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U Central Florida Streamlines Administrative Apps

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/08/11

The University of Central Florida is wrapping up a multi-year implementation of new enterprise applications that includes a combination of Oracle software and Sun hardware to streamline its administrative processes and help manage student growth. The Orlando-based university currently has more than 56,000 students, making it the second largest American university by enrollment, behind only Arizona State University, which has more than 70,400 students.

The new systems at U Central Florida support multiple administrative processes in financials, supply chain, human resources, academic reports, online courses, class assignments, and financial aid.

Starting in 2008 and into 2010, the university deployed Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus programs on Sun SPARC T-Series and M-Series servers running the Oracle Solaris operating system, Sun Fire x86 clustered systems, Oracle's StorageTek SL500 Modular Library System for archival tape backup, and a StorageTek 2540 Array for system storage.

According to Oracle, the use of the Sun hardware has reduced the university's annual maintenance costs by $120,000 and quadrupled system performance.

Then, starting in 2009, the university undertook upgrades to many of its enterprise systems. That included an upgrade to Oracle Database 11g, as well as moves onto PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.0 and Portal 9.0. In 2010, the institution upgraded to Financial Management 9.1 and Customer Relationship Management 9.1. The university initially moved to PeopleSoft for its financial systems in 2002 as a transition off of a state-run accounting system. Since then, it has been in a continual mode of PeopleSoft application upgrades in multiple areas of operation.

Currently, U Central Florida is continuing to convert enterprise databases to Oracle Database 11g.

"The combination of Oracle software and hardware provides us with an innovative platform that significantly streamlines our administrative processes so students can spend more time learning and less time standing in line filling out paperwork," said CTO Bob Yanckello. "Oracle's hardware provides the performance and scalability needed to ensure that students, faculty, and staff have access to the system even during the most severe traffic spikes."