Modernizing Financial Aid Delivery A Status Report Jim Farmer instructional media + magic, inc. As presented at the 2001 EAC-EASCI Financial Aid Administrator Advisory Board Meeting Thursday, June 14 th 2001 Monticello, Minnesota

This presentation is based on “Modernizing Federal Financial Aid” a presentation given by Stephen Hawald, CIO Office of Student Financial Assistance at the May 17, 2001 Postsecondary Education Standards Council Conference Arlington, Virginia

The Department of Education’s Office of Student Financial Assistance is the First “Performance Based Organization” “freedom to innovate”

instructional media + magic, inc. Performance Objectives  “Raise Our Customer Satisfaction Index From a Level Typical of Government to the Range Enjoyed by America’s Best Financial Service Companies.”  “Reduce Our Unit Cost — the Amount We Spend Administering Per Recipient — by One-fifth”  “[Raise] Our Employee Satisfaction Rating…From Mediocre to the Level of NASA Workers Who Reach for the Stars.” Greg Woods, Interim Performance Objectives Nov 15, 1999

instructional media + magic, inc. Customer Satisfaction Federal Government Student Financial Assistance Patent & Trademark Office Internal Revenue Service (e-filers only) Federal Emergency Management Agency U.S. Mint American Customer Satisfaction Index University of Michigan Business School

instructional media + magic, inc. Observations  Customers Using Electronic Services Are More Satisfied Than Those That Don’t.  Agencies That Measure Customer Satisfaction  Have Better Customer Satisfaction That the Federal Government As a Whole  In General, Are Improving Customer Satisfaction

instructional media + magic, inc. Reducing Unit Costs Annual Cost per Recipient $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $ SFA Goal 2004 Projected Planned Reduction Each dollar reduction represents $14 million annual savings SFA FY2001 Performance Plan

instructional media + magic, inc. CIO Score Card Year One  Rational Rose Tools  IBM MQ series - EAI/ Middleware  LDAP Compliance / BI Tools  RSA COTS tools  XML Compliance & Applications  Informatica - ETL tools  Digital Signatures  Published APIs  N-Tier Web Application  Coupled VDC Migration  Designed Data Warehouse  SLA’s in Place  Migrating to Seat Management  OPS Readiness Review  Designed Portal Apps  Internet/VPN  New Management Team  Training  IT Policy Guide Management Operations Technologies B+

instructional media + magic, inc. Two Development Alternatives  “Integrate the Information Systems... a Transition Strategy for Planning and Managing the [Simultaneous] Replacement of All of the Existing Title IV Systems With an Enterprise Data Base and Six Application Modules.” Implementing the Higher Education Amendments of 1998: Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance January 1999  “Buy a Little, Test a Little, Fix a Little” Modernization Blueprint, April 30, 1999

instructional media + magic, inc. Buy a Little, Test a Little, Fix a Little 5 Harry Feely, Project EASI Has Graduated, Aug 28, year timeframe Single implementation Consolidated data Focus on enterprise Conceptual framework 3-year timeframe Modular Virtual data network Focus on channel Planned architecture Project EASIBlueprint

instructional media + magic, inc. Why “Buy a Little, Fix a Little” In 2000, High Performance, Reliable Middleware [available] Immediate Cost Savings From Customer Self- service Via the Web, Voice Response Decreasing Communication Costs Make a Virtual Data Center Cost-effective A Customer Interaction Center Improves Satisfaction, Reduces Unit Costs Integration With Middleware Lowers Risk of Failure

instructional media + magic, inc. The IT Imperative In the face of continuous business reinvention, evolve an infrastructure that provides greater flexibility and speed of response

instructional media + magic, inc. Key Technology Drivers  Internet  Truncated Application Cycle  Convergence / Voice / Data / Video

instructional media + magic, inc. Objective of ITA Build Is to Design, Build and Integrate the Technical Services, Infrastructure, and Components Required to Enable the Delivery of Three Enterprise Technical Architecture Functions:  Internet/Portals  Data Warehouse  Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Integrated Technical Architecture

instructional media + magic, inc. Path Toward Integration  Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)*  IBM’s WebSphere Product  MQ Messaging, Integrator, Workflow  Internet Application Integration (IAI)  SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)  UDDI Directory * Tested, Demonstrated in Highway 1 Project Aug-Sep 2000

instructional media + magic, inc. Web-Enabled Applications  FAFSA on the Web  Schools Portal Release 2.0 with Single Sign-On  Financial Partners Portals – FY 2002  Student On-line Access to Direct Loan Servicing  API to SFA Systems Specifications 09/30/01

instructional media + magic, inc. PBO Victory Initiatives Turbo FAFSA Common Origination & Disbursement Financial Management System with E-Business Center NSLDS Mad Dog Changes Schools Portal with Single Logon E-Sign & P-Note Consistent Answers for Customers (Contact Centers, CRM, Customer Data) Human Resources Support Systems Product Support Analysis (FAFSA, DL Participation, DL e-Servicing)

instructional media + magic, inc. Web Application FAFSA on the Web /2000 Web Application FAFSA on the Web

instructional media + magic, inc. FAFSA On The Web FAFSA e-Filers Millions of students

instructional media + magic, inc. Benefits of Web Applications SFA $23 million Operating Costs Investment Electronic FAFSA

instructional media + magic, inc. Schools Portal Prototype Friday, October 20

instructional media + magic, inc. Technology Choices Announced February 2000  XML - B2B Standard  Business Messages  XML Schema  Java - Transportable Programs  Shared Java Components  Web Implementations – FAFSA  UML - Unified Modeling Language

instructional media + magic, inc. Technology Under Study SOAP for Internet Data Transport  Commercial/open Source Software Available, Supported  Recommended by NCHELP’s Electronic Standards Committee “Commonline”  Implemented by the National Student Clearinghouse, Meteor UDDI – Universal Discovery, Description, and Integration  Directory services, possibly PEPS

instructional media + magic, inc. Electronic ID Technology Vision Schools Financial Partners Applicants, Students, Borrowers Employees, Contractors Authentication Server User Directory (LDAP) Authentication/ Authorization Server Servers (Web, Application, Portals, Search Engines) LegacySystemsLegacySystems Authentication Gateway PINs Passwords Personal URLs Smart Cards “I Agree” Buttons Digital Signatures Biometrics OMB Implementation of the GPEA, May 2, 2000

instructional media + magic, inc. Electronic Identification  Single Sign On for Students and Financial Aid Professionals  Remote Authentication of Students  SFA Pin Via Proprietary Protocol (transitional)  ACES Digital Certificates Via GSA  Plans  Shared Authentication Using SFA PINs, ACES Certificates, School PINs, Bank PINs and Certificates Town Hall Meeting on Electronic Identification December 14, 2000

instructional media + magic, inc. Partnerships  “Open Book” Modernization  Continuing Dialog With the Community  Open Software Developers Conferences  SFA Extranet for Community Feedback 

instructional media + magic, inc. Impact on Colleges and Universities  Change  From Batch to Real-time Transactions,  From Proprietary File Transfers to Internet XML Messaging Standards  From SFA-defined to Industry Message Content Standards  Integrate Student Experience With SFA Student-oriented Systems  Use Java J2EE Shared-components

instructional media + magic, inc. Lessons Learned  E-Commerce Solutions Scale to Millions of Users  Multiple Limited IT Projects  Can Be Managed Effectively  Can Be Integrated Through Architecture, Middleware  Provide Immediate Cost Savings  Talented People Are Available for Interesting Projects  Open Standards and Open Source Software Work

And the future

instructional media + magic, inc. Expect... SFA Common Origination and Disbursements Difficult Limited volunteers Minimal vendor support Electronic Signatures Limited use of SFA PIN Replaced by Internet 2/SAML December 2002

instructional media + magic, inc. Expect... Alternative loans will be the largest source of financial aid by 2005 The focal point of financial aid information and transactions will be the college or university The Meteor Project will be the basis for the new information technology infrastructure New college and university administrative systems based on Web services, component architecture will become available 2003, widely implemented by 2004

instructional media + magic, inc. Collaboration; the new future Focus on the student the mutual customer Implementation of standards-based new technologies interoperability Shared objectives, shared experience

The end