IntegrationBest fit integration – Systems and Processes

Introduction

Best Fit Integration – Systems and Processes

Ros Prasad – Holmesglen Web AdministratorAnthony Nigro – Business Manager

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HolmesglenH l l i f h l id f i l d hi h d i i• Holmesglen is one of the largest providers of vocational and higher education in Victoria

• Since 1982, Holmesglen has grown from a delivery of 90 programs to 7,000 students, to a unique multi sectoral provider offering over 600 programs to more than 50,000 students

• Holmesglen delivers internationally and nationally across three campuses: Chadstone, g y y p ,Moorabbin and Waverley

• Holmesglen offers more than 330 Short Course programs across its campuses, and hundreds more onlinehundreds more online

• Outside of course activity, Holmesglen is furthering opportunities for skills development and training through international projects in Bahrain, Qatar, India and MalaysiaMalaysia

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Background• Pilot project – Introduction to MySource Matrix

• Holmesglen engaged Squiz in a project to implement a new look g g g q p j pand feel into MySource Matrix

• Holmesglen had completed user analysis and provided a design toHolmesglen had completed user analysis and provided a design to Squiz.

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Background (cont)

• Launched our new Matrix website in May last year – it coincided with the Institute rebranding

• Previous website was run on a home grown CMS which had reached its limit

l h d b d d ff b h ll• Previously we had about a dozen different websites – the smaller ones were integrated at launch

h l b Sh C l d d h• The larger websites, eg Short Courses, were not included in the initial launch, and were integrated separately afterwards

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Background (cont)

• The Accredited Courses (eg Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates, etc), which used to be included in our old CMS, were included in the initial launch of our Matrix website

• The old Short Courses website was not part of our old CMS – it was a completely separate website

• The Accredited Courses and the Short Courses were maintained by two separate systems, although the course information for both was stored in the same Student Management database (QLS)stored in the same Student Management database (QLS)

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Old b itOld websitesMain Holmesglen website and Short Courses website

Web Course Maintenance

QLS Student Management

Dynamic web page displaying Old CMS (home

grown system -

Accredited Courses (Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates, etc)

System (Oracle Forms)

database (Oracle)

coursegrown system -ColdFusion)

‘Webgen’ database

P t

Short Courses Online application Credit cardFlat web pages

package run nightly

Payment OK?

Short courses

Web Maintenance System (Oracle

Forms)

Online application process including input from user

Credit card processing

(external 3rd party)

displaying short courses

10/11/2010 7

Decision Point• Holmesglen needed significant change to move forward with their

website.

• Accredited Courses and Short Courses are integral to the site.

• ConsiderationsConsiderations• Legacy Systems• Business and User Processes• Timeframe• Manageability

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Accredited Courses• Holmesglen Marketing team own Course content.

• Single Repository for Maintaining Course Content.g p y g

• Initially Squiz and Holmesglen investigating Import Script for content.content.

• Integration not the best option• Database Structure• Database Structure • Out of Date Business Process

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Accredited Courses• MySource Matrix became hub for managing course content. • Once off data Import from Oracle Forms Database.• Populate Data Assets with attributes (Course Content)p ( )

Issue: • MySource Matrix did not allow for Attributes to be stored in a similar• MySource Matrix did not allow for Attributes to be stored in a similar

structure

Resolution:Resolution:• Development of Matrix Data Source Asset to store attributes.• Lead to development of WYSIWYG metadata fields

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Accredited Courses• The attributes (course content) can be styled appropriately

• Default data could be associated with each piece of content.p• E.g. Costs and Terms and Conditions

• Simple Edit interface configured. p g

• Relational Content – Thesaurus tagging

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Accredited Course Conclusion

• The development simplified Holmesglen Course Data structurep p g

• Decommissioned out-dated process for Management of Content

• Formed a central repository for Course Content

ll f f f• Allows for future use of course content:• Output content for Print Brochures and Course Handbooks

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A dit d CAccredited CoursesHow we brought them into the new Matrix website

Accredited Courses (Degrees Diplomas Certificates etc)Accredited Courses (Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates, etc)

Matrix website (Users now edit

course information directly in Matrix)

Dynamic web page displaying

courseOne-off export of course info

Web Course Maintenance

System (Oracle Forms)

QLS Student Management

database (Oracle)

Dynamic web page displaying

course

Old CMS (home grown system -

ColdFusion)

directly in Matrix)

Forms) (Oracle)

‘Webgen’ database package run nightly

Payment OK?

Yes

Short Courses Web Maintenance

System (Oracle

Online application process including i t f

Credit card processing

( t l 3rd t )

Flat web pages displaying short

courses

nightly

Short courses

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System (Oracle Forms) input from user (external 3rd party)courses

Old Sh t C b itOld Short Courses website Home page – click a Study Area, eg Computers

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Old Sh t C b itOld Short Courses website ‘Computers’ Study Area

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Old Sh t C b itOld Short Courses website Select from a drop-down box, eg ‘MYOB Level 1’

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Old Sh t C b itOld Short Courses website Click the ‘Apply’ button for the desired session

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Old Sh t C b itOld Short Courses website Application Form – add personal details

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I t tiIntegrationHow would we integrate Short Courses into Matrix?

• Initially we thought of bringing all the Short Courses into Matrix and maintaining them there

• However, Short Courses are more volatile than Accredited Courses and require much more frequent updating – among other things, this would add load to our website

• In some respects the Short Courses system is more complex than the Accredited Courses system, because people can enrol online into Short Courses but not into Accredited Courses we did not wantShort Courses, but not into Accredited Courses – we did not want to rebuild the online enrolment process

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Integrating Short Courses• We could take a different approach with Short Courses than we did

with the Accredited Courses, because the original system was set up differently

• We decided to retain the existing Short Courses Web Maintenance System – this meant no re-training for the staff in Short Courses

• We decided to retain our existing online application and enrolment process, including the third party credit card processing

• The main change was that we wrote a new version of ‘Webgen’ which output an XML file each night, instead of flat web pages – this was picked up by a nightly import script in Matrixwas picked up by a nightly import script in Matrix

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Short Courses in Matrix website

QLS Student Management

database (Oracle)

Sh t C Fl t b

‘Webgen’ database package run nightly

Payment OK?

Short coursesWebgen v2

database Short Courses

Web Maintenance System (Oracle

Forms)

Online application process including input from user

Credit card processing

(external 3rd party)

Flat web pages displaying short

courses

package run nightly to produce

XML file

XML file containing short courses and

sessions

Matrix – short course information refreshed nightly

Dynamic page displaying short

course

Matrix import script run nightly

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Matrix websiteShort Courses home page – click a Study Area, eg‘Business & IT’

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M t i b itMatrix website‘Business & IT’ Study Area, displaying all courses

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Matrix website‘Business & IT’ Study Area, filtered by ‘Accounting’Select a course, eg ‘MYOB Level 1’

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M t i b itMatrix website Click the ‘Apply’ button for the desired session

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M t i b itMatrix website Application Form – (same form as in old website)

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Advantages for Holmesglen• The integration was smooth - there was virtually no re-training

required for Short Courses staff

• We did not have the overhead of re-writing the Short Courses maintenance process, or the online application and enrolment process

• By keeping the old ‘Webgen’ running for a while, we were able to parallel run the old website with the new and check data consistencyconsistency

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Advantages for Holmesglen (cont)

• We were able to include Short Courses searching in the main Holmesglen website

• We were able to incorporate into the Short Courses area the filtering used elsewhere in the Matrix website

h h h f h l l• Short Courses was now consistent with the rest of the Holmesglen website

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