It is official now -- has been official since a letter was sent out by the University CIO and FAS Registrar on May 6th -- we are marching ahead with a University-wide student information system. After rigorous debate and intensive collaboration, we tapped Oracle's PeopleSoft Campus Solutions for staged deployment over the next 3-4 years.
In addition to the core modules (admissions, student financials, student records, advisement) we are planning to make business intelligence a cornerstone of the solution (big shock for those who follow my blog or Twitter). To that end, we are charging headlong into the new Student Information Analytics (SIA) warehouse with analytics powered by Oracle's Exalytics In-Memory BI Machine. The boxes arrived at our loading dock today and I am chomping at the big to get my hands on them... Of course, we might need to configure Campus Solutions a little bit first!
This is an incredibly exciting initiative for both the University and for me personally -- a return to SIS after a few years on the finance side of things... Dusting off unused vocabulary and memories of PeopleTools 8.49. Too soon to tell whether implementing SIS is like riding a bicycle; lt's hope not, because I'm a pathetic cyclist!
And now for the important part: I am hiring. Nine positions so far, with another dozen to hit the market by early June. Check out http://employment.harvard.edu and search for current postings in Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT). I am looking for a crew of bright, creative, and courageous souls to join me on this adventure!
Wow, four months since my last blog... Those were simpler times, getting ready for HEUG Alliance 2013, watching the team stabilize EBS Release 12, dabbling with OBIEE (even getting my fingers on the keyboard to code a few Answers of my own), selling projects. And since then things have been dull, boring and dull.
It's not like we shopped for and closed on our first condo in a whirlwind. I may or may not have pulled off three presentations in three days on three mismatched topics in Indianapolis for Alliance 2013. And there is no way that I presented to the chief administrative officers at each of Harvard's schools in one week crammed between business trips. Or that I negotiated five contracts with Oracle (including Exalytics!) and made a one-day trek to Redwood Shores to finalize the details. Or decided to make a life-changing move to take the reins for Harvard's student information system program, which promises to transform many aspects of the faculty, student, and administrator experience, especially for cross-discipline teaching and learning.
No, if any of that had happened, surely I would have blogged about it, right?