To better serve students 24/7, safely secure student records and lay the foundation for the future of archiving University data, a new online student portal, oZONE, launches today.

After more than four years of planning, the site combines student services into one Web site and is the result of the work of more than 225 oZONE team members who worked on technological and functional sides of the project.

THE PAST

For more than 40 years, student data and university documents were hosted on a mainframe system that was built in 1968. However, this system required downtime each day and did not allow for the system to be available 24/7, said Nick Key, oZONE spokesman. OU Web sites such as enroll, pay and financial aid were all supported through the mainframe and allowed for little flexibility.

“The technology was so old, and we knew we had to do a migration of data,” said Eddie Huebsch, technical project lead and OU IT director of projects.

In order to convert the data to a platform accessible 24/7 and one that would continue to save data for another 40 years, a steering committee to oversee the data conversion project was created in 2006, said Brad Burnett, functional project leader and director of financial aid.

The committee worked to create a goal and vision for the project, appoint key individuals to specific aspects of the project, both functional and technological, and oversee the entire project and timeline, Burnett said.

In April 2007, members of the oZONE team selected a platform that would allow OU to convert all of their student services data into one system called oZONE, Huebsch said.

On Sept. 18, a 10-day conversion period of more than 2 million student records began. All student data were frozen and available on a read-only basis to ensure an accurate transition into the new system, Burnett said.

“It was not an easy decision of when to do the conversion because business of the university happens all the time,” Burnett said.

The September conversion period was chosen based on many variables, including enrollment windows, grading periods and bursar payments, he said.

THE PRESENT

Beginning today, with the end of the conversion period, students will be able to access all student services Web sites from oZONE. This site allows students to access multiple student services Web sites 24/7 with a one-time log-in.

The Web site combines enrollment resources, student services, financial aid, Exchange e-mail, Desire2Learn and Degree Navigator, Key said.

The new Web site will also introduce new announcement options and include notes targeted at specific students, said Melanee Hamilton, director of Web communications.

“oZONE is very standard, and learning to use it will be similar to learning an application suite like Microsoft Office,” Hamilton said.

In November, students will use the new system to enroll in classes and may notice some differences in the new site, said Hamilton.

If problems arise, students are encouraged to contact the oZONE help team, Hamilton said.

“The help solutions are tied together and will allow students to go to the right place to get their questions answered,” she said.

Students experiencing problems with the site should e-mail their questions to ozonehelp@ou.edu or call 325-HELP.

THE FUTURE

Beginning in January, students will be able to use oZONE to access the bursar, order transcripts and enrollment verifications and communicate with campus groups through a program called Group Studio.

Pay.ou.edu will be integrated into the oZONE portal Jan. 4, and students will be able to access their pre-disbursment from the Bursar’s office on Jan. 11, Burnett said.

The delay of integrating the bursar’s office into the portal was due to the amount of information on the mainframe that could not be transitioned in the middle of the semester, Burnett said.

Group Studio is an application that allows student groups to communicate and post information in the portal, Hamilton said.

Although the implementation part of the project concludes in January, members of the oZONE team will continue to work on upgrading and improving the project through daily operations, Burnett said.

“We are building the foundation and doing things that weren’t possible a few years ago,” Huebsch said. “We have built the ground floor, and now we can add on.”

He said the oZONE team plans to customize the site over time and add more OU-specific elements, and new students will benefit greatly from the all-in-one portal.

“It was confusing for new students,” Huebsch said. “Now they can go to oZONE and find everything at once.”