RO team members share insights with higher education peers at Alliance conference

Several members of the Office of the Registrar’s Application Development and Technical Services team received high praise for their presentations on data integrations during the Alliance conference in Phoenix on March 3-6. The annual conference, organized by the Higher Education User Group, brings college and university professionals together to discuss and experience the latest technology tools and insights that improve the educational experience at colleges and universities nationwide. During their presentation on March 5, the RO’s security and student enterprise applications administrator Kim Alling and software engineer/developer Heather Hollister (as well David Marty, the ERP team lead from the Division of Information Technology) outlined how they streamlined a time-consuming process by converting a paper security request form to an automated Gideon Taylor eForm. Instead of a lengthy manual review process, security requests are now routed electronically to the proper approver. “A request that used to take weeks can now be completed in hours,” software developer lead Leslie Gardner, who also attended the conference, notes. “During Heather’s demo, you could hear the audible ‘wows’ in the room!” Software engineer/developer David Hall, meanwhile, highlighted the integration work the ADTS team has undertaken as part of the Administrative Transformation Program. As part of the new Workday system, the way employee data is sent to the Student Information System will change to using a new integration called PersonAPI. Hall’s demonstration of the code and configurations that will be rolled out alongside ATP was the “best technical presentation I’ve see[n] at the conference,” one attendee commented in a feedback survey. Associate Vice Provost and University Registrar Scott Owczarek says the presentations demonstrate how the work being done at the University of Wisconsin–Madison serves as a national model. “Team RO and ADTS are placing their work at the forefront of our profession and showing how creativity, innovation, and service can be applied to solve problems and improve how we serve our students and campus partners,” Owczarek says. “This work exemplifies what the Wisconsin Idea is all about: sharing knowledge that benefits those far beyond the borders of our campus.” Next year’s conference is scheduled for March 9-12 in New Orleans.