Technische Universität München

Site	Technische Universität München
Industry	Education, Science
Location	Germany
Case study written by	Syslab.com GmbH
Contact	Alexander Pilz

Campus wide Portal and Content Management System based on Zope, Plone and elevateIT

Background

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of the premier universities of Germany. Over two million page impressions per month from around the world solely on the central Web-server, goes to show the interest in its curriculum, research and service offers. The information offered is also accessed by 25.000 active students, 7.000 employees, and a large group of alumni’s, as well as partners in industry and commerce.

Client requirement

Three centralized and 600 de-centralized web servers as well as 9 centralized EDP processing and information systems caused redundant data storage, inconsistent information and lack of information refreshment. Further to that a great deal of effort had to be put in to the maintenance of the system. Added to that, enhanced Interactivity, expanded Groupware and Community-functionality had to be introduced. Self-service-functions for the students and employees also needed to be offered.

Solution

The core solution is based on elevateIT, an extension of proven ZOPE/Plone Content Management System developed in co-operation with the department of “WWW & Online Services” of TUM. For authentication and profile administration, a solution to integrate the central LDAP server was developed. With a personal ID every student and employee is able to log on to the system, where they can access various services such as Web mail, address administration, mark sheets etc. An overlying metadata system facilitates classification of information, to help improve data categorizing and research. To be able to exchange information with external systems, Content Syndication has been integrated. An extensive Workflow system augments complex processes.

Customer benefits

The new servers are now able to exchange data amongst one another; this enables centralized retrieval of decentralized information. Categorized classification of information helps speedier access of relevant information and provides group specific information respectively. With the link to the LDAP server, now for the first time, there is a centralized authentication. Due to open source licensing, the system can be used by all the institutions and facilities of TUM at no extra charge. Information reaches the users fast. The ROI is high, as the system is Platform neutral and it is possible to integrate the already existing systems.

Future Co-operation

Projected co-operation is an assisted rollout at departments, institutions and facilities of TUM, development of student and employee services as well as the project “Wissenschaftlichen Arbeitsplatz”, link to the SAP system of TUM.