Glossary of Gateway Terms

Business process analysis (BPA) -

A carefully structured analysis of current business processes in each of the University's major areas (admissions, payroll, accounts payable, etc.). BPAs are being conducted for all five of the major Gateway systems: student records, human resources, University financial data, financial aid and alumni/development.

Channel -

A specific category of information or function found in a portal.

Customization -

The ability to give individual users the opportunity to change pages and determine information that is most important to them.

Data conversion -

The process that ITS staff will use to validate the existing data in each of the current business applications. This could also mean establishing standard data values across multiple applications, such as the codes used to indicate gender, the use of punctuation in addresses and similar data. Data cleansing is one of the most important activities to take place during the Gateway project - to ensure that accurate information is loaded into the new systems.

Data standards -

A set of rules that governs how all data in the Gateway application will be stored; how it will be used; and a list of valid values.

Data base administrator (DBA) -

An individual who works closely with the Oracle relational database to maintain the integrity of the database, as well to as ensure it operates at maximum efficiency.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) -

A series of related systems that hold the business of the enterprise. These are designed to ensure secure access to information by individuals for the types of data they need to perform their jobs and to make educated and informed decisions.

Gateway -

SLU's project name for the entire information initiative that includes the installation of new software, hardware and features for SLU computer users.

Intranet -

A 'mini' World Wide Web of information and functions designed for use by a specific organization. Gateway will form the core of an intranet for SLU. The intranet is accessed through a Web browser.

Luminis -

The name of the software used to build SLU's portal to its intranet.

Oracle -

The premier relational database management system in today's environment. SLU's Gateway project will have this at its core. For information about Oracle, visit www.oracle.com.

Personalization -

Information designed for a specific group of people.

Portal -

A starting point to find information on the Web with links to other Web sites and specific information and functions through a Web browser. For SLU, the portal is the means to access information and functions for internal use by faculty, students and staff. The information accessed and the organization of the information can be personalized for specific users.

Project management -

The varied complex tasks associated with overseeing the progress of a project. Typically, task tracking against projected goals, as well as budget management, are main factors in project management. SLU is collaborating with SCT to manage the Gateway project jointly to best ensure that timelines are met and SLU and SCT staff perform as needed. Project management helps prevent major deviations in time or budget that could negatively affect the outcome.

SCT -

SLU's vendor for business software applications. For information about SCT, visit www.sct.com.

SCT Banner -

The name of the software suite that SLU is implementing.

SCT PLUS -

The software used to support all business requirements of the University. This software has been installed at SLU since 1984 in some areas.

Solaris -

The specific "flavor" of UNIX that is used as the operating system of all Sun hardware.

Storage area network (SAN) -

A specially designed high-capacity information storage device that provides a very high quality of response time to significant amounts of information.

Sun -

Sun Microsystems Inc. The manufacturer of servers and storage devices for the Gateway project.

Terabyte -

An amount of information storage space that is roughly equivalent to 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes. The Gateway initiative has a total of 4.5 terabytes of storage available for use.

UNIX -

A computer operating system that is an alternative to Windows. Applicable for both large and small systems, it often is used for scientific and large applications.

Web browser -

The software used to view and interact with pages on the World Wide Web or on an intranet. Internet Explorer and Netscape are two common browsers.