Installation Overview
Installation of
Advisor is a fast and truly simple process, but given the horrific installation process of most academic software products we can hardly expect you to take our word for that. We are happy to put you in touch with a current customer who can tell you the very same thing. What we most want you to take away from this page is that we view installations in a fundamentally different way than other academic software companies; we consider it
our responsibility to get you up, running, and happily using our software in timely fashion. Installations can take mere weeks from hardware placement to running live audits.
Installation Features
Appliance Installation
Hardware installation is very simple and straightforward. All we need from you is one slot in a server rack, a network connection with a public IP address, and a power outlet. We supply the server itself, provide a browser-recognized SSL certificate specific to your school, and license any third-party software used in the solution, such as our database. Then we configure the appliance to operate on your network in consultation with your IS/IT department.
Data Integration
There is no need for the
Advisor appliance to directly access your databases; instead, it is designed to import your school's data via simply-structured XML documents. This allows it to interface with any student information system very quickly, since the only thing actually transferred between systems are text files. A variety of import schedules are available to govern these transfers. This data integration mechanism is very robust and allows us to customize the process to the needs of each school with very little effort. The appliance imports course offerings, basic student information, student course histories (transcripts), and optionally some basic information on your academic advisors.
Academic System & Policy Setup
Several fundamental features of a school must be entered into the appliance before degree requirements can be created, including credit types, term schedules, grade scales, repeated-course rules and other specifics of the academic system.
Advisor has powerful, open-ended definition tools that allow it to model virtually any school. Furthermore, it is our responsibility to set this up for you, and we do so in consultation with your registrar's office and your published policy documents to ensure that the results are exactly what you need.
Degree Requirement Entry
As part of the installation, we enter an entire bulletin year of your choosing using the same Requirements Manager that your staff will use. This process ensures that you have ready-to-use, maintainable degree requirements by the end of the installation, which can be copied and pasted to provide a model for future years. Since we must consult frequently with your registrar's office throughout this process, it also provides a hands-on training opportunity for the personnel that will be maintaining the degree requirements in the future.
On-site Training
Once the installation is complete and our product is fully functional at your school, we provide three days of training at your location to thoroughly teach your staff how to take full advantage of
Advisor. Multiple sessions cover every aspect of the system and include plenty of time for questions, answers and discussion. Each training event at a new campus tends to adapt to the needs of the particular users, but our standard training agenda is available on request.
. The higher-ed business publication's discussion of degree audit systems identified Advisor as one of "two niche products [that] appear to dominate this specialty."
