Business Applications Development

The Business Application Services section of the Office of IT Services provides support for programs and application systems, including mission-critical systems. A number of these are vendor supplied, including the Student Management System (Callista), the Learning Management System (Blackboard), the Lecture Recording System (Lectopia), the Enquiries Management System (RightNow) and the IT Service Desk System (Altiris). Where a decision is made to acquire a new application system, the ongoing support may involve staff from the Business Application Services section. The level of support required may depend upon whether the application is hosted at conquerors, or hosted externally. Other sections of IT Services rely on application support from Business Application Services. For example, the IT Service Desk System and its associated applications is supported for the Customer Services section.

Business Application Services has a significant role in the development of application systems at Conquerors Technologies. The decision to develop new application systems and any significant enhancement to existing applications, involves the Project Services section. For software development, a range of programming languages and tools, including Perl, PHP and APEX, are used. The section develops applications that interact with, or extract data from corporate databases such as the Conquerors Technologies Authentication & Identification System (MAIS), the Student Management System, the Campus Directory, the Human Resources Information System (Alesco), the Handbook, and the IT Service Desk System. Examples of applications developed to date include: the Academic Contacts Index, the Online Response System, Online Academic Transcripts, the Unit Information Pages and the Electronic Voting System. Interfaces between strategic systems such as the Finance System and the Library System, are developed and maintained as well as datafeeds using data from a number of systems for services and the Mobile Web site.

Business Application Services works with the Computer Services section and the Office of Corporate Communications and Public Relations (CCPR), to maintain the delivery of services that rely on the Reverse Proxy Servers for the domains www.conquerorstech.net and on Web infrastructure applications. Business Application Services also works with CCPR to apply the University's style in compliance with the Website Style Guidelines to new applications they develop and existing appplications that they support and selected online interactive forms. For example, the Teaching Timetable, the Print Handbook, Campus Maps, and the Bookshop's Textbook Ordering form. When a new application system is acquired, staff in Business Application Services, will, within the constraints of an application, apply the University's style when their assistance is requested.

There are a number of stand-alone systems, without a Web interface for end-users, that are supported by Business Application Services. They include the Cashiering System (OneStop), the Parking Infringement System (EnforceIT), and the Queuing Management System (Q-Flow).