ISYS: Technology and Undergraduate Advising for the 21st Century

February 22, 2006

Imagine a web-based major completion process, on-line access to students' senior pages, and vastly improved communication within the College...

These are among the proposed outcomes for the new information system envisioned by Dean Robert C. Holub for advising in the College of Letters and Science. Targeted for completion in 2008, this new system, nicknamed ISYS, will provide the advising office with easy access to complete and centralized data and will be compatible with eBerkeley information systems such as BearFacts, MyBerkeleyApp, DARS, CalAgenda, and Cal Profiles.

"ISYS will require a great deal of time, effort, and resources from the Undergraduate Division," notes Holub. "But the advantages to students, College and departmental advisers, and policy makers in L&S will be enormous and will put OUA on the right course for operating effectively in the twenty-first century."

During Phase I of the three-year project, Senior Analyst James Dudek is examining and documenting every business process in the advising office. This information will then be used by the OUA head of IT, Programmer/ Analyst Russell Connacher, to design a system that will provide student information that is precise, complete, inter-related, and easily accessible. The new system will facilitate researching individual cases, managing operational efficiency, and analyzing policy effectiveness.

College staff will benefit from a simple user interface: a set of screens that are intuitive and integrated in order to eliminate duplicate and repetitive work, ease training, and minimize human error. Department staff will have better access to on-line information and forms, facilitating clearer and faster communication with the College. Students will receive speedier responses to their requests and more frequent updates from the College regarding their student records.

ISYS is already serving as an example to others on campus. "We're pleased that our planning process spawned a new staff organization on campus," states Business Process Analysis Working Group (BPAWG) co-founder Dudek. BPAWG meets monthly to discuss planning and analysis issues with campus leaders in these areas. If you're interested in learning more, visit http://stafforg.berkeley.edu/bpawg/.

You can expect hear more about ISYS in the coming months. If you have questions about this project or ISYS-related recommendations you'd like us to consider, please contact Susan Hagstrom at hagstrom@berkeley.edu.