Identity & Access Management: Phase One
Identity & Access Management (IAM) is a framework of policies and technologies used to ensure the right individuals have appropriate access to technology resources within an organization. For University of Richmond faculty, staff, and students, this means they will always be able to log in to the UR systems they need, and that once they are logged in, they will be able to access information and perform whatever tasks they need to do.
IAM Phase 1 consisted of the following components:
- Develop policies and standards to facilitate future state IAM structures and processes - completed October 2025.
- Research IAM market, finalize budget estimates, and be prepared to launch a Request for Proposals (RFP) - completed March 2025.
- Hire new IAM staff to assist with development of the RFP - Bhavya Sah was hired December 2024.
- Develop RFP for IAM platform to implement future state - completed March 2025.
- Implement Workday->Banner identity feed - completed as part of Workday project, January 2025.
The IAM project has 3 phases:
- Phase 1: Identity & Access Management governance, standards, policy, & staffing
- Phase 2: Platform Request for Proposals (SailPoint selected October 2025), Implementor Request for Proposals (November 2025)
- Phase 3: Implementation (December 2025 - January 2027)
Disaster Recovery Test
The University of Richmond has a disaster recovery plan for most servers and applications hosted on campus. On November 12, 2024, the Disaster Recovery Test, led by Andy Southworth, successfully recovered 11 enterprise applications and 170 production servers, including Banner, CS Gold (One Card), Degree Works, University web servers, and more.
For some departments, there are compliance requirements for testing at least once per year. For other departments, there are procedural or application changes that differ from past years and require updates to test plans. For all departments, it is necessary to test the plan and confirm that it works as needed in case of a real disaster.
The Information Services team collaborated with various campus departments, including Accounts Payable, Bursar, Financial Aid, Registrar, OneCard, Payroll, and Spider Management, to verify the successful recovery of their applications.
This year's test demonstrated significant improvements over the backup solution used in the past; notably, there was a 77% improvement in server recovery times.
UR Websites: Upgrade Project Completed
From 2021 through May 2025, the IS Web Services team and University Communications worked with departments across campus to update over 150 websites to the University of Richmond’s modern web framework, developed in-house to support the University’s website portfolio. It provides both front-end and back-end code within a contemporary technical infrastructure, enabling the creation of user-friendly, flexible, on-brand, and compliant websites.
The web framework is built on industry-standard practices and the “Model, View, Controller” (MVC) architecture, which supports ongoing enhancements to design and functionality. We continue to add new brand-approved design options and functional components for our content managers to implement on their sites. Key features and goals of the Hermes framework include:
- Content sharing: Greater ability to share content across sites, improving efficiency and consistency for content management.
- Performance Improvements: Best practices such as Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration, optimized media delivery, and low latency data retrieval to ensure our sites load quickly on both high speed and low speed networks around the world.
- Analytics integration: Tools that support content strategy and search engine optimization through built-in data analytics.
- Accessibility compliance: Designed from the ground up to meet WCAG standards and ADA Section 508 compliance.
- Modern Responsive design: Optimized for on brand communication and seamless use across all devices.
- System integrations: Direct connections with campus systems such as Coursedog and RAVE alerts, reducing manual updates for content managers.
With the completion of the migration of all web sites from the previous integration to the new framework, the University’s web presence is easier to maintain and accessible.
Improving Accessibility with Siteimprove
At the University of Richmond, we believe accessibility is essential. Our websites should provide every user regardless of ability the same ease of access and quality of experience when engaging with our digital content.
Siteimprove is an industry-standard Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that offers a cloud-based platform to help organizations manage and optimize their websites across multiple dimensions— particularly accessibility, content quality, and digital governance.
The IS Web Services team and University Communications implemented Siteimprove for more than 150 web sites during the 2024-25 academic year. Since implementing Siteimprove, we have resolved hundreds of accessibility issues across our websites. All systemic issues have been addressed, and ongoing monitoring helps content creators quickly identify and fix content-level issues. Additionally, all content editors at the university have received accessibility training through Siteimprove. As a result, our websites are significantly more compliant, usable, and accessible, while also reducing institutional risk.