Page 23 - OIT Progress Report: 2024 Edition

academic journey, highlighting completed courses, remaining requirements, and potential pathways to graduation.
Any web presence is a living, breathing document that changes constantly, and managing such
a web of documents is never an easy task. Throughout the year, OIT has worked alongside content managers in the various schools and departments to migrate their webpages to the new and simplified SMU branded templates. Additionally, the Web Application Services team has focused on web accessibility as they review each site. Spearheaded by Associate Director of Web Development Beth Andresen, a solution called DubBot was implemented to continuously scan our web pages and report back any issues with content like grammar and structure, as well as how that content is displayed. This includes how a page is structured to best work within assistive technologies like screen readers and braille readers. DubBot, along with independent audits of our website’s accessibility, has given us deep insight into what can be done to improve the content and experiences on SMU.edu for all our visitors.
Through a joint effort between OIT and Student Affairs, another service was introduced to improve the student experience, SMU360. SMU360 is
a mobile app designed to provide easy access
to essential resources. This includes links to download other mobile apps from
areas across campus, like SMU
Aware, the Dedman Center for
Lifetime Sports, Canvas, and Athletics. There are also links to dining information, career services, campus maps, student group events and services, mental health assistance, and more. Students have expressed the importance of mobile
apps over web pages when it is feasible. We are proud to deliver tools the students want.
OIT’s expertise in collaboration with business areas to improve processes was in full force when Human Resources prepared to convert to a new Health Savings Account (HSA) vendor. Senior Business Analyst Priyanka Nigam successfully
led the technical efforts to transition data from
the old vendor to the new and integrate them
into our systems seamlessly. This integration involved extensive coordination between various departments in addition to the third-party vendors to ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted service for employees. Priyanka’s leadership and expertise were instrumental in managing the complexities of this integration, demonstrating our team’s capability to handle large-scale vendor transitions efficiently.
This year also brought the relaunch of Wiki.SMU, transitioning from the old Atlassian Confluence platform to the open-source XWiki platform. Wiki. SMU continues to provide a centralized repository for documentation, policies, and procedures, ensuring that information is easily accessible and up to date. XWiki supports collaborative editing, version control, and advanced search capabilities, making it a valuable resource for faculty, staff, and students. Work to ensure that pages from the old wiki were moved to the new wiki in orderly fashion was a major endeavor. This effort coupled with clear and frequent communication of expectations and training content to the community resulted in minimal downtime during the transition.
The continuous enhancements and new solutions implemented by the Data and Application Services team are pivotal in ensuring that SMU remains
at the forefront
of technological advancement, providing robust and accessible tools to support our academic and administrative functions.
EnTERPRISE SOfTwARE fOR PROducTIvITy And cOllAbORATIOn
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