ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Technology for the 21st Century

Use of Intranets and Associated Web Based

Technologies in the Management ofEducational Institutions

Presented By:

Robin Maraj

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

The InternetThe Internet is a Vast Configuration of Interconnected computers – a network of networks – stretching from one end of the globe to the other, and everywhere between.

It’s an infrastructure, a conglomeration of transmission channels and control mechanisms. It consists of computers, peripherals components, telephone lines, satellites and an assortment of other infra-structural services.

Websites, e-mail, e-commerce; these are a few of the terms that we generally associate with the Internet.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Enough about the Internet. It’s time to discuss those other ‘nets’Intranets and Extranets.

Where do they fit into the Picture?

Intranets and Extranets are private networks that provide access to shared data and resources, including printers and back-up storage devices.

They may connect to the internet but aren’t required by definition to do so.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

What are they used for in the general environment?

Most are maintained by businesses and public institutions and they almost always contained classified information such as payroll records, or personnel files, that isn’t for viewing by unauthorized users.

Intranets vs. Extranets

An Intranet is an entirely private network.

An Extranet is a private network with some publicly accessible control.An Intranet is like a building with no doors.

An extranet has a door but the room into which that door open is not connected to any other rooms in the building.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

An Extranet allows a company to publicize certain bits of information, such as inventory records, or a corporate calendar of events, while protecting classified information for internal use.

Security: This is always a major issue. The most secure intranet is one that isn’t connected to the Internet.

Firewalls and password protection are two of the most common security measures employed in the protection of an Intranet or Extranet.

To summarise: Intranets and extranets are becoming popular as a way of distributing information and foster communication and collaboration in medium to large companies.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

They combine the advantages of using existing network infrastructure as a communication medium and the ease of use that has made the Web such a hot item.

Intranets and extranet sites reside on dedicated servers in the form of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and other Web-native formats, and users can access them with web browser software like Internet Explorer that most network PC’s have already.

If your organization has a LAN (Local Area Network) then you already possess most of the hardware required, to implement an Intranet.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Intranet as a Solution:• Instantaneous access to information by

authorized users. (Administrators, Students, Lecturers)

• Distribute resources efficiently, easily and effectively. (Economically). (Quality across the board).

• No more sneaker net.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Intranets save organizations money

Costs less because:• Programming (much less)• Labour (less; update once)• Customizable• Printing (Print on demand) Timetables,

brochures, course details, transcript etc.)• Expandable – when you made the move to

Extranets, a large part of your cost will already have been incurred.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Problems without the Intranet:• Users do not have the time or energy to wade

through a flood of documentation.• Hard to access and share electronic information

(Groupware)• Information provided is not used because it is

too hard to access or search.• Information is often out of date.

Intranets save organizations resources

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Private uses of IntranetsCollaboration and Other Two-ways Communication

• Sharing Design Drawings• Whiteboard• Conferencing, either Video- or Text-based• Project information and coordination• Individual status sheets• Progress inquires and reporting• Surveys and feedback• Memo Distribution, Comment, and Reply

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Human Resources• Policies and Procedures• Benefits – Read About or Check• File Time Cards, Requests for Leave, and Travel

Forms• Employment Opportunities• Finance-Management Query• Style Guides• Quality Manual• Orientation Materials

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Training and Help• Training Manuals and Tutorials• One-line Help• Task Request Forms• Quick Reference Guides• Software User Guides• Hardware Manuals• Seminars• Spreadsheet and other Document Templates

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Corporate Strategy

• Competitive Analysis• Strategies

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Contacts and Scheduling

• Phone, Fax, and E-mail Directory• Events Diary• Scheduling Information

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Resourceand Asset Management

• Conference Room Scheduling• Reservation of Video Equipment

and Car Pools.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Research Informationand Resources

• Text Libraries• Access to Data Warehouse

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Managerial Information

• Employee Info-bases• Performance Tracking• Computer Reports

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

What you need to build an Intranet• Network Infrastructure• Client hardware• Client software• Server hardware• Server software• Network Operating System• Web server

– Apache– Microsoft Internet Information Server– Netscape’s Fast Tract server– Netpresenz– WebStar

• Other

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Planning and IntranetDon’t just start creating an Intranet.

Map out your needs and plan of attack first

Questions to ask• Who is responsible for …

– Authoring the Web site?– Update the Web site?– Technical support?– Checking accuracy and appropriateness of content?– Site security

• What do you want to DO with/on your Intranet? Talk to potential users and find out what they currently do and what they could use.

• Who gets to access what materials?

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Things to do• Inventory your equipment – can everyone

who needs to access the Intranet?• Get a domain name• Transfer over legacy data, especially that

found on mainframes• Plan for several months ahead, if not

years.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Build the Intranet in Stages3 Phases to the creation of an Intranet1. Demo2. Plot3. RolloutAt every stage, test with users – this insures greater

acceptance by users, less training, and better functionality.

3 levels of information/communication found on Intranet1. Static displays of information, such as phonebooks

and newsletters – try it out2. Basic business and workgroup applications – save

money3. Web-enabled applications across the enterprise –

make money.

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

Issues in building the IntranetPlain and useful wins out over glitz and showiness on an intranet – remove anything that doesn’t contribute to your business goals and user friendliness.

Provide easy access to the things people will use most often – one good way to do this is to provide a Site Map.

Make sure everything works with all the browsers used on your Intranet.

Plan for growth – your directory structure needs to be orderly and your coding needs to be flexible and clean

Build security in the group up – include firewalls, encryption, and passwords

ACHEA Conference July 2002‘The Challenge Of Quality for the Higher Education Administrative Professional.’

After the initial rollout of the Intranet• Look for new technologies to help down the road• IPV6 or Ipng (“IP next generation”) brings great

new benefits– Replaces TCP/IP’s current 32-bit addressing scheme

with a 128-bit system– New security features– Better bandwidth management– Real-time communications– Multicasting– Auto-configuration of IP addresses on demand

• XML: eXtensible Markup Language• Java