Institutional Data Feed Service

Service Description

The institutional data feed service provides bulk institutional data feeds to be used for official Newcastle University systems and processes. The service enhances those systems by ensuring accurate and timely delivery of data to those systems so that they can fulfil their function. The provision of data centrally via sophisticated integration tools means that system owners don’t have to create their own data provisioning processes.

The IDFS also supplies advice and guidance on core institutional data, and assists developers in clarifying their requests, whilst also assisting in the documentation of data flows throughout the University.

These records also enable developers, and the University as a whole, to retain a clear overview of data flows, ensuring compliance with Data Protection and Freedom of Information regulations.

Features

  • Secure, consistent, accurate and timely bulk institutional data feeds
  • Single, reliable source of data
  • Data dictionary presenting the available data
  • Fully documented, extensible, standards-based architecture
  • Data feeds tailored to the developer’s requirements
  • Documented records of data feeds to help with Data Protection and Freedom of Information compliance

Users

Newcastle University members of staff who are responsible or are involved in the development of an official University system can request data to be used for official University purposes.

External systems developers who require data must make a request through an appropriate University member of staff.

Service Hours

Consultation, advice and guidance: 09:00-17:00, Monday to Friday, excluding University closure periods.

Data feeds can be setup to run at anytime, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The ISS “at risk” period is 07:00-09:00 every Tuesday. Further planned maintenance times will be publicised in advance if there will be a disruption to the service.

Level of Service

All data is stored securely and backed-up daily on a nightly basis. In the case of a database outage, dependant on the severity, it would be expected that the database could be restored within 1 day. Data feeds would be temporarily suspended until the database has been restored.

All data is transported via secure transfer methods to ensure that data cannot be intercepted or manipulated when being sent to an application.

All data feeds will be documented to ensure that the University has a clear overview of data flows throughout University systems. This is a process which involves ISS and the requestor, to ensure that documentation is a continuous process throughout the lifecycle of a data feed.

Support and Documentation

Data Integration Template

Guide to Completing the Data Integration Template

IDFS Service Data Dictionary

Additional support is available via the ISS Service Desk on 5999 or it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk.

All incidents relating to this service will be handled according to the ISS Incident Management and Major Incident Management processes.

Request Process

New data request:

  1. A data integration request template must accompany any data request. Email it to it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk.
  2. If required, assistance can be provided in completing the data request template to ensure requirements are clearly identified and documented.
  3. A consultation meeting can also be arranged to discuss the request in more detail if required.
  4. Once initial consultation is carried out, estimation for the time to implement the data feed will be provided. One of the factors that will influence this estimation is whether the data is already available as part of the service, or whether it would be a brand new data feed.
  5. Communication will be a continual process throughout the service request to ensure user’s requirements are fully satisfied.

Termination of data feed:

  1. The requestor must notify ISS if any data is no longer required for its original purpose. A scheduled termination process will then be agreed.

Requests for any other aspect of the service should be made via the ISS Service Desk on 5999 or it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk.

All requests relating to this service will be handled according to the ISS Request Fulfilment process.

User Responsibility

With assistance from ISS, data protection responsibilities and procedures associated with the application are clearly defined; these will be documented within the Data Integration template.

The use of data is bound by wider University and ISS policies and regulations, including (but not limited to):

  • Information Security
  • Data Protection
  • Freedom of Information
  • Records Management

The requestor should ensure that the data is only used for the purposes set out in the initial data feed request. Any change to the use of the data should be reported to ISS, to allow for necessary consultation.

The requestor must ensure that the data is stored securely at application level and that the data is stored to meet data protection requirements.

Costs

N/A