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SELF EVIDENT APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITIES. Designing for the Extended Enterprise Greg Smart. The Self Service Application. A business model with far reaching implications. Developed from the convergence of two trends:- The Internet, which gives us:- A ubiquitous global network,
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SELF EVIDENT APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITIES Designing for the Extended Enterprise Greg Smart
The Self Service Application • A business model with far reaching implications. • Developed from the convergence of two trends:- • The Internet, which gives us:- • A ubiquitous global network, • A commonly accepted, but relatively limited interface (html). • Lower demands on client processing power. • The ERP Application, which gives us:- • A defined set of rules for transacting business. • A relatively constrained environment, • Linked business processes.
Why Self Service? • Objectives of Self Service applications are typically:- • To reduce cost of processing, • The ‘Captive’ vs the ‘Volunteer’ user, • The Student as Customer, • To give greater choice and flexibility to the ‘customer’, • To reduce the scope for error, • To make ‘the customer’ responsible for the accuracy of their data, • To avoid the need for training.
Self Evident for Self Service • A self service application must be self evident. • Obvious to use, • locally specific, • Readily available (ie through a browser), • Self Evident applications will multiply. • Self Evidence can only be achieved through creating multiple interfaces onto enterprise applications.
Server Centric Applications • We cannot afford to rewrite our business applications to fit this new model. • The server should provide a repository for • Data, • Business Logic, • Inter-application Interfaces. • The server centric model gives:- • A single, stable, reliable code base, • Maintains ‘One Version of the Truth’,
A Window on the Data • Each Self-evident application is an interface into the server application. • It can be replicated and modified to meet different circumstances, • It can use terminology which the user will understand to describe data and processes, • It can be easily modified, without changing the underlying rules, • This promotes interfaces that are content driven
Content Driven Interfaces • The Self-Evident interface is:- • Content Driven:- • Shaped by the Data, • Adopts suitable terminology, • Process Driven:- • Leads the user through the required steps, • Validates data in order to encourage correct completion, • Not Transaction Driven:- • Shaped by the transaction definition, • Assumes the user knows what they are trying to do, • Rejects errors,
The Technology Bit (Non MS) • The elements of a Self Service environment:- • Enterprise Applications • ERP or Best of Breed. • Application Integration • Linking applications at the application server level. • Component applications (EJBs) linked via CORBA. • Messaging and Data Definition. • Transaction Processing • Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability. • JSP allow a link between htlm or xml interfaces and application objects. • XML/XSL separates data from presentation.
Keep the *!!*?s Out! A direct and immediate link between the user and the data, but that user could be anyone. • Security must provide:- • Authentication • That a person is who they say they are. • Encryption • So that Data is protected • Authorisation • So that people only do what they are allowed to do. • The greatest threat is still from within.
Can Everything be make Self Evident? • Would you want to? • Ask yourself:- • Where are the benefits? • Who are the potential users? • And how many of them are there? • Can we deliver not just data, but information? • Can the interface be Content, not Transaction driven? • What stops something from being Self Evident?
The Experience of Bath • Access to our Finance System (Lawson) • Arrow and Aura, access to financial data for budget holders. • E-Procurement – the web based requisition. • Registrations On Line. • An ambitious project, • Doesn’t follow the model, • But does give a layer of abstraction.
Where will Self Evident Lead Us? • Forces us to confront who our customers are. • What effect on staffing levels and job descriptions? • Blurs the divide between an organisation and it’s customers • Feeds the dis-intermediation process. • Supports the Application Service Provider model • Common processes, different interfaces. • Adds to the Virtual Learning Environment by helping to merge the process of learning and the management of the learning process. • What IS a University?