Ready, Fire, Aim!
Presented by:
Lea Pennock
Director, Student Information Systems
Sharon Scott
Manager of Communications, Student &
Enrolment Services Division
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Ready, Fire, Aim!
A bold approach to implementing a
campus portal
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Acting boldly, and seizing their chance,
With no promise of funds in advance
A team of mere mortals,
Unacquainted with portals
Put one in by the seats of their pants.
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
A bit about us…
• Lea Pennock, Director of Student Information Systems
• Sharon Scott, Manager of Communications (SESD)
• University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
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18,000 undergrads
2,000 grad
13 colleges, full range of programs
1 of first 3 in the world and first in Canada to implement
Luminis Platform 3
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Many IT professionals are rushing to
produce portalware and portal-like web
pages without fully understanding the scope
of a portal undertaking for an institution or
even really understanding what a web portal
is or should do.
—Howard Strauss, 2002
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University of Saskatchewan
So…what is a portal?
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University of Saskatchewan
Characteristics of Portal
Technology
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Consolidation: multiple services via single sign on (SSO)
Consistency: common look and feel
Community: tailored to specific groups based on institutional role
Customization: user-tailorable, in both content and form
Channels: to deliver content and services
Content Management: tools for managing/distributing content
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University of Saskatchewan
And…what should a portal do?
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University of Saskatchewan
Portal technology changes your
institutional web environment…
“…from an institution-centric repository of
information and applications into a dynamic
user-centric collection of everything useful to
a particular person in a particular role.”
—Howard Strauss
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University of Saskatchewan
And… how did we do it?
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Ready, Fire, Aim!
Just-in-time project management
Evolutionary budgeting
Tightly scoped - focused on quick wins
Soft rollout
Faculty pilot
Two launches - quiet launch first, loud launch later
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University of Saskatchewan
Governance
• Advice and Advocacy
– Advisory committee with broad campus representation
– Leveraged previous needs assessments
• Decisions and Work
– Lean, mean steering committee
– Small, practical working team
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University of Saskatchewan
Ready!
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Momentum Builds
• Urging from Director of University Communications
• Common desire to enhance campus web services
– Stakeholders develop preliminary business plan
– Various technologies investigated
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Student dissatisfaction with telephone registration
External review recommends virtual one-stop
Colleges developing local solutions
SIS vendor selection process
– Scope — is portal in or out? Do we really need a portal?
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Fire!
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University of Saskatchewan
The Stars Align
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May 8, 2003 - Board of Governors approves Banner Student
Project with portal
At this point…
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We had the demand
We had the technology
We had the institutional will
But…
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University of Saskatchewan
We didn’t have…
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A contract
A project team
Any funding
A governing structure
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University of Saskatchewan
Other Challenges
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What do we call this portal?
Coordination with Student Central and self-service goals
College-specific portals being developed
Jurisdiction/governance
– Need for high-level policy committee
– Coordination with Si! Project and UniFI Project
– How does the portal fit into the University structure?
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Content issues
– Portal not a technical project, but the default is to assign to IT staff
– Who has the authority to publish channels? To send e-mail, post
announcements, and to whom?
– Who is in charge of the content development and maintenance?
– What to put in the portal - establishing content/service priorities
– Instructor data not consistently collected and stored
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Decision Time
• Gather forces
• Determine authority and responsibility
• Determine scope - what will be included for soft launch?
You can’t always plan for opportunity—sometimes you just have to take a
giant leap into the unknown! – Lea and Sharon (stranded in airport)
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University of Saskatchewan
Aim!
How do you eat an elephant?
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University of Saskatchewan
May – June 2003
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Project Manager assigned
SCT visit – rush meeting with advisory committee
Review of previously gathered requirements
What was “out of the box” and what would be doable?
Charter document developed
Project team established
Technical training - Salt Lake City
September 1st target launch date set - What? Are we crazy?
Contract signed May 41st
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University of Saskatchewan
July 2003
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Technical training continues
Content planning begins
– Vendor consultants onsite
– Broad campus representation
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Technical team tasks
Realization that team needs to address content issues too
Weekly Steering Committee meetings - amazing progress!
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University of Saskatchewan
August 2003
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Continued technical/channel development
Content training is needed
Scheduling challenges around summer vacations
Look/feel design begins
What will we call the portal? What do students think? Real cookies
work!
– My.usask.ca
– Paws.usask.ca
– Mypaws.usask.ca
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University of Saskatchewan
paws.usask.ca wins
…paws down!
PAWS: Personalized Access to Web Services
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University of Saskatchewan
Engaging the Campus
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Luminis demos for stakeholders
Dog & pony show - 2-day, 6-presentation blitz across campus!
Content administrator training
Development & testing environment up and running
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Fall teaching institute – introduce PAWS to new faculty
Targeted Announcers assigned and trained
Developed training courses to be offered (ITS Training services)
We’re on the eve of the launch, all set to go, guns are loaded…
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University of Saskatchewan
September 1, 2003
E-mail to Associate VP (ICT) from Technical Lead…
Rick,
The portal is not yet live due to an unforeseen requirement to
re-install the entire portal
—Todd Trann, Technical Lead
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University of Saskatchewan
September 4, 2003
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Content is king - Content Lead assigned (officially)
PAWS Team
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Project Manager from ITS
Technical Lead from ITS (and technical staff)
Content Lead from SESD (and designers and writers)
Central Webmaster & WebCT Administrator
ITS Training Services staff
ITS Help Desk staff
Student Information Project Administrative Assistant
Team begins meeting weekly to continue development and plan for
official launch
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University of Saskatchewan
Soft Launch Success!
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Soft launch occurs, just 3 days off target date
– Allows for feedback and bug fixing
– No hype means no expectations
– Go ahead, get your paws wet…
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Steering Committee amazed at richness of initial release
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PAWS Team catches up on sleep…
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University of Saskatchewan
The Launch Menu
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University of Saskatchewan
For Students…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Students…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Students…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Students…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Students…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Faculty
and Staff…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Faculty…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Faculty…
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University of Saskatchewan
Groups Tools…
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University of Saskatchewan
For Alumni…
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University of Saskatchewan
If you build it…
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Stats for week one - over 4,000 users!
7,000 users by the end of October
Faculty pilot project begins
Fall development continues and more services continue to roll out
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Campus Arts Scene Channel
PAWS FAQs Channel
PAWS Training Channel
Huskie Headlines
Huskie Game Schedules
U of S Webcam
Weather Channel
CBUC in Oct – PAWSitive feedback
Plans begin for “official” launch
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Official Launch Planning
October to December
• Student Information Project
Communications Task Force charged with
launch planning
• Request from Student Central (one-stop) to
co-launch
• Winter settles in
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University of Saskatchewan
January – February 2004
• Development continues
– AskUS! (Intelliresponse technology)
– My Files
– My Grades
– My Exams
– T2202A access
– Transcript request with e-payment
• Winter continues…
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
Official Launch
• March 15-19, 2004
• Student engagement (volunteers,
student newspaper, student societies)
• Computer lab managers across
campus
• ITS help desk
• College staff representatives
• Poster, banners, giveaways,
presentations, t-shirts, advertisements,
announcements, balloon trees,
brochures
• Winter continues…
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University of Saskatchewan
Usage Statistics
• 37,000 accounts with 15,000 users
• More than 4,000 courses
• More than 75 unique special interest and administrative
groups—and growing!
• More than 300 faculty, staff and students have taken training
courses offered by ITS Training Services
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University of Saskatchewan
What did we learn?
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University of Saskatchewan
Technology is the easy part
• Need to address business process issues behind content
management
• Need content lead
• Collaboration is key – portal crosses lines of responsibility
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Overlaps in service areas
Uncoordinated communications
Faculty with existing web pages
Colleges with own portals, etc
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University of Saskatchewan
Needed a high-level policy
committee
• Stewardship
– of content, roles, communication, users, permissions…
• Responsibilities for data
– Collection, storage, accuracy, distribution, updating, removal…
– Compliance with privacy requirements
• Image and message consistency
• Identification of new potential users
– prospective students, researchers, service providers…
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University of Saskatchewan
Risks can turn out to be
strengths
• No plan
– Could seize opportunities, quick wins, low-hanging fruit
• Tight timelines
– Forced quick decisions
• No budget
– Can’t go over budget! (don’t try this at home)
• Early adopter
– Co-development with vendor team
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University of Saskatchewan
Under-sell, Over-deliver!
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University of Saskatchewan
Bulls eye!
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University of Saskatchewan
With PAWS, we are…
• Responding to expectations (students are ready for this)
– Meeting current needs
– Building a base for additional services and new audiences
• Advancing U of S image
– Branding (leveraging existing awareness of UofS huskies)
– Reputation (among students, colleagues,etc)
• Facilitating adoption of technology by more faculty (students
drive this)
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
With PAWS, we are…
• Communicating more effectively with all constituents
– Targeted messaging
– Reducing e-mail clutter
• Building communities
– Portal users
– Content providers
• Continuing to work with our vendor in feature development
• Proving value through usage (system sells itself)
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
To what do we owe our
success?
• Talented and committed staff
• Campus was ready, prior work had been done
• Commitment and persistence: “doggedness” (despite some
nay-sayers)
• Agility in decision-making
• Key campus units bought in
– Early adopters (SESD, Communications, Engineering…)
• Vendor support
• Enthusiastic project sponsor
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University of Saskatchewan
Future Targets
• Delivery of ERP services through PAWS
– New systems replacing legacy systems with a focus on
distributed self service
• Content management strategy (as opposed to just Sharon)
• New channels and services
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan
We needed a portal because
Our website was riddled with flaws
So boldly we went
For leather hell bent
And we managed to limit faux PAWS!
Ready, Fire, Aim!
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University of Saskatchewan