SPIKE

Student Portal and Communication Platform

Wharton's SPIKE, a suite of web-based applications and services, gives students simple and integrated access to course materials, resources, information, and online services. Wharton students and staff together developed SPIKE – one of the first student intranets among business schools.

Now in its fourteenth version, the SPIKE portal combines both personal and enterprise-wide information and services.

  • Student news and announcements
  • Student calendar and personal course schedule
  • Content delivered to custom interfaces for Web browsers, cell phones, PDAs, broadcast e-mail, RSS feeds, and large-screen plasma displays
  • SMS text-messaging interface to reserve Group Study Rooms, display personal course schedules, and locate classes
  • Online student "facebook"
  • Financial news and weather
  • Business insights from Knowledge@Wharton

Technical Platform

Software:

  • Adobe ColdFusion
  • Adobe ColdFusion/SMS gateway
  • Adobe Flash
  • Microsoft SQL Server

Hardware:

  • Virtualized load-balanced cluster on IBM BladeCenter servers
  • IBM TotalStorage DS4100 storage area network

SPIKE Recognition

Awards
  • 2004: Macromedia (now Adobe) MAX award
  • 1999: CIO Magazine: CIO 50/50 award
  • 1998: InfoWorld Magazine: InfoWorld 100 – ranked #5
Press

"SPIKE"?

Why is Wharton's student intranet known as "SPIKE"? "SPIKE" was coined as a temporary code name while the project was being developed during the 1994-95 school year. Despite the team's original intention to give it a "real" name once the portal was launched, students had grown attached to the SPIKE name and it has been the name of Wharton's intranet ever since – and is now a trademarked name of the University of Pennsylvania.



For More Information


SPIKE content is available on the Web, on your cell phone or PDA, on plasma displays throughout the campus, and by e-mail subscription.

Everywhere Access

"I travel a lot for a volunteer organization I work with, so I need to do a lot of coursework in airports, hotels, and from other cities. I can access SPIKE and webCafé from anywhere, see what's happening, what was posted by the faculty, access readings (so I don’t have to carry them around with me!) and communicate with my teammates."

Megan Myers, W'09

SPIKEmobile delivers SPIKE's news and information to cell phones and portable devices.