Problem / OpportunityBriefly summarize the problem or opportunity you propose to address. Write this in terms of the organizational problem being addressed, not in terms of the solution needed.
Problem(s)
• Context: The College of Continuing Education (CCE) extends the mission of the university by increasing access for non-traditional learners. With a primary expertise on serving adult learners, CCE provides programs and services to individuals and employers year-round, unbound by traditional semester schedules and formats. CCE serves a hybrid student body that extends beyond California, has been fortunate to steadily increase access, and is serving over 80,000 learners annually. Through in-person, distance, and self-paced programming CCE has been delivering programs and services at employer sites, in classrooms, and online for over twenty years. As an administrative college, CCE focuses on enhancing the mission of Sacramento State by meeting our learner community where they are.
• The Continuity Spectrum (C2K) system of Plexus Systems Corporation is the bedrock customer relationship management (CRM) software that CCE has used since the 1990s, which runs under Power Builder 64-bit Windows application platform and MS SQL Server database. As part of the 2020/21 project call, C2K was migrated over to campus which includes leveraging IRT’s back-up system—all database and website backups are done by IRT against our database and web servers.
• C2K currently contains more than 52 years of CCE’s historical data, dating as early as 1970. For many years, C2K has served CCE to house holistic needs for business continuity which includes but not limited to processing its non-credit and continuing education unit (CEU) registrations, course and program management system which includes course inventory, financial management to generate instructional contracts, relevant operations management to house instructional scopes of work (SOWs), a source of data for business intelligence (BI) & analytics reporting, and relevant human resources management of instructors and/or trainers data.
• The platform that the software has been built upon has End of Life (EOL) and End of Service (EOS) support which indicates that the system runs under a platform with no additional firmware, patches, and upgrades. Furthermore, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has ended server, storage, and network services.
• Continued use of C2K in EOL/EOS mode incurs compounding numerous risks for the College and the University, which includes but not limited to:
o Cybersecurity, data security, privacy compliance as required by CCE customers/stakeholders, University CIO, ISO, and Chancellor’s Office is imperative. For example, the outdated security fixes, patches, and firmware updates creates significant security risks and leaves the system open to malicious cyber-attacks. Furthermore, continued use of C2K compromises the University and CCE’s ability to remain compliant with regulatory standards to meet levels of protection and functionality. This risk is particularly important for CCE & University where data breaches can result in severe legal consequences and penalties.
o Increasing integration incompatibilities and limitations with CCE’s interconnected systems which currently include PayPal Payments, Payflow link, and homegrown systems like MyCCE and CCE Intranet, and EMS scheduling software. In its current state, C2K is not compatible with modernized technologies, such as Microsoft Power BI used for data analytics, Microsoft Excel, and other Microsoft-related enterprise solutions that is supported by campus.