A Standards Based Data Exchange Network Jeff Alderson, Director of Pre-Sales Solutions April 8, 2009

Who We Are Founded in 2002, Privately held corporation Team of former K12/Post-Secondary education, business and technology experts First network to integrate with SIS to bridge K12/Post-Secondary, first to deploy PESC XML Industry leader in secure acquisition and transmission of electronic student records, applications, and financial materials Largest and fastest growing Going to College/Career Network Committed to Industry Standards (PESC, SIF)

A Call to Action Stated / Visible Market Need Many proprietary transcript exchange networks exist Secondary and post secondary schools forced to choose a network Not all higher education institutions participate on all networks Statewide transcript exchange systems can’t deliver transcripts out of state, or only on a single vendor network Existing transcript “hubs” are technologically complex and cost prohibitive for secondary school participation Industry / Non-Profit / Vendor Support No clear, nationwide, widespread adoption of published standards Transcript Vendors open to “coopetition” (PESC Panel, April 2008) SIS Vendors remain committed to standards bodies workgroups and activities but slow to support new standards in products (no APIs)

The Proposed Solution A Standards-Based Methodology for Data Exchange Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach, over the internet Well documented set of APIs with free, open source examples A single API for the request, creation, import and export of transcripts and related documents, used by exchange networks or individual SIS vendors Distributed trading partner registry to manage secondary, postsecondary, industry and other participants (senders and receivers) All documents are securely routed to their final destination regardless of SIS or transcript exchange vendor used Cooperation Between SIS, Transcript Vendors Meets stated goals of “coopetition” between established transcript vendors Reduces development time, costs for participating vendors Differentiates vendors based on services; not technology or standards used Supports an ATM-like model for the routing of data and collection of fees

Supported Standards Security WS-Security or equivalents HTTPS-Only Connections Trading Partner SSL Certificates required Formats All transactions are XML, SOA-style messages Request, response, acknowledgement handling Payload in XML message depends on transaction Supports any known standard, file or binary payload Web Services Published WSDL for Trading Partner APIs API Endpoint URLs stored in Trading Partner Registry OS, Platform, Programming Language Independent Example code and documentation available Could be Open Sourced under GPL The Technology Potential Trading Partners Transcript Vendors ConnectEDU Docufide National Student Clearinghouse National Transcript Center Xap Others Post-Secondary SIS Vendors Oracle SunGard Datatel Mainframe / Open Source / Others Direct Participants Individual schools or districts (LEAs) or SIS vendors Statewide transcript exchange systems Statewide longitudinal data systems (SEAs) Customized SIF Agent for Trading Partner API Individual post-secondary institutions International Organizations (RS3G) Others

Trading Partner API Documented API using Web Service Methods Open Source Examples and Implementation Guide Non-Profit Sponsorship (Hosting?) of Registry A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a single entity (PESC, for example) Initial, root registry should be hosted at a public URL Federated registry among trading partners More to come from PESC regarding a potential business model

Supported Document Types in API SIF / SPEEDE / PESC Standards PESC XML High School, College Transcripts, Admissions Application, etc. SIF Message, Transcript, Student Record, etc. SPEEDE ANSI X12/EDI Transcript, Applications, Test Scores, etc. PESC XML Batch Containers to support multiple documents in one transmission PESC Acknowledgements to support positive delivery of document(s) Image File Formats TIFF, JPG, PNG and other binary image file formats PDF (with and without embedded XML data or attachments) Custom File Formats Any XML document with an associated DTD and XSD in a public URL space Any CSV, TXT, delimited or flat-file plain text formats with documented schema Supports XML Schemas still in development by SIF/PESC working groups Supports Proprietary Schemas in use by specific trading partners

Trading Partner Forum Single Online Location for Exchange Network Activities Discussion Forums for Developers, End Users and Network Administrators Documentation Repository and Knowledgebase (Exchange Wiki) Hosted Root-Level Trading Partner Registry Free and open source API code examples Working API test harness and test registry for developers Account Management console for registered trading partners and end users Centralized URL for a Trading Partner Portal (e.g. Supported by Participating Standards Bodies, Users Potentially hosted by PESC, SIFA or other interested entities Code examples, best practices, guides contributed by vendors, end users Encourages more widespread adoption of standards by users Extends reach of standards movement to other entities, internationally

Trading Partner Registry Single Registry to Control Partner Authority Trading partners marked as authoritative for a given sender/receiver Identifies which document types, versions each partner supports Proposed schema for registry is platform, database independent Registry updates protected by secure web services – partners can only update the registry for those institutions for which they are authoritative Registry Replication Amongst Partners All trading partners replicate the entire contents of the registry Ensures high availability of the entire network in the event of outages A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a single entity (PESC, for example) Non-Profit Sponsorship and Hosting of Registry A common, standardized registry should be established and supported by a single entity (PESC, for example) Initial, root registry should be hosted at a public URL