Rocket® Data z/Web Server

case study
Rocket® Data z/Web Server
Florida State University: Accelerating Online Campus
Services
With Rocket Data z/Web Server, Florida State University renewed mainframe applications with more
than 25 web-enabled services in just eight months.
It’s a wired world, and nobody knows that better than top officials of the best universities in the
country. Without a doubt, college students are among the most internet-savvy individuals. That’s
why, when Florida State University (FSU) initiated its StudentsFirst program to provide one-stop
student affairs services, one of the first mandates was to create an online system so students, parents,
and FSU administrators could conduct collegiate business via the internet.
As StudentsFirst began to take shape in the brick-and-mortar world of walk-up service counters and
on-campus advising centers, the FSU application development team was creating FSyou!
Information Central. The idea behind this online system was to create a suite of student services that
could be accessed by any browser 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result of teamwork,
innovative thinking, and the implementation of Rocket Data z/Web Server, students were able to
access class schedules, transcript information, financial aid, and more, allowing staff to focus on
attending to the individual needs of the students.
With a student body numbering over 33,000, FSU maintains its university database on an IBM System
z mainframe provided by the Florida Northwest Regional Data Center. The Northwest Regional Data
Center is one of several state-operated processing centers servicing the educational community of
Florida. FSU uses the data center as an outsource for its mainframe needs.
While many administrative departments had access to university data via the mainframe, the process
for extracting the information was often tedious and time-consuming. Students and faculty had no
direct access to the mainframe data and would make requests via university personnel to obtain
information or perform simple administrative functions. Many of these actions required
“over-the-counter” service.
As the StudentsFirst program began to take shape, the technology department sought an answer to
provide students with easy, yet secure, online access to their enrollment and transcript profiles that
resided on the mainframe. The solution came in the form of Rocket Data z/Web Server, which was
recommended to the university by Michael Byers, associate director of the Florida Northwest
Regional Data Center.
Rocket
®
case study
Lightning-Quick Web Content
Goal:
The FSU team started development of FSyou! in late fall. By the summer, students and professors had
the website at their fingertips. Functions have been added regularly, with students and professors
performing a variety of online functions 24 X 7. Students can obtain unofficial transcripts, get class
schedules, pay their financial obligations to the university, check financial aid, and more. Professors
can access class lists with demographics, including photographs of all consenting students.
To create a secure, convenient, user-friendly website
where students and staff
could communicate and
conduct student affairs.
In the registrar’s office, Rocket Data z/Web Server enables administrators to quickly evaluate student
demand for classes, adding new classes or more sections of the same class as needed. “Prior to designing
the Web application, it took four to seven days to generate the data that would give university
administrators an accurate picture of what classes needed to be added, eliminated, or consolidated,” said
Mike Nola, coordinator, Computer Applications, FSU Technology Development Group. “Now, through the
Web, the same data can be generated in one to three minutes. This ability to have real-time access to data
makes FSU more responsive to the needs of students, plus, professors don’t have to worry about class
overcrowding.”
The Power to Get the Job Done
Rocket Data z/Web Server proved an ideal solution to provide the link FSU needed from the
mainframe to the Web. From an outsource perspective, Byers says the ability to evaluate and react to
situations online with a real-time exchange of information has been key.
Nola compliments the ease of web-enabling DB2- and CICS-based data using Rocket Data z/Web
Server with simple Restructured Extended Executor (REXX) scripts. “Four of us completed 26
applications in just eight months,” he said. “Rocket Data z/Web Server is easy to use. We were able to
ramp up quickly to do the programming using REXX, because it is script-oriented. It was intuitive for
traditional mainframe application developers, like the FSU team.”
A Starting Point
The goal of FSyou! was to minimize the need for students to contact or visit university officials to
obtain information or request simple administrative changes. The first application deployed was the
compilation of class rosters for faculty use. The data, already accessible from the mainframe,
provided the FSU development team with an archived data source with which to test. The
application compiled class lists, complete with student data and photographs.
“It was an immediate success,” said Nola. “The professors like having the information, especially the
pictures. They can easily ascertain the class makeup, including information such as what courses
students are taking that semester, their degree plans, and more. In addition, professors can e-mail
the entire class or one student directly.” From this beginning, the team was able to create other
Why Florida State
University Selected
Rocket Data z/Web
Server:
FSU employed Rocket Data
z/Web Server to renew
mainframe applications by
providing more student
services via the Web.
Business Benefits:
Real-time access to
mainframe data from the
Internet makes Florida State
University more responsive
to the needs of students
and allows administrative
staff to focus on attending
to the individual needs of
students.
Technical Benefits:
Easy, secure, real-time web
access to mainframe DB2
and CICS-based data
enabled the development
team to ramp up quickly
using traditional mainframe
programming techniques,
allowing a small team to
rapidly create new applications.
case study
applications to further automate processes.
“Four of us completed 26
applications in just eight
Applications Continue to Proliferate
Nola indicated that the university is currently initiating a study to determine the financial savings
being realized. “When students and faculty are handling so many functions personally, the
administrative staff can focus on more productive activities, instead of juggling requests for
transcripts or address corrections. This also allows them to provide higher quality service to the
students who need personal attention,” he said.
months. Rocket Data z/Web
Server is easy to use. We
were able to ramp up
quickly to do the
programming using REXX,
because it is script-oriented.
It was intuitive for
traditional mainframe
The initial 26 applications were just the beginning for FSU. Students had also acquired the ability to
pay with credit cards or use the FSUCard, which is an ID smart card/debit card. “This function has
many benefits, for students and their parents who are naturally close to this issue,” said Nola.
“Payment online is easier and instantaneous. Plus, it’s accessible from anywhere at any time. Several
students studying abroad used their international credit cards to pay their tuition. Students can
check their accounts, even their financial aid packages, so they know their balance.”
application developers, like
the FSU team.”
Mike Nola
Coordinator,
Computer Applications,
Florida State University
Technology
Development Group
A further benefit is that students can now prepare an online degree completion progress report to
determine which classes have been or need to be successfully completed to meet graduation
requirements.
The FSU application development team is currently designing an application for the athletic
department. Athletic personnel will be able to access data on student athletes’ academic progress in
30 seconds, instead of four days. The athletic administration will be able to determine which students
are lacking adequate enrollment, need help with their studies, or are to be congratulated for their
academic successes.
The present use of the web-enabled mainframe applications has not begun to reach the ultimate
implementation of Rocket Data z/Web Server. Estimates are that the site now receives millions of hits
per month, a number which the highly scalable solution can handle every hour, if necessary.
Rocket Data z/Web Server has enabled FSU to make mainframe data available to the university
community via any web browser. Thanks to teamwork, innovative thinking, and the technology of
Rocket Data z/Web Server, Florida State University is realizing an unprecedented opportunity to be a
technically-advanced, more responsive university putting the student first through FSyou!
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