A Vision of the Future: It Starts on the Desktop Copyright 1992 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 15, Number 4, Winter 1992. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear,and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission.For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu A VISION OF THE FUTURE: IT STARTS ON THE DESKTOP by Ann Zinck and Judith W. Leslie ************************************************************************ Ann Zinck has been at San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, California, since 1988. She is responsible for managing all academic computing on the campus, and implementing programs and training to support faculty computing has also been a major part of her responsibilities. She contributes to strategic planning for computer and information services campus-wide and co-authored the successful proposal for membership in the Apple Community College Alliance, sponsored by Apple Computer, Inc., and the League for Innovation. Designing multimedia presentations to communicate System 2000 concepts is her current challenge. Judith W. Leslie is Senior Partner for The Robinson Group, Ltd., a software and services company, with responsibility for marketing and management of development and delivery staff. She was Vice President for Professional Services for Information Associates before joining The Robinson Group. Dr. Leslie has held varied positions in higher education institutions, including The Pennsylvania State University, Lock Haven University, Pima Community College, and the Maricopa Community Colleges. She served on the CAUSE Board of Directors and was Board Chair in 1986. She received her Ph.D. from Penn State. ************************************************************************ ABSTRACT: San Joaquin Delta Community College has created a graphic, electronic office environment called the "Virtual Desk" to operate on employees' desktops. The Virtual Desk is a front end to the network that depicts a desk on which are mounted a calculator, spreadsheet, notepad, calendar, word processor, electronic mail, and file drawers and bookshelves. The latter contain institutional information such as policies and procedures, directories, and information from administrative systems. This article highlights the evolution of this office environment at Delta, its strategic plan, and a collaborative design project called System 2000 which is being developed using CASE tools and object-oriented technology. "We are shifting the ideal of the model employee from one who carries out orders correctly to one who takes responsibility and initiative, monitors his or her own work, and uses managers and supervisors in their new roles of facilitators, teachers, and consultants... [C]omputers are taking information out of the hands of middle managers and placing it into the hands of individuals."[1] The underlying assumption of this quote is that information is an organizational resource. In the past, access to information has been controlled and, therefore, potential employee growth and development have not been realized. In the future, however, information will be available to employees through their use of technology, and it will give them the necessary resources to expand their knowledge and become "self- managed colleagues." A number of factors in the past, and even presently, have contributed to organizations under-utilizing their information resources: the political environment, the robustness of the knowledge base, the tools to access information easily, the ethics associated with that access, and the financial capacity to develop the information resources. This article addresses two of these important factors: developing the knowledge base and the tools to access that knowledge. The philosophy and goals of the computer services department at San Joaquin Delta College (Delta) are shared to illustrate the values of the organization and how those values are translated into action. To understand the extent of change that has taken and will continue to take place at Delta, the evolution of its information technology environment is highlighted. The role and benefit of strategic partnerships that have leveraged Delta's investment and expertise in management systems is described. Finally, a glimpse of the development of System 2000, a new administrative system designed to make the vision of a desktop information support system a reality is provided. Background and historical context Delta serves an area over 2,400 square miles in central California's agricultural San Joaquin Valley; 265 staff and 230 full- time faculty work at Delta and 20,000 students are enrolled in university transfer, occupational, and general interest courses. Founded in 1935, Delta is one of 105 California community colleges. The philosophy of the computer services department at Delta is that the student is the "ultimate customer" on campus. This philosophy is infused throughout the organization. The goals that guide implementation of this philosophy are: * To optimize the resources available to serve students by extending the current investment in mainframe computing to a distributed environment where faculty, advisors, and counselors have easy access to information about students. * To give students and those who serve students convenient, consistent access to information, regardless of the source of information or location of the user. * To advance the use of technology in support of students by focusing on the technological rather than the political environment. To achieve these goals, the computer services staff had to overcome several obstacles. First, the complex administrative systems, consisting of a student information system and a payroll system, were running in a very proprietary hardware environment that limited access by users. Second, the maintenance of the student information system, which consists of over one million lines of undocumented code, was a major drain on programming resources. A third obstacle was the limited access to office automation. Users had only limited office automation capability from a different hardware platform accessed through twenty- two mainframe terminals. Fourth, minimal support was being provided to the campus user community. For example, administrators could not access information for planning and decision-making. The two strategies employed to overcome these obstacles were to (1) seek solutions that would decrease the workload on the mainframe by distributing computing to servers and the desktop, and (2) improve service to users by providing them with an easy-to-use interface and network navigation. In 1987, Delta initiated the first phase to implement the distributed strategy. The objective of this phase was to provide immediately those solutions that addressed pressing user needs. The computer services staff made available "deliverables" such as advanced office automation tools and a financial system. An AppleTalk network with an Ethernet backbone was installed to provide the users with access to the student information system, payroll system, and new financial system. Electronic mail was installed and became the primary tool for communication and collaboration on campus. In the second phase, the computer services department positioned the institution for the future by developing a strategic plan to guide development and implementation based upon user needs. Computer services staff spent a year to create a five-year plan that outlined the future technology direction for Delta. This strategic plan, completed through extensive research and technical analysis, outlines the vision of a totally integrated information architecture for Delta. Current status--the Virtual Desk One of the distinguishing aspects of Delta's computing technology today is the Virtual Desk, shown in Figure 1. This innovative SuperCard network interface depicts an office setting which is both familiar and logical in design. The Virtual Desk provides seamless access to all of Delta's various systems by clicking on a representational tool or object. The interface is kept constant for all users on campus with variations in the type of tools, files, and services the user can access through the Virtual Desk. Each object on the Virtual Desk is a stand- alone tool; thus users can create, add, and delete tools appropriate to their job responsibilities. Clicking on thedesktop notepad accesses a favorite word processor. Clicking on the wall calendar accesses the college events calendar. The file drawer and bookshelf are object-based so that updates to its contents can be easily sent across the network for the users to update their "desks." The bookshelf and file cabinet provide users with centralized access to campus-wide planning tools, budget building tools, financial summaries, policies and procedures, staff directory, and organization chart. The Virtual Desk is extremely easy for users to customize. [FIGURE 1 NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION] The following scenario illustrates the ease with which a user accesses information and navigates. The dean clicks on the file cabinet icon on her screen; when the cabinet opens, a series of folders appear. She then clicks on the folder titled "Budget Worksheet" to use a custom HyperCard stack for building her budget for the coming year. Using a "zero-based" approach, she is able to write a justification for each account item, access all vendors used for an account, examine current expenditures, enter projected expenditures, and request a new budget allocation. During the budget preparation process, the dean recalls a question regarding a line item in her current budget. She then clicks on the "Business Summary" folder and views custom stacks providing a summary of financial data which provides her current cash position in an account. She knows that the data are current and consistent since the "Business Summary" is a HyperCard stack created from data downloaded from the VAX- based financial system each evening. Both tools have greatly streamlined the budget building and monitoring process. Each takes advantage of the data on the financial system. Once the dean completes her "Budget Worksheet" it is automatically transferred to her supervisor for review. Eventually, the completed budget is automatically translated by HyperCard into a nicely formatted budget book to be used for review by the budget committee. Once the budget receives final approval, then all of the various departments' "Budget Worksheet" stacks are automatically uploaded to the BPS system which creates all of the new accounts for the coming year. This process alone saves three people three months of data entry.[2] Delta's network provides instant, seamless access to information from any administrative office on campus. Although the Virtual Desk provides numerous services, full implementation of the concept with faculty and students depends upon the completion and implementation of the new administrative system, System 2000, described below. Meeting the challenge--System 2000 Only through the considerable talents of the operations staff and programmer/analysts does the mainframe continue to provide the critical data necessary to keep the campus operational. Thus, Delta stands on a "burning platform." To address this issue, Delta first conducted an exhaustive search and evaluation during 1989-90 of all currently available administrative packages. Based upon the evaluation, Delta's staff concluded that only after extensive modification would an "off- the-shelf" system comply with technical, user, and state requirements. Delta staff realized that if they were to choose this option, once these modifications were made, the vendor could no longer support the system with maintenance or upgrades, thus eliminating one of the primary advantages of a third-party system. The primary technical specification for an administrative system at Delta was that it be designed as a true relational database system, preferably using object-based code and compatible with the established Macintosh/VAX environment. The evaluation yielded no systems that met Delta's standards. The computer services staff concluded that their only option was to write a new system. This reality was faced reluctantly, but if Delta was to continue to provide the services to which users had become accustomed, it was the best choice for the college. Thus, work on Delta's new administrative system, System 2000, was begun. Contrary to the relative ease with which the financial system, touch- tone registration, and various Virtual Desk-based solutions were implemented, System 2000 is a massive and complex undertaking--Delta's next technological advancement. System 2000 is based upon the philosophy and goals of the computer services organization. The center of System 2000 is the curriculum and courses, the true products of education. Inherent in the curriculum- based design of System 2000 is the concept of shared governance and shared information. Students, staff, faculty, and administrators will have access to all appropriate functions in the system necessary for them to make decisions related to their roles in the educational environment. To leverage resources and accelerate the pace of design and development of System 2000, Delta established a collaborative pro-ject involving Saddleback and Santa Barbara Community Colleges, both of whom share Delta's philosophy and technical design approach. The designers are taking a fresh approach to the way traditional administrative systems currently operate. Instead of merely updating or translating code from an existing system to a more current platform, the designers are completely reengineering the administrative processes and procedures. As noted above, the curriculum and courses drive the administrative processes. For example, the approval of a course means that an instructor must be assigned, a schedule made, room assigned, finances allocated, etc. This curriculum-centered view provides for the natural evolution of associated modules for students and faculty. System 2000 is innovative--even "break-through"--technology in both its design and system requirements. The system's designers are using a CASE (computer-assisted software engineering) tool to develop a platform- independent logical design. By using this software, Delta streamlines the development process and communicates more easily with non-technical audiences about the design. The Delta version of the architecture of System 2000 is a client- server-based model with the majority of computing done on the desktop. Computing is distributed over several powerful servers with a minicomputer providing necessary data to the system. Although the design itself is platform-independent, implementation at Delta calls for the Macintosh to be used for the desktop workstation, compute servers, and client servers. Delta is developing System 2000 using object-oriented tools which will allow parsing out of the system components so that each component can operate on one or many Macs to share compute cycles. SmallTalk(TM) is the language being used to write the modules in System 2000. The object- oriented design principle of "inheritance" will make the system easily portable to other institutions and platforms. When an institution needs a modification, for example, the institution can accomplish the modification by describing only an entity's "new" properties or characteristics. This characteristic has also greatly enhanced the productivity of the programmer/analysts who are writing the code for the system. The use of common data dictionaries and elements eliminates much of the redundant work that would have been necessary with a more traditional procedural language. As a test of platform transportability, Delta was able to transport one of the SmallTalk applications to a Windows platform with no modifications. Two modules of System 2000 went into use during the fall of 1992. The counseling staff at Delta College are using both the student education plan and degree audit applications. As an example of increased efficiency, the automated degree audit application completes a 20-minute manual task in a matter of seconds. Delta plans to implement the basic modules of System 2000 by April of 1993. The system will be the final link in providing major campus information services to allstudents, faculty, and staff. Delta will integrate distributed applications of System 2000 with the academic network for student and faculty access. With the new system, students will be able to easily access the information they need to be successful in the college environment; they will be able to request and receive transcripts, select courses, evaluate educational plans, receive grade reports, and communicate electronically with faculty. Faculty will be able to move closer to a paperless environment with electronic rosters, grade books, course descriptions, assignment bulletins. Administrators, faculty, and staff will be able to obtain even more information from their desktop for use in planning and decision-making. Not without some resistance Upon visiting Delta College and seeing the evolution of this vision, one is reminded of the writings of Stan Davis and Bill Davidson, who describe in their book, 2020 Vision, those organizations that are positioning for the future by "informationalizing."[3] The authors observe that there are bottlenecks in the process of informationalizing. They cite such factors as the partially met need for compatible computer architecture, and the dilemma of choice. Seamless enterprise computing has been important in the informationalizing process at Delta; the college has overcome the dilemma of compatible computer architecture and choice by providing a seamless link to existing proprietary platforms from their desktop standard, a Macintosh. Like other organizations, however, Delta has experienced some resistance, although to a lesser degree than most institutions. A few specific examples of resistance at Delta illustrate the type of issues that an organization may encounter in achieving a fully informationalized institution. The first example of resistance pertains to database ownership and responsibility. While much of the data accessed using the Virtual Desk comes directly from administrative databases, some sources of information, particularly text files, are in "end-user" departments. Other competing priorities can impact the ability of these end users to update their information frequently. Consequently, some of the textual information, such as committee minutes, policies, and procedures that users access from the Virtual Desk, can be out of date. The computer services staff are aware of areas that are difficult to maintain, and work with end users to stay abreast of the changes. The second example relates to user expectations. While Delta has deliberately selected the most user-friendly tools, it is still difficult for some users to adapt to a technology-based work style. These users become impatient with the tools, because the tools are more difficult to learn than users anticipated. To respond positively to these unfilled expectations, Delta continues to provide education and training in the use of technological tools. The third example of resistance is a subtle but important one. This form of resistance pertains to the "aura of accountability" that is present in an organization when information is easily accessible. To illustrate this resistance, a number of questions are posed. Should administrators make their calendars accessible? Should budget status information be shared beyond just the person responsible for a program area? Should employees be able to communicate electronically directly to the president? Should progress reports for achieving division and departmental goals and objectives be shared widely? These questions represent just a sample of the questions that "informationalizing" can raise. The Delta computer services leadership and staff deliberately try to stay above "the politics of information," but are aware that these and other important questions will continue to emerge and must be addressed. The fourth example pertains to technology itself. While new hardware is providing dramatic increases in performance at lower costs, institutions are faced with the financial reality of continuous upgrades to stay abreast of the hardware, operating systems, and communications technology. Furthermore, as the technology becomes available to users, their appetites for more technology grow. In response to this demand and to technology changes, Delta formulated and continuously updates its five-year information resources plan. Information technologies staff are noted for their ability to evaluate applications and tools, identifying those that have a high price/performance return while at the same time selecting those that best advance Delta technologically. How does Delta continue to move ahead given these expressions of restraint? Three characteristics emerge. First, Delta has a well articulated vision that evolved from an effective planning process that serves as a guide to the future. Second, Delta computer services staff are action-oriented and use the best productivity tools as part of their day-to-day work style. Third, Delta computer services staff adhere to the orientation of a "no politics here" environment. While some institutions use a laborious committee process to identify a need and develop a design, Delta computer services staff take the first step in defining a new application; then they go to the users. With the commitment of the college to shared governance, the political forces can ultimately support or veto a project at the approval process stage. In the last year, two major projects have had their taste of politics. One was successful despite the politics; the other fell victim. Although computer services, as an entity, operates on a technical versus political foundation, it is not immune to either fallout or being targeted as part of others' agendas. Vision, tools, and "no politics" appear to be just the right ingredients to keep Delta rapidly moving toward the "informationalized organization," although they cannot always guarantee the outcome. Davis and Davidson, referred to above, hypothesize that "the maturity of the infrastructure (infostructure) may be measured, in part, by the degree to which it (the organization) adopts standards, develops compatibility among its parts, and connects incompatible pieces into a seamless whole. ... This process is occurring now and will continue to be the major focus during the next decade." Based upon the plans that have been developed and executed at Delta, one concludes that Delta is an institution that has the potential to mature into an effective organizational model for the information era if the political environment facilitates rather than mitigates such progress. Conclusion In starting on the desktop, the vision of self-managed colleagues and empowered students, all networked into the institution's knowledge base as well as external networks, is beginning to emerge at San Joaquin Delta College. Delta began with a well articulated vision developed through an effectively executed planning process and progressed by implementing a hardware and software architecture designed explicitly for its ultimate customers--its students and employees. The institution is reaching toward the future by designing an enterprise-wide model for an information architecture that focuses on the student and curriculum. The vision of the future: it starts on the desktop--at Delta it does! ======================================================================== Footnotes: 1 John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, Re-Inventing the Corporation (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1985), p. 83. 2 The Virtual Desk has been demonstrated to over 125 different groups in both education and industry in the last two years. One of the most impressive responses to the Virtual Desk and its associated applications was from a group of twenty-five Japanese business representatives who visited Delta College. One representative was so enthusiastic that his multi-million-dollar construction company purchased additional personal computers and, shortly after, arranged for its entire MIS department to visit Delta College for a follow-up workshop on integrating the personal computers into their enterprise. 3 William H. Davidson and Stanley M. Davis, 2020 Vision: Transform Your Business Today to Succeed in Tomorrow's Economy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991). ========================================================================