APPX Prospect System Retired

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Following a transition to CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) last fall, the Office of Admissions officially retired its APPX undergraduate prospect system on Friday, January 23, 2009.

At an event hosted by Steve Vocelka and Lawanna Robinson, a small group of APPX users and CITC support partners gathered in GAB 560 that Friday to say “good bye” to APPX and witness the final shutdown of its ntsf880v1 SUN host.

Attending from Admissions were Janetta Willeford, Ailene Horton, Allison Carpenter and APPX administrator, Walter Bowen. Nancy Fisher and Brian Richman represented EISTS, and were joined by Don Butler from CITC.

Also on hand that day from the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and the School of Health Professions was Joel Daboub, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Outreach. Back in 2002, Joel was a member of the team that ported the prospect system to APPX.

The undergraduate prospect system was a cornerstone for student recruitment follow-up operations for more than two decades. The system was originally built in 1987 with SPEED II, a 4GL development utility on the Wang VS5 platform.

“Recruitment operations grew a lot in two decades,” Walter Bowen said. “Our prospect system evolved right along with us.” Many upgrades occurred over the years, from integration with the UNT mainframe, advent of the Recruitment Material Distribution System and Y2K conversion to integration with EIS.

APPX was hosted on the ntsf880v1 which, according to EISTS team lead Nancy Fisher, was “…the oldest unit in the platform, but it has certainly stood the test of time.”

During its nearly 22 years of service, 1,417,322 individuals were served by the undergraduate prospect system. More than 22,600,000 communications and interest fulfillments were processed from its inception (November 1, 1987) through the Undergraduate CRM Go-Live on October 20, 2008.

To the many users and support partners who contributed to the successful operation of this system over the years, we thank you all.

You made a difference!

Left to right, Allison Carpenter, Ailene Horton, Janetta Willeford, Joel Daboub and Walter Bowen gather in front of the ntsf880v1 server in GAB 560.

EISTS team lead Nancy Fisher prepares to “turn the key” to power down ntsf880v1 and APPX for the last time.

A few parting thoughts. That’s Don Butler in the green shirt.

Joel Daboub and Walter Bowen (Ailene Horton out of frame at left)