Edith Cowan University is a major university with over 20,000 students. With the expanded population of target users and beneficiaries, the university requires an efficient way of managing its information and research integrity. Among the most efficient systems already in use by other major academic and research institutions is the Web Content Management System (WebCMS). Currently, the university has a WebCMS, developed over five years ago. As the studentship numbers have expanded, the system can no longer support the demand from its global users. This makes the scalability and manageability of the current system highly limited to the provision of effective authoring, administration, collaboration and content repository management.
In the 21st Century, library and information management has shifted focus from just authorship and secured archiving to the protection of information integrity, property rights protection and increasing the ease of access and retrieval (ECU, n.d.). This is a shortcoming highly displayed by the current university system. In proposition, the WebCMS system scheduled for acquisition in this document will help in the elimination of these challenges while improving on the access on the University content repository. As a result, this is expected to foster research integrity, innovation and boost the protection of property rights.
At the time of the current WebCMS’s development, the university served about 8,000 students Today, the population is slightly over 200% the initial target population. As a result, it continues to suffer much setbacks and limitations based on the service capacity and ability to handle the large population accessing the system. Consequently, there is a dire need and urgency to have a new, improved and effective system that can handle the current studentship with minimal intrinsic capacity and efficiency challenges.
Requirements of the Proposed WebCMS
Below is a description of the proposed WebCMS:
Authentic access management
With the increased cyber crime, there is a dire need to have a highly secure WebCMS that integrates the latest access control and authenticity at user portal. Further, the system should effectively monitor and report every end-user activity on the website as a way of encouraging and promoting cyber security. The current system offers authentic access control features such as user names and passwords. However, it doesn’t offer effective on-the-web activity monitoring. Integrating the feature in the next WebCMS to be procured will ensure effective web surveillance over suspicious web activity (ECU, n.d.).
Scalability and expansion
The current CMS system was developed to serve an initial population of 8,000 students. The proposed WebCMS should have a capacity to handle at least handle 150% of the current population. This way, the excess capacity allows the university to meet the demand for such a system in line with its 10-year projected population in mind. Further, the proposed WebCMS should offer easy-to-use and expand tools without further requirement to design another system.
Process automation
The 21st century requires intense automation. This means having a one stop shop where all client needs are met within a single portal. This is a feature that only requires improvement from the current WebCMS. For instance, the proposed system should allow students register for their examinations, pay the required fees, and access all the physical library resources virtually among others. By implementing such a highly automated system, the university’s capacity to handle and manage a wide array of student needs will be eased (EPA, 2013).
Improved and increased workflow management capacity
The current system can effectively handle only up to 8,000 concurrent users at a time. At such a time, the system faces workflow overload. In essence, this may lead to server-side low speeds or even downtimes. Consequently, the proposed system should have an expanded capacity to effectively and successfully handle at least 20,000 users for both on-course and parallel operations. For instance, in publishing researches, the system should bar such publishing until all the required approvals have been done.
Document management and virtualization
Despite the current system allowing for the uploading and downloading of documents, it doesn’t offer effective and collaborative document management throughout the document’s cycle. For instance, one has to download any uploaded works for any revisions before re-uploading it into the system. By virtualizing the documents, users will be able to work on the virtual copies of their work for say, revisions, archiving or document destruction without having to download them. In the proposed system, this will go a long way in minimizing the virtual disc space usage by external parties. As a result, its integrity and security are improved.
Content syndication and versioning
Effective CMS software allows for assistive content distribution through secondary means such as the generation of feeds and e-mails updating users on the progress of their work. The current system lacks this critical feature. By having the feature, the processes will be improved as users will always get first hand information on any transitional positioning of their delivered requests. This will for instance allow students know the approval stages of their thesis, and consequently, plan their schedules throughout the cycle (Gartner Consulting, n.d.).
Equally important to the process is the ability of the system to create a version code at every stage throughout the cycle. For easy reference, the system should for instance version a student’s initially delivered thesis as say, version 1.0.0 and the version as 1.0.1 once the first approval has been done, and so on. This makes it easy to track changes throughout the process. However, the versioning process should ensure no duplication or distortion of the delivered works.