Info
ormatiion Teechnology SServicees Re
eport to the
e Board off Trustees
Aprril 27, 20111 In
nformation Technologyy Services Ap
pril 27, 2011
(Preparred April 6, 20111) STUD
DENT SUCCEESS Commiitment to Exxcellence •
The new
w innovatio n tool, Golden Ideas, waas opened to
o the entire campuss on March 222. C
Campus‐wide
e Innovation
n: Golden Id
deas The top
pic of the iniitial campaiggn was Studeent Success with a focuss on generating ideas thhat would heelp us betterr prepare stu
udents to fin
nd jobs aftter graduatioon. Golden
n Ideas was aadvertised th
hrough convventional meeans (Email Digest, ZipMail, portal announcement) as w
well as usingg social media er, Facebookk) and on‐cam
mpus digital signage. (Twitte
With th
he campus‐w
wide launch,, several ideaas were imm
mediately posted by memberrs of the University community. Amongg the ideas: •
•
•
•
•
Required Innternships/C
Co‐ops More eveniing and weekend hours for adult leaarners More tutorss and betterr resources/locations forr them New Rec Ceenter prograams to encou
urage worko
outs Food court in InfoCision
n Stadium As the SStudent Succcess campaiign continuees, user engaagement will be closely monitoreed and stepss will be made to ensuree a high leve
el of engage
ement. The SStudent Succcess campaiggn will build
d the foundation for futuure campaigns. Golden
n Ideas can bbe accessed at www.uakkron.edu/ideeas. A UA ID and PA
ASSWORD aree required for login. Along w
with the prim
mary Golden
n Ideas site, a feedback ssite was set up at httpss://feedbackk.uakron.spiigit.com/Pagge/Home. Su
uggestions at this site
e include: •
•
•
•
•
Posting UA events in th
he local newsspaper for p
people who don’t use coomputers Using Facebbook for eacch class that has graduatted to track student succcess and loccate potential donors Allow uncennsored discu
ussion in Golden Ideas Improving aaccess to Computer Baseed Testing Create an “ iRoo” inform
mational app ffor activities aand events att UA
2|ITS UPDATE
•
C
Curriculum A
Approval Pro
ocess Review
w With th
he Universityy‐level systeem of the Facculty Senatee’s Curriculum Proposal Process inn place and ffully functional, effort iss now focuse
ed on the college‐leveel process. The pro
oject team iss working on
n streamlinin
ng and autom
mating the college
e‐level curricculum approval processees. Once th
hat is compl eted, the Un
niversity will measure th
he speed of tthe new cu
urriculum subbmission and approval tto verify that the target of less thaan six monthhs is met con
nsistently. •
SStudent Tech
hnology: A taablet PC for sstudents ogy Our vision is to enhhance the student experrience through technolo
that is ccustomized to the indiviidual. When aa student ar rives on his//her first dayy at The Univversity of Akron, rather than being emailled a class lisst or receiving a thick binder of course rooom location
ns, etc., the sstudent wou
uld get a device, perhaps a ffully function
ning tablet P
PC. After logging in with has everything the studeent needs to
o their University ID, the tablet h
mic career. begin their academ
The tab
blet is a techhnology solution strictly and painstakingly custom
mized to enabble studentss to learn mo
ore effectiveely and efficien
ntly. With thhe addition o
of a stylus ass well as a m
multi‐touch screen,, the traditioonal tablet PPCs are much
h more versaatile and adaptable to how sstudents wo
ork. ng with one vvendor, Informaation Technoology Servicces is workin
mySparrk Technologgies (www.m
mysparktech
h.com), in an
nticipation of conduccting a pilot pprogram at tthe Universiity later this year. The intentio
on is to chooose two or th
hree collegees to develop
p targeted pilots to assess stu dent adoption rates and
d the value rrealized befo
ore engagin
ng in campuus‐wide deveelopment an
nd deploymeent. At the ssame time, IITS will continue to explore alternattive technologies in an effort to ideentify the beest solution ffor the Universsity. 3|ITS UPDATE
GLOB
BAL RELEVA
ANCE Develo
op Dynamic aand Globallyy Relevant P
Programs •
The Un
niversity of A
Akron continues to support Lorain’s PeopleSoft ERP post “ggo live” envirronment and
d operate ass a host for rrunning the PeopleSoft applicattion. Develo
opment and infrastructure support ue to be provvided for stu
udent, financial and hum
man capital continu
manage
ement appli cations. SShared Servicce: Ongoing support; ccombine tech
hnical and fu
unctional u
units Luminaa Grant: An R
RFP was created for obttaining consu
ulting services to supp
port both thee next phasee of shared sservices and
d the Lumina
a Grant p
project. The initial conceept was to provide an inclusive document for suppport in comb
bining databaase instancees and research for com
mbining busi ness units between UA and LCCC. B
Because there may be
e some pote ntial for con
nflicting with
h the IUC / A
Accenture Shared Service Studdy, the docu
ument is being rewritten
n to focus solely o
on the Luminna Grant objjectives. Ano
other RFP will be creaated once thhe IUC study findings havve been receeived and a directio
on is set by U
UA senior management.. Queuin
ng Applicatio
on: A copy o
of the Advising Queuing (scheduling) application was creeated for LCC
CC and mod
dified to meeet their require
ements. Thiss application allows stud
dents to com
me to campuss, logon to a kiosk in tthe student services areea, determin
ne who they need to
o see, and pllace them in
n the queue to see an ad
dvisor or counse
elor. The appplication wass placed into
o production
n on March 2
21, the start of the new
w registratio
on period. It has assisted
d walk‐in students by eliminaating lines to
o see a receptionist to d
determine who eed to see annd to make an appointm
ment. they ne
Steady State: A meeeting was h
held with sen
nior manageement from UA and LCC
CC to determ
mine next steps. Manageement asked
d that a projject list be ccreated withh all projectss remaining tto achieve aa steady state following impleme ntation of PeopleSoft att LCCC. Steaady state is defin
ned as returnning to norm
mal operations followingg the comple
etion of an im
mplementattion. It also requires LCC
CC to eliminate consu lting requireed to supporrt running th
he new been approvved, plans w
will PeopleSoft applicattions. Once the list has b
eloped to reeestablish th
he governancce mechanissm for shared be deve
service between UA
A and LCCC. Luminaa Event: Lum
mina will be sshowcasing the UA / LCC
CC initiative at a share
ed services bbest practicees event theyy will be spo
onsoring at U
UA on Apriil 14. We arre expecting representattives from In
ndiana, Californ
nia, Minnesoota, Wisconssin, Colorado
o, Arizona, tthe Lumina Foundaation, the Ohhio Board off Regents and possibly o
others. 4|ITS UPDATE
•
ee‐Learning Sttrategy and Im
mplementattion Committtee An e‐Le
earning Com
mmittee was formed in FFebruary 201
11 with a charge from Provosst Sherman to prepare ““… recommeendations th
hat encompass markett‐driven prio
oritized focuss areas; speccific goals, objectivves, tactics aand metrics particularly as related to academic program
ms; projecteed revenues and costs; rrecommendeed organizzational structure and go
overnance p
processes; reegional, nationaal, and internnational parrtnerships to
o develop an
nd deliver e‐
learning programs;; constraintss that must b
be addressed
d and a commu
unications sttrategy and plan for facu
ulty, studentts and staff.”” The Committee, wiith broad representation
n from the U
University commu
unity, has meet weekly du
uring March to completee vision and
mission
n statementss and is currrently preparing for interviews with expertss from univeersities with successful ee‐learning op
perations to learn how they achhieved their success. During the coming months, sm
maller workin
ng groups wiill focus on specificc aspects of the charge aand preparee draft recom
mmendations. 5|ITS UPDATE
DISTTINCTION Facilitaate Faculty D
Developmen
nt and Succeess by Expan
nding Clusters of Interrdisciplinaryy Teaching aand Research •
The newly formed Springboard
d Faculty Steeering Comm
mittee first m
met in Dece
ember 2010.. Decisions w
were made regarding th
he ordering o
of semestters within t he My Coursse Widget an
nd the defau
ult status of coursess when theyy are created
d. The semeesters now appear with tthe most current one aat the top while the defaault course sstatus remains set to Inactive. D
Desire2Learn
n (Springboaard) More rrecently, thee committee determined
d to postpon
ne the planned upgrad
de from Marcch until Mayy. This decission was dettermined via an email vvote with 75% in favor o
of the May date. Our seccond meetinng was held on March 24
4th with ten faculty in attendaance. Topicss of discussio
on included the new feaatures that w
will be avaiilable in the 9.2 upgradee, access to n
newly developed trainin
ng materiaals, and perfforming testting of the new featuress on the Testt server (upgraded eearlier this m
month). Goals ffor the Comm
mittee includ
de: ‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
Improve coommunicatio
on with faculty of Springboarrd, making Improve annd streamlinee features o
them as acccessible as p
possible for ffaculty and sstudents Make sure tthe availablee training is what facultyy needs and
wants, and determine h
how faculty would like tthe training tto be providedd Determine opportunitiees to find ou
ut what is wo
orking and h
how mproved these aspeccts can be im
Plan upgradde dates de: Guideliines for the Committee Communicaations includ
‐
‐
‐
Meet once per semesteer Limited emails to members requessting opinion
ns DDS door iss always opeen 6|ITS UPDATE
•
Time and Labor/Absence Management Two bids for the Request for Proposal (RFP) to implement PeopleSoft’s Time and Labor and Absence Management modules were received on March 16 and are being analyzed. Evaluation and refinement of the proposals is targeted for completion by April 4 for the Education Committee review. Final Board approval will be requested for both modules on April 27. The Time and Labor module will eliminate the paper time cards and the manual processes that are currently utilized to track time worked for hourly workers. The Absence Management module will help the University more accurately track and report the paid time off employees are eligible to receive. Manual tracking will be eliminated and accuracy improved which will lower costs. •
Grants Management: Post‐award This project has been split into two components: The first component is focusing on modifying the chart of accounts to better track grants by project and sub‐project. This project has started using UA resources and is scheduled to be completed by August. The second component will be to implement post‐awards functionality which includes accounting, grants billing, and receivables. In April, an RFP will be drafted to seek some consulting support for this second component. This second component of work will start after the chart of accounts is complete. ENGAGEMENT •
Build and Sustain Vital Relationships and Partnerships Governance and Project Management A pilot is winding down to test the effectiveness and acceptance of the new process and framework to manage all IT projects. As new projects are initiated, they will be using the new process and tools. Training and mentoring for all IT project managers and project teams is being designed and will be provided in April and May. The governance process related to the selection and prioritization of all IT projects is being refined. Incorporating the use of software will help improve this as well. 7|ITS UPDATE
•
R
Regional Info
ormation Tecchnology EExchange (RITE Board) A reporrt titled Norttheast Ohio Information
n Technologyy Workforce Report published laate 2007 con
ncluded thatt over 5,000 IT jobs in NE Ohio go
o unfilled eaach year. To address thiss issue, a gro
oup of CIOs from Eaaton, Smuckkers, Sherwin
n‐Williams, A
American Grreetings, Clevelaand Clinic, NEEOSA and UA
A formed th
he RITE Board to addresss the issu
ue. Current aactivities of the Board in
nclude: •
•
•
B
Benchmarkin
ng study A one‐half dday, cross‐co
ollege collab
boration meeeting with our four collegees that offer IT degrees h
has been sch
heduled to discuss the following: sharing resou
urces and fo
orming a high
h‐
level single//shared advisory board which will ggive private industry on e place to go
o to influencce IT curricu
ulum and implementiing formal exxperiential learning ‐‐ internships//coops into the curriculum. CIOs, collegge/universityy representaatives and NE Ohio Coun
ncil on Higher EEducation (N
NOCHE) repreesentatives have begun meeting to discuss how
w technologyy can be leveeraged to oops. match stud ents to available internsships and co
The final report froom the Inter‐‐University C
Council (IUC
C) Institutional Excellence and Shaared Servicess (IESS) projeect was pressented to the pril. variouss Universitie s in early Ap
The Un
niversity of A
Akron is revieewing the reesults of the study to determ
mine the app ropriate nexxt steps. Acccenture high
h‐level conclussions includeed recommeendations th
hat UA particcipate in the
state‐w
wide procureement initiattive and thatt UA continu
ue process streamlining in HR and Financee. UA con
ntinues to leaad discussions state‐wid
de to identifyy the service
es that could be consoolidated and
d shared red
ducing costs for all universsities and colleges involvved. 8|ITS UPDATE
•
In orde
er to supportt the ever increasing dem
mand for alu
umni and develop
pment servicces, a group
p is investigating new tecchnologies to support donor rela tions (Contrributor Relattions). The o
objective is tto overcome softwaree limitationss to enable ggreater interraction with alumni and friends of the University and to
o create morre oration with various consstituencies w
within the University by collabo
using m
more centralized data. C
Contributor R
Relations Assessm
ment objectives include, but are nott limited to:
•
Projecting w
what Oracle plans for the contributo
or relations application
• Determine what, if any, shortcomin
ngs the existting application has • Decide how
w to best meeet the shorttcomings in tthe most cosst effective waay The reccommendatiions will be aaligned with
h the Universsity’s strateg
gic objectivves to priori tize the worrk. CIBER C
Consulting w
was engaged to completee a Fit‐Gap A
Analysis for tthe Contrib
butor Relatioons project. The consultaant met with
h teams from
m Athleticcs, Developm
ment, Reseaarch, Foundaations, Law, A
Alumni Relations, and IT duuring the weeek of March
h 7 and again on March 16. The ressults of the FFit‐Gap Analyysis are due April 4. A m
meeting has been sccheduled forr April 11 to discuss the findings and
d determine
the nexxt steps. COM
MMUNITY Promotte Vibrant aand Engagingg Environmeents and Faccilities •
The teaam continuees to further define requ
uirements for the creatio
on of an RFP for the p roject. This project will enable the University to
o Medicaid’s annd Medicaree’s requirem
ment for elecctronic meet M
reporting. EElectronic Medical Recorrds •
R
Recruiting So
olutions: e‐R
Recruiting A meetting with thee Akron Regiional Hospitaal Foundatio
on has been scheduled to discusss EMR/EHR
R providers. A readiiness assessm
ment and fitt/gap review
w of the current businesss processs in compariison to the d
delivered fun
nctionality p
provided by PeopleSoft Recruit ing Solutions is being co
ompleted. This firsst phase of tthe project w
will be comp
pleted in Aprril followed immediately by thee implementtation phasee. The impleementation phase is scheduledd to continuee with a “go‐‐live” deployyment in Septem
mber. The re sult will be p
paper‐less reecruiting and
d and hiring processses. 9|ITS UPDATE
INTEEGRATED PLA
ANNING Achieve Measurab
ble Success
• C
Campus‐wide Schedulingg: Series 25 Academ
mic scheduli ng is in the ttesting phase for the 2011‐2012 sch
hool year. TThis involvess testing variious optionss for patterns of class offeringgs as well ass the inclusio
on of a broad
der offering of spaces fo
or a more e
efficient placcement of classes. Event SScheduling iss progressingg toward
d a spring lauunch for bookingg and sched uling of non
n‐
academ
mic events, sspace and resourcces. • ITTS Metrics The mo
ost current ITTS metrics aavailable at tthe time of this report arre attache
ed. If a line ittem does no
ot have a tarrget, the metric is intend
ded to indiccate the amoount of workk or activity being deliveered. Lines w
with targets indicate levvels of performance we strive to ach
hieve. 10 | I T S U P D A T E
ITS DEPARTMENT SCORECARD – FEBRUARY 2011
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Support Center (Help Desk)
Number Support Center calls
Average Speed of Answer
1st Call Resolution Rate
Number of tickets opened by HD
Total tickets opened
Calls closed within four hours
Calls closed first day
Calls over one week old
Support Center abandoned calls
# of Users serviced at walk-in centers
# of Laptops checked out at walk-in centers
Central Servers (Data Center)
Data Center uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Mainframe uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Unix/Linux server uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Windows/Apple Server uptime percent (% of posted
hours)
Web Server www.uakron.edu uptime percent
Total number of virtual/physical servers on platform
Total number of data center outages
Messaging & Network
Total email accounts (UAnet IDs)
Total active email accounts (UAnet IDs)
Total forwarded email accounts (forwarded off campus)
Total emails processed (originates internally + originates
externally and accepted)
Total emails filtered (originates externally and either
tagged spam/virus or rejected)
Percent of emails filtered (percent of total mail originating
externally either tagged or rejected)
Email uptime percent (weighted by percent users
affected)
Total active network nodes
Data network uptime
Wireless network uptime
Total number of reported network outages
Web
Total Web page views
Total unique Web visitors
Total ZipLine (portal) logins
Total ZipLine (portal) unique logins
Printing
Total print jobs processed
Training
Total attending and completing class
Contact hours for classes
One-on-one training sessions
Application support – one-to-one assistance (tickets)
Number of visits to online tutorials
FEB.
TARGET
*1
N/A
*2
>64.8%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
<2%
N/A
N/A
*3
100%
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
N/A
0
N/A
N/A
N/A
FEBRUARY
JANUARY
DECEMBER
4248
1m03s
85%
3154
4966
3895
4213
64
18%(777)
1450
2346
6992
1m14s
74%
6168
7815
6357
6885
256
13%(880)
2072
2147
2164
57s
84%
3214
3568
2735
3006
36
6%(180)
488
1061
100%
100%
100%
99.995%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
386 / 188
0
100%
384 / 186
0
99.96%
397 / 198
0
218615
36700
117
7798832
216907
35526
114
8249561
204918
33708
114
7641014
344
476
649
0.01%
0.01%
0.02%
N/A
N/A
N/A
100%
100%
100%
99.50%
N/A
100%
100%
0
17083
100%
100%
0
17429
100%
100%
0
16032
100%
100%
0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
2,961,101
307,303
745,809
35,139
3,315,356
323,689
912,905
36,950
2,333,949
246,586
699,777
35,857
134
167
123
100
45
N/A
N/A
217
57
N/A
14
137
71.75
N/A
21
70
38.5
N/A
2
1,000
566 Atomic
Learning
tutorials
403 Atomic
learning
tutorials
157 Atomic
Learning
tutorials
11 | I T S U P D A T E
JAN.
TARGET
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Critical Application Data
Administrative logins PeopleSoft
Administrative users PeopleSoft
Logins to PeopleSoft self-service via ZipLine (students,
faculty, staff)
Number of PeopleSoft users via ZipLine (students, faculty,
staff)
NT Process Scheduler statistics
App Engine
Crystal
COBOL
PSJob
RoboFTP Script
SQR
XML Publisher
Admissions applications loaded: Grad
Admissions applications loaded: Law
Admissions applications loaded: Undergrad
Self-service enrollment requests (by students)
Self-service enrollment requests unique users (students)
Administrative enrollment/maintenance requests (by staff)
Administrative enrollment/maintenance requests unique
students
Transcripts produced
Enrollment verifications produced
Grades posted
Student financials transactions, unique students
Student financials transactions
Charge
(2,885 students)
Financial Aid
(1,207 students)
Payment
(5,955 students)
Refund
(1,644 students)
Waiver
(124 students)
Financial aid ISIRs loaded
Financial aid ISIRs loaded, unique students
Financial aid award transactions
Financial aid award transactions unique students
Financial aid disbursements
Financial aid disbursements unique students
University-Enterprise Managed Computers
Total Windows desktops clients
Total Windows laptops clients
Total Apple clients
Total Managed Clients
Lab Computers (count & utilization)
Windows Laptops (ITS managed)
Students Checkout
Mobile Teaching
Special Use
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
*4
*5
*6
FEBRUARY
JANUARY
DECEMBER
N/A
N/A
74,428
931
160,191
953
93,663
920
N/A
139,733
375,320
347,184
N/A
N/A
26,854
33,250
32,371
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
2,069
2.899
1,784
2,757
162
9,669
18
542
218
1,798
13,612
3,985
6,608
1,901
4,209
2,439
3,032
205
11,503
12
695
401
2,993
45,622
8,347
26,178
1,635
3,310
1,547
3,074
174
12,277
20
669
154
2,506
38,214
7,312
14,732
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
2,863
13,816
1,419
263
8,066
34,354
15,906
3,294
12,749
2,243
162
13,501
12,050
3,986
2,392
1,978
1,186
8,482
23,273
2,611
2,579
28,223
357,014
176,637
87,677
71,883
19,312
1,505
2,890
2,309
11,389
4,360
67,146
20,188
5,582
25,777
2,251
110,081
13,993
125,220
96,409
2,712
25,312
406
381
1,683
1,265
9,244
3,621
1,620
1,079
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
4714
2825
463
8002
4665
2887
462
8014
4763
2454
462
7679
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
605
390
175
40
10369
2756
605
390
175
40
8396
2269
605
390
175
40
3746
1505
*7
12 | I T S U P D A T E
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Windows Desktops (ITS managed)
ITS General Purpose
Departmental
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
Kiosk Stations
Main Campus
MCUC
Total Kiosk Logins
Total Kiosk Unique Users
Apple Labs
Departmental Laptops
Departmental Desktops
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
Distance Learning/Audio Visual/Academic
Technology
Number of DL class sessions
Number of Springboard active course sections
Number of Springboard unique active users
Number of unique instructors using clickers
Number of course sections using clickers
Number of students (all sections) using clickers
Number of Audio Visual equipment deliveries
Department & Administration
Total ITS headcount at end of month
Full-time
Part-time
Consultant
Approved openings
On leave
Student
Total "Ask the VP" questions
Total department hours accrued for vacation
Total department reported vacation
Total department reported sick time
JAN.
TARGET
*8
FEBRUARY
JANUARY
DECEMBER
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
796
129
667
27761
6351
132
127
8
18869
6620
197
27
170
6740
1399
796
129
667
25867
6740
132
124
8
24678
8684
197
27
170
6313
1422
796
129
667
9289
3904
132
124
8
8535
4465
197
27
170
1353
748
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1691
3,451
26,191
58
85
4359
1460
1356
3,332
27,301
51
71
4051
1359
442
3,392
25,226
65
95
4736
721
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
129
125
4
1
4
0
129
N/A
25,243
582
693
128
124
4
1
5
0
134
N/A
24,108
485
638
127
123
4
1
6
2
135
N/A
23,947
945
532
Footnotes
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There are 10 days with no phone reports
Industry standard for the first call resolution rate is 65.8%, for Higher Education 58.8%, industry target is 70.9%.
Cost savings to the institution for first call resolution is about $150 per call. Outsourced Support Desks FCR is 66.3%.
** HDI best practices survey 2007.
Laptop Check-out centers included in report Student Union
Process Scheduler Stats are cleared weekly.
Total is higher than unique users because individual students may have had more than one transaction.
FAFSA applications for financial aid.
ITS managed clients logged in to the University network in the last 30 days.
Includes UA on-campus rooms and Medina County classrooms. This includes both distance and local use.
13 | I T S U P D A T E
14 | I T S U P D A T E