The Fifth Decade (2012 and beyond)
A corporate anniversary is as much about the future of an organization as it is about its past. As the OUAC embarks on another 45 plus years of success, it has evolved to establish more strategic planning. Some of the high-level goals include:
- ensuring financial and organizational sustainability;
- maintaining operational excellence;
- promoting compliance standards;
- evolving a sustainable hardware/software infrastructure;
- modernizing business practices; and
- maintaining a healthy workplace.
Thank you for joining the OUAC's journey so far. Here's to the past, present and future of the Ontario Universities' Application Centre!
By 2017, the OUAC employed 75 full-time and approximately 10 part-time employees.
- Starting in 2015, the OUAC worked with Oracle to replace a 35-year-old, homegrown, legacy system with the new Application Management System (AMS) platform. Launched in August 2016, this platform was designed to offer a better supplied and supported database and tool set and a built-in-house web presentation layer.
- The OUAC processes more than 650,000 applications per year. OUAC systems have to be sufficiently robust to meet the demand at application deadline dates, bulk grade submissions by the high school system, university offers of admission and applicant confirmations.
- System and data security is an ever-growing concern for the OUAC. Multi-layer firewalls and other protection adds complexity and security to systems management. The OUAC also implemented an online referee process for three professional applications, and we have processed thousands of online references.
- 170 Research Lane is still our home. Close to all the amenities, delicious lunch spots and scenic walks, we love calling Guelph home!
- The building itself is a square, and you would be surprised at how easy it is for a new employee to get lost in. Luckily, the OUAC pros are always willing to discretely show you the way, and after a week or 2 you can navigate the place with your eyes closed.
- While parking is not assigned, each employee has his or her own unofficial spot.
- At least 3 universities are moving to an XML data distribution for cycle 2018. The original project planning allowed schools to have a "sunset strategy" of 3 years to convert to XML, which gave them until cycle 2019 to do so. The medical schools have unanimously agreed to stay with the flat file data distribution for cycle 2018 and will all move to XML for cycle 2019. This meant that we maintained the legacy system for an additional year.
- In 2013, OUF got a new and improved logo! We said our goodbyes to the boring bubble, but opted instead for a bright, multi-coloured acronym.
- In 2015, the OUAC's new standardized logo was created to decrease web page clutter, allow for consistency across both core languages and speed up load pages for the end consumer.
- In 2017, the OUAC's Guidance Site was revamped based on Ontario guidance counsellor feedback. It was made to be more accessible, user-centered and mobile-friendly.
- In 2017, referees for professional division applications submitted their references for the first time using the all new online Confidential Assessment/Reference forms. We receive just over 36,000 documents online.
45 Facts
You May Not Know About the OUAC
- The OUAC uses 75 desktop PCs, several high-speed printers and a combination of VMware, Linux, Microsoft Windows and IBM POWER servers for application processing and various associated services.
- All of the OUAC's external forms and publications are bilingual; one quarter of OUAC full-time employees are fluently bilingual.
- The OUAC produces more than 20 bilingual publications each year. These widely-distributed publications include application booklets, forms, newsletters, posters, brochures and bookmarks.
- The OUAC prints many of its annual publications and envelopes on FSC-certified paper stock. Each year, the OUAC increases the number of publications that bear the FSC logo.
- The OUAC uses biodegradable poly mailers for large documents. These are large, plastic envelopes that contain an additive that allows them to biodegrade after two years in a landfill, thereby reducing the burden of persistent plastics in the environment.
- When the OUAC moved to its Research Lane location in 2001, the custodian collected eight bags of garbage per day. Now that staff recycles, he collects only two bags per day.
- In 2016, we began phishing training to assist OUAC staff in recognizing bogus/phishing emails. For some organizations, untrained employees are the weakest link in information security.
- As of summer 2017, we had just over 6-million logins to the AMS during its first cycle!
- In the first year of offering online references for OMSAS, OLSAS and ORPAS, we received just over 36,000 documents online. That is a lot less mail to open a year!
- Since OUETS started processing electronic transcripts, more than 1,693,214 transcripts have been sent through electronically.
- By 2017, the OUAC employed 75 full-time and approximately 10 part-time employees.
