Graduate College has been recognized as a PeopleSoft Innovator by Oracle

The Graduate College’s Interactive Plan of Study (iPOS) project was recognized by Oracle as a PeopleSoft Innovator. The announcement was made at Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

Championing ASU’s reputation as the “most innovative school” in the nation, the Graduate College can now add supporting student success with use of technology to its roster of innovative accomplishments. ASU was the only higher education organization recognized among 17 other companies for their innovative use of the latest capabilities in PeopleSoft to drive measurable value.

“Being recognized at a world conference as an innovator was validation for the countless hours that our team and our partners at UTO invested in this project,” said Brian Mattson, director of graduate program services at the Graduate College and the lead for the iPOS redesign project. “We always knew that we were creating something special, but receiving this recognition makes us all feel very proud of what we have accomplished for the ASU graduate community.”

The iPOS is a custom-built application for graduate students, support staff, advisors and faculty only available at ASU. Like an app to track fitness goals, the purpose of iPOS is to track student progress toward completing their program by making sure students’ academic plans will fulfill their department’s program requirements. This is a critical university business process that hadn’t been updated since 2007.

The Graduate College began rebuilding the application nearly a year and a half ago with help from the University Technology Office.

“The iPOS project truly incorporated multiple skill sets across ASU. From requirements and testing efforts provided by both students and administrative stakeholders, to development using the University Technology Office and Graduate College technical experts, the iPOS project was a very collaborative effort resulting in a high quality and innovative product,” said Robert Yosowitz, director of information technology services at UTO.

It was this level of collaboration, user-testing and taking advantage of the latest technology, that grabbed the attention of Oracle. The iPOS is one of the first applications at ASU to utilize a solution called PeopleSoft Fluid, which ensures the app works on mobile devices and tablets, just as well as desktops.

“One of the major strengths of PeopleSoft is its ability for custom development,” said Yosowitz. The Graduate College knew it could design an innovative solution using the PeopleSoft platform to quickly deliver a new product that would be modern, user-friendly, and completely meet its current and future requirements.”

Because iPOS is unique and successful at satisfying varied user’s needs, the Graduate College tech team has already been invited to present at several conferences on education and technology.

“Some universities have created applications to assist with degree progress tracking, but from the research we have conducted, ASU’s iPOS far exceeds what currently exists elsewhere. We plan to take every opportunity we can to show off the iPOS and assist others to follow in our footsteps to increase student success,” said Mattson.

The recognition as a PeopleSoft Innovator is not the end of the project, the iPOS will continue to evolve with the changing needs of the graduate community.

“The Graduate College is always listening for new enhancement ideas or ways we can streamline the iPOS experience,” said Mattson. “We anticipate that we will continue to add new features to the iPOS year after year to better serve our populations.”

The redesigned iPOS will launch after the close of the fall semester during December 2018.

Alfredo J. Artiles,

Dean