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

2. 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?

3. 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)

4. 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.

5. OUAC By the Numbers... 218,292 applicants filed 671,927 choices
In :
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)

6. 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

7. 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!

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. Questions or Comments? Valerie Boyd
Acting Executive Director
Trudy Sykes
Director of Operations