CASE OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF 'DARBADIA'

Description of the environment Darbadia is a country with 7.5 million people, organized administratively in 4 major regions: Bardona, Tardona, Girdona and Lledona. Darbadia has three major universities, all around the capital Bardona. The three universities have very different profiles. The first one(University of Bardona) is a very large university (more than 60,000 students) and located in the capital Bardona. The second university is located in the industrial region around the capital. The third one is the smallest university and is focused on engineering and architecture (Polithecnic University). The other three regions(Tardona, Girdona and Lledona) are located miles away from the capital of Darbadia, Bardona, and they have colleges and schools linked administratively to one of the universities located in Bardona. In the case of Tardona, all the schools are linked to the University of Bardona (the biggest one), but the Engineering School of Tardona which is linked to the smallest one in Bardona. The three main areas of work in Darbadia's universities (... and in all the world's universities) are: 1. - Research activity 2. - Teaching the students 3. Administration. The four main administration systems of a university are: human resources, economic-financial, academic management system (AMS), and research management systems. Darbadia is in recesion, crisis is really hard, and causes decrease of public budgets and expenses. Hard times for Darbadia, in recesion. Economic crisis causes decrease of public budgets and additional resources impossible to obtain. The Government of Darbadia decides that all the regions must have a university to boost the economy, and be closer to the needs of each one of the regions. University of Tardona The new team, leading the University of Tardona is responsible to configure all the systems to run the University independently from the universities of Bardona in 2 years. University of Tardona has 7 schools, more than 7,000 students and 800 teachers. All the schools are linked to the University of Bardona, but the Engineering School which is linked to the Politechnic University in Bardona, with a new IT Engineering School. The current administration of the schools of the University of Tardona are using technology infrastructure and information systems from the University of Bardona and includes: payroll, economic and financial management, library
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management, and academic management (curricula, students, teachers, teaching groups, management of teaching, student evaluations and qualifications). Information systems of the University of Bardona (the largest in Darbadia) are based on a central computer (mainframe) that communicates with the centers (including those in Tardona) using a proprietary protocol for mainframes (SNA). In fact the centers of the University of Tardona only have 'terminal' connections to Bardona. Now, the main problem is that University of Tardona doesn't agree with the amount of money transfered from the University of Bardona, related to the registration of the students. There are very important differences between the two managements of both universities on the money to be transfered. Academic Management Systems (AMS) Academic Management Systems (AMS) manages academic business processes as : admissions, registration, enrolment, fees, debtors, course planning, resource allocation (lecturers, classrooms, timetabling, tutoring, class lists, class attendance, academic performance, examinations, academic records, certifications and mentoring, The technology of the AMD in Bardona is a mainframe, with telecommunications based on SNA protocol. Actually administration technology of schools in Tardona are pure terminals or emulation software in PC's. From the organization point of view, there is a unit called Academic Management Service in Tardona depending from the unit in Bardona. Each college in Tardona has administrative secretaries to manage the school. The library system The University of Bardona has its own library information system. The government of Darbadia is implementing a new Darbadian Unified Library System Network (DULSN) using modern technology that will allow all libraries in the country communicate with each other. The Government is investing money in the new unified system for public libraries, in hardware, software and services. The responsible of the libraries of the Univerity of Tardona wants to join the DULSN. The IT of the University of Tardona The IT Department gives support to the administrative infrastructure installed in the University of Tardona, and consists of 2 people (a computer engineer (group A) and a computer technician without qualification (group C). Additionally, the Information Technology School is one of the important engineering studies of the Engineering School. The school is located in a building with many deficiencies in the technological infrastructure, but the teachers/researchers are really good in IT, from communications networks to database experts.

One of the top computers in the market , Unix based, is used in chemical research by its owner,the Faculty of Chemistry , but after few days of auditing, it's proved that this computer is used as hard disk.

EXERCISE & EVALUATION You are hired by the University of Tardona as a IT consultant of the Principal's Team the 1st of December. You receive the clear goal to ha ve running the AMS of the new University of Tardona, to registrate all the students of the Universityt of Tardona, and pay the fees in 7 months (registration is in June). Perform a SWOT analysis of 3 possible alternatives to run the AMS in 7 months independently of the University of Bardona : 1. 2. 3. 4. Internal development Buying a new system Importing Bardona's AMS Other ?

Make a presentation to explain to the Principal's Team the process of analysis of alternatives and to convince them about your decission based on how you will solve issues on people, organization, technology and funding,