iMpact Overview
Our iMpact portal
was first imagined in 1992 with the encouragement of a group of MBA students.
iMpact (originally M-Track) was awarded with the prestigious ComputerWorld
Honors designation in 2001 for early advances in information technology.
"Established
in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program brings together the principals of the
world's foremost information technology companies to recognize and document the
achievements of the men, women, organizations and institutions around the world,
whose visionary applications of information technology promote positive social,
economic and educational change."
iMpact has morphed
and advanced into a truly first class enterprise information and communication
portal. Since it's creation in 1992, iMpact has always focused on innovative
ways to connect constituents, to improve both social and professional
communication and to increase the amount of relevant information that is
available in order to make informed academic, career and business decisions.
iMpact was an Internet service well before there was a world wide web. In many
ways, it was a leader in what is now social media. The continued success of
iMpact within our broad community is measured through the evolution of ideas and
improvement of business processes.
iMpact Home Page - News and Events at your Fingertips
The home page of
iMpact is intended as a helpful consolidation of important information from
across the school. You will find the resources you need to stay informed of Ross
News and Calendar Events, get connected with your peers, link up to your
degree-related resources, search for that job, and perform a host of
administrative and productivity tasks. If you recall your first interaction
with iMpact as a newly admitted student, you had access to a special section for
Admitted Students that gave you a glimpse of the information world of Ross.
The Bulletin Board
consolidates all of the news from all Ross sources that are relevant to you. If
you are an MBA student, for example, you will not see news targeted at BBAs. If
you are a first year student, you will not see career opportunities for second
year students by default. You can always see this information by directing
iMpact to show you everything, but, by default, you only see news relevant to
you.
The Calendar is a
pretty comprehensive source of all events happening at Ross. You can filter the
content to particular audience types, year in program, and various attributes of
the event itself. For example, you can ask to see all events related to finance
for second year MBA students in November.
There is always a
lot going on at Ross. Just take a quick look at our school-wide Event Calendar
during an academic year and you will find enough things to do, events to attend,
and people to meet to take up all of your spare time. Except, you don't have any
spare time. The many Centers, Institutes, Administrative and Academic
departments, the student Clubs, the Student Government, the Dean's Office and
even the folks in areas across this campus, all have important news and events
that they want to share. So, it's important to filter these down to what's
really important to you. The key is to manage the information overflow.
Daily and Weekly Email Digests
iMpact is the tool
that everyone at Ross, especially our Career Services department, uses to keep
you informed. The same information displayed on the home page of iMpact is also
displayed on the many Information Monitors that you see at each entrance to the
Ross buildings. And, you can direct this same information to be automatically
delivered to you through a series of daily or weekly email Digests. When you
enable Digests, you don't have to worry about missing important news and events
because these will be delivered to you by email, and you won't be bothered with
many individual emails. You can selectively enable Digests for some types of
events, some department news, or all. You can always go to iMpact to see them
there too, but Digests are just one more tool to make sure you see the news you
choose to see.
Information Syndication (RSS)
iMpact can also
syndicate News and Events to your preferred platform, whether that is a web site
you use as your preferred home page, your cell phone, or other forms of digital
assistants (PDAs). Real Simple Syndication, or RSS for short, is a web industry
standard that feeds information from one provider to another. A tab under iMpact
allows you to customize a page with your preferences. Or, you can choose to feed
iMpact news and event information into your favorite RSS reader, like Google.
Departments, Centers, Institutes and Student Clubs Communicate with You.
iMpact also has a
tab, called My Panels, that Administrative offices use to post information that
is important, but not as time sensitive as regular news and events. You choose
which panels to include on your page. You can arrange the panels any way you
want. Check the My Panels tab occasionally to stay informed.
You use iMpact to Communicate and Connect with Others
Want to communicate
with an entire degree class or just send a quick note to a colleague about a
class project, business opportunity, or to organize a ski trip? iMpact has you
covered with an easy to use directory where you can find the people you need to
contact. Use a feature called Personal Notes to send short notes. iMpact also
allows you to find, tag and categorize people that you want to stay in contact
with using a feature on your Profile called "Connections". Like a fellow student
who has an interest in, say, working in Finance in firms in New York. Or, it can
be friends who graduated at your undergraduate University, live in your
hometown, and like to ski. iMpact has the tools to make personal, academic and
professional connections.
Again, iMpact
communication tools are meant as quick ways to stay connected. Always use your
preferred email solution to communicate at length and send attachments.
Comprehensive Suite of Business Tools
iMpact is much more
than just an informational web portal. iMpact comes complete with a suite of
business productivity tools that assist you every day by, among others, finding
and reserving available group study rooms, creating your resume, reviewing and
selecting company interviews, creating classroom seating charts, managing
conferences, reserving equipment for your travels or meeting, etc.
Team Collaboration and File Sharing (SharePoint MySite)
iMpact My Site is powered by Microsoft
SharePoint technology and allows you to better organize your work, focus your
activities and collaborate on team projects. Features include: full data
management of personal and shared information using document libraries and
version control; calendars, task lists, discussion boards, blogs and wikis;
self-created team sites where you establish contents permission so only those
with a need to know get access to various sections; process management tools;
and more.
You control the layout of pages by adding
or editing various controls, called Web Parts. Using Web Parts, you can, for
example, display your Microsoft Exchange inbox, calendar and task. You can
arrange the sections of your site(s) anyway you like.
Your My Site is accessible wherever you
have an Internet connection, home or abroad.
Information Delivered to your Mobile Device
A lightweight mobile
version of iMpact is a perfect companion when you need a quick reminder of an
important event or information feed.