Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : ENT

ENT : Environnement Numérique de Travail (Digital Workspaces) in France

The second phase of Campus Numériques Français was launched in March 2002 and consisted of a call for proposal on ENTs (digital workspaces). The aim was to offer HEIs a range of varied technological solutions related to ENTs. The “environnement numérique de travail” is a platform to provide HEIs users with online access to all resources, services and digital tools connected with their activities. It has the appearance of a personalized desktop portal.

The overall budget amounted to 3 million € and was split between four selected consortia : ENCORA, EPPUN, ESUP and MONTE-CRISTO.

In April 2005, the submitted projects were evaluated in line with the recommendations of the Ministery's outline plan for ENTs (SDET: Schéma Directeur des Espaces Numériques de Travail) and the conventions betweetn the government and the consortia, on the following aspects : functional coverage, project's organization, deployment, technical architecture of the solution.

CONCLUSIONS:

- Organisation and management : the project teams were efficient and well-integrated in their institution, moreover they managed strictly resources and time schedules, however the resources specifically committed to the projects were poor and the strategical cross-institutional coordinating structures rare;

- Solution development : the SDET's operational and technical recommendations were respected and a good functional documentation was provided;

- Project's finances : all the projects respected the budgets they were initially allocated although very few foresee future financing opportunities;

- Functional coverage : despite the lack of a maintenance strategy, the coverage of services was effective and respected the SDET;

- Technical architecture : although the SDET's recommendations were respected, the quality of service was not enough shaped and formalized;

- Deployment : a stabilization period is necessary in order to integrate the new solutions to the existing context, and despite the lack of precise indicators, some preliminary actions were taken (information, training) as well as some user profiles were previously set up (students, teachers...).

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