AccessTufts 2.0 – Your “Administrative” Home Remodeled!
When you arrive home – to the AccessTufts homepage – on February 5, we hope that you are delighted with your remodeled one-stop shop for administrative work.
New Look and Feel
Doesn’t it feel great when you get a makeover, or you remodel a room in your home? How about when you reorganize your office and declutter to improve productivity and make it easier to find things you need?
When AccessTufts launched in November 2016, it was just the first step in making it easier for the Tufts community to get work done. Since launch, we’ve made continuous improvements as well as major changes like adding comprehensive Human Resources information in April 2017, open enrollment content in October 2017, and creating a brand-new Apps and Software section in October 2017. Now with the launch of AccessTufts 2.0, we’ve been able to expand the portal even more to include content from Finance and Technology services. Join us on a tour of your new home!
Home Page
The first thing you’ll notice as you arrive at your new home page is a more modern look and feel which uses more imagery, timely information, and cards to welcome you. As you begin to explore the home page, you’ll see more relevant content right at your fingertips, including:
- Search is one of the key tools for finding content, so we have not only put a link in the utility bar at the top but a more prominent search box directly under the main navigation. AccessTufts 2.0 has enhanced search using a powerful technology called SOLR to provide keyword autocomplete; context search (you searched…did you mean…?); sort results by relevance (default), date (=last updated); count of total results (e.g. "Displaying 1-10 of 31 results"); and a view in search results.
- A Bulletin Board to pin important information at the top of the page.
- Quick Access to provide links to some of the most popular services.
- Recommended Today to highlight things at Tufts that might have a timebound relevance and that you won’t want to miss. This section will be updated regularly.
- Featured News is an area to showcase featured news stories, did you know articles, or featured benefits.
- Service Cards – The center of the home page offers a new card section – which was favorably received in testing – highlighting key categories of services (e.g. Software & Apps, Faculty Resources, Hiring, Health and Wellness) as well as quick contact info for emergency, hr-related, and technology help.
- New and Noteworthy is all things “News” from those featured on AccessTufts to Did You Know tips to recent Tufts Announcements and TuftsNow articles.
- Stats is a new section for highlighting key facts from HR, Finance, IT, sustainability and more!
- Events links to the most current events posted on the Tufts events calendar.
AccessTufts 2.0 also features a utility bar at the very top that provides links to key university calendars, directories, IT Notices to see any system outages in real time, and your Dashboard for a look at all your tickets and time-off requests (if your area uses this feature). The “fat footer” at the bottom of the page provides contact information for help services for Tufts Technology Services (TTS) and Tufts Support Services (TSS), as well as some useful links, a feedback form, and direct link to the community appeal in support of Tufts.
But How do I “Get Work Done”?
For those of you who came to rely on the Get Work Done section of AccessTufts, have no fear as AccessTufts 2.0 has you covered. One of the things we began to notice over time was that the Get Work Done section – which was built using a mega-menu approach – was hard to navigate and didn’t provide for the ability to easily add and expand the content on the site. (Think of it like a house or closet where it’s hard to find anything and there is no possibility of future expansion.) AccessTufts 2.0 provides the “get work done” content in three easy to navigate, expandable sections: My Tufts, Get Started with…, and Services.
This is all about you! Whether you are new to Tufts or someone who has been at Tufts for quite some time, you have direct access to employee information, benefits, career information, perks and discounts, time off information, and the full Employee Policies & Procedures guide – now completely online!
This section takes some of the most common “jobs to be done” and provides direct links to information necessary to accomplish those tasks including: Sending & Accepting Payments, Buying Goods and Services, Purchasing Technology, Hiring, Events & Meetings, and Travel & Hosting. This is also where you will find an index with links to all forms and policies.
So, you probably are thinking what do they mean by services? That is a term that can be interpreted differently depending on who you are. In this case, services connect you to categories of services available to you at Tufts including: Benefits, Performance & Development, Finance & Payroll, Purchasing, IT & Computing, Software & Apps, Faculty Resources, and Accessibility. The topical groupings enhance the communities experience in finding the services they need – eliminating the need to know which area of Tufts provides the service – by providing landing pages with a wealth of resources and links.
Data analysis and reporting is a core component of research, teaching, and administration at Tufts. AccessTufts aims to provide a centralized source for informational data about the University as well as datasets and systems you can use to support your work. This section, which will grow overtime, includes access to key facts about the University, admin and research reports, a new section for Technology for Research, and information about how to ensure your research and data is secure.
Want to know what’s going on in your house? Come here to see the latest news, events, and information about sustainability at Tufts. Information in this section is curated from TuftsNow news articles that are important to faculty and staff, the Tufts events calendar, and the Office of Sustainability website. You might find stories and information related to work-life balance, updates on employee benefits like open enrollment, or announcements about budget season, the annual community appeal, recycling and composting, sustainability programs, and more.
Need help or want to learn something new? Tufts provides full-service support for administrative services and training opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. You can find access to Classroom Tech & A/V Support, IT Support & Training (TTS), IT Remote Assistance, HR & Finance Support (TSS), Online and In-Person training using Tufts Learn Center and Lynda Campus, and access to a variety of online technology guides.
Tufts Systems
Do you often forget the link to key systems you need to use? This section gives you direct access to a number of systems the community uses on a regular basis including Box, Canvas, Apptricity, eServe, SIS, space reservations (EMS), TUSK, VPN, Webmail, and WebEx.
Feedback
Just as you would tell your builder/contractor what you thought of the remodeling project on your home, AccessTufts wants to hear your thoughts on our remodel. As you explore your newly remodeled home, please let us know how you think we can improve the site. Did you notice the improved accessibility/usability and better mobile experience? How did that work for you? How can we make it easier to use? What key transactions are missing? Would your team or department like to showcase content/news here to make it easier for employees to find and use? Your feedback is important to us!
Next Steps
As with any home, we need to focus on maintaining its beauty – AccessTufts is no different. We will begin by:
- Using Siteimprove to run analytics that help us identify links that are broken and/or pages that might not be as accessible as they need to be
- Continuing to evolve and enhance the search capabilities to ensure you get the best results
- Expanding our model of distributed content authoring and management
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we will be scheduling a series of open houses on each campus to showcase the newly remodeled AccessTufts 2.0. Please stay tuned for dates and times and plan to attend one of them and provide your valuable feedback/input.
The continued success of AccessTufts relies on a collaborative, cross-campus effort. We hope you will join us in making your newly remodeled home a great place to work and live!