Karen Stauffer - Zia Consulting and Athabasca University's Alfresco ECM Project: A Case Study
1. Zia Consulting and Athabasca
University's Alfresco ECM
Project: A Case Study
2. Who
is
Zia
Consul1ng?
Zia Consulting is a leading provider of enterprise
business solutions for content management from
paper to mobile.
The
Content
People
at
Zia
Consul1ng
• Driving Enterprise Mobility Technology
• Experts in Enterprise Integration and Cloud Ready Solutions
• Connected with industry leading partners
• Delivering measurable business results, on time, within budget
Zia provides innovative solutions which open up new
possibilities in a content anywhere environment.
3. Who
is
Zia
Consul1ng?
End to End Business Solutions
• Procurement
• Sales Automation
• Contract and Records Management
• eDiscovery
• Knowledge Management
• Business Process Management
• Project and Expense Management
Integrity is core to how Zia does business
4. Athabasca
University
Facts
• Canada’s
open
and
distance
learning
ins1tu1on
• About
38,000
students
located
world-‐wide
• Offers
over
750
courses
and
more
than
90
graduate
and
undergraduate
degrees
and
diplomas.
• Has
a
distributed
work
force
of
over
1200
5. AU
Facts
• Most
faculty
members
work
from
home
offices.
• Most
professional
and
administra1ve
staff
work
in
office
loca1ons.
• Main
campus
located
in
Athabasca,
Alberta
• Other
office
loca1ons
in
Calgary,
Edmonton,
and
Fort
McMurray,
Alberta
6. The
Star1ng
Point
with
Alfresco
• Most
courses
have
year-‐round
enrolments,
rather
than
being
term-‐based.
• Course
content
is
wriUen
by
faculty,
but
course
development
and
delivery
is
handled
by
various
departments.
• All
AU
courses
are
delivered
online
using
a
Learning
Management
System
(Moodle).
• Moodle
does
not
manage
the
course
development
process
well
–
edi1ng,
versioning,
archiving
–
so
the
need
for
a
CMS
was
iden1fied.
7. Why
Alfresco?
• Alfresco
chosen
a[er
analysis
and
comparison
with
other
similar
systems
(e.g.
Documentum
and
RedDot)
for
the
following
reasons:
– It’s
open
source,
which
fits
with
the
ins1tu1onal
approach
to
informa1on
technology
systems,
works
with
our
limited
budget,
and
is
compa1ble
with
the
AU
technology
stack.
– Integra1on
poten1al
with
Moodle
for
development
and
delivery
of
course
materials.
– Other
features
and
capabili1es
such
as
search,
versioning,
workflows,
records
management,
WebDAV
access,
LDAP
integra1on,
and
WCM
were
all
important
considera1ons.
8. Ini1al
Implementa1ons
• First
started
with
Alfresco
2.2
in
2007
• Several
ini1a1ves
undertaken:
• commissioning
servers
for
availability
university-‐wide
• web
content
management
with
several
website
roll-‐outs
• course
development
and
Moodle
integra1on
pilot.
A
‘Publish
to
Moodle’
ac1on
was
created.
• custom
content
model
integra1on
with
course
material
and
student
informa1on
from
registry
database.
• crea1on
of
a
func1onal
taxonomy
for
records
and
document
content
management
pilot
9. Issues
Encountered
(2009)
• Systems
stability
issues.
Mul1ple
bugs
were
submiUed
(internally)
and
not
fixed.
• Web
Unit
not
sa1sfied
with
various
aspects
of
Alfresco
Web
Content
Management
capabili1es,
mainly
the
amount
of
technical
exper1se
required
to
roll
out
websites.
• Course
development
and
Moodle
integra1on
progress
stalled.
A
contracted
project
(Course
Tracking
System)
was
verging
on
failure.
• Users
simply
didn’t
want
to
use
Alfresco.
The
folder
structure
was
too
complicated
and
they
didn’t
like
the
Explorer
interface.
10. AU
Func1onal
Taxonomy
Classifica1on
0100
Human
Resources
• 0320
External
Rela1ons
-‐
External
Rela1ons
• 0110
Planning
and
Evalua1on
• 0325
Legal
and
Risk
Management
-‐
Legal
Advice
and
Li1ga1on
• 0115
Recruitment
-‐
Search
• 0330
Legal
and
Risk
Management
-‐
Legisla1ve
Review
• 0120
Recruitment
-‐
Hiring
• 0335
Legal
and
Risk
Management
-‐
Risk
Management
• 0125
Compensa1on
and
Benefit
–
Enrolment
• 0340
Planning
-‐
Strategic
Planning
• 0130
Compensa1on
and
Benefit
-‐
Salary
and
Benefit
Delivery
• 0345
Planning
-‐
Business
planning
• 0135
Health
and
Safety
-‐
Preven1on
and
Promo1on
• 0350
Communica1on
-‐
Media
Rela1ons
• 0140
Health
and
Safety
-‐
Assessment
and
Placement
• 0355
Communica1on
-‐
Special
Events
• 0145
Health
and
Safety
-‐
Monitoring
and
Treatment
• 0360
Communica1on
-‐
Publica1ons
• 0150
Labour
Rela1ons
-‐
Collec1ve
Bargaining
• 0365
Communica1on
-‐
Convoca1on
• 0155
Labour
Rela1ons
-‐
Conflict
Resolu1on
0400
Teaching
and
Learning
• 0160
Performance
and
Development
-‐
Individual
Planning
• 0410
Program
Development
-‐
Planning
and
Design
• 0165
Performance
and
Development
-‐
Appraisal
and
Adjustments
• 0415
Teaching
-‐
Course
Development
• 0170
Performance
and
Development
-‐
Discipline
• 0420
Teaching
-‐
Course
Delivery
0200
Finance
• 0425
Teaching
-‐
Evalua1on
and
Appeal
• 0210
Budge1ng
-‐
Budget
Process
Design
and
Evalua1on
500
Informa?on
Services
• 0215
Budge1ng
-‐
Budget
Development
• 0510
Library
-‐
Collec1on
Development
• 0220
Budge1ng
-‐
Budget
Management
•
0515
Library
-‐
Circula1on
and
Control
• 0230
Accoun1ng
-‐
System
Development
and
Evalua1on
• 0520
Library
-‐
Reference
Support
• 0235
Accoun1ng
-‐
Payment
and
Receipt
Processing
• 0525
Archives
and
Records
-‐
Planning
and
Design
• 0240
Funding
and
Revenue
-‐
Revenue
planning
and
Strategy
• 0530
Archives
and
Records
-‐
Record
Control
and
Reten1on
• 0245
Funding
and
Revenue
-‐
Revenue
sourcing
and
Management
• 0535
Archives
and
Records
-‐
Record
storage
and
Preserva1on
• 0250
Audi1ng
-‐
Audit
system
Design
and
Evalua1on
• 0540
Archives
and
Records
-‐
Record
access
and
Research
• 0255
Audi1ng
-‐
Audit
Process
• 0545
Access
and
Privacy
-‐
Compliance
and
Accountability
0300
Corporate
• 0550
Access
and
Privacy
-‐
Request
and
Inves1ga1ons
• 0310
Budge1ng
-‐
Budget
Process
Design
and
Evalua1on
• 0555
Informa1on
Technology
-‐
Planning
and
Architecture
• 0315
Assessment
and
Repor1ng
-‐
Quality
Management
and
Management
• 0560
Informa1on
Technology
-‐
Systems
Development
Audit
• 0565
Informa1on
Technology
-‐
System
Maintenance
0600
Facili?es
and
Services
• 0610
Development
and
Acquisi1on
-‐
Research,
Analysis
and
Evalua1on
• 0615
Development
and
Acquisi1on
-‐
Purchasing
and
Acquisi1on
• 0620
Development
and
Acquisi1on
-‐
Construc1on
or
Delivery
• 0625
Asset
or
service
use
-‐
Tracking
and
Monitoring
• 0630
Asset
or
service
use
-‐
Maintenance
• 0635
Asset
or
service
use
-‐
Security
and
Access
control
• 0640
Asset
or
service
use
-‐
Disposal
and
Decommissioning
0700
Governance
• 0710
Structure
and
Authority
-‐
Design
and
Assessment
12. Moving
Forward
• Introduced
to
the
Zia
Consul1ng
team
at
the
LA
Alfresco
Meet
-‐Up,
October
2009.
• The
needs
we
had
iden1fied:
• A
determina1on
of
how
to
handle
document
content
and
records
management,
work
within
our
func1onal
taxonomy,
and
prevent
users
from
simply
dumping
content
from
shared
drives
and
desktops
into
Alfresco
• How
to
proceed
with
the
development
of
work
flows
for
the
course
materials
development
process
and
integra1on
with
Moodle.
• An
assessment
of
our
current
systems
and
sugges1ons
for
improvement.
13. Zia
Assessment
Outcomes
• January
2010
-‐
Zia
Consul1ng
was
contracted
to
assist
with
the
crea1on
of
a
long
term
plan
for
Alfresco
ECM
development
at
AU
and
delivered
the
following:
• Best
prac1ce
recommenda1ons
for
Alfresco
infrastructure
and
the
upgrade
process.
• Business
analysis
of
workflows
for
the
course
materials
development
process.
• Recommenda1ons
regarding
how
to
proceed
with
the
process
for
enterprise-‐wide
folder
structures
that
would
reflect
the
func1onal
taxonomy,
address
security
needs,
enable
searchability,
and
enable
implementa1on
of
records
reten1on
policies.
• Code
review
of
delayed
projects
• Recommenda1ons
for
WCM
improvements.
14. Challenges
and
the
RFP
Process
• Based
on
Zia’s
assessment
report,
we
had
project
requirements
iden1fied,
but
our
budget
did
not
reflect
the
actual
an1cipated
cost.
• Users
at
the
university
were
very
skep1cal
that
Alfresco
would
actually
work
for
us.
• The
IT
execu1ve
commiUee
was
pushing
for
a
success,
as
considerable
investment
had
been
made
at
that
point.
• We
wanted
to
increase
Alfresco
exper1se
within
the
university
and
to
decrease
con1nued
reliance
on
outsourced
system
integrators.
15. Zia
-‐
Athabasca
University
Project
• Since
our
budget
was
limited,
we
had
to
decide
on
how
to
get
the
“best
bang
for
our
buck”.
We
selected
Zia
from
the
received
proposals
based
on
the
work
we
knew
they
could
do
for
us.
• Zia
worked
closely
with
our
business
analyst
and
with
the
development
team
using
an
agile
approach.
• ensured
the
internal
AU
staff
was
benefi1ng
from
the
knowledge
gains
and
that
the
project
was
proceeding
in
the
direc1on
we
wanted.
• The
project
outcomes
included:
• Course
materials
storage
and
access
with
integra1on
to
Moodle
sites.
• Workflow
development
for
course
materials
correc1ons
and
revisions.
• Developing
an
automated
document
management
strategy
that
posi1oned
us
for
future
records
management
implementa1on.
18. AU
Records
and
Document
Management
• The
goal
of
this
was
to
use
our
taxonomy,
which
has
an
associated
reten1on
policy,
to
classify
all
documents
in
Alfresco.
This
is
to
posi1on
AU
to
implement
records
management
at
a
later
1me
with
a
reduc1on
in
effort.
The
requirements
included:
• Security
needs
and
permissions
to
address
access
control
to
all
folders
and
documents
per
individual,
group,
and
department.
• The
ability
to
search
and
retrieve
documents
based
on
classifica1on
and
access
permissions.
• The
classifica1on
of
documents
and
records
that
will
sa1sfy
the
requirements
for
implementa1on
of
a
future
reten1on
scheme.
• A
folder
structure
that
reflects
the
business
model
for
each
department.
19. RDM
Automa1on
Process
1.
Func1onal
taxonomy
created
3.
A
rule
to
inherit
records
as
categories
under
AU
Records
management
categories
is
applied.
Classifica1on.
2.
The
Records
Management
Audit
4.
A
daily
audit
log
is
sent
to
the
Root
aspect
is
set
for
the
site.
records
administrator
for
the
site.
20. RDM
File
Plan
Process
• Iden1fy
someone
who
will
act
as
that
department’s
records
administrator.
• Define
folder
structure
that
meets
the
department
business
model.
• Determine
records
management
categories
for
the
folder
structure
(based
on
recommenda1ons
from
AU’s
records
management
officer)
• Determine
access
control
requirements
for
the
folder
structure.
• Create
the
folder
structure
in
Alfresco,
and
apply
classifica1ons
and
access
control
policy
• Migrate
exis1ng
documents
to
new
folder
structure
21. RDM
Roll-‐out
• Work
with
one
department
at
a
1me,
rather
than
rolling
out
to
en1re
ins1tu1on
• To
ensure
ini1al
success,
we
went
with
the
early
adopters
first
–
Project
Management
Office,
Faculty
of
Science
and
Technology,
Compu1ng
Services,
Centre
for
Learning
Design
and
Development.
• Con1nuing
roll-‐out
based
on
request
for
service
–
there
has
been
no
need
to
force
departments
to
migrate
documents
to
Alfresco.
22. Alfresco
Training
• The
folder
structure
now
matches
departmental
business
prac1ces.
Classifica1on
of
documents
is
automated
and
transparent.
This
has
greatly
simplified
the
training
process.
23. Alfresco
Training
• Department
Records
Administrators
receive
in-‐depth
training.
Other
users
are
trained
to
use
various
access
methods:
WebDAV
File
Mapping
WebDAV
Browser
View
Alfresco
Share
Alfresco
Explorer
24. AU
Alfresco
Governance
• AU
Alfresco
Technical
CommiUee
(developers,
analysts,
sys
admins
–
reports
to
the
Steering
CommiUee).
• AU
Alfresco
Steering
CommiUee
(consists
of
representa1ves
of
all
university
stakeholders,
reports
to
the
Execu1ve
Group).
• Alberta
Alfresco
Users
Group
(shares
training
resources,
innova1ons,
documenta1on,
and
informa1on
regarding
Alfresco
Partner
experiences.)
– 3
Alberta
universi1es
– Edmonton
Public
Schools
– Various
Gov’t
of
Alberta
departments
– SherriU
Metals
25. AU
Alfresco
Road
Map
• Document
scanning
and
storage
–
under
considera1on
with
Zia
for
Epheso[
solu1on
• Research
project
–
content
authoring,
storage,
and
presenta1on
to
mul1ple
plaoorms
–
also
under
considera1on
with
Zia.
• Course
materials
–
con1nuing
with
workflows
and
implemen1ng
WCM
for
online
course
development
(internal).
• Workflow
development
integra1on
with
the
examina1on
process
(internal).
• Workflow
development
integra1on
with
HR
and
Finance
Banner
(Oracle)
processes
(internal).
• Upgrade
to
Alfresco
4.x
26. Takeaways
• Get
help
early
in
the
process
–
a[er
a
long
lag
in
our
start-‐up,
we
saw
quick
success
once
Zia
was
on
scene
• Use
the
Alfresco
support
network
–
especially
valuable
with
the
rapid
upgrades
as
seen
with
3.x
and
with
things
like
server
clustering.
• To
ensure
buy-‐in,
use
an
incremental
implementa1on
plan.
Start
with
early
adopters.
Build
on
successes.
• Ensure
that
training
plans
are
in
place
• Work
with
other
organiza1ons
to
share
resources
and
informa1on.
27. Ques1ons?
Karen
Stauffer
Alfresco
Program
Manager
Athabasca
University,
kstauff@athabascau.ca
Mike
Mahon
CEO
Zia
Consul1ng,
mike@ziaconsul1ng.com