Overview 

The Rufus Initiative is a major part of the university's plan to modernize, streamline, and secure its information technology infrastructure.  It will replace several aging, mission-critical IT systems, provide consistent, modern self-service interfaces for many academic and administrative tasks, and re-engineer the way the university handles student data.

Support for the Next Generation SIS

The Rufus Initiative consists of six major components.  Each is essential to one or more periods in OHIO's relationship with its students.  Several of these components also will play a major role in the university's larger IT improvement plans.

  • Identity Management (IdM) - a secure, central solution for managing individuals' identities and for assigning resources (e-mail accounts, library privileges, PeopleSoft access, etc.) to those individuals based on the roles they play (student, faculty, staff, guest, etc.) 
  • Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) - efficient, personalized attention for prospective students
  • University Portal - personalized, customizable access to university online services, including communications about deadlines, to-do lists, etc.
  • Enterprise Reporting and Intelligence (ERI) - tools to provide decision makers with the data they need to plan for the future
  • Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - a consistent framework that will help technical staff design applications that interface smoothly with the new SIS
  • PeopleSoft Campus Solutions - OHIO's Next Generation Student Information System will include modules for student admissions, academic records, student financials, and financial aid

Phased Rollout for 2011-12 Academic Year

The Rufus Initiative will go live for all students in the 2011-12 academic year.  To achieve this target, some components of the new system will need to come online before summer quarter 2011.  For example, Admissions begins processing applications for the 2011 year during the summer of 2010, so Identity Management, CRM and PeopleSoft's admissions module all will need to come online by the summer of 2010.  Financial Aid also will need to be up and running in the new system before the start of 2011-12, with Student Financials and Student Records following closer to the start of the academic year.

Detailed project timeline