Making SIF a Reality

Data is the lifeblood of vision in K-12 Education. Not the stale data that IT and school administrators have had to settle for in the past, but rather data that is up to the minute and accurate ...data that lets educators monitor vital signs instead of post-mortem statistics ...data that empowers educators to help each child attain her or his best.

Visual Software makes this new world of real time integrated data possible through products that move SIF, the Schools Interoperability Framework, from an abstract idea to a working reality, and beyond.

The Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) specification establishes rules for synchronizing student and staff information between software applications in school organizations. These applications typically support functional areas such as Registrar, Transportation, Media, and Nutrition.

Visual Software products turn the specification into robust SIF Zone deployments:

...products that route and guarantee delivery of data (ZIServer, our SIF Zone Integration Server)

...products that manage large deployments, making them more reliable and match records when learners attend more than one school. teachers teach at more than one school or parents have children at more than one school (Envoy, our Virtual Zone Manager)

...and products that unlock the value even in legacy and home-grown applications for which a SIF Agent is not available off-the-shelf (ZIAgent).

Automated, real time data sharing between existing applications is a new paradigm for educational IT; but, it’s not one you need to discover by trial and error. Visual Software will work with you, providing assistance where necessary, or can introduce you to one of the integration partners with whom we work who can provide local, experienced deployment help.

Products and Services

• ZIAgent™ is a full-featured, configurable SIF agent designed to work with existing applications (in contrast with an Agent Development Kit which requires that the agent be written).
• ZIServer™ is Visual Software's enterprise-class SIF Zone Integration Server, designed to be scalable, reliable, secure and to work with all current versions of the SIF specification from the US, UK and Australia.
  
  ZIServer is SIF certified in the US and UK, where certification programs are available.
• Envoy™ is a product designed to meet the needs of large UK implementations where learners may attend more than one school, teachers may teach at multiple schools, or parents may have children in more than one school. Envoy eliminates the need for multi-zone SIF agents, reduces the complexity and increases the reliability and efficiency of the system by matching records and establishing and managing virtual zones where needed.
• Veracity™ is a SIF agent that, when attached to a SIF zone, collects data published by all other agents in that zone. As the data is collected, it tests the data with rules that reflect the data quality policies of the organization to see where the data falls short. It then provides continual, useful feedback to those responsible for its maintenance where corrections need to be made. Since the data is centrally housed, it also serves as an operational data store for reporting and analysis.
• Mimic™ (formerly ZIUP) is a SIF agent designed for legacy applications that have the ability to generate extract files on a scheduled basis. Configured through a wizard-like interface, it is very simple to set up and install. When it runs, it looks in a specified location for a new extract file. It compares it against the previous copy it saw: if there are new records, it publishes SIF "Add" events, etc..
  
  Operating as a SIF provider, it responds to "Request" messages and maintains audit trails and archives old extract files.
• Professional Services: We are here to help. We realize that SIF is new to almost everyone, but we want to let you know that SIF is our business and not just another way to enhance our business.
  
  Whether you need a second tier to back up your current help desk or someone to do the complete implementation, we can help. If you need someone local, we can refer you to a local integration partner.