The main thrust of this work is to present an interoperability platform between information systems of higher education institutions in Portugal and the main advantages and benefits its use has already allowed within an academic community of about 100,000 users. This interoperability platform,running on a cloud computing environment, was a major result of a project called "IES+Perto", meaning "Higher Education Institutions Closer", involving some of the most prestigious Portuguese universities and the largest polytechnic in the country. It was developed with a unifying but not intrusive perspective, so that each institution would continue to be solely responsible for the organization and delivery of its information. A common mobility strategy for digital content supported by an application for mobile devices, and a set of services for electronic data transfer between institutions for the academic processes of student national mobility and joint courses of study, have been developed using the interoperability platform. The project IES+Perto and the interoperability platform in particular have contributed very positively to innovation, administrative modernization and electronic management of the institutions involved, creating conditions for the extension of services to other higher education institutions, as has already happened by supporting new initiatives that the project IES+Perto proponents and other higher education institutions submitted for funding under a new application to the National Administrative Modernization Support System, which were approved.

1. Interoperability between Information Systems of
Portuguese Higher Education Institutions
EUNIS 2016 | Crossroads where the past meets the future | Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece |2016 June 8-10
Lígia Maria Ribeiro, Universidade do Porto, lmr@fe.up.pt
Rui H. Pereira, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, rhp@iscap.ipp.pt
Osvaldo Pacheco, Universidade de Aveiro, orp@ua.pt
Mário Bernardes, Universidade de Coimbra, mjb@uc.pt
Ricardo Martins, Universidade de Aveiro, ricardo@ua.pt

2. Outline
Context
The Project HEIs Closer
Interoperability Platform
Architecture Deployment
cloud4IES
Collaborative services
Mobile APP Student data transfer
Effects and impact
Conclusions
2

3. Project HEIs Closer
U.Aveiro
U.Porto
U.Coimbra
IP.Porto
3
87.000 students
6.000 professors & researchers
3.500 other employees
96.500 Users

4. Project HEIs Closer
Interoperability
Openstandards
Cloud computing
Administrative modernization
Rationalization of costs
SAMA National Administrative Modernization Support System
global budget: 2.0 M€
project funding: 1.7 M€
4

5. Project HEIs Closer
CLOUD4IES
PI4IES
APP MOBILE
ELETRONIC DATA TRANSFER
DIGITAL SIGNATURE
5

6. Project HEIs Closer
Cooperation
HEIs: ICT, academic, internationalization services
National NREN (FCT/FCCN)
National Security Office
Inter-institutional cooperation Agreement
Governance and shared management
Extension of services to other HEI
HEI in Network
6

7. Project HEIs Closer
http://iesmaisperto.up.pt/
7

8. PI4IES: Challenges and motivations
Each HEI has its own Information System
distinct scopes
distinct technologies
distinct integration capabilities
distinct vocabularies
Increasing need to support mobile devices
Student mobility programs and joint courses of study require:
complete dematerialization of academic processes
workflow optimization based on system integration
National program for accomplishing the ”Once Only” principle
8

9. PI4IES: System architecture
9

10. PI4IES: Handlers
Based on units of source code that adapt the
HEI’s services
handlers
default handler - direct mappings
user-defined handler – written in JAVA and using an
API provided by the platform
Handlers are able to manage high levels of
complexity regarding the adaption problem,
business logic rules and data sources’
heterogeneity
10

11. PI4IES: BUS of services
Provides services to the stakeholders
Service invocation based on four mandatory parameters
an identifier of the operation to be executed
an identifier of the HEI
an API key that enables access control of client applications
a container that contains all arguments of the requested
action
11

12. PI4IES: Service invocation lifecycle
1. Clients submit requests to the BUS
2. During the service invocation, the first and second
parameters together permit the platform to find
which handler must be applied in the requested
action
3. The UPM module dispatches the request to the
handler
4. The handler is executed, consuming the data of
the HEI and the one already cached
5. The output of the handler is sent to the client
12

13. PI4IES: A-WPM: service definitions
13

14. PI4IES: Dashboard & statistics
14

15. Cloud4IES
Aveiro
Coimbra
Porto
RCTS+
15

16. Collaborative services: APP mobile
16

17. Collaborative services: Student data transfer
17

18. Collaborative services: Digital signature
18

19. Effects and impact
Higher levels of technological integration
non-intrusive unifying perspective
Interaction using mobile devices
linking virtual & face-to-
face channels
1st effort of HEIs electronic data transfer
Dematerialisation of processes
digital signature with
national Citizen Card
Innovation and best practices
efficiency and productivity gains
reducing overall operational costs
19

20. Cooperation networks
20
Other
Application
Other
Application
Citizen
Portal
Citizen
Portal
Other
Portals
Other
Portals
Portal for Higher
Education
Portal for Higher
Education
Frameworks
Common Services
Frameworks
Common Services
Payment
Platform AP
Payment
Platform AP
PI 4 IESPI 4 IES
SI HEI 1SI HEI 1 SI HEI 2SI HEI 2 SI HEI NSI HEI N
WS
WS
WS
WS
…
HEIs in Network

21. 21
Conclusions
Very successful project
Easy non-intrusive and integrated provision of electronic services
for the academic community across multiple HEI
Internal and cross-institutional cooperation
Sustainability
Modernization and innovation of HEIs services
Extension of use to other HEIs