Sripatum University teams up with IBM to transform to SOA-based IT Infrastructure

BANGKOK--Sripatum University has joined hands with IBM to leverage Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to transform and upgrade its existing Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to serve the university's rapid growth and upcoming changes.

As part of this collaboration, IBM will transform Sripatum University's internal work process and information management cycles to deliver business agility and IT flexibility. This will make the university's systems more responsive to the changing needs to serve the university's strategic mission. They will be enhanced for development, maintenance and management of new software solutions.

"Sripatum University has a mission to become the university of choice for the new generation and the country's leading IT university," said Rutchaneeporn Pookayaporn Phukkamarn, president of Sripatum University.

"The enhanced working process and operations will allow the university's management team, staff, lecturers and students to be able to connect, communicate and exchange information and knowledge with one another at anytime and anywhere,"

"The project is timely as we are trying to link our document management depository with the back end system. We look forward to partnering with IBM and leverage its vast experience in implementing SOA-based solutions for clients in Thailand and globally," added Rutchaneeporn.

In August, the university kick-started a pilot project to adopt SOA to manage its document workflow system, which includes internal circulars, inbound and outbound documents as well as archive files.  SOA has also completely integrated the document system with the student service system, financial system and other back office systems to work efficiently and seamlessly together. 

Manoo Ordeedolchest, chairman of the ICT Policy, Sripatum University, said, "We believe SOA enablement of our IT Infrastructure will provide us with more flexibility and efficiency in developing various kinds of new services in the future to better serve our staff and students. It would also enable us to maintain the current legacy system and develop and integrate new software services at the same time to support the university's further plans without any disruption."

In addition, IBM will also help Sripatum University to adopt Web 2.0 technology to support the new communication channels which allow the university's staff and students to share and exchange information and knowledge effectively with each other. The university's plan includes the integration of internal communication system with document management depository as well as back office systems with the aim to drastically improve the university's overall educational services.

"We are very pleased to support Sripatum University's endeavor to leverage SOA to transform its IT infrastructure and improve operational efficiency," said Thanwa Laohasiriwong, country general manger of IBM Thailand.

"This is the first time that SOA is being adopted in the education industry in Thailand. It is clear that Sripatum University is leading the way in setting a new standard for the industry in Thailand."

In the first phase of SOA deployment, IBM has worked with Stream I.T. Consulting and Guru Service, two consulting and system integrators, to design and implement DB2 Content Management for the document management depository, WebSphere Process Server for the document workflow management system and IBM Storage DS 4700 as the backbone for university's main data storage system respectively. As for the second phase, IBM would also work with Zenith Comp, another IBM business partner, to implement Lotus Notes and Domino version 8 which bring composite applications to support single interface that are key parts of SOA as well as WebSphere Portal for Web application development.

Chairat Thanomwong, managing director, Stream I.T. Consulting, "With the strength of IBM's technology combined with our company's understanding of local market needs, we are certain that Sripatum's adoption of IBM's SOA based solutions would enhance the university's operation and ultimately benefit both students and staff." 

Sripatum University will also offer programs on SOA as part of the software engineering curriculum. The university has teamed up with IBM to develop SOA educational courses for bachelor and master degree programs as well as train the university's lecturers on SOA.