Kx Implementation Study

Beginning in the summer of 2007, UNE IT began working with the technical staff at Kx. First, they helped our infrastructure team size and build our servers based on their requirements. Once the dedicated servers were installed, UNE installed and configured SQL Server 2005 database and application server. Kinetic Software’s staff then remotely installed and configured the Kx software without further assistance from our IT department.

With the Excel template provided by Kinetic Software, our Administrative Information Systems team was able to easily extract the necessary room information from our Student Information System - Banner.

Data downloaded from Banner included building and room names, floor, capacity, room type, and phone numbers. For UNE, only room information was downloaded.

Once the spreadsheet was complete, IT submitted it to Kinetic Software for their technical support team to build our Kx database. The download process and data extract was complete within a few hours. There was some manual entry involved on the part of Conference Services, items such as non-academic rooms and catering information was not in Banner. Kinetic Software provided support during this time to ensure that the data was compiled correctly and accurately for their needs.

By fall of 2007, UNE had the new Kx servers running Windows 2003 and SQL Server 2005 along with VPN access to allow the Kinetic Software support team access to install their product. The Kinetic Software support team was finished with their remote Kx installation and configuration in one day without UNE intervention. They installed three instances – one for training, one for testing, and one for production. IT was responsible only for installing shortcuts on the client computers for users to access the databases.

Kinetic Software is a great company to work with. From an IT perspective, implementing Kx was very easy. Our Conference Services Department couldn't be happier with Kx. It has improved efficiency for them immensely.