Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 1 Call to Action! Bernard W. Gleason JA-SIG uPortal Conference Vancouver, British Columbia June 10, 2002

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 2 Management Issues Agenda »uPortal – Original Objectives – What has happened? »Trends, Issues, Opportunities, Roles »Web Services and uPortal »Where should we be headed? »How we might work together on management matters? »Management Issues -- Roundtable

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 3 uPortal – Original Objectives »Open Source and Free »Java Framework – Not a Product »By Higher Education for Higher Education »Institutional Ownership – Enterprise Solution »No Commercialism and No Vendor Lock-in »Share Resources – Ideas and Technical Skills »Cooperative Development – Applications and API’s »But No Long-term Plan or Time Schedule

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 4 Trends, Issues, Opportunities, Roles »No Company Behind Product – testing, documentation, help »Limited Internal Technical Skills »Lack of Management Understanding – What is a Portal? »Decision-making – Apps vs ERP vs Commercial vs uPortal »Project (Product) Directions and Marketing Strategies »Funding -- Coordination of Project Efforts

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 5 Trends, Issues, Opportunities, Roles (cont’d) »Limited Support from ERP and Application Vendors »Internationalization and Influence of a Growing Base »JA-SIG --Collective and Powerful Voice »Federal Government – progressive data provider »New Types of Partners – uPortal adoption »Campus Governance of Integrated Apps (Portals) »Web Services -- Service-Oriented Applications

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 6 Product Strategies »Applications need to be easy to create and maintain – Plug and Play »Application vendors need to view uPortal as complementary, not competitive »Integration vendors need to take over long-term customer relations and support »Web Services needs to be adopted as a standard channel interface »Standards-based trust agreements with Application Service Providers and application vendors

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 7 Promise of Web Services “The promise of Web Services lies in its ability to resolve differences among shared network applications. Applications from different vendors, from various vintages, written in different languages, running on different platforms, easily communicate and cooperate, resolving the differences to act in concert.” Carl Jacobsen,University of Delaware Are Web Services Hype or Reality? Gartner Feb “Web Services is all about standards.” Barry Walsh, Indiana University

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 8 gleason ******** Existing Application Service Model Sign-on at Every Site Multiple ID/Passwords One-at-a-time Agreements Proprietary Data Exchange Information: Redundant Outdated Inconsistent

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 9 »Component-based »Standard Scenarios and Templates »Integration Framework (Portal) Plug & Play

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 10 Service-Oriented Application Model Browser Authenticate Directory Portal Campus Application Internet Applications Internet Applications Students Faculty Staff Parents Alumni Single Sign-On Web Services Transitive Trust B AC

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 11 Service-Oriented Applications »Service-Oriented Applications -- combine the capabilities of Portals and Web Services to create a new class of applications. »Confusing Terms: Portals, Web Services »Service-Oriented Applications as Solutions

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 12 Portal Browser Authenticate Calendar Alerts Campus News Weather Search Results Portal Library Search Assignments

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 15 Service Application -- Design Example Authenticated Loan Disbursements Aid History Student Account Financial Aid Documents Payment Plans Portal Billing Dining Account Finance

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 16 Service Application Framework

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 17 Web Services Channel

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 19 Core Systems Populate Student Records Human Resources Alumni Records Admission ….. Directory Dynamic Provisioning LDAP Light Directory Access Protocol Entity IDs Numbers User IDs PINs Passwords Access Privileges Roles/Jobs Groups/Permissions Privacy Preferences Portal Preferences

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 20 Transitive Trust BC AC A ConstituentUniversity Portal Application Resource SSLSOAP/SAML/ebXMLCert Higher Ed & Federal Bridges Transitive Trust Encryption

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 21 Management Roundtable »Need packaging of documentation and channels – especially small schools and schools with limited technical resources »Need continued and expanded technical contributions of institutions »Need to continue close working relationships with other working groups – e.g., I2, OKI. »Need to decide funding requirements and directions »Need JA-SIG to exert consortium influence on management, vendors, data providers, ASPs, application and ERP vendors – institutions can not do it alone »Need participation of systems integrators (e.g., IBS) to provide on-going support

Information Technology  © 2001 The Trustees of Boston College   Slide 22 Management Roundtable (cont’d) »Need to make it easy for ASPs and application vendors to expose components without jeopardizing profits or growth »Need leverage of data provider partners – e.g., Department of Education »Need continued fiscal support of Sun Microsystems and participation in cooperative efforts »Need cooperatively developed demonstration models – “Show and Tell” – Executives buy into solutions, not abstract ideas »Need publicity, presentations and articles to get attention of executives, national organizations, vendors, data providers »Portal Decision Information – “What is everyone else doing?” – uPortal vs. Other Approaches – Testimonials and Metrics