A business case for integrating data

The Data Integration Business Case was presented at the June Project Steering Committee meeting. The document outlines a proposal of work aimed to introduce into the University, an approach for integration and supporting tools to efficiently manage the flow of information between our systems.

The proposed integration approach involves connecting our systems using an Enterprise Service Bus, rather than connecting our systems directly using point-to-point integrations. The diagram illustrates how the Bus approach could be used to connect our systems without having to create a large number of integrations. 

In addition to this, staff who were interviewed during the development of the business case reported that many of our systems share similar types of information, but data inconsistency and lack of integration between systems have led to manual intervention and workarounds. In response to this, the Business Case proposes creating a number of services to improve data quality around Staff, Student and Course information. In the future these services would be used to synchronise data on multiple systems without having to create direct connections to each downstream system. The services are proposed to be created as part of the two early adopter projects integrating:

1. HR, Security and Library systems to automate the process of staff joining the library
2. ANU Online and Student Administration System to improve the process for Wattle course site creation and account registration.

Feedback received from the Steering Committee meeting is now being finalised into the Business Case and in parallel, work has begun to table an approach for product procurement. The updated Business Case and procurement approach is due to be presented at the next Steering Committee.