When ELF was in the conceptual stages several years ago, the industry trend for systems was toward increased processing on the desktop or "client-side." While the University widely embraced the ELF concept in its initial form, complexities inherent to client-side architecture were frustrating to users. Consequently, the OIT embarked upon a project to retool the architecture such that the bulk of the processing would be shifted to the "server-side." That retooling was completed and implemented in the spring of 2001.

In the early stages of client-side development, claims were highly touted for tools such as Java to run effectively on any desktop platform (e.g. PC, Apple, Unix), and the ELF architecture was constructed in a manner consistent with this viewpoint. But as the ELF system moved from the workshop to university-wide use, variations in client-side set-ups began to create difficulties: Java worked on different platforms and in different browsers with varying degrees of success, browser upgrades coupled with new Java releases often introduced additional errors, and the difficulties associated with properly configuring the client-side software were prodigious.

Under the new server-side architecture these problems are eliminated. Now the desktop function is primarily to execute a standard HTML browser while the more complicated and specialized functions are handled on the server-side.

The implementation of server-side ELF required the migration of Electronic Forms from the initial client-side architecture into the new server-side formulation. This migration was completed July 1, 2001 for all financial and procurement forms at the University. The Department of Business Services has completed the migration of the popular travel approval and travel expense statement forms, and, with the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources participating in their entirety, the travel forms are currently in a production pilot. The travel forms are expected to be implemented across the rest of the University early next year.

ELF continues to expand with additional university-wide forms. The budget amendment, small dollar procurement, and master contract were placed in production this past summer while the requisition and tuition remission forms are currently being developed and tested. Use of the system has grown, with approximately 2,400 users currently registered, and geographic usage of the system has spread. The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources uses the system from every part of the state, and some of the other institutions in the University System of Maryland (USM) also rely on it. Dramatic improvements in the way we do business at the University will continue as we increase the routing of forms electronically. The retooling of ELF will facilitate that growth.

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