Implementing Site Manager in UAS at University of Oxford

Business Services and Projects

Implementing Site Manager in UAS at University of Oxford

Tony Stark – Project Manager

[email protected]

[email protected]

2 December 2009

mailto:[email protected]

Topics

Who we are, What we are doing, Why we are doing it

Requirements & Supplier Selection

First steps, Where we are now and our plans

Challenges and Special Projects

Things we have learnt

Online Information 2009


Who we areWhat we are doingWhy we are doing it

The University

Collegiate University

17,200 full-time students

16,000 students on part-time courses

7,000 staff excluding those employed by the colleges

39 colleges

6 permanent private halls

160 academic and other departments Includes faculties, departments, schools, libraries and museums



What is UAS?Central Administration Departments of The University. They work to support the Academic Departments. Approximately 1,000 staff in UAS

Umbrella url’s we are migrating

Admin Web - www.admin.ox.ac.uk

Includes some high profile sites: Vice Chancellor’s Office Clarendon Trust Fund Academic Administration – student facing Staff facing

Ox Web - www.ox.ac.uk

Main public facing web site of University. Top pages with links to everything else


http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/

http://www.ox.ac.uk/

Some Numbers

Oxweb Admin Web

Web Pages 12,000 7,000

Gb’s served / day 3.8 1.6

No. of files 16,000 15,000

Visitors / week 85,000 55,000

Web Applications 0 17+

Site Manager users 6 150+


Current / Legacy position

Creating and Managing HTML pages Using Word to Web macros Other applications make up the ‘web publishing toolkit’ SFTP to development (preview) and then to live web servers

Oxweb is using proprietary CMS

Training is 4 days and once a term

Support team is fire-fighting



Requirements and Supplier Selection

Objectives

Easier creation, editing, previewing, publishing and management of content

Web Publishers concentrate on content quality not how to publish it

Training reduced to less than a day and more frequently

Same look and feel across all sites

Free up support team to be pro-active so can concentrate on helping site owners to do better things


The Process we went through

Set up the Project

Requirements Capture

Tendering Process – ITT

Evaluation Team

Shortlisting

Supplier Presentations

Selection

ContractOnline Information 2009

Why is getting the selection process right, so important?

Similar to a staff recruitment process: You’re looking for key “qualifications” You’re looking for potential Your looking for the right fit You have a budget in mind

A transferable golden rule from Recruitment:

“It’s better not to recruit anyone, then recruit the wrong person”

It’s all about finding a company that fits in with you and your requirements:

Product is a good or reasonable fit Right size Right price Nice people to work with Enthusiastic about your project Knowledgeable about your sector


First steps, Where we are now & our plans

First Steps Occupational Health first site

Learnt about Site Manager and what is involved in implementing sites

Developed styles and templates Developed training course Left out some technical things until later Lessons Learnt exercise


Where we are now and plans

Sites on Site Manager 5 (3 are new sites)

Special Projects Category 3 currently – more on these later

Next Group 5 started with an initial list to cut our teeth on

Tranche 1 16Tranche 2 11Tranche 3 5Don’t mind when 14In or out of scope? 14

Total 73 sites



Challenges and Special Projects

Challenges

Small team. Just lost a key member. Please apply if you are interested in joining us

Steep learning curve – have been and still are on one

Need solutions to some technical problems

Managing user expectations – they known it is coming, they want it but:

Pressure to implement new sites so not migrating old ones Pressure to do things quickly v we want to do things sensibly and at

an appropriate pace Planning and setting dates for individual sites is difficult


Special projects

Special Projects Statutes & Regulations

Complicated versioning Granular requirement so can use part of Statute/Regulation in other

database systems Examination Regulations

Complicated versioning but different from Statutes & Regulations Web Publishing and Hardcopy printing from same content

University Gazette Review of business processes Web Publishing and Hardcopy printing from same content


Technical Solutions needed

Oxonly or intranet content Content published on external web site Need to restrict access Implement GSA to replace ://htdig

Framework for integrating web applications Delivery through Site Manager Provide a wrapper to give same look and feel to pages

Solution for non-contributors to preview but not edit their content

Authentication through University single sign on - Shibboleth


TERMINALFOUR and Site Manager

Looking for a partner not just a supplier

Took Terminal Four a while to realise what they had taken on but never flinched and are meeting their promises

Happy with selection of Terminal Four Site manager Terminal Four seem to be able to make Site Manager do the majority

of what we want it to do Not perfect but what supplier and what system is New Version 7 re usability seems to support our decision

Overall pleased with both TERMINALFOUR and Site Manager.



Things we have learnt

Things we have learnt1. Plan as best you can

3. It is a slow job but get enough resource

4. A lot of the problems are organisational and cultural

6. Technical & product fit is important but not everything

7. Expectation Management & Communications is key

9. Make sure your vendor appreciates (& shares) your pain

11. A CMS doesn’t solve all your problems


Questions?


Technology

Implementing Site Manager in UAS at University of Oxford