EnlightenEd

The IT Odyssey: A CIO’s Quest for Integration

by | May 31, 2019

The IT Odyssey: A CIO’s Quest for Integration

Sing to me, Muse, of the university CIO with all the IT tricks up his sleeve, CIOdysseus.

Sacking Troy was nothing compared to the feats CIOdysseus performed every day, moving his university into the future, while keeping all aspects of campus tech humming smoothly.

If the IT gods sent a challenge his way, CIOdysseus solved it handily, and so he was renowned far and wide for his cunning and skill.

But the gods would not be overshadowed by this hero, so they cursed him with the longest and most tedious IT issue of all.

Data and application integration.

10 long semesters CIOdysseus labored mightily to transfer data between the varied apps and databases of his institution, fighting the ill will of the gods.

His IT team struggled with the oars of manual data transfer, while he kept them safe from the siren song of integration tools designed for business, and not for higher ed.

He navigated carefully between the whirlpool of custom coding, that would suck away all internal IT department time and resources, and the sea monster of outsourcing, that would eat up departmental budgets in one bite.

He outsmarted the Cyclops, a lumbering, slow-witted monstrosity born of cobbling together various different integration solutions piecemeal – an existing API here, a custom-coded integration there, with some manual data transfer thrown in as well – and all with the constant danger of compromised data quality.

He did dally for a time on the island of Circe, but never succumbed to the same fate as many of his colleagues from other institutions of higher ed – being turned into a raving animal doomed to inarticulate frustration over integration woes.

For after all his labors and wanderings, CIOdysseus finally found the solution, the answer to this ultimate challenge from the IT gods. With his unmatched cunning, he recognized it at once as the key.

What was this miraculous solution, this gift from a sympathetic IT god?

None other than N2N’s API Management Platform, Illuminate.

As its very name foretells, this integration tool illuminated the path CIOdysseus needed to take, showing him the secrets of simple and quick integration.

This glorious weapon in the battle for integration bore a design upon its glittering surface, to let all who saw it know of its storied past. As CIOdysseus gazed upon it, he saw images of other universities and colleges who had been aided by its implementation – entire states who had made use of it in innovative new projects, integrating systems from every community college and state university across their states, in order to improve student outcomes. He saw smaller, individual institutions who had utilized N2N’s Illuminate to work smarter, not harder, or solve a data transfer problem that was crippling their productivity and accuracy – and thus, their student success.

These tableaus showed CIOdysseus that this was the correct course to take, and so, in his wisdom, he called N2N.

If you, too, noble warrior, have been afflicted by the IT gods and have embarked on your own quest for the perfect integration tool, journey no farther. Here at N2N, you can put down your oars, remain safe from monsters, and manage your institution’s integration needs simply, quickly, and affordably, with the full support of N2N along the way. Call us today, as the mighty CIOdysseus did, and be glad at heart, hero.


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