What is Series25?
Series25 is a campus-wide class and event scheduling system, including the applications 25Live and LYNX, that allows users to perform these critical tasks:
- Create and manage events
- Assign space and other resources to classes managed in your SIS
- Create and manage an inventory of campus locations and assign them to courses and events
- Create and manage an inventory of campus resources and assign them to courses and events
- Create and manage an inventory of departments and organizations -- and their contacts -- and associate them with the courses and events they schedule or sponsor
- Price events and generate price quotes and invoices for customers
- Generate event-related reports of many kinds---scheduling, workflow, space utilization, and so on
- Set up and use event-related workflow and task management
Series25 Concepts
Event
In Series25, an event refers to any academic or non-academic activity scheduled directly within Series25, such as courses, meetings, conferences, athletic matches, and so on. Each event has, at minimum, a designated type and a specific date/time range. Series25 events can have a wide variety of characteristics associated with them, including sponsoring department or organization, headcount, preferred and assigned spaces, preferred and assigned resources, categories, special requirements, custom attributes, etc. Events can have single or multiple reservations. Information about an event is stored in its Series25 event record. Events can also be priced and billed based on their type and/or the locations and resources assigned to them.
Non-academic events are created and managed in Series25. Academic events, which are created and managed in your SIS, are imported into Series25 where database records of the events are created, location and resource assignments are made and modified as needed, and the updated records are exported back to your SIS.
Location
In Series25, location refers to any space or other "facility" that can be assigned to a class or event reservation, such as classrooms, auditoriums, playing fields, offices, theaters, corridors, parking lots, vehicles, and so on. Series25 locations can have a wide variety of characteristics associated with them, including physical features, layouts, categories, relationships with other locations, custom attributes, specific dates and times the location is unavailable for assignment, etc. Information about a location is stored in its Series25 space record. One or more locations can be assigned to any event reservation, and different locations can be assigned to individual reservation occurrences.
Resource
In Series25, resource refers to any item that can be assigned to a class or event reservation other than a location, such as equipment, services, personnel, supplies, and so on. It includes items not already present in locations - extra items that must be provided to events. Series25 resources can have a wide variety of characteristics associated with them, including stock levels, categories, relationships with other resources, custom attributes, specific dates the resource is unavailable for assignment, and so on. Information about a resource is stored in its Series25 resource record. Any number of resources can be assigned to any event reservation, and different resources can be assigned to individual reservation occurrences. The supply of particular resources can be set up to be decremented when assigned to events. Series25 can be set up to schedule events with resources but not locations, which can be used for service-only orders, such as catering.
Organization
In Series25, an organization refers to any entity that uses Series25 for scheduling or event planning, or that sponsors classes or events, such as academic departments, campus groups, community organizations, and so on. Series25 organizations can have a wide variety of characteristics associated with them, including types, categories, account numbers, addresses, ratings, location preferences, associated contacts, custom attributes, etc. Information about an organization is stored in its Series25 organization record. The appropriate organizations are associated with an event in the event record.
Contact
In Series25, contact refers to any person who uses Series25 for scheduling or event planning or who is affiliated with an organization that sponsors or supports classes or events. Contacts can also be generic; for example, a contact for the Student Body President, regardless of the specific person occupying the position. Series25 contacts can have a wide variety of characteristics associated with them, including title, addresses and phone numbers, the organizations they're associated with, custom attributes, and so on. Series25 user contacts also have user identification and security group information. Information about a contact is stored in their Series25 contact record. Contacts can be assigned to relevant roles for individual events.
Master Lists
Series25 master lists are comprehensive, relatively stable lists of attributes created during Series25 data preparation. The items in the lists are used to describe individual locations, resources, organizations, contacts, and events when creating their database records. The items in these lists are specific to your institution.
Searches
Series25 searches allow users to define a set of search criteria and use it to retrieve relevant data from the Series25 database. Searches can be created to find events, locations, resources, organizations, or contacts. Saved searches are used to generate reports and to select data for viewing in 25Live. Users can also "share" their searches with other users.
Security and Assignment Policies
Series25 employs both functional-level security (FLS) and object-level security (OLS) to control access to functional areas of the application and to specific "objects"-- individual events, spaces, resources, and reports. The security defined for each security group determines the data the Series25 users in that group can create, view, request, modify, and delete.
Series25 also uses the concept of assignment policies to specify which security groups can assign specific spaces and resources to events and when.
Notification policy is a part of security setup that governs when users are notified of the use of objects or tasks.
Workflow
Series25 employs an automated notification and response process that allows users to track the progress of their requests for services, approvals, and location/resource assignments required for events and their individual activities. Series25 users access their "task list" to find out about outstanding items in their workflow. Schedulers access their task list to find out whether tasks assigned to events they've scheduled have been completed. Series25 service providers and other contacts who aren't Series25 users access their workflow using 25Live.
Series25 Glossary
For more information on specific Series25 terms, please see the Glossary.