Communication Resource Developer Safa Hussain accepts the Golden Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Information Technology at the UC Computing Services Conference at UC Irvine in August. Hussain was the architect for UC Davis’ MyPhone project, which drastically simplified student telephone billing and activation.

This year incoming freshman will have no excuse for not phoning home to the parents as soon as they arrive on campus. Though it used to take over a week to obtain phone services, now it requires all of five minutes. Students who move into student housing, Primero Grove, or the Colleges at LaRue, can simply log on to MyUCDavis, the campus Web portal that offers a variety of campus services, and go to MyPhone to initiate their telephone service.

The old week-long process of signing up for phone services not only isolated students from home during the crucial first week away, but also required a bevy of workers who manually entered data into the computer, shipped out multiple phone bills, and tried to match up the correct telephone number with students who moved to different apartment or dorm rooms. But that was before the introduction of MyPhone, the telephone service developed here on campus by Communication Resources (CR) and first used in 2001.

Previous Issue Campus Operators Getting in Touch with Technology Campus Directive on Caller ID MyPhone demonstration page MyPhone page Student Housing: Information and Education Technology:

Starting small, with the goal of automating the telephone billing process, the project grew until it became a holistic re-vamping of the way telephones work for students on campus. The system even won an award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Information Technology from UCOP in August.

Easy Registration

Instead of having students fill out forms and CR employees process the information, MyPhone lead developer Safa Hussain envisioned drawing student’s information from preexisting campus systems. MyPhone merges the student information in Banner with the Student Housing system, which keeps track of student address and telephone numbers. All students are required to do is log on to MyPhone (through MyUCDavis) and enter their campus login ID and password, and the computer automatically populates their dorm address, email, and student ID number, then issues the student their brand-new telephone number.

With one click, students automatically turn on their service and a few minutes later, they can pick up the phone and call Mom and Dad. With the phone enrollment service available 24 hours (as opposed to the old 8 am to 5 pm service) students can log on at say, Saturday at 3:25 a.m. to connect to the world.

“Although very complex, MyPhone is presented to be simple,” said Lisa Johnston, MyPhone Web developer and designer. With its sleek blue and yellow design featuring a vintage roll-dial phone and faded photographs of students, the site is easily navigable and shows no trace of the intricate engineering effort behind the scenes.

Geared to first-time phone-service subscribers, the MyPhone Web site allows students to obtain or modify their service package, email CR with service or billing inquiries, view current charges (updated every few minutes), view past bills, and get answers to frequently asked questions.

Saving Time and Money

According to CR employees, the system benefits students in more ways than one.

Because vital student information is retrieved automatically and all manual data entry is eliminated, customer service representatives at CR are able to take care of other student issues that may arise during the first weeks of the quarter.

Also, with the automated individualized billing system, made possible by an authorization code each student is required to punch in when making long-distance calls, students no longer have to meet with their roommates to determine who made the six-hour call to Tallahassee.

And the campus saves time and money by keeping all account information in the computer. In the past, students received a monthly bill from CR as well as a statement from the Banner system. Bookkeeping havoc abounded as confused students often made double payments on the same bill. With paperless MyPhone, students view their bill electronically on MyUCDavis, accessible from anywhere at any time, and the university saves $2,000 a month in printing and mailing costs.

“It’s very user-friendly, and provides on-line features you don’t get with PacBell,” said Lisa Chance, MyPhone project manager.

Future developments include a plan to offer disconnection of service online. The cashier’s office also has a project in the works that will enable students to pay their bill online.

MyPhone Team Awarded for Innovations

MyPhone received the Larry L. Sautter Golden Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Information Technology at the UC Computing Services Conference at UC Irvine on August 4. The Sautter awards are distributed yearly to four outstanding information technology projects developed by UC faculty and staff.

MyPhone team members also presented the project at a conference for ACUTA, The Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education.

To take a tour of the MyPhone Web site, visit the MyPhone demonstration page.