FAQs About the Portal

Why does the Health Science Center need a portal?
The portal is a communication solution to an expanding institution. The university has five campuses in four cities spread across 50,000 square miles in South Texas. Its administration, faculty, staff and students increasingly rely on the web to communicate. In addition, the portal is key to completion of the CACTUS/PeopleSoft project, the four-year modernization of business, student, and administrative systems, which will rely on web-based access.

Will the portal replace the university web site?
No. The portal is a gateway to internal information. The university web site is for a wider audience. The two systems are different, but complement each other. The portal will replace inside.uthscsa.edu, a site for internal users.

What is the goal of the portal?
The portal is designed to be the place for Health Science Center people to get campus information, and do transactions.

How is a portal different from a web site?
Users at a web site have to find the information they want. They often have to use a search engine, or navigate the links. A portal brings them information and links they have selected themselves.

How does this happen?
In three ways:

• Pagelets, or channels, come from selected internal and external sources, and allow users to pick the information they want on their homepage. Information sources could include their department or school, the Office of Human Resources, and faculty government as well as external information such as weather, news, and webcams.
• Information goes to a user based on his or her role at the Health Science Center. A department, for example, may designate its employees to receive a pagelet that it considers important. On a larger scale, a school may choose to target information for its faculty, students, staff, or members of selected departments in the school.
• Self-service options will be added to the portal so users may conduct personal transactions, such as checking payroll information or changing their address. Selected users already conduct business functions, such as filing purchasing requisitions and requests for travel authorization. Self-service will expand to include functions with the Student Services, and Alumni Affairs offices.

1. One place to get information. The user no longer has to search for information because the information finds the user.
2. A standard set of tools. Users get a set of browser tools that follows them through their association with the university. The tools have a consistent look and feel and work similarly, so they reduce learning time.
3. Personalized and customized information. Information available in the portal is personalized for each individual. The user can customize this information further to suit his or her individual tastes.
4. Simplified sign on. Users will have fewer passwords. The portal will unlock access to a variety of computer applications based on the user's identity. These will be stored securely in the portal's framework.

1. Improves internal communication. The portal is an instant way to publish information regardless of distance.
2. Promotes a lasting connection to the university. The portal will be useful, for example, to a person from the time he or she is a prospective student all the way to the time becoming an alumni member. Similarly, the portal will helpful for a person the time they are newly all the way into retirement.
3. Standardizes web services. The portal provides the standard interface that users desire, and allows programmers to minimize interface design and concentrate on back-end database integration.