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Expanding Services, Reducing IT Operating Expenses with Integrated IT Infrastructure
6/29/2004
Entering the new millennium, Lansing Community College faced a trio of issues that threatened to stall growth and hinder our ability to deliver innovative programs and student services. Looming were declining state funds, competition from a new breed of for-profit higher education institutions, and an IT infrastructure that was increasingly fragmented and expensive to maintain.
In 2000, we developed and began to implement an IT strategy designed to expand and improve delivery of education services, decrease the cost of systems management and maintenance, and fundamentally transform the way in which students, faculty, and staff work and interact via technology on and away from campus. We also were committed to enhancing all students’ access to and experience with technology—regardless of their majors. Fundamental to the plan was the implementation of an integrated messaging and file system that would make it easier for students, faculty, and staff to access and manage critical information.
Our three-pronged IT strategy focused on consolidating systems and reducing the number of vendors with whom we worked; implementing continuous improvement and reporting capabilities; and making our systems Web-accessible—a crucial requirement for a commuter campus.
Single-Vendor Approach
To reduce IT management and maintenance costs and achieve a fully integrated infrastructure for delivering information to our students, staff, and faculty, Lansing adopted a single-vendor approach. Oracle delivered the functionality we needed in a secure environment and could scale to meet our future needs. We also wanted the ability to run systems on Unix and Linux platforms, and Oracle could accommodate this requirement.
For integrated messaging and file management, we selected Oracle Collaboration Suite, which includes a relational database and provides users with access to integrated e-mail, voicemail, calendaring, file-sharing, search and Web conferencing capabilities from popular desktop clients such as Microsoft Outlook, and Web browsers and wireless devices, including PDAs and cell phones.
Building a Solid Foundation
Before implementing the collaboration system, we first consolidated 80 servers to approximately 35. Lansing’s disparate systems had required experts in each application area, and the system could no longer scale to meet our growing needs. We also consolidated more than 4,000 desktop databases, enabling the college to more efficiently and accurately manage critical data.
The Oracle portal implementation, which runs on Linux and serves as the front end to our collaboration system, was another important building block in our IT strategy. We had the portal running in just two months, in time for Fall 2002 enrollment. Lansing’s students enthusiastically embraced the portal. Within four months, more than 70 percent of our student population had a portal account.
Transforming Communication, Enabling Collaboration
With the foundation in place, we were ready to move forward with our integrated e-mail, voicemail, calendaring, file-sharing, and search capabilities.
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