The typical voluntarism of professors induced the administrative system to react through a long standing policy of excessively bureaucratic rules. The result is a system where processes are complex and slow, the staff has an old fashioned perspective of their job and managers have little space to innovate. Recently, a strong effort is being put on changing this state of affairs at the Engineering Faculty of the Porto University, profiting from a new legal framework that gives more autonomy to the university. One of the directions pursued is the reinforcement of central services. Professional managers have been appointed to some of them, more staff has been hired, and investment in new technology support has been made.
New procedures are now under development.
The paper presents two modules devoted to help on the modernisation effort. The synergy resulting from the integration of these two specific modules in the general information system is a condition for their success. It ensures both the quality of the information, in terms of consistency and versatility of its use, and their wide availability, which brings closer the central services and all the members of the academic community. The first module is a trouble ticket manager. It is intended to become the main interface between the service and everyone requiring its support.