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Administrative Computing Coordinating Council
AdC3 Home | Meetings | 10/2/00
 
 

October 2, 2000

3:00-4:30 p.m.
1003 Engineering Unit II
Agenda and Minutes

Agenda

  1. Announcements
  2. Pending Items for Future Consideration
  3. DaFIS Upgrade Project Report
  4. DaFIS/DOCS Project Report

Minutes

Present: Chair Alan Laub, John Bruno, Joseph Calger, Bob Franks, Michele Fulton, Janet Hamilton, Kay Henschel in replacement of Mary Duthie, Debbie Lauriano, Lana Moffitt, Kathleen Moore, Robert Ono, Dave Shelby, and Carol Wall.

Excused: Mary Jo Anderson, Mary Duthie, John Meyer, Richard Plant, Celeste Rose, and Abby Zubov.

Staff to the Council: Ian Blake and Randy Moory.

  1. Announcements

    Chair Laub had no announcements. Announcements from John Bruno, VP-IET, were:

    Status of VPOP negotiation with PacBell -- The agreement with PacBell for remote access to the campus is proceeding. A pilot project for dial-up modem access from Sacramento and Vacaville will be the test areas.

    Status of Fiber Connection to Sacramento -- The agreement with Charter Communications to provide dark fiber between Davis and downtown Sacramento is not proceeding well. Charter is unable to fulfill its obligations under the agreement. We are continuing to look at other alternatives to obtain this connectivity.

    Introduction of Security Coordinator - John Bruno introduced Robert Ono the new Security Coordinator for the campus. Robert briefly described his prior background at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District as the Security manager.

     

  2. Pending Items for Future Consideration

    Randy Moory identified several projects that will be on upcoming Council agendas. These projects are: the E-recruitment project that Vice Chancellor Carol Wall will present at the next meeting, the Document Management system for BANNER, Web Payment Methods, and the New Business Architecture.

    Chair Laub asked whom was working on the Web Payment Methods. Debbie Lauriano replied that her staff was preparing an inventory and assessment of methods currently used on campus. Once the review is completed, Debbie will present their report to VP Bruno for consideration.

    The Council mentioned that the New Business Architecture was moving at the Office of the President, especially on the E-commerce initiatives. A council member asked if the New Business Architecture was moving towards standardization of systems across all the campuses. Janet Hamilton replied that standardization is the direction especially on E-commerce systems. Lana Moffitt mentioned that the New Business Architecture was discussed at the JOG meeting and the University was moving toward assessing UCLA's E-procurement processes, UCSD's portal application, and UC Berkeley's Human Resources system. Council commented that this examination was directed towards surfacing the best practices. John Bruno mentioned that he and Vice Chancellor Hamilton were working on a group to address the New Business Architecture at Davis.

    Chair Laub asked for additional information about the E-recruitment project. Vice Chancellor Wall replied that the purpose of E-recruitment is to use technology as a tool to recruit new students. E-recruitment will allow the focus of content to narrow groups of potential students, providing a custom message to specific target groups. At the next meeting, VC Wall will bring the proof-of-concept proposal to the Council for review and endorsement. The project will focus on Humanities, Art, and Cultural Studies which does not fill all the open incoming student slots. The pilot sponsor is Dean Langland.

    Council asked if the main idea is to improve the student yields. Also asked was whether graduate student could be the focus. VC Wall replied the project tools are flexible and graduate student recruitment could be a focus. However, in schools and colleges that have unfilled opening, improving student yield into those programs would be the objective.

     

  3. DaFIS Upgrade Project Report
    Handout: Reasons for 11-10-2000 Upgrade

    Bill Grabert provided an update to the Council about the updates to the DaFIS system. DaFIS will undergo an upgrade to its application software and database over the November 10 - 12 period. The upgrades will improve performance of the system.

    Council asked many questions about the upgrade. These were:

    Question: Are the users prepared for the upgrade?
    Reply: They have been working and communicating with the users and all are aware of the upgrade program.

    Question: Is the new minimum hardware configuration met by all campus departments?
    Reply: This is unknown, but it does not appear to be a problem. Users have not raised the issue during consultation with campus users.

    Question: Are there DaFIS clients that use the Citrix server and Apple computers? What is the impact of the upgrade on them?
    Reply: Yes, there are DaFIS clients using Apple computers. The upgrade testing did not consider any of these uses. The issue of how well they will scale is not resolved. Council members suggested contacting Tom Fortis who is doing work in this area.

    Question: What is the long-range strategy for DaFIS? How will the campus move to thin-client architecture?
    Reply: DaFIS programmers are working on a proof of concept using JAVA. The application software vendor, Uniphase, is developing a new version that supports web-based clients. This strategy appears to fit best into the New Business Architecture. Debbie Lauriano commented that there is also a 3 to 8 year plan for BANNER to be rewritten as a JAVA application. Having both applications written in the same programming language greatly leverages the programmer resources on the campus. Council commented that the change to a web-based architecture will be driven by the progress towards implementing the New Business Architecture.

    Question: How does the campus move to a standard structure for applications with the same look and feel, etc?
    Reply: VP Bruno and VC Hamilton are working on the creation of a Steering Committee to address the New Business Architecture. The New Business Architecture envisions a single portal with access to all campus systems such as DaFIS and BANNER. The Steering Committee would work with AdC3 to achieve successful implementation of the New Business Architecture. VP Bruno and VC Hamilton will bring the Steering Committee formation proposal to ITPB in October.

    Question: Will the response time in DaFIS be better with the new upgrade?
    Reply: Yes, the response time should be better than estimated originally.

     

  4. DaFIS/DOCS Project Report

    Don Eernisse presented the DaFIS DOCS (Department Order Change System) to the Council. The DaFIS DOCS project addresses an outstanding issue with DaFIS associated with current service department ordering and billing information systems and their exchange of information with DaFIS. DOCS will be an intermediary translation application to allow service departments to accurately put information into the DaFIS ledger.

    Council asked many questions regarding DOCS. Questions and replies were:

    Question: What is the estimated cost for DOCS?
    Reply: The estimated cost is $500,000

    Question: Is the concern the number for the transaction?
    Reply: The lack of a campus standard for use of a full account unit code is a problem. No authentication is required to put information for a service department transaction into the DaFIS ledger. DOCS will provide interface from the service department to DaFIS ledger.

    Comment: An issue is the level of data between the service department system and DaFIS.
    Reply: Yes there is an issue about level of data. Some departments want more, others need less. DOCS will provide drill down from the ledger to the more detailed service department information.

    Question: Will DOCS affect service departments?
    Reply: Yes, but not as great as requiring a standard for the full account unit code. Implementing a campus standard requires a cultural change and would have an economic impact. DOCS is an intermediate step to resolve the issues.

    Question: Is DOCS a movement in the direction of implementing the New Business Architecture?
    Reply: DOCS is a intermediary step within the current DaFIS architecture to solve immediate problems.

    Council commented further on the importance of validation of the user and account information before posting transactions to the DaFIS ledger. Council raised the subject of Enterprise Directory Services, which is a topic before the Technology Infrastructure Forum. An enterprise directory may provide a central database to authenticate users for various campus business systems. Chair Laub requested that Enterprise Directory Services be an agenda item for the next meeting.

    Council asked VC Hamilton what was wanted from AdC3. VC Hamilton replied that Council's advice on whether DOCS is an appropriate way to proceed.

The meeting adjourned at 4:48 PM.

 


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