ViDi-O™ (view-it and do-it online): An approach to internet commerce in a higher education setting

Abstract

THROUGHOUT THE 1990’s, higher education—struggling with an outdated management paradigm—has been buffeted by the latest fashions in management thinking. Thus, as the competition for students has increased, colleges and universities have turned to the so-called “quality movement” for better ways to focus on and satisfy the requirements of those they serve. Faced with flat revenues but spiraling costs, some of these same institutions have also resorted to business process reengineering and other more radical management techniques, seeking to do more and better with fewer resources. Still other market forces have contributed to this period of self-assessment and adaptation within higher education. Most importantly, the advent of client/server computing, Internet and Intranet commerce, and the need to replace legacy computer systems before the debacle of “the year 2000,” have encouraged colleges and universities to revisit their information technology (I/T) strategies and to make heavy infrastructural investments for the future.

Caught in this trap, Babson College, like many of her sister institutions, has taken on both continuous quality improvement and reengineering in a sincere effort to improve services and reduce costs. Concurrently, the institution has moved rapidly towards a client/server I/T environment, and more recently, towards Internet-enabled business processes. This article examines the evolution of Babson’s Internet/Intranet commerce strategy and the emerging end products of these efforts—ViDi-O™ (View It and Do It Online) components, a suite of object-based applets.³ It identifies the underlying technologies required to enableViDi-O™ as well as the process employed in its development as a computer-mediated work environment.