AHESN Next lays the foundation for making inter-university business processes and technical systems for academic and teaching processes at Austrian educational institutions more transparent and flexible. The project promotes cooperation, harmonizes structures, reduces isolated solutions, and standardizes system connections. AHESN Next establishes a digital infrastructure and promotes efficient administration and management in the higher education sector. A key feature is the possibility of electronic examination data exchange between universities, which could, for example, enable a digital process for the recognition of certificates.

AHESN next forms the basis for developing greater transparency and flexibility in inter-university business processes and technical systems in the study and teaching domains in Austrian educational institutions. The project promotes cooperation, harmonises structures, reduces stand-alone solutions and standardises system connections. AHESN next establishes a digital infrastructure and facilitates efficient management and control in the higher education sector. The possibility of electronically exchanging examination data between universities is central to this infrastructure, which can be used, for example, to implement a digital process for crediting certificates.

The process for appointing new professorships is to be comprehensively supported digitally: from the initial screening and call for applications, to the collection of expert opinions, and support for the appointment committee, to the candidate hearing and selection. This will ensure a uniform, quality-assured process while also ensuring compliance with existing data protection requirements. In addition to TISS, several IT systems at TU Wien are involved, such as e-Recruiter and the personnel planning tool. The first phase of the digital appointment process project consists of digital support for online applications (via e-Recruiter) and the management of applicants in TISS. Currently, five calls for applications are being processed via the new system. Phase 2, currently under development, involves the integration of external reviewers into the appointment process.

For efficient research data management in line with FAIR principles, support for the entire life cycle of research data – from generation to archiving – with expertise and tools is essential. This cannot be done in isolation. The project facilitates cooperation between Austrian universities in the development of coherent and sound research data services. This ensures that Austrian universities secure their role in the international research landscape. The CSD service unit is responsible for implementing a tool for the creation and processing of data management plans (DMP). This tool should be easy to integrate and a high degree of automation should ensure that work on the DMP is as straightforward as possible.

eRecruiter, a professional software solution for advertising new positions at TU Wien, has been available for some time. However, the process steps from needs assessment to eRecruiter were previously implemented using forms, where the same data sometimes had to be entered multiple times, and the process status was not always clear. At the end of 2019, the implementation went live in TISS and the Department of Finance's personnel planning tool, which digitally maps the process from the idea to eRecruiter. Starting in the personnel planning tool, the key budgetary data for the newly advertised position is first defined and then transferred to TISS at the click of a button. There, all the data required for the advertisement can be entered in several steps. To maintain an overview, it is also possible to generate a preview of what the advertisement will ultimately look like in eRecruiter. From the organizational unit advertising the position, the process then proceeds through all the approval departments involved until the data is transferred directly to eRecruiter via an interface. The job advertisement will then be published there as usual by the Application Management Department.

As a result of the "RIS Synergy" project, the additional effort and rate of error associated with duplicate entries in academic settings and administration has been reduced. The resources made available as a result increase effectiveness and quality support for research projects and enhance data quality, transparency and security. The concept study for a research portal provides the basis for further steps towards a neutral and transparent presentation of research outputs and results in improving international visibility. The central focus of this project is the creation of interfaces to the IT systems of the participating research funding organisations, to enable the digital exchange of project metadata and report documentation and thus reduce the administrative burden on researchers.

As part of the final TUWIS transition in 2017, the process for transferring lecturers and (then) tutors was also implemented in TISS. Due to time constraints, it was decided at the time not to revise the process itself. As a result, the transfer of lecturers and tutors from TISS to SAP continued to be cumbersome, involving the import of .csv files. The goal for the next project phase was to implement direct import via interfaces, accompanied by comprehensive data synchronization to resolve data conflicts directly or prevent them from occurring in the first place.

The registration of lecturers and student assistants in teaching at TU Wien is handled decentrally by the institutes. Quality assurance of the entered data is handled centrally by the Department of Lecturers and Time Management. TISS offers optimal support for this through a clear dashboard displaying all persons to be transferred and deep integration between TISS and SAP. This allows for early response to potential problems during the transfer to SAP. For example, each individual transfer to SAP can first be verified in a test run. On the SAP side, the personal data is automatically imported into the relevant SAP modules and infotypes. The implementation of digital support for this complex business process is the result of many years of continuous development and has now been successfully completed.

The Buildings and Technology Department (GUT) offers a customer-focused service for all matters pertaining to infrastructure. The aim is to create and ensure optimal framework conditions for research and teaching as well as secure infrastructure for employees and students in line with their requirements. The digital transformation is currently having a significant impact on the planning, construction and operation of buildings. The CSD Service Unit will support the GUT Department in this transformation and provide the digital solutions to enable guaranteed continuation of state-of-the-art services for TU Wien employees.

As part of the PDB Plus project, numerous aspects of the TISS project database are being completely overhauled. The existing solution had to be redesigned due to the numerous new requirements. The following aspects were addressed in 2019:

• Project application creation - TU Wien's governance requires that every project application be entered into the TISS project database. To make this as easy as possible, we have reduced the required master data to a minimum.
• Questionnaire - In addition to the application's master data, additional information is requested via a questionnaire, such as potential conflicts of interest or ethical issues regarding research data.
• Submit application approval and calculation
• Review application by user with approval authorization
• Entry and administration of funding and grant providers

In order to accurately reflect these extensive changes, workshops were held over the past year with stakeholders from the VR Research, FTS, EIFS, IO, Project Controlling, Controlling, Human Resources Administration, Funding Advisory, and Business Cooperation departments, as well as power users from institutes. Clarifying and defining functional dependencies (and terms) in the process chain was the biggest challenge. Understanding why information is needed is certainly the greatest benefit of these workshops. As part of a participatory process, we jointly determined whether a function would still be necessary in the future, what information was needed at what time, and what priorities should be set for implementation. Once a component had been further developed, it could be tested. The feedback was incorporated into the next iteration.

The implementation work is currently being finalized. We hope to make the new developments available to everyone soon!

The central e-payment service of the Vienna University of Technology is being used more and more. The IT laboratory of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning has now connected another webshop to the TUpay e-payment service. Previously, credit for the printing and plotting service could only be topped up via ATMs. Now, customers can top up their credit via e-payment, eliminating cash transactions.

In addition to expanding the connected webshops, automation was a key focus. Together with the Department of Finance, a process was developed to automatically post online transactions and the associated incoming payments, as well as the billing, in SAP. This high degree of automation enables efficient management of online payments and represents a true innovation in the e-payment sector.

e-Payment