Mega University turns to CA`s Advantage:Gen

The University of South Africa (Unisa) is one of 11 Mega distance-teaching universities in the world, and has been a pioneer in tertiary distance education since 1946.

Today, the university, whose qualifications are recognised globally, has a 3 000-strong staff complement, 135 000 registered degree students and 50 000 certificate students.

Student registrations are expected to increase by about 40% over the next few years with the merger of Unisa with two other South African-based distance education facilities.

In 1995, Unisa decided to move off its proprietary mainframe to an open environment. It spent the next 18 months investigating its options, specifically evaluating the development tool options needed to handle the massive task of re-writing its comprehensive student administration system.

Having selected Computer Associate`s Advantage:Gen suite, the university`s administrators then commissioned what at first appeared to be a "mission impossible": they wanted to be free of the mainframe within 21 months.

The motivation for the short deadline was simple: Unisa could benefit to the tune of around $1 million if it acted before a buy-back clause in its mainframe agreement expired.

So, although the student administration system alone comprised more than 20 000 function points, and the staff had little hands-on knowledge of Advantage:Gen, the 15-man development team met the target.

What`s more, they have gone on to develop what is considered to be one of the most functional higher education administration systems in the world today.

"We could have done a Cobol-to-Cobol conversion, but we had decided not to be locked into any one particular technology again," says Vic Stipinovich, director, Department of Computer Services at Unisa. "Our intention was to run a totally open IT environment in terms of hardware, database and application environment."

Cost was a significant factor in opting for an open client/server system. The budget required to replace mainframe processors alone would have been more than the total cost of open hardware, software and conversion combined.

As it happened, the development tool and conversion costs were just over $2 million - a key reason why the $1 million buy-back option was so attractive to Unisa.

"Because we had to get the best development tool available to do the re-write, we spent a great deal of time and effort investigating solutions, carrying out site visits around the world and speaking to analysts such as Gartner, IDC and Meta to gain their input," says Stipinovich.

"Advantage:Gen came highly recommended and was our final choice because it was well placed in the market and was well supported locally. We were also impressed by its ability to generate client server systems efficiently and generate 100% of the code on both the client and server side.

"The systems we`ve developed have shown excellent responses - so good in fact that live demonstrations are often confused with canned presentations," he notes.

The first four months of the 21 allocated for the project were spent training Unisa development staff. This was time well spent, as it transpired, because although the team was well behind target - some 30% - at the halfway mark, it was able to catch up quickly and deliver the complete project within deadline.

This was despite having to do an unforeseen amount of innovative work, such as coping with the large batch component in the old system.

"We could have left CA`s development partners, Bytes Technologies, to perform the majority of the tasks, but we wanted Unisa staff to be directly involved with the development.

"We did this on a 50/50 basis so that they could develop their own skills for on-going maintenance and development. In fact, this was one of the project`s most important goals," says Stipinovich.

"This was a significant gamble, as the time pressures associated with this learning curve had to be accommodated to meet the inflexible, fixed targets.

"Moreover, the stakes were raised because, had the team not made its deadline it would have had to carry a $500 000 penalty - in addition to suffering the loss of the $1 million buy-back fund.

"These were huge motivating factors," stresses Stipinovich.

Although a few minor problems were experienced in the first year of operation because all system changes were frozen during development, these were resolved by year two with the new developments carried out by the now fully skilled Unisa Advantage:Gen team.

"Since then, development has been on-going. We like to think we have the most spoilt user base whose every wish is met. But we have the in-house skills to meet those needs and if we do hit problems, we always have access to expert support people - on local and international levels," he says.

The net result is that the system has met some impressive milestones including registering 6 000 students in one day. This not only entailed individual registration, but included resource-intensive activities such as cross-checking the validity of course combinations from a choice of more than 1 000 courses, and issuing study material.

The focus of the project team is now broadening to enhance the systems` Web capabilities. About 50 000 students are currently Internet active, but this number is expected to rise substantially as functionality is added to Unisa`s extensive Web-based facilities.

Currently, students can access personal data, submit projects, interface with their lecturers and search and order material from the Unisa Library on the Web. They can also register for courses online.

This library stocks more than 1.6 million books and journals located at the main campus, as well as provincial centres and regional learning centres in most major centres.

"As a distance learning establishment, the Web has become very important to us and we are actively - and routinely - Web-enabling our Advantage:Gen systems," says Stipinovich.

Future IT structures have not yet been finalised with regard to the upcoming merger of other local distance learning establishments. However, he is confident that the Unisa systems are totally scalable and will easily cope with the estimated 30% to 40% growth in the student population over the next few years.

"Today Unisa has a stable system of which we`re justifiably proud. The project was one of the most exciting on which we have embarked to-date. Central to the success of the project was team commitment and determination. We were fortunate in having plenty of both.

"Yes, it was a big decision, and a big risk, but had we delayed the move we would have been in serious trouble today," concludes Stipinovich.