Ontario Universities’ Application Centre IAAO September 2017 Valerie Boyd, Acting Executive Director Trudy Sykes, Director of Operations

Agenda The OUAC at a glance Major Accomplishments and Challenges Application Management System (AMS) The Goal The Result The Highlights What is “New Normal”? Leadership Team and Succession Planning Strategic Planning Organizational Structure New Partnerships Questions?

The OUAC at a Glance Established in 1971 as a independent organization under the leadership of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), we manage the flow of student applications to 20 of Ontario’s universities Applications include: undergraduate, law, medical, rehab sciences and education programs, and some contracts The OUAC is a division of COU Holding Association Inc., which is a registered charity. All funds not required for running the OUAC are distributed to the universities to support their application processes. We are a Non Profit Organization; all proceeds in excess of operating costs support the admission services at Universities only university excluded is RMC Contracts include: Contracted development for University specific applicant related systems (Graduate Applications and Undergraduate Part-Time)

The OUAC at a Glance Universities make all admissions decisions; we facilitate the flow of data to and from universities and applicants We also work with guidance counsellors and provide university admission information for students (eINFO, Ontario Universities’ Fair, University Information Program) Admission Information Service (AIS): Allows applicants who may not have an offer of admission to determine which universities still have specific programs available We maintain an extensive electronic transcript system Admission Information Service is a service that allows applicants to determine which universities may have places remaining in specific programs. This service will be available from June 5 to August 25, 2017.

OUAC By the Numbers... 218,292 applicants filed 671,927 choices In 2016-2017: 218,292 applicants filed 671,927 choices OUAC collected over $70 million in revenue OUAC transferred over $56 million to the universities Between 1971 and 2017 the OUAC processed: 6 million+ applicants over 17.5 million applications (choices)

Application Management System (AMS): Project Overview 2014: We contracted Oracle to implement PeopleSoft Campus Solutions (CS) OUAC built the front end (Application Interface) and Oracle resources built most of the back end (PeopleSoft) portions for the applications A highly collaborative initiative to tie everything together It was a tight 2-year timeline to plan, build, test and implement the new AMS

AMS: Goal/Scope Our largest project ever Aggressive mandate – must go live Fall 2016 20 universities – dependent on us (and vice versa) Complete replacement of core system! Integrate existing EDI and document management XML and flat file distributions Complexity – 900+ page distribution specification (6,500 element/combinations!) Note./.. Core system is 35 to 45 years old!

Risk Management 200,000+ applicants annually 20 universities – and their resource constraints Replacing all of our core systems within 2 years (including interfaces) PeopleSoft – complex and new to us XML distribution is new, different – and highly critical Extensive testing Failure is not an option – impacts to applicants and universities ** complete replacement except for EDI and document management ** reinforce that our distributions are the most critical part of our process and that the format was completely changing for ourselves and many of the universities Pre-testing applicant throughput Lots of testing of Distribution processes at volume

The Results We went live on time! Medical school application (OMSAS) taken out of scope There were bumps… and still are High stress at times Aggressive risk mitigation during project and first cycle 10 universities getting XML distributions We are completing the first cycle Didn’t lose any OUAC AMS team members! Substantial work still to do All hands on deck at go-live

Highlights Teams within teams Strong communication Tremendous support from universities Rapid response/triage teams – October to January Benefits now and future

What is “New Normal”? Still very much in transition mode Continuing to stabilize and simplify Developing new processes Adjusting organizational structure Converting remaining universities to XML distribution Moving OMSAS on to new AMS for 2019 cycle; all using XML Moving Document Management and EDI systems off legacy hardware Simplify systems/de-commission legacy hardware Transcripts – Canada/Global opportunities - Lots of work still to do

Leadership Team and Succession Planning Currently in ninth month of Executive Director (ED) search. Succession planning for several senior management positions due to loss of managers through resignations and upcoming retirements.

Strategic Planning Previous ED started process; however, this was stalled due to AMS Project and implementation Loss of Executive Director Extended medical leave of a senior manager Plans in place to have current management team pick up planning work. Needed for next budget and operational planning

Organizational Structure AMS has substantially altered work processes. Development work on value added tools is not complete New functionality added (single applicant) has added new work. Standardization across departments will allow for some restructuring

New Partnerships Education is at the provincial government in Canada. Ontario has made very significant changes to the financial support given to postsecondary students. Application centres have supported this initiative with major system changes. Implementation of this is happening this cycle.

Questions or Comments? Valerie Boyd Acting Executive Director boyd@ouac.on.ca Trudy Sykes Director of Operations sykes@ouac.on.ca