Source: Freepik
The old CAS Campus directory will be shut down on August 31, 2023. For many years it served RWTH Aachen University and the RWTH University Hospital as a web phone book. Until the introduction of RWTHonline, CAS CAMPUS was not just a web phonebook at the time, but a fully comprehensive CAMPUS management system for teaching at RWTH.
On the blog, we have provided comprehensive coverage of the project to replace CAS CAMPUS with its follow-up, RWTHcontacts, and have been keeping you up to date.
Since June 28, 2023, the web phone book of CAS CAMPUS is only available for reading and has been replaced by the new directory RWTHcontacts for the RWTH and UKAcontacts for the University Hospital.
Benefits of the New System
The benefits of RWTHcontacts and the new directory of people and organizations are obvious. Not only is the application independent of special applications, but it also offers other important advantages over the old system:
Connection to Identity Management
The connection to Identity Management provides a “single source of truth” for identities and their base data:
Personal base data does not have to be entered manually, but is selected directly from the available group of persons. The group of persons consists of all employees and role holders of the organization. Missing person entries can be added to this group of persons by assigning the role “Zuordnung Personenverzeichnis” (“Assignment of person directory”). Name changes are automatically synchronized in the person directory.
In particular, the subsequent use of data in the form of exports has been simplified, as the target system no longer has to decide between data from Identity Management or data from Campus.
However, this also means that the organizations still have some clean-up work to do in the new system and have to link the ” Offenen Campus-Zuordnungen” (Open Campus Assignments) with identities, since this couldn’t be done in CAS CAMPUS anymore. This is because the entries in the former directory had to be linked manually to Identity Management. With the introduction of the RWTH Directory of People, such a connection is no longer necessary.
Updated data model
In the directory of people, it is now possible for the same person to have different contacts (e.g. e-mail addresses, addresses) for different organizations.
Likewise, they can be listed under several headings. Furthermore, organizations can specify additional addresses besides the central address and the English translation of headings and positions can now be defined.
Improved Handling
The handling has been improved, by the connection to the building management of the RWTH. The automatic filling of addresses, the use of the RWTH Navigator and the ability to sort the list by drag&drop are major changes in the user-friendliness of the application.
In addition, the new authorization concept provides that each organization has access only to its own data. Authorizations are assigned via the established role administration using the ” Verwaltung Organisation” (Administration Organization) role. An important side effect: this makes it possible to identify the organization administrators and to contact them directly.
Further Development of RWTHcontacts in Preparation
And that isn’t the end of the story. Of course, we are continuously working on further optimizations of RWTHcontacts, the directory of people and organizations. The search function is to be improved. In the future, it will be possible to display photos of the person and to select the main organization. The main organization is needed when a target system can only handle one set of contacts. Providing a layout for mobile devices will further support its use.
Search for People and Organizations
When searching for organizations and persons, please use only RWTHcontacts, because the data in CAS CAMPUS may already be outdated. After the shutdown on August 31, 2023, the CAS Campus web phone book will no longer be available.
The new RWTH directory of organizations and the RWTH directory of people have already been used to maintain contact data for organizations and people since June 28, 2023.
The updating and maintenance of data such as organizational affiliations and contacts are implemented by the person with the role ” Verwaltung Organisation” from your institution. The update and maintenance of main data of persons or organizations will be implemented as before in the respective source systems, such as the SAP system of the HR department.
For more information and instructions, see the following links:
IT Center Help:https://help.itc.rwth-aachen.de/en/service/1b6c17ce0a1041fda1ad23699e18b0d6/
IT Center Blog: https://blog.rwth-aachen.de/itc/en?s=rwthcontacts
Responsible for the content of this article are Michael Gerhards and Morgane Overath.
Cooles System!
Hallo Hannes,
vielen Dank für den Kommentar!
Es freut uns, dass Ihnen unser System gefällt.
Viele Grüße
Das IT Center Blog Team