core functionality
that met their primary requirements. As the evaluation team dug deeper, greater
areas of opportunity began to surface. In working with Active Data, several themes
resonated with Purdue’s charge including:
• While important, the team felt that the integration of multiple calendars
would be a rather involved requirement to meet, but given the native
capabilities of Active Data Calendar, it was easy
• Another area where Active Data excelled was its syndication capabilities
where all event content found in the calendar could be shared among
different channels and outlets including social media, mobile and other
web sites
• Finally, because of Active Data’s level of expertise and product depth, it
had a complete set of additional modules to choose from when ready to
expand the functionality of the calendar
Robin Jones, Director of Technical Services recalls, “As we went through the
assessment process, it was remarkable how closely aligned Active Data was to our
initial requirements. We knew there were many opportunities as we went through
the planning process and evaluation. We determined that Active Data was a
complete solution that met all our needs.”
When the evaluation work was finalized there were several compelling reasons
Purdue chose Active Data, including:
• The power and benefit of content aggregation and syndication
• The overall ease of use of the product suite
• The scalability of the system, including new options and opportunities
• A reasonable price that was within budget
The Results
While the original goal was to replace the existing calendar and support the
general public with a complete view of all events happening on campus, the
richness and flexibility of Active Data Calendar created new opportunities for
Purdue. They decided to expand the original scope to include faculty, staff and
students. Accordingly, the purpose of the centralized calendar naturally grew to
incorporate virtually everyone associated with or interested in Purdue University.
Some of the notable achievements thus far include:
• Aggregating event content from multiple sources and presenting through
•
•
•
one, centralized master calendar powered by Active Data is extremely
convenient and valuable because there is now one place for all campuswide event and activity information to be found and relied upon
The calendar seamlessly import content from CBS Sports keeping everything
current, fresh and engaging for their students and fans
After the new system was implemented, the majority of feedback received
was centered on ease of use and the overall efficiency, reducing the time
necessary to update content while increasing completeness and accuracy
Purdue plans to continue extending the reach of Active Data Calendar
and incorporate event content to digital signage all over campus
Not only have all of the core requirements been met according to the University’s
original plan, there is much more capacity and opportunity to come given the
flexibility of the platform and ways it can be utilized.