11 July 2005
Novell's Service Oriented Architecture Solution Selected To Revamp TEC's Web Based Applications
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has awarded Novell a contract to help transform their intranet from a static
HTML site to an advanced, interactive portal that will improve business efficiency.
Novell is using their service-oriented architecture, ExteNd Enterprise Suite, which was chosen ahead of other market
leading products, to develop an intranet portal that will provide employees with web access to email, calendaring and
documents, an advanced staff directory and personalised, relevant information. The portal will also enable the TEC to
automate leave and business travel approval processes, provide single sign-on across a variety of internal applications
and distribute the creation and approval of intranet content.
The TEC is the government body responsible for the allocation of funding for all post-compulsory education and training
courses offered by institutions such as universities, polytechnics, private training establishments and community
education providers throughout New Zealand. It has over 300 full time staff spread across 16 office locations.
Michael Middlemiss, Manager of Information Systems at the TEC said, "Our existing intranet was an interim measure that
grew into a permanent solution. It was very simple and contained mainly static HTML content that was uploaded via
Dreamweaver.
"We will have a solution that will make life much easier for our staff and improve efficiencies. Our users will be able
to customise the site to improve their experience and access the information that is relevant to them, such as their
email or region specific content and it will allow us to automate processes such as approving leave and travel.
"When we decided to revamp our intranet we looked at almost every portal solution on the market. We decided upon
Novell's ExteNd because it provided the best fit with our existing technologies and has some powerful functionality
straight out of the box, such as the graphical interface that is very easy for us to use and manage."
A key feature of the portal is the inclusion of an advanced staff directory, which runs on eGuide, a web application
that enables search and retrieval of names and details stored in the TEC's existing Sun One Identity Management Server.
The portal also includes functionality for online form submission and workflow processes which will speed up the
approval of business travel and leave requests. The new portal will give users the ability to fill in and submit forms
online as well as receive notification of status. It will automatically notify and remind managers to approve a form and
forward this to the Finance department.
Mr Middlemiss said, "One of the problems we face at the TEC is that our staff members sometimes don't know who to
contact about specific requests. Therefore we created a staff directory which enables staff to quickly locate the person
they need, searching by name or area of expertise, and identify managerial relationships within the organisation. As it
is integrated with our existing identity management system we won't be duplicating information."
The current intranet contains mainly static content but is not content managed. "At the moment our staff rely on web
analysts at the TEC to create and upload the intranet content. ExteNd allows users to create their own content and has
built in authorisations and approval processes, which will take the burden off the IT team and give our users a greater
sense of ownership. The content management system will enable the material to be managed centrally with security and
version control," said Mr Middlemiss.
"In addition staff can choose to receive notifications about the update of information which they need to know about,
rather than a global email being sent across the organisation. This will relieve email overload for our staff," he
added.
Matthew Christie, General Manager Novell New Zealand said, "The exteNd portal solution is simple to use, maintain and
support, which allows for speedy development and hassle free ongoing maintenance. It is also easy to deploy on the TEC's
existing architecture -JBOSS web server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. This has resulted in a lower total cost of
ownership and greater return on investment for the TEC as well as a fast turnaround time. Overall the whole project will
only take a few months to complete."
The first phase of the portal project is currently being implemented and is expected to be completed within a month.
ENDS