Why is the New Business Architecture Important? "Unprecedented enrollment growth, new demands from our constituents, and innovations in technology compel us to reshape our business functions and processes in a manner that scales to the anticipated University of California 2010." Richard C. Atkinson, President, University of California (from August 14, 2002 UCOP web site posting)
Where we are now	Where we are going

• Administrative Systems at UCR
• Goals of the New Business Architecture
• New Business Architecture at the University of California, Riverside
• Technology Partnership: Computing and Communications & Physical Plant
• Where We Are Now
• Where We Are Heading

During the past several years, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has utilized technology as a means to sustain and enable research and teaching excellence, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its administrative operations, and to enhance communications between campus internal and external constituencies. During this time of great campus growth, UCR has developed and deployed (or has facilitated the development and deployment of) software and systems that have increasingly become “core” campus tools that enable the university to fulfill its tri-fold mission of instruction, research, and public service.

As the campus looks to the future, UCR must continue to develop and deploy (and enhance existing) strategic systems that will enable and facilitate its growth in the years ahead. The University of California, Office of the President (UCOP) has recognized the importance of this issue and has formulated a vision for administrative excellence in UC 2010: A New Business Architecture for the University of California (please visit http://www.ucop.edu/irc/nba/).

Relating to administrative transaction processing, U.C.’s New Business Architecture will strive to create:

• “A collaborative environment where staff have ready access to the tools necessary to do their job efficiently and effectively
  
  
• A workplace that allows University staff to maintain high levels of job satisfaction while providing the highest levels of customer service
  
  
• An environment where technology solutions minimize time spent processing mundane, routine transactions.”

Although there are many reengineering and technology efforts underway at UCR, perhaps the single most important initiative designed to improve administrative effectiveness is the development of a campus Administrative Transaction Processing Portal. The portal will be based upon several fundamental design principles:

1. The portal will feature Single Sign-on to the complete suite of UCR’s electronic applications from a single web address. This portal will provide staff “ready access to the tools necessary to do their job efficiently and effectively” and will allow staff to better “maintain high levels of job satisfaction while providing the highest levels of customer service.”

2. Enabling “ready access” to UCR’s electronic suite of transaction processing tools will be the campus Enterprise Directory (providing a single point of authentication based on LDAP, the industry standard directory protocol) as well as UCR’s Enterprise Access Control System (providing a single point of authorization for all systems accessed via the portal).

3. The portal will also allow users to access and display information meaningful to their work environment, thus promoting an environment where “technology solutions minimize time spent processing mundane, routine transactions.”

A key partner in the development of the Administrative Transaction Processing Portal is UCR’s Physical Plant department. Physical Plant, in collaboration with C&C, has developed an award winning Computerized Maintenance Management System or CMMS (please visit famis.ucr.edu). This system is currently a “best of breed” application. As of November 4, 2003, UCR’s Physical Plant system has eliminated over 61,377 multipart forms since its deployment in 1999. This equates to 306,885 sheets of paper in slightly more than 4 years.

Despite its wonderful success, users who access this system must still obtain a Physical Plant specific username and password (from Physical Plant administrative staff) and the CMMS system is accessed separately from all other web and non-web campus administrative transaction processing systems. This can sometimes lead to user confusion, increased training requirements, and these problems are often exacerbated when employees move from one department to another. To improve this situation, the Physical Plant system will become the first non-PeopleSoft application integrated into the transaction processing portal. The important lessons learned from the Physical Plant portal migration will be incorporated into other applications to create a completely seamless user interface into UCR’s e-processing environment.

UCR currently has an extraordinarily wide variety of on-line electronic transaction processing tools available to campus staff. Please click here for a complete list of these applications. Although the suite of UCR e-commerce applications touches virtually all aspects of the campus, the software and systems are accessed from a variety of environments (programs that reside on users’ desktops, the web, via PeopleSoft, etc.) and many campus applications grant access in discreet, separate processes. At best, this environment causes confusion for users; at worst, it can become an impediment to administrative excellence.

The future of UCR’s administrative environment will become increasingly streamlined and effective via the implementation of the on-line, web enabled Administrative Transaction Processing Portal. The portal will authenticate against the UCR’s Enterprise (LDAP) Directory and provide single sign-on to the entire suite of UCR e-commerce applications. Departmentally based System Access Administrators (SAAs) will grant access to the portal via the Enterprise Access Control System, EACS.

Via the portal, EACS, single sign-on, and a more uniform control environment, many NBA goals and objectives will become more fully realized at the University of California, Riverside in the years ahead.

For more information, please click here.