Enterprise systems support the business, record-keeping, database and reporting functions of the university. At UofL these systems are implemented primarily through Oracle/PeopleSoft modules, and support diverse areas such as:

• human resources
• student administration
• financial aid
• financials
• grants management
• data warehousing
• analytics and reporting
• enterprise portals

These applications require regular updating to keep them current, and receive periodic upgrades from the applications vendors. This area also includes the web-based technologies, which is one of the fastest growing application development areas of the university. The costs to provide enterprisesystems are expected to grow as the institution grows, but more importantly, these costs will grow as new technology solutions become available to replace manual business processes. For example, Enrollment Management has identified the increased use of technology as necessary to their effort to improve student services. Research support applications, such as compliance software, must be deployed to support the research efforts.

In the future:

• Applications developers will be re-tooled to support new technologies and application architectures
• Improved portal technologies will be implemented
• Single signon will be extended to include external sites (such as benefits providers)

IT Goal XII: Implement and maintain applications systems

a. Maintain enterprise systems at the most current version of the software. It is important to keep enterprise software current to take advantage of the latest improvements from the vendors. IT is currently in the process of implementing upgrades to the PeopleSoft Financials and HR/SA systems. These PeopleSoft applications are the core of the enterprise applications in use at the university.

b. Develop a new enterprise portal for the university. A portal provides a gateway to information and services for the university community and to the public. A comprehensive user-friendly portal strategy should be developed and implemented with input from university faculty, staff, students and administrators.

c. Enhance reporting & data warehousing capabilities. Much of the value of having a large enterprise application is to make use of the extensive data it provides. Improved reporting and data warehousing will make it easier to find and present the data required by university decision-makers.

d. Develop web application services. Web services are one of the fastest growing application areas in the university. New tools and services are being implemented to enable application development for the web.

e. Assist with university Business Process Redesign (BPR). IT has experience with business process redesign through many applications development projects. IT can partner with units to facilitate process redesign as units implement best practices in their systems.

f. Develop applications that support unit business managers. Unit business managers (UBMs) have to deal with systems for travel, leave, and financial accounting. The PeopleSoft systems do not provide a complete solution for all departmental accounting. As a result, many departments run “shadow” systems to track unit-specific data. Specialized systems to provide support for UBMs, including departmental accounting and record-keeping systems that interface to PeopleSoft and reduce the need for separate departmental systems should be developed. IT should partner with the vice presidential units to create these systems.

g. Encourage use of document imaging and document management systems to improve departmental processes. Document imaging systems can be used to store documents electronically, and to implement workflow processes. Best practices in document management can be implemented to make departments more productive and reduce the storage of documents in paper form.

h. Provide analytic and business intelligence (BI) tools. Departments can use analytic tools to better understand their departmental operations and produce data for decision-making.

i. Provide support for alumni and donor outreach. It is a priority of the university to maintain close ties with alumni. Systems should be developed that enable better outreach with alumni and donors, including:

• Implement a strategy for access and workflow of information with other enterprise systems such as, Student Information Systems
• Populate the university's data warehouse with alumni and donor/gift information for business intelligence and data mining capabilities
• Expand the use of self-service applications for alumni and donors and utilize social networking to engage alumni (for example, through the Cardinal Circle program).

j. Develop support for grants administration. The university needs a robust system to support grant activities, including effort reporting, performance tracking, and business intelligence and data mining capabilities. This effort is essential to support existing grants and the anticipated growth in activity over the next decade.