PetrSU Information Analytical Integrated System (IAIS): approaches, solutions, development trends

The article "PetrSU Information Analytical Integrated System (IAIS): approaches, solutions, development trends" is a review of the approaches, software and technology solutions and functionality of IAIS as a university management system. The goal of the article is to systematize the large amount of information about PetrSU IAIS, highlight the advantages and the uniqueness of the original approaches to projecting and of the ready solutions of this system in comparison with the most wide-spread automated systems of management of higher educational institutions. To achieve the goal, the authors justify the topicality of the development of the management information system against the background of the current trends in educational system development and provide the review of the most wide-spread systems available in the market. Based on the brief analysis of the maj or selection criteria, they justify the choice of PetrSU and the reasons, why the university embarked on the independent development of the information analytical system considering the previous experience, started with the ASU VUZ (Automated System of Management of the Higher Educational Institution). The article contains the description of the functions of PetrSU IAIS, interaction of the main components and the whole architecture. The results of the original research that lead to the creation of the unique and special approaches to the data basis development are presented. Besides, the article dwells upon the list of unregulated tasks that are implemented only in PetrSU IAIS. Another advantage of PetrSU IAIS presented in the article is integrability of IAIS and other significant information systems of PetrSU, such as official website, educational portal, e-library and others. The integration has been possible due to the fact, that initially IAIS was developed with the consideration of major requirements to the management information systems, among which the top priority were the following: integrability (both on the level of data bases and on the level of business processes); industry specific approach (with all the variety and expansion of the activity, educational process being the leading one); flexibility and customizability (adaptability) to the peculiarity of the modern university development, its business processes and organizational structure. It's important to emphasize, that on top of input, upgrading and maintenance of a large amount of data by PetrSU administrative divisions, PetrSU IAIS implements the option of the distributed input of extended information by faculty, staff and students within the IAIS portal environment. The article allows Russian universities to learn the results of the long-term research and practical work of Petrozavodsk State University in the area of creation and development of the university management information system on the basis of its unique approaches and solutions while utilizing the options of Oracle products. It is crucial, that the availability of such a system in the university allowed not only to automate the major business processes, increase the quality of information support to administrative decision-making, but also to provide the data topicality, access and reliability. This, in its turn, has eased the solution of the important task of information openness and availability of the topical and regularly updated information to the maj or stakeholders of the educational process and external world.