Portal Vendor Questionnaire – Campus Pipeline Inc.
Contact: Kimberly Woods – Director of Institutional Marketing
801-247-4227
For EDUCAUSE and ACM SIGUCCS preconference workshops
1. What is the primary focus of your portal? For example, Blackboard started off as a site for course management. Mascot is more of a student services portal. Campus Pipeline emphasizes administrative service tie-ins (through tight integration with SCT's Banner products).
From its inception, the Campus Pipeline™ Web Platform has been designed to serve the entire enterprise of an institution. Supporting the needs and goals of students, faculty and administration in their various roles, has been and continues to be our mission. Campus Pipeline provides a platform that will leverage the existing and future systems and applications of an institution. While Campus Pipeline offers seamless integration with SCT Student Information Systems and the Web CT learning platform, Campus Pipeline will support an institution’s choice in using any other vendor. Campus Pipeline is based on open standards and provides the API’s to integrate any application selected by the institution.
The Campus Pipeline Web Platform is the “platform” upon which all members of your campus community can tap into its abundant academic resources, administrative services, community information, and the Internet at large—all online, from anywhere at any time. This advanced Intranet infrastructure also comes equipped with a full suite of application tools that enhance and improve your school’s communication system and services. We believe that by making the information, events, and resources of your school more accessible, more personal and more connected, students, faculty and staff will feel comfortable and motivated to participate more fully and effectively in their campus community.
2. Where does the server reside? At your site? On the campus?
As illustrated below, the Campus Pipeline Web platform runs on its own server on your campus and can be placed behind a firewall to secure the application against security threats. Campus Pipeline is a platform that integrates the existing systems on a campus with Campus Pipeline applications and Internet information, providing a common access point to each. It can be accessed from within the school intranet or via the Internet and allows multiple users to share the same client machine without having to worry about security or functionality issues. Diagram 1 provides a conceptual overview of how Campus Pipeline fits into an organization’s current network architecture.
3. What implementation (initial) and maintenance (ongoing) roles does your staff perform? What roles are required of the campus personnel?
The Campus Pipeline Web Platform has been implemented in as little as 5 days, but varies from campus to campus. Though we see many different staffing models at our schools using Campus Pipeline, there are some basic guidelines that can be used to determine the amount of support Campus Pipeline requires after implementation.
The day-to-day system administration consists of backing up the system, managing e-mail, running garbage collection, and troubleshooting problems for users. A Campus Pipeline institution has reported this daily backup process (which is being done manually on their NT system) averages half an hour each day. Other CP administrators have begun automating the garbage collection (collecting dead objects and removing them from the system) and backups and spend most of their time troubleshooting problems for users such as helping with mail configurations, setting passwords, assisting first time users, etc. There are distributed administration permissions that will allow the Pipeline administrator to spread these functions out across various campus groups such as an existing help desk. This ability has reduced the workload on the system administrator greatly.
Secondly, the way in which the institution wishes to customize and add content will impact required resources. Some schools have hired part-time students to help with initial customization of the site, then retain their services part time to help maintain fresh content, send attribute based messages, further integrate CP with existing campus Web-based sites, and assist the system administrator. Schools who have placed a strong emphasis on this area have experienced a higher level of usage compared with others.
Institutions running successful Campus Pipeline Web platforms are dedicating anywhere from one part-time to three full-time resources, dependent primarily on how each school chooses to administer and utilize all the Pipeline functionality. During the start up and implementation phase, more time is required from the CP administrator, the person(s) responsible for customization and content, and the database administrator. After launch, the need for resources decreases, as the day to day administration of the site becomes more familiar. Schools should feel free to post resource questions like this on the Pipeline list serve and see what other schools have experienced and how they've dealt with the delegation and allocation of resources.
4. Who are your corporate partners? (Features? Advertising? Co-marketing?)
By working with Campus Pipeline, businesses that value the college market can reach their customers and help higher education at the same time. Through an innovative grant licensing program, corporate partners help underwrite technology development costs, allowing schools to make full use of the Campus Pipeline™ Web platform at a minimal cost. Campus Pipeline welcomes partnership opportunities with companies whose products and services are of value to the higher education community. Primary areas include technology, content and commerce.
Please see attached Partner List.
5. How important is e-commerce (non-institutional) in your portal design?
Campus Pipeline believes in providing flexibility in terms of how an institution may acquire the Campus Pipeline Web Platform, offering 3 different pricing models. Firstly, through corporate sponsors and advertising, the platform is available at no cost to the institution. Secondly, if the institution would prefer not to have advertising and e-commerce on it’s site, they may pay a license fee and annual maintenance costs and certain commercial areas of the platform will be removed. Finally, we are announcing a third license option that is a combination of minimal advertising with supplemental payments.
6. What is your fee structure? (Do you offer an advertisement model? A non-advertisement model? Both? What are the fee structures for all offered models?)
Campus Pipeline is available at no cost under our Grant License. The price range on the Direct License ranges from $110,000 - $595,000 based on a student base from under 4000 students to more than 35,000 students. A 20% annual maintenance cost also applies. Finally, Campus Pipeline is now also offering a Modified Grant License. Please see attached Whitepaper entitled License Models for further clarification.
7. Is revenue sharing with the university a part of your offerings?
Revenue sharing is not an integral part of our offering. However, with the Direct License and Modified Grant License, certain areas of the Campus Pipeline Web Platform can be utilized by the institution for their own advertising. All revenues would be retained by the institution.
8. Other than changing banner or color, how customizable is your portal? What is the minimum level of customization required? What is the maximum level allowed?
Please see attached guide for Customizing Page Content and Layout.
9. Can an institution's implementation only include selected “tools” of your portal?
The Campus Pipeline Web Platform does not offer a menu for the institution to select and de-select functionality. However, if the institution selects the direct license model, the commercial aspects of the platform would be removed.
10. What is the URL of your Web page containing information about your Portal?
www.campuspipeline.com
11. Do you provide access to a demo site? If so, how can interested parties access it?
Please contact Kimberly Woods, 888-682-PIPE (7473) to arrange a demonstration.
Briefly, what distinguishes your product from others in the Portal marketplace?
Simply stated, the Campus Pipeline Web Platform is an enterprise wide solution, taking your entire campus online. Beyond a destination Web site, Campus Pipeline provides you with the platform to integrate the various applications in your enterprise with the Internet and your school’s intranet. The result, is a seamless, online community for your students, faculty and employees, accessible from anywhere at anytime.
Campus Pipeline is the common interface where every member of your community can access the tools and information they want and need – tools and information that are unique to each individual and the role or roles he or she has on campus. As a result of Campus Pipeline’s open architecture, the platform can grow and adapt with your changing needs as new software tools and Web applications are integrated.
Why the Campus Pipeline Web platform?
¨ Campus Pipeline provides for a single login for all campus applications
¨ Personalized content and applications are delivered to each user providing a unique and relevant experience of your campus.
¨ Campus Pipeline helps you to leverage your existing IT investments and to bring them current with today’s technology
¨ Your online campus becomes complete with inclusive Campus Pipeline applications, including: Study and Learning tools, a Career Center, Web based email, course and group specific chat and message boards, and calendar tools to name but a few.
¨ Campus Pipeline is live at nearly 60 institutions and has nearly 600 institutions contractually committed to using the Campus Pipeline Web Platform. We will be releasing our 2.3 version this spring.
¨ Campus Pipeline offers the true definition of “integration” through the Campus Pipeline Integration Protocol.
¨ Campus Pipeline is an open architecture and allows for the use of any student information system vendor or distance learning vendor in conjunction with the platform. Seamless integration provided for SCT Banner 2000 and Plus 2000 WebCT learning solutions.
¨ Campus Pipeline, from its inception has been an enterprise-wide solution, not just a solution for the classroom or campus groups. It is all-inclusive.
¨ Campus Pipeline provides each institution with a consultant at not cost, to ensure the successful rollout and implementation of the system.
By September 20, 2000, please return your responses to:
Mark SheehanExecutive Director for Information Services and CIO
Montana State University
PO Box 173240
Bozeman, MT 59717-3240 / (406) 994-3046 (phone)
(406) 994-4600 (fax)