Overview

Background

The Student Disability Service have several applications to support their business processes. The time sheet and finance applications (PACHA, SAAT, SOFA) are running on an old and un-supported version of the ColdFusion web platform. This poses a risk if any of these applications were to fail. The core student record components (Kelso and Radium) are on a later version which will not require upgrading or replacing until 2017. The systems as whole are now old and require improvement or replacement to meet the needs of the service fully.

Scope

The scope of this analysis project is to articulate the options and recommendation to replace the current IT systems used by the Student Disability Service. This will be done taking the current risks of the SDS applications and the cost/benefits into account.

Out of scope 

This project is only about detailing the options and making a recommendation about which systems should be replaced 1st. There will be follow up implementation projects from early 2016 to

• Provide updated systems on stable supported platforms.
• Deliver improved business processes and systems for staff in the Student Disability Service.
• Improve systems for staff supporting disabled students in Schools and other administrative services.
• Provide systems for disabled students so they can access their SDS information on-line as part of their student record.
• Deliver effective reporting and management information for the SDS management team.

Objectives

• Taking into considerations the timing since all 5 applications share the same database and interim interfaces which may be needed, the objective is to detail how we can actually complete the transition from where we are now to wherever the recommendation is that we be.

Deliverables

• A paper with options and the recommended approach to replace the 5 applications, emphasising on the benefits . It will include details of how this will be achieved: how and when the systems will be replaced. For each application being replaced, how it would interface or/and be manually managed with the existing ones. It will include a high level plan for implementation projects. 

Benefits

• Recommended approach is articulated.
• This will feed into annual planning and articulate what is needed to support the Student Disability Service to complete the transition.
• This project will enable the follow up implementation projects to be planned and provide clear scope and objectives, as well as being prioritised within the SSP/STU programmes.

Success Criteria

Paper is signed off by SDS.