To deal with these problems, York University decided to consolidate the departmental revenue tracking systems into a single, enterprise-wide application. The goal of the new system is to create a consistent and unified revenue tracking application which will be easier to use, offer higher levels of customer (student) satisfaction, and transparently interoperate with various technologies accross the University. The system also needs to enforce university-wide business policies and accounting procedures. Because these policies and procedures are subject to change, the system has to be adaptable enough to quickly and easily accomodate changes in the future.
USoft Batch Server loads EDI bank payment transactions into STARS as well as processes revenue transactions for other systems (Registrar's office, Housing, Telecom, etc). STARS consolidates these transactions for a summarized feed to the Financial Reporting System.
The USoft Server/Client toolset enables the STARS application to seamlessly interoperate across heterogeneous environments that include many diverse technologies, including: DCE, DDE, Microsoft Windows Clients, Sun Solaris / Sun SPARC 10 Servers, Chrystal Reports, Card Swipe Keyboards, Receipt printers, and EDI. USOft's transparent deployment also will enable STARS to interoperate with the Human Resource System and the locally developed Student Information System.
USoft's dynamic repository and object architecture provide STARS with the required ability to quickly modify the application as their business changes. For example, half way through the development project the University made a major change to the chart of accounts structure which is fundamental to the STARS business model. If York had been using a 3GL or 4GL development tool, this change may have meant an entire redesign and reconstruction of the application. Instead, the development team at York has been able to quickly modify the system to reflect these changes by updating the central system definitions stored in the repository.
USoft's Server/Client software toolset provides York with the ability to leverage its technology to build and deploy a highly cohesive IT environment. USoft's transparent interoperability accross heterogeneous environments allows York to focus on addressing their business problems instead of the underlying technologies. And when the University's business requirements (i.e. accounting procedures) change, the application is easily adapted to meet these changed needs.