By using paradigms for custom programs, the programming staff made specifications and the actual task of programming much easier. Maintenance was also made much easier.
Write or Buy: write, of course
Every big software company, like Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Salesforce, spends millions of dollars a year for advertizing. No organized group promotes the concept of writing one's own custom software. The possible lack of in-house talent and the likelihood that extraordinary talent will leave puts the typical VP in a bind. Buying IBM used to be the acknowledge safe choice. Buying a package is a current safe choice. Likewise, in reading Gartner's and other reviewers of software, there are more suggestions to buy 'best of breed.' No one spends much money to promote writing software.
A simple analysis of many software packages reveals a simple architecture for most core functions.
For several years, APU often chose to write programs rather than buy packages. The result was an increasing portfolio of functional modules all based on common architecture. For all payrolls, hardware, licenses, and services:
The total cost of data processing was less than 1% per year, like $1.6 million out of $340 million budget
Modules
On the software side, a small team of four or five designed and implemented a broad array of programs. A module usually has one or more input screens; a few reports; a few batch jobs. Many modules bridge the gap between an outside service and APU. Other modules extended the SRN Student System and the BiTech Accounting System. By our logging statistics, we had about 100 active daily screens, 100 regularly active extracts or reports; 400 occasional reports; many rarely used reports, and close to 350 input screen.
Business Office:
Every big software company, like Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Salesforce, spends millions of dollars a year for advertizing. No organized group promotes the concept of writing one's own custom software. The possible lack of in-house talent and the likelihood that extraordinary talent will leave puts the typical VP in a bind. Buying IBM used to be the acknowledge safe choice. Buying a package is a current safe choice. Likewise, in reading Gartner's and other reviewers of software, there are more suggestions to buy 'best of breed.' No one spends much money to promote writing software.
A simple analysis of many software packages reveals a simple architecture for most core functions.
For several years, APU often chose to write programs rather than buy packages. The result was an increasing portfolio of functional modules all based on common architecture. For all payrolls, hardware, licenses, and services:
The total cost of data processing was less than 1% per year, like $1.6 million out of $340 million budget
Modules
On the software side, a small team of four or five designed and implemented a broad array of programs. A module usually has one or more input screens; a few reports; a few batch jobs. Many modules bridge the gap between an outside service and APU. Other modules extended the SRN Student System and the BiTech Accounting System. By our logging statistics, we had about 100 active daily screens, 100 regularly active extracts or reports; 400 occasional reports; many rarely used reports, and close to 350 input screen.
Business Office:
- Accounting: GL, AR, AP
- Credit Card Reconciliation
- Human Resources: some, position budgeting; adjunct professor tracking
- Ad hoc Reports for Auditors
- Cash Register
- context sensitive Inquiry
- ...using a field in the current record set, look in the next screen
- read keys from an external data file, such as the result of a query
- write keys to an external file with K command
- Entity Lookup and label printing
- Student Lookup and label printing
- Student AR
- Student Schedules
- Student GPA's
- Class Rosters: viewing and printing
- Post Office Boxes and Reports: continued
- Name Lookup by at least eight keys
- Data Code Lookup
- ...zipcodes, admission codes, grade codes, UCX codes, ...
- Inquiry into data files: does this file contain a certain name or a certain tag structure
- Inquiry into many more areas of the school
- Semi-programmable to perform repetitious lookups, print outs, and data extractions
- importing Inquiries and Applications
- importing letters and documents
- mass e-mailers
- printed tens of thousands of labels for mailers
- rosters for counselors
- reports about counselors
- document processing
- international students and visas
- Reports
- Room Mate Reports and Rosters for RA's
- Billing
- Majors
- Students per Department
- GPA comparisons
- Installed Academic Planning from SRN
- Continuation Reports
- Graduation Rates
- Faculty Evaluation Module for Department Chairs
- Faculty Rating System by Students
- Reports for Accreditation
- Semester Builder and Catalog Module
- On-Line Registration
- Room Assignments and Patterns
- Graduation Ceremony Processing
- Transcripts
- Diplomas
- Transfer Credits
- Importing Test Scores
- ranking scores
- reporting by groups
- Institutional Research (into APU itself)
- IPEDS Reports and Data Collection
- Statistics for Student Life
- Student Elections
- Student Athlete Reports: NAIA
- Server and website support
- Fund Raising
- Advancement: .
- Address Verifications
- University Calendars and Feeding Schedule25; another bad choice.
- the Bitech module and its clerk did well.Buying Razor's Edge led to bleeding buy those trying to hold it.
- the RE package required a full-time technician, two clerks, and manager interface activities
- Statements and Payments
- Interface to Online Payment System
- Cash Registers and Payment Types; we let the student store buy a package, and the chaos began.
- Financial Aid Officers and Reports
- Partial AR Collections for Certain Students
- Partially Automated Initialization of Next Year Calculations
- 1098T Tax Module
- National Student Loan Clearing House
- Health Insurance Exports, continued
- Cafeteria
- Pizza Online Ordering and Delivery
- Library
- Maps
- network and wifi
- screen copy utility
- logons and menus and batch jobs
- help desk
- document imaging: reduce file cabinets; speed searches
- email verifications
- data storage and DBA tasks
- program libraries, compiling, standards, QUIZ, COBOL,