Information Technology Services Report to the Board of Trustees June 13, 2012 Information Technology Services June 13, 2012 (Prepared May 25, 2012) STUDENT SUCCESS Commitment to Excellence 
The Textbook Alternatives Work Team has started building a web‐based information clearinghouse with content on Open Standards for Digital Resources, Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Access (OA) and Creative Commons Licensing, Copyright, Fair Use and the Teach Act. This is a work‐in‐
progress located at: http://www.uakron.edu/oer e‐textbooks/Digital Content Phase 2 projects listed below are at different stages of development with completion scheduled for the start of the Fall 2012 semester. 
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Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence an Innovator Recognition Program to be launched in September 2012 posting of testimonials/best practices/war stories provided by UA faculty development of a repository for OER and OA materials developed by UA faculty professional development workshops during the summer for faculty to support course re‐design that includes textbook alternative content Both the functional and technical teams are meeting regularly to prepare for the initial work in the Data Warehouse. Training is being scheduled and a list of participants is being prepared. The initial data loads are now complete and incremental loads are progressing. The proof‐of‐concept using an alternative method of loading data across the wide area network proved successful last week. A recommendation to purchase the supplemental piece of software, Golden Gate, is being prepared. The testing and training phase of the project will begin in June. 2|ITS UPDATE
GLOBAL RELEVANCE 
Develop Dynamic and Globally Relevant Programs Shared Service: Supporting PeopleSoft UA continues to host running PeopleSoft for LCCC (Lorain County Community College) and supporting their application at LCCC environment including Campus Solutions, Financials, Human Capital Management, and application development tools. 
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QAS: LCCC and UA created a project to implement the QAS address verification software in PeopleSoft. Because the schools are collaborating on the project, the cost and effort level will be less than if each institution attempted to do it on their own. PROJECT MANAGEMENT: UA continues to provide project management support for PeopleSoft application at LCCC. Projects are added and tracked at departmental meetings with both LCCC functional analysts and technical support staff. HELP DESK: A project to assess the business case for combining the Help Desk operations at both schools is underway. Preliminary data about the operations at both schools was provided and is being compiled. The data will be used to determine what additional support can be provided from the Help Desk if redundancy is eliminated, technology consolidated, and staff reorganized into a single business unit. CAMPUS SOLUTIONS: UA continues to provide support for LCCC Campus Solutions application break/fix issues until a staffing replacement can be made. 3|ITS UPDATE
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Shared Service: Innovation Alliance The Innovation Alliance partnership between LCCC, Stark State College, and UA is intended to accelerate educational efficiency, knowledge creation, and economic development within an area called the Innovation Corridor. The partnership is studying shared services as a way of controlling the costs of administrative services. A project to assess the business case for combining Payroll business units between the schools is approved and underway. Data was provided by each school detailing the activities of the Payroll department and the portion of Human Resources and Benefits that deal with the preparation of Payroll data. The information was combined, summarized, and presented to the Steering Committee. It showed that much of the effort is manual and a large percentage of cost and time is spent on transactional processing. The next phase of the project will be to develop a model of the future state if the business units were combined. The study is being funded by the Lumina Foundation through the Ohio Board of Regents. DISTINCTION Facilitate Faculty Development and Success by Expanding Clusters of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research 
The Pearson pilot and assessment are complete. The full results are now available on the Provost’s website at http://www.uakron.edu/provost/communication/e‐learning.dot Online (eLearning) Learning The University is negotiating contract terms with Pearson. The focus is currently on fiscal negotiations. David Cummins is leading this conversation. ENGAGEMENT 
Build and Sustain Vital Relationships and Partnerships Governance and Project Management The Project Management Office’s (PMO) methodology and tools are going through the certification process by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which will allow attendees to obtain Professional Development Units (PDUs) as another byproduct of this training and use. A position to support the development of detailed business cases is being developed in conjunction with the PMO. 4|ITS UPDATE
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The first phase of the University's new, enterprise digital signage system (Four Winds) continues to move forward. The goal is to have the system in place and operating by the start of the Fall 2012 semester. Digital Signage The first phase of the project is placing static screens in selected locations. Subsequent phases will look to add locations and include interactive touchscreens for wayfinding and other information. During this first phase, the static screens will be in the Residence Halls, College of Arts & Sciences, Student Union, Law School, and Library. Hardware is in place in the CAS and Law buildings. Both of those locations have purchased the existing Novicast monitors already in place and will use them with the Four Winds software. Other hardware purchases will be made as budgets allow. Initial training for end users has been completed and software license keys were distributed. Other technical issues are being addressed (setting up a database, creating shared folders, assigning IPs, etc.). The enterprise digital signage will enable individual colleges and departments to run messages on their own video monitors. At the same time, the University will be able to send a single message throughout the campus as needed, for example during an emergency or during the President's State of the University. COMMUNITY Promote Vibrant and Engaging Environments and Facilities 
The University of Akron Police Department’s partnership with the City of Akron Police Department to share the City's Computer‐Aided Dispatch and Records Management System to track and document public safety incidents continues. Police Dispatch – 911 Merger The final estimate of costs is being defined for the project. Additionally, a draft of the service level agreements is expected to be completed within the next two months. This agreement will outline the period of time (maximum of three years) it will be in force. We expect to go live on the shared system in January, 2013. 5|ITS UPDATE
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Software‐as‐a‐Service (SaaS) Investigation for Human Capital Management A meeting was held with senior officials from Oracle Corporation to discuss the roadmap to upgrading the existing PeopleSoft Human Capital Management application to their newest Software‐as‐a‐Service (SaaS) technology suite, Fusion. SaaS provides an application developed around business processing that is simpler, standardized, and more automated than the existing PeopleSoft HCM. Fusion has been adopted by more than 150 private sector firms but Oracle is seeking five early adopter institutions to develop the higher education model and asked UA to participate because of the forward thinking culture and strong technical support staff. 
Contributor Relations UA is considering a replacement for the existing PeopleSoft Contributor Relations application to increase the ability of the Office of Development to reach greater numbers of alumni and friends and increase giving. It is intended that the applications remain centrally administered with each school given access to work with their constituency. An RFP was created to obtain information and pricing for a possible replacement application. Four vendors responded. The assessment team reviewed the responses and determined that all four vendors should provide a one‐day presentation of their product. A presentation schedule, invitation list, and scripts are currently being developed for the presentations, which are expected to take place beginning in mid‐June. INTEGRATED PLANNING Achieve Measurable Success  Grants Management Post‐award One of the predecessors to implementing the Grants Management Post‐award project is upgrading the PeopleSoft Financials application to V9.1. Much of the focus has been placed on getting the application tested and ready for moving into production on June 1. The Grants Post‐award project has been placed on hold until July 1 due to budget constraints. The delay will add about an extra eight weeks to the expected completion date.  ITS Metrics The ITS scorecard has been eliminated from this report. We are re‐evaluating the dashboard of IT services and attempting to identify which measures will be most meaningful to the Board. ITS plans to resume providing a "Scorecard" in the future. 6|ITS UPDATE