Thursday, May 29, 2008

MyNCCU (The new Intranet)

On April 16, 2008, Web Services launched MyNCCU. In the days that followed the release, everything seemed to work according to plan, as users were logging in and taking advantage of the tools provided. Unfortunately, a week or so later, we started to received reports that Banner users were unable to connect to Internet Native Banner (INB). Confused, we all in ITS tried to figure out why some people were unable to connect while others could. It was an odd and downright perplexing problem. In the end, we deduced that it had something to do with Java. Both Banner and MyNCCU used different versions of Java. Unfortunately, the version of Java used by Banner (j. initiator) did not like MyNCCU and it hindered some users from logging on to the system. In an effort to minimize the connectivity issues, we disconnected MyNCCU and returned to the previous design.

Donald Nolen, Director of Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), was aware of the issue and stated that NCCU would upgrade to a newer version of Java, which should resolve all conflicts between Banner and MyNCCU. A date for the upgrade was unknown at the time, but I was lead to believe it would happen after the students left. That meant our newly designed and launched web site would remain grounded until after graduation.

Staying true to his word, Mr. Nolen made necessary changes to Banner and moved all INB links to the new server. This was great news for the Web team because that meant we could revisit the process necessary to launch our "baby."

As it stands now, MyNCCU is available for testing. Therefore, I would encourage you to log in (http://my.nccu.edu) and fully test its functionality. Please provide any feedback that you may have.