How Old Dominion University made account requests 3x faster

The challenge

ODU's account request process ran entirely on paper. New faculty, staff, and student workers requested access — to email, LAN, UNIX accounts, file shares, sensitive data — through manual forms across a complex, matrixed organization. The university needed a fully electronic system that could plug into its identity management system and its ERP database, since much of the account-request data lived outside the ERP entirely.

What changed

Requests now start in ODU's home-grown identity management system, MIDAS, and flow through Bonita automatically. An eligibility check runs first. Approved requests move through up to five sub-processes — supervisor, budget unit director, data owner, system owner approval, in any needed combination — with built-in delegation if an approver is unavailable. Every step logs into FootPrints, so users can track their request's progress, and the system sends daily reminders for anything still pending.

How it came together

ODU evaluated Apache Activiti, JBPM, and Bonita, prioritizing connectivity to other systems and accessible support. Bonita's REST interface let ODU plug in its own front-end alongside MIDAS, and connect cleanly to its Banner ERP backend. The project started on Bonita's open-source version, then moved to the Subscription Pack in June 2012 for professional support and training. Since then, ODU has extended Bonita to its audit process — now connected to more than 300,000 audit "rights" stored in its ERP — plus a password reset process, with account terminations next in line.

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