The UW Strategic Roadmap for Information Management and Administrative Systems sets forth a long-term vision and comprehensive plan for the future. The Roadmap, originally developed in 2008 and now updated, proposes key initiatives to fundamentally transform the UW’s business operations.

The diagrams in this update outline the UW’s approach and timeline for implementing key initiatives in these four areas: Enterprise Information Management (information for decision making) and Finance, HR/Payroll and Student (replacement and modernization of UW’s core administrative systems).

Roadmap Overview (PDF)

Supporting the UW Mission

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The Roadmap initiatives provide critical support to the UW’s missions of research, education and service. The initiatives represent foundational work to transform the UW’s business operations and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of people throughout the University.

Governance Structure

These are the current high-level Roadmap governing bodies:

• The Roadmap Executive Sponsors oversee and guide all aspects of the Roadmap and ensure alignment with the University’s policies and priorities across Roadmap projects.
• The Roadmap Oversight Group provides guidance and advice on Roadmap initiatives, making recommendations on key issues to the Roadmap Executive Sponsors. The group is responsible for viewing the Roadmap initiatives holistically, ensuring they are aligned with each other and support the UW’s highest priorities.
• The Enterprise Architecture Steering Group provides oversight and prioritization for enterprise architecture, and identifies opportunities for defining and refining the guiding principles and vision for UWinformation, applications, and technology architectures.
• Each Roadmap initiative has its own supporting governance structure.

Enterprise Systems Transformation Framework

This diagram illustrates the UW’s approach to making decisions about system replacement solutions among a continuum of options ranging from fully outsourced to custom built.

In selecting an appropriate option, the UW considers whether a business function supports the UW’s mission (e.g., is more of a commodity), or is core to its mission.

• Support to Mission: Business functions that support the UW’s mission (for example, Budget, Finance and HR/Payroll) are those that are shared in common with many large, complex enterprises. These functions require less local control, and it is more likely that an effective solution can be purchased in the marketplace.

• Core to Mission: Business functions that are core to the UW’s mission (for example, Student, Clinical and Research systems) are those that differentiate higher education. These functions involve more strategic risk to the institution and require more local control. Appropriate options are therefore likely to be either consortium, custom, or specific “best-of-breed” solutions.

Replacement Options

This table shows the continuum of system replacement options currently available, ranging from fully outsourced to custom built. The table includes the type of solution, how it is hosted and examples.

Roadmap Initiative Timeline

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This timeline provides a long-term view of the plan for the various development, replacement and modernization efforts being undertaken at the UW from 2011-2021.

Given the magnitude of these initiatives, only one major replacement effort can occur at a time. Incremental modernization efforts can proceed in parallel to position for future replacement projects. The timeline plans for:

• HR/Payroll, Financial, Student and Research systems
• Enterprise Information Management

The Roadmap Foundation

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The UW has a unique opportunity to create a new foundation for its business operations and administrative systems that the institution can build upon for many years. That foundation will use an Enterprise Architecture approach to leverage holistic solutions and help ensure they are aligned with the UW’s mission.

Enterprise Architecture is a best practice framework that defines how information and technology will support an organization’s business operations. The framework is well defined in industry and higher education. It is divided into four layers, as shown in the diagram: 

• The Business Architecture layer clarifies what the business does, expressed as its “capabilities” (for example, paying employees, procuring goods and services and enrolling students). 
• The Information Architecture layer defines the information required to achieve the capabilities. 
• The Applications Architecture layer defines flexible and efficient mechanisms to deliver business processes that enable the capabilities.
• The Technology Architecture layer identifies the technical foundation needed to provide stable and secure services.

Capability Map

A business capability map (illustrated above) shows what the business does (e.g., paying employees, procuring goods and services and enrolling students). The map helps identify major requirements and gaps in the UW's current systems, as well as overlaps and dependencies. It is used to drive any new functionality, ensuring solutions meet business needs.

Today's Enterprise Systems

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This diagram shows the current state of the University’s centrally supported core administrative systems.  The UW has a diverse portfolio of applications operating on a variety of hardware platforms, implemented over the last forty years.  This diagram doesn’t include the hundreds of “shadow” systems developed at the unit level to meet information and business process needs not satisfied by the central systems or needed to support local requirements.

The arrows represent the hundreds of point-to-point interactions between systems that have evolved over numerous years to meet the UW’s changing business needs and to make up for gaps in legacy functionality.

Tomorrow's Enterprise Systems

The vision for the future of the UW’s administrative systems is a simpler, more rational and integrated application portfolio.  By providing central systems that accommodate most unit-level requirements, the need for departmental shadow systems will be reduced, resulting in efficiency gains back to the units. In tomorrow’s systems:

• The complex legacy of point-to-point interfaces is replaced with an Enterprise Information Management platform that provides a consolidated source of University information.  Enterprise Information Management (EIM) refers to an integrated set of foundational infrastructure for data integration, workflow, enterprise portal, document management, and Web services. It consists of:
  
  
  • Enterprise Data Warehouse
  • Enterprise Integration
  • Enterprise Workflow
  • Enterprise Portal
  • Document Management

For more information, see Enterprise Information Management FY 2012 Update.

• A simpler application portfolio increases business process flexibility and adaptability while reducing risk of unintended outcomes. 
• New business process automation tools enable efficiencies. 
• Complex system interdependencies are eliminated, significantly improving the UW’s ability to resume critical business operations after a disaster.
• A reduction in shadow systems coupled with the information security features of the Enterprise Information Management platform significantly improve data security by reducing the proliferation of confidential information.

For details on key Roadmap initiatives and timelines see:

• Enterprise Information Management
• Finance
• HR/Payroll
• Student