Student System Project Story

Student System Project (SSP) Positions U.Va. for the Future

For nearly 10 years, the University of Virginia has been engaged in an effort to replace disparate and obsolete administrative systems with an enterprise-wide, integrated system, consistent with the University’s strategic vision to “transform the University’s physical and administrative infrastructure to support the activities of a top-ranked national university, effectively and efficiently.”

The third phase of the Integrated System Project—the SSP—will replace ISIS, the current system of record. The functionality and underlying technologies of ISIS cannot meet current or future administrative or programmatic needs of students, faculty, or administrators, for example:
- Because of its aging technology platform, ISIS lacks both the flexibility to meet routine business needs and the ability to effectively incorporate new technologies, despite maximal effort to incorporate web front ends and other modifications.
- ISIS was not created to include a variety of functions that are now requirements at top-ranked institutions, e.g., a real-time course offering directory. It requires significant manual effort to accommodate new programs, fees, and academic schedules.
- It is increasingly difficult to change ISIS to accommodate expanding informational and reporting needs.

The SSP affords the University an opportunity to adapt and enhance institutional policies and processes and to provide:
- a set of accessible, convenient, effective tools that enable students, faculty, and staff to focus on the substance of their interactions rather than the mechanics

an infrastructure designed to facilitate future enhancements to address changing student and faculty service needs and expectations
a central, information-rich repository that provides an opportunity for enhanced decision making at all levels
an environment with a unified, cohesive “look and feel” in which transactions are entered only once, data elements are consistently named, etc.
more self service features

The implementation of a new student information system provides a technological infrastructure that is up-to-date, integrated, reflects “best business practices,” will evolve to capitalize on future advances in information technology, and provides the adaptability and flexibility necessary to respond quickly to new business needs and requirements.