Internationally-renowned educational institution Temple University implemented a university portal on Liferay DXP that serves as a central hub for all critical applications and resources.
Temple University Builds One Unified Platform for 80,000+ Users Including Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni
80,000+
Users
200+
integrated applications
8
month implementation
Outline
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Key Takeaways
- Centralize the user experience.
Direct users to one system to simplify communication and improve efficiency. - Save development teams time.
By leveraging Liferay’s platform, development teams are able to build custom applications faster without having to recreate authentication and authorization or standing up application servers. - Meet the needs of all your audiences.
Temple provides students, alumni, faculty, and staff with personalized, relevant content, helping them to make the most of their time.
Background
Founded 140 years ago and based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Temple University is an internationally-recognized school and a top research institution with more than 30,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.
Liferay capabilities
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Challenges
With such a large and diverse community to serve, Temple wanted their digital solutions to reflect the same caliber of excellence they maintain for their educational offerings.
Temple’s IT team set out to replace multiple existing outdated systems with one platform that would:
Temple’s IT team set out to replace multiple existing outdated systems with one platform that would:
- Enable seamless user experiences. The team didn’t want users to hop back and forth between systems with different logins.
- Improve resource and app discoverability. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni all accessed these systems regularly, so it was crucial to create a great federated search experience.
- Allow for straightforward custom app development. Temple needed a powerful and flexible platform for functionality that also allowed customization.
Implementation
Temple had been using the portal solution that came bundled with their ERP system for many years. When the future of that product became uncertain, Temple turned to Liferay DXP, having worked with Liferay technology in their previous system already.
Liferay DXP offered a chance to consolidate systems into one platform and expand beyond an ERP system into an intranet as well. “The possibility of having one platform that could mold into different use cases was the reason why we were thrilled about the Liferay solution,” noted Abey John, Temple’s Director of UX.
Once development began, the implementation process with Liferay DXP (7.3) took about eight months. During that time, Liferay’s online resource center Liferay Learn was crucial for onboarding new content creators across different University departments and training developers to get a running start working with Liferay DXP.
Since the initial implementation, Temple’s IT team was able to successfully upgrade to the latest LTS version, Liferay DXP 2025.Q1. After the upgrade, Temple was offered a TAM trial engagement, which provided deeper insights and guidance needed to build a more robust federated search experience in the future.
Liferay DXP offered a chance to consolidate systems into one platform and expand beyond an ERP system into an intranet as well. “The possibility of having one platform that could mold into different use cases was the reason why we were thrilled about the Liferay solution,” noted Abey John, Temple’s Director of UX.
Once development began, the implementation process with Liferay DXP (7.3) took about eight months. During that time, Liferay’s online resource center Liferay Learn was crucial for onboarding new content creators across different University departments and training developers to get a running start working with Liferay DXP.
Since the initial implementation, Temple’s IT team was able to successfully upgrade to the latest LTS version, Liferay DXP 2025.Q1. After the upgrade, Temple was offered a TAM trial engagement, which provided deeper insights and guidance needed to build a more robust federated search experience in the future.
Results
Temple’s solution, called TUportal, is truly a one-stop-shop for any campus-related service that students, faculty, staff, and alumni need. Temple has relied on permissions and personalization to make sure users get the most relevant information.
The centralized portal offers Temple these benefits:
The centralized portal offers Temple these benefits:
- Faster development time. Temple also uses Liferay DXP as an application server, hosting 200+ administrative and academic applications that they’ve built. New applications don’t need to be rewritten, and the team can focus on just the core functionality.
- Reduced duplication efforts. With Liferay DXP’s Content Management System capabilities, Temple can reuse what they’ve built for multiple use cases and save time.
- Great user experiences. Users get targeted communications on a seamless platform, leading to more efficient interactions and fewer unnecessary clicks.
The portal is so integral to life at Temple that anytime a new application or functionality is needed, the Liferay DXP-powered platform has become the answer.
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