IRIS Confidential: Adventures in the Technology Underbelly (with a nod to Anthony Bourdain)

This is the first in what will be a sequence of short communications from the trenches of IRIS. On a rotating basis, each member of the IRIS Core Team will report briefly on the view from where they sit. This week the report comes from the chair of the provost as Academic Affairs gears up for the long-anticipated adoption of a new student information system. 
I know that for many of the Academic Affairs staff, the replacement of the much maligned and detested CAMS student information system cannot come soon enough. With negotiations completed and the contract now signed with Anubavam, the software developer of Creatrix Campus, the sense of excitement and thrill of anticipation across the eight administrative units of Academic Affairs is being tempered by the realization of how long and engaged this process will be before the new student information system becomes operational in time for the admission of the Fall 2024 crop of students. This will be a long and difficult slog, no doubt, but, to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Henry V, we few, we happy few, we band of AUP employees bonded together against adversity like siblings, are prepared to work together to achieve our goal. And a year from now, when our requirements have become implemented, when all interfaces are working and our data is moving smoothly in and out of the warehouse, we will look back on all this with pride and acknowledge that it was only through our dedicated collaboration and teamwork that we prevailed. Like a carefully orchestrated team of chefs and sous chefs, each doing our part in coordination and in exquisite timing with one another, we are determined to develop and deliver the next SIS on time and prepared to AUP tastes and needs.  Onward we go!