NUcore at 10: A Decade of Experience Developing a Core Facilities Management Application

Abstract

Implementing an effective software solution is an important step in managing a portfolio of core facilities. Though commercial options are available, developing or adopting a custom platform is a viable path for many institutions. At Northwestern University (NU), the cores program was reorganized beginning in 2008, and we pursued the latter path in order to retain control of the development priorities and to ensure integration with other enterprise systems. This manuscript describes our experience and results after a decade of effort. The platform, named NUcore, began enrollment in 2011, and full enrollment was achieved in 2019. Key features of NUcore include a stable and secure environment, a responsive and intuitive interface for users and core staff, seamless integration with the university financial system, rules and restrictions to ensure compliance, and both core-specific and enterprise reporting. NUcore now supports nearly half of all sponsored award dollars at NU at a cost of only 1 cent per dollar of business transacted. On average, there are over 4000 active users each year. NUcore is managed as an open-source project, available at no cost to any organization. Five academic organizations currently use the NUcore code base. For NU, NUcore has been a substantial success, and continuous development will ensure that it meets the future needs of our university and its cores.

Keywords: core facility; open source; software.

FIGURE 1.

NUcore development visualized as new work requests submitted per calendar year. NU, Northwestern University; TXI, Table XI, LLC.

FIGURE 2.

NUcore technical architecture. ACGT, ACGT, Inc. (a commercial sequencing company); COGNOS, IBM’s line of business intelligence and performance management products; DOORS, a custom application within NUcore that monitors facility access; Form.io, form.io, LLC (an online forms processing platform); IMSERC, Integrated Molecular Structure Education and Research Center; LDAP, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol; vLAN, virtual Local Area Network.

FIGURE 3.

Facility enrollment by year. The figure shows the total number of facilities enrolled in NUcore in a given calendar year.

FIGURE 4.

Utilization as measured by transaction count.

FIGURE 5.

NUcore development costs by year, measured as invoices from Table XI.