CU I&E Submission: System Integration Empowers Business to Do More with Content

Category

Sponsored Projects/Research
Technology

Submitted By

Jennifer Silverthorne, jennifer.silverthorne@cu.edu, Associate Director, Electronic Research Administration

Project Team

Jennifer Silverthorne, jennifer.silverthorne@cu.edu, Associate Director, Electronic Research Administration
Alan Vidmar, alan.vidmar@cu.edu, Associate Director, Enterprise Content Services
Robert Kerley, robert.kerley@cu.edu, Application Manager, Electronic Research Administration
Jordan Wight, jordan.wight@cu.edu, Technical Lead, Electronic Research Administration Development
Dong Chen, dong.chen@cu.edu, Senior Developer, Electronic Research Administration Development
Larissa Armand, larissa.armand@cu.edu, Enterprise Content Services Lead
Siegfried Appelt, siegfried.appelt@cu.edu, Project Manager, Project Management Office

Project Description

A new integration was designed and implemented between InfoEd Proposal Tracking Module and Hyland OnBase to consolidate document storage and open the door to getting more utility from collected data and document content using OnBase tools. The Office of Grants and Contracts (OGC) at the Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus wanted close to 435,000 documents moved to OnBase, for new documents in InfoEd to be migrated to OnBase daily and allow users to open these documents from either InfoEd or OnBase. In addition, OGC wanted critical document data in InfoEd to be available in OnBase. Not only did we commit to setting up the integration, but we also agreed to have it be reasonable to support and maintain. The result is a solution that is clean, easy to work with and keep updated.

Project Efficiency 

The greatest efficiency was how we designed the integration. Rather than create one data stream, we simplified the integration by decoupling documents from the associated data. A dashboard was created in OnBase to easily identify integration issues causing discrepancies between InfoEd and OnBase. Alerts were set up to notify UIS of document or data issues in InfoEd. The result is a full view of document and data handling that is easy to troubleshoot and fix. The approach was designed with an eye toward the future and to easily expand the integration to other InfoEd modules.

Project Inspiration 

The project’s inspiration came from the Office of Grants and Contracts. The Hyland OnBase product offers an array of features and tools available to supplement other products, such as full-text search. The InfoEd system can generate, store, and update documents. However, document storage is technologically more efficient in a content management system like OnBase. Having identified OnBase, OGC requested UIS assistance to integrate the two systems. The project was a win-win because moving the documents freed up needed space in the InfoEd database - reducing the time required to conduct maintenance.

What Makes You Happiest about this Project?

The Office of Grants and Contracts sought new ways to manage day-to-day transactions and leverage existing data and content. Two systems could be used independently for business processing but the power and efficiency that comes from combining the two systems was even better. I am happy that UIS can provide tools and creative options. This project and the group of people who contributed to it were amazing. The OGC team was a great partner as were the technical teams. The result was an innovative and flexible integration design.