Current Issues Roundtable: Preparing Your Campus for E-Commerce

Current Issues Roundtable: Preparing Your Campus for E-Commerce

Andrew R. Bonamici

In 1999, the buzz about e-commerce is unavoidable. Consumers can use the Web to buy almost anything ­ stocks, bonds, automobiles, books, CDs, Y2K survival kits, disposable diapers, and dog food. Then they can use their bank or credit union's Web sites to transfer funds from their savings accounts in order to cover the bills. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are riddled with advertisements for e-services from dot.com startups and old blue chips trying to get in the running. Stories of dorm-room-to-riches IPO millionaires are as common as the high-priced advertisements for their hypervalued companies.

How are these explosive trends affecting college and university campuses? Considering the level of general interest in e-commerce, it was surprising that only 18 people attended this fast-paced and well-structured discussion, which was moderated by Barbara H. Morgan, Strategic Technology Planning, UC Berkeley, and John F. Walsh, Director, University Information Systems, University of Indiana. First, a small-group breakout process was used to identify a wide range of concerns about implementing e-commerce on university campuses. These lists were merged and refined by the entire group, and consensus reached on the most critical challenges, listed below in the priority assigned by the group. The interrelatedness of these issues is worthy of note, and reinforces the need for broad, high-level collaborative efforts in developing e-commerce at the campus level:

1. 1.

   Standards and policies ­ In the absence of campuswide standards, policies, and coordination mechanisms, individual units are purchasing or developing stand-alone departmental e-commerce services. Some members of the group described these units as "cowboys." At the campus level, the result is confusing to current and potential students, alumni, and other constituents. It is expensive in the short term due to redundant systems and labor, and in the long term due to the inevitable need for local systems to be replaced by or integrated within a campuswide standard solution.

2. 2.

   Definitions ­ What is meant by e-commerce ­ selling campus-licensed products and event tickets over the Web? Accepting student application fees by credit card over the Web during the online application process? Business-to-business transactions (which, by the way, everyone recognized as the real meat and potatoes of the Internet economy)?

3. 3.

   Security ­ Privacy and security of financial transactions remain a serious concern for consumers and administrators. As institutions approach complete dependence on their systems and networks, the need for physical security also increases.

4. 4.

   Participation of stakeholders ­ Given the size and complexity of modern colleges and universities, integrating e-commerce at the campus level requires decision making to occur at the highest possible level of the administration. At the same time, it is critical to ensure that key players have a "seat at the table." This includes staff from information technology, business and legal affairs, and student services. We can no longer afford to have administration simply tell the information technology staff, "This is what we want you to do." Nor can the IT staff tell the administration, "This is what we can provide." Patron needs and potential solutions must be jointly determined and understood by all concerned.

5. 5.

   Planning and implementation cycles ­ Planning in higher education typically moves at glacial speed, which does not extend well to rapidly evolving environments such as e-commerce. Valuable opportunities are missed when the technologies run past the planning process without being implemented. At the same time, scattered solutions of limited value are implemented by the "cowboys" described above. One participant described a strategic planning process in his state system that took 18 months from start to finish. When it was completed, he wrote a memo to the planning group describing the numerous and significant changes in technology that had occurred during the same period, which represented nine years of "Web time."

6. 6.

   Need for service integration ­ Disparate strategies need to be combined into integrated campuswide offerings. This is closely related to "standards and policies" (described above).

During the course of the discussion, several participants described current and potential strategies from their institutions, and raised additional questions:

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  There should be a moratorium on e-commerce system acquisitions until campus standards and policies are developed.

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  All business processes need to be examined and re-worked as necessary to function with a Web interface.

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  The effect on current partners needs to be evaluated (campus bookstores are a good example).

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  What is the primary goal of the e-commerce system ­ cost reduction, increased revenue, or improved marketing and outreach?

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  Hold planning retreats with senior managers and administrators.

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  Should campuses avoid playing around the margins, and appoint someone at the highest possible level of the organization to build a comprehensive e-campus from scratch?

Colleges and universities are large, complex, and diverse in mission. Successful incorporation of e-commerce processes demands creativity, flexibility, willingness to share turf with other campus units, and, most of all, a focus on the user.

Note: As a follow-up to this roundtable, the moderators are preparing a two-page EDUCAUSE Briefing Note on e-commerce, targeted at campus administrators. Look for this sometime in Winter 2000.

Backstage: Case Study of an Intranet

During the past several years, large and small organizations have developed Web services for their own employees, also known as intranets. A well-designed intranet extends timely, interactive organizational communication to every employee with access to a Web browser.

The case study by John Cady, ITD Webmaster, and Wanda Monroe, Public and Media Relations, Office of the CIO, University of Michigan, outlined the process of designing, developing, launching, and maintaining an ambitious intranet site, "Backstage," for the University of Michigan's Information Technology Division (ITD) http://www.itd.umich.edu. With 18 locations on three campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint), the 700-member ITD staff serves a user community of over 60,000 with academic, administrative, and residential networking and computing; training and consulting; hardware and software sales; and telecommunications (voice, data, and video).

The ITD already published a high-quality staff newsletter, but this was not a powerful enough tool to build a dynamic community across such a large, diverse, distributed organization. The intranet project was initiated with the following goals:

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  Allow open communication.

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  Build community within the large, diverse, and distributed ITD organization.

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  Provide a single point of "official" information.

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  Raise awareness of the organization.

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  Share project, organization, and personal information.

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  Empower staff by providing information needed for their work.

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  Promote collaboration on projects.

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  Streamline internal processes.

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  Archive historical documents.

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  Provide a model for others by sharing what was learned.

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  Make it fun!

At the time the project was launched (early 1997), there were few models or off-the-shelf software solutions for intranets. An in-house development team was assembled consisting of eight individuals, each providing approximately 0.10 FTE. The range of skills represented by team members included information design and maintenance, graphic design, writing and editing, HTML coding and conversion, technical support, database design, and in-depth knowledge of the organization's culture, services, and objectives. It is noteworthy that related administrative, procedural, technical, and design considerations were blended in the planning and development process described by Cady and Monroe:

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  Obtain approval and sponsorship, in this case from the UM's CIO (Jose-Marie Griffiths).

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  Research, plan, and design the site.

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  Determine submissions procedures.

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  Ensure editorial control.

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  Plan the information architecture.

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  Plan the visual design.

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  Investigate security and Freedom of Information Act issues.

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  Test and choose tools.

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  Determine server capacity.

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  Determine hardware and software needs.

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  Make policy recommendations.

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  Request feedback.

The site currently uses Netscape Enterprise Server and requires clients running Netscape 2.0 (or greater) or equivalent. Verisign encryption is used for security. Users login with their standard university usernames and passwords.

The site is organized with a focus on function as opposed to organization chart. The sections include:

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  Letter from Jose (CIO).

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  In The Spotlight: In-depth highlight of ITD's team-of-the-month.

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  Staff Suggestions.

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  What's New.

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  Human Resources: Orientation to ITD, mission, vision and goals, glossary of acronyms.

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  Calendar.

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  Resource Tools: Campus maps, technical reports, library resources, media guidelines.

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  Projects and Activities.

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  Customers: CIO's "call to action," links to customer Web sites, lists of technical contacts and ITD Customer Relationship Managers.

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  ITD Business: Business card and stationery order for, procedures manual with links to campus Standard Practice Guide, organization charts.

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  Person-to-Person: Announcements, classifieds, and kudos for other staff members and teams, this section is unmoderated and self-published by ITD staff.

All pages include links to the site index, a site-only search engine, and a pull-down menu.

With the exception of "Person-to-Person," Backstage is used to present only official ITD organizational information. Material must be submitted by ITD staff, and is checked for quality, accuracy, and appropriateness. Copyrighted materials require written permission of the author.

The communication, testing, and roll-out process was important. As Monroe described it, "We were largely non-technical people presenting a technical product" to expert staff. The goals of the project needed to be communicated well in order to manage expectations. The project was announced in the newsletter, followed by regular progress updates. Handouts were distributed that described the architecture. Closer to roll-out, a sneak preview was presented, with an invitation to participate in beta testing. The unveiling was announced, workshops were offered on effective use of the site, and follow-up articles were published.

By default, the most popular feature of the intranet is the interface to the Time Reporting System (TRS). Used to track hours to projects, this mandatory report form ensures that every staff member accesses the site at least once per month.

There has been one major re-design since the initial launch. The frames-based design of the original site made it difficult to bookmark pages and did not work well with the search engine. In response to general Web usability developments as well as these specific concerns, the team has now opted for a tables-based design.

The site is now well established and many ITD staff members are contributing to the content. Day-to-day maintenance is provided by 1.0 FTE for technical support and 0.50 FTE for information maintenance. Future developments include e-mail, calendaring, interactive databases (beyond the TRS), Web-based training, conferencing, online forums, and a personalized "portal" feature.

Cady, Monroe, and their colleagues at UM ITD are to be commended for their leadership in developing and maintaining a powerful intranet in a cost-effective manner. The success of the Backstage project can be attributed to the development team's careful, broad-based process and emphasis on usability and real-life functionality.

The following Web sites are good starting points for those seeking further information about intranet applications in libraries:

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  http://www.pla.org/intranet.htm Prepared by GraceAnne A. DeCandido for the Public Library Association, May 19, 1999, correction September 21, 1999.

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  http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1999/net1.html Prepared by Greg R. Notess, Montana State University Libraries, Bozeman, MT, 1999, Online Inc.

Andrew R. Bonamici is Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene. bonamici@oregon.uoregon.edu