Campus Pipeline's new move: adopt the competition

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Sept, 2002

It's an old saw that school I/T professionals subscribe to the "not invented here" theory of tech development. Of course, like most saws, it's mostly a fiction. Still, there's no denying it's best to build a product that conforms to the needs of users right from the get-go. That's exactly what Campus Pipeline (www.campuspipeline.com, Salt Lake City, UT) has done. Its new Luminis product family is a collaboration with leading technology companies and ten innovative colleges and universities that literally 'takes on' the competition.

"We adopted the framework of JA-SIG (Java in Administration Special Interest Group)," says Andy Cooley, senior vice president of marketing and product management. JA-SIG is an association of several hundred universities that has created a collection of free, open-source software components called uPortal whose express purpose was to take on educational portal firms such as Campus Pipeline. Instead, Campus Pipeline used JA-SIG's framework to remake itself into a software integration tool. "Even if a school isn't a Campus Pipeline user, it can use the uPortal framework. We built in flexibility and the ability to play nicely with all."

Playing Nicely with the Competition

Luminis is a flexible software solution that offers a comprehensive, standards-based infrastructure for unifying and managing the complex array of technology found on most college campuses. Cooley notes that with the Luminis Integration Suite, schools can still use the technology of their choice to create a digital campus and extend the life of valuable technology investments.

Luminis comes in three iterations: Platform II, Integration Suite 3.0 and Content Management Suite 2.0. Platform II includes customizable campus portals and channels based on the JA-SIG uPortal 2.0 framework. The infrastructure allows single sign-on, external authentication, security, user and data management. Suite 3.0 has standards-based architecture that enables seamless integration with SIS, LMS, and the like, and its open structure is built for unlimited extensibility. Content Management Suite 2.0 is an enterprise-class content management system, that streamlines content creation and can be customized.

The new product was a collaboration between Sun Microsystems, Documentum, and JA-SIG. Ten higher education institutions joined the Campus Pipeline Pillar Institutions co-development program and offer opinions and guidance on the development of the product. These schools included Drexel, Lehigh and Pepperdine Universities and University of Notre Dame.

In another move that allows Campus Pipeline to play 'with' rather than 'against' competitors, it now offers integration solutions for third-party systems including Blackboard, e-College and WebCT. These solutions also integrate with so-called 'homegrown applications' that schools are already using.

Creative Environment

In fact, the creative solutions being thought up at participating schools are an added bonus. John A. Bielec, Ph.D., vice president for Information Resources and Technology at Drexel, says his campus is 100 percent wireless, and the school has a project called Drexel Mobile, which allows any member of the Drexel community to find out what grades he received last term, update his class list, or sign up for a meal plan from anywhere in the world. "Integration is the key," claims Bielec. "In the old days, a student might have gone to different places for housing, admissions and to sign up for class. Today, everything we do is web-enabled, and the portal integrates it all."

Curtiss P. Barnes is general manager of Luminis. He acknowledges that it's an interesting time in the education portal business. "uPortal came out of a rebellion against what we did," he notes. As institutions adopted uPortal, the code base was extended. It's a good base, but Barnes believes uPortal isn't a solution, since it doesn't have adequate security or applications.

Cooley says the company considered getting into the content management business, but its ten university 'partners' said if he built it, they wouldn't come. "We decided to be the great mediator, instead," Cooley explains. Instead, Barnes says the idea put the 'process back on the user', allowing them to accomplish what they've set out to do without hitting dead ends.

Company Snapshot:

Company Name: Campus Pipeline

Headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT

Primary Business: Software and services for the higher ed digital campus

Contact: Laura Kvinge. 801-257-4158, lkvinge@campuspieline.com