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| Quick Notes
ITS Staff Milestones
Congratulations to Boyd Banks, information technology analyst, who is celebrating 25 years of service at Syracuse University.
Congratulations to Gary McGinnis, ITS director, who is celebrating 15 years of service at SU.
Congratulations to Dawn Havill, information technology analyst, who is celebrating 10 years of service at SU.
Congratulations to Bob Davis, information technology architect, who is celebrating five years of service at SU.
Congratulations to Kelly Herr, instructional technology consultant, who is celebrating five years of service at SU.
New Staff
Welcome Bob Herman, who began work in November as a communications technician in ITS Network and Systems Management. He will be working in the field installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting telephone, network, and wireless infrastructure. |
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Time Matters in the College of Law
Law clinics adopt new information management software tool
The Office of Clinical Legal Education in Syracuse University's College of Law provides real-world opportunities for students to practice law in the community under the supervision of faculty. In January, the College of Law will begin to roll out a new software tool that will more efficiently and effectively manage all of the information associated with the college's seven In-House Clinics. The tool, Time Matters by Lexis Nexis, is among several products that are used by law firms across the country to manage client information, communications, case documentation, calendaring and scheduling, billing, and other data associated with a practice.
"The practice of law is becoming increasingly digitized," says Mary Helen McNeal, director of the Office of Clinical Legal Education and professor of law. "Law firms deal with an enormous amount of information. It is important for students to learn that there are tools available to manage information and to learn to use these tools in legal practice."
Time Matters will initially be used in the college's Low Income Taxpayer's Clinic and the new Elder Law Clinic. By the end of 2008, the tool will be incorporated into all seven clinics, which provide free legal services to eligible community members. For example, the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic has successfully recovered more than $275,000 from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for clients over the past four years.
Time Matters is being implemented by a team of six people from the college's Information Technology department and the Office of Clinical Legal Education. Team members are Ronald Denby, assistant dean for Information Technology for the college; Chris Harrison, technical support analyst; Ian Brown, data system administrator; Anita Giovanini, computer consultant; Ron Nabewaniec, functional business analyst; and Sue Davie, administrator in the Office of Clinical Legal Education, who will also be coordinating all of the student, faculty, and staff training programs for the system.
As Time Matters is rolled out across the clinics, students will be taught to use the tool in much the same way as they would use it in a law firm after they graduate, Davie says. Davie anticipates that the training sessions will last almost a full day. Through training, students will learn to use Time Matters tools and features to actively manage and organize their case documentation, tasks, schedules, and contact information.
"With Time Matters, all the information that students need about their cases will be immediately available at their fingertips," Davie says.
In addition, the software billing and time-tracking features will also enable students to learn to keep better track of the time they spend on tasks associated with their cases and how that time translates into accurate billing records for clients. While the clinic does not charge for services, the time-tracking feature will help students to better visualize where they are spending their time and the areas in which they need to improve to become more efficient in handling cases.
Other software features include:
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Conflict Checking: A global method of searching the data in the system to ensure there are no conflicts of interest within the clinics when new cases are accepted;
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Tasks, Alerts, and Reminders: A tool that provides notes on all of the cases to which a student or faculty is assigned and the actions that need to be taken on a given day; and
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Contacts and clients: A comprehensive list of contacts associated with a law practice.
Time Matters will replace an older data management tool, based on Microsoft Access, which the clinics have been using for more than seven years. One of the biggest challenges the team faces is in moving the data from the old system into the new system and incorporating a few changes that are needed to adapt the new software to an academic environment.
"One of the reasons we are starting small is so we can test the system and refine it before rolling it out to all of the clinics," McNeal says. "It's a large project. I've been so impressed with the energy and time the technical team has put into this project. It's been great working with all of them."
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OrangeMail and Mailbox decommissioning
Legacy mail services will end Feb. 15, 2008
On February 15, 2008, the University will move one step closer to the goal of a single, e-mail platform for the entire campus community when Information Technology and Services (ITS) eliminates the following legacy e-mail applications:
All faculty and staff who use any of the above services must be moved to Exchange/Outlook by no later than Feb. 14, 2008. E-mail that is not moved by that date will be permanently lost. A list of faculty and staff who are using any of the above services is available on the ITS internal Web site (Confluence). IT support staff are urged to review the list to identify those in their units who are still using the legacy services that are scheduled to be discontinued.
Guidelines for moving faculty and staff to a new mail system are also posted on the ITS internal Web site. Students, who have not already done so, will be directed to move to MyMail. ITS will launch a targeted communications campaign, beginning in mid-December, for students, faculty, and staff who are affected by the changes.
Final note: OrangeMail, PINE, and POP/IMAP services on mailbox.syr.edu will be shutdown during the early morning hours of February 15, 2008. Those with questions about the decommissioning should contact Nicole Skyrca.
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Laptop security project update
A joint ITS-DSP project is underway to develop a set of standards, procedures, and tools for securing laptop computers that are used to access the University's confidential, enterprise data from off-campus locations. While a relatively small number of staff members require this level of security on their laptop computers, there is an immediate need to find a solution to this issue.
Key project deliverables are:
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Developing tools for providing whole-disk encryption and key recovery;
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Exploring tools for elevating rights and for auditing such access; and
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Developing tools for building the overall laptop, including antivirus, VPN, and auto-patch configuration.
The project team is looking for volunteers to help with this effort. Further information about the project is available on the ITS internal Web site (Confluence). Those interested in helping or who have questions about the project should contact Michael Fudge (project manager).
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Prioritizing and managing our work
Over the past couple of months, an ITS evaluation team has been investigating the capabilities and tools available for ITS portfolio management. A portfolio management application could be used as a tool to prioritize our work and to promote consistent processes across ITS for project, task, time, and resource management.
Members of the evaluation team, Susan Watts, Glenda Ranallo, Cindy Hoalcraft, Linda Saul, and Kathy Kinney evaluated many applications. The tool, TeamDynamix has been identified as the tool of choice. Glenda, Kathy, and Susan will lead the TeamDynamix project (including scope development and implementation), which is sponsored by Chris Sedore and Andy Clark. Further information will be forthcoming. Those who have questions or who are interested in learning more about TeamDynamix should contact Susan Watts.
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ITS Support Center changes
The ITS Help Desk and Student Services groups within the Academic Applications and Support Centers (AASC) unit have been brought together under a single Support Center organizational structure managed by David Hoalcraft. Training services will remain within the Support Center group, as well as all of the other functions previously done within the Support Center, including the phone center, distributed student support centers, Change Management, systems alert communications, and after-hours on-call.
Additionally the technical and functional teams within AASC's Academic Applications group have been brought together under a single Academic Applications group managed by Michael Morrison. Two staff members from the Academic Applications group--Dave Castle and Michael Wunderlich--have joined the ITS Network Systems Management unit.
"These consolidations will help us to sharpen our focus on supporting clients who use ITS services and systems and enable us to better develop and deliver academic applications services for the campus community," says Gary McGinnis, AASC director.
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| From the CIO's Desk: Holiday reflections
Paul Gandel, vice president for Information Technology/CIO
As I stare out of my window and watch the white stuff fall at an alarming rate, I realize two things:
First, thanks to the huge demand, the XO computers we ordered won't arrive in time for Christmas. I can't believe I'm that excited about getting a peek at a funny looking $200 computer! It makes me again realize how rapidly our world continues to change and challenge all of our assumptions. Just when you think you've got everything figured out, someone comes up with a computer that can be run with a crank!
The second thing I realize is how quickly time has passed since I arrived here in Syracuse three years ago. I know a lot has changed since then and hopefully most of you see this as positive. As I have told many of you, while I'm sure we have made some mistakes along the way, I truly believe that we are moving in the right direction. Together, we've accomplished a lot.
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The Network Master Plan, the largest technology upgrade in the history of this campus, is well underway.
- We've successfully implemented a new PeopleSoft Financial system for the University and completed a major upgrade of our PeopleSoft Human Resources and Student Information system (HRSA). In fact, we had so much fun upgrading our HRSA system that we are now in the process of doing it again!
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The migration of the entire campus to Microsoft Active Directory and the Exchange/Outlook e-mail system from Novell is now almost complete. This major project affected the entire campus and actively involved the entire campus technology support team. Hopefully, you will agree that this complex and difficult project has gone much smoother than anyone could have predicted.
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We also upgraded and improved the configuration of our computing infrastructure to make it more flexible, responsive, and reliable.
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And yes, we even finally got a generator installed in Machinery Hall (well, actually outside in a trailer). I am even reasonably confident (knock on wood) that we will soon see concrete plans in place for a new and improved data center.
Organizationally, we have also made a number of improvements. The Technology Leadership Committee (TLC) has been effective in involving the entire campus technology community in the planning and development of technology directions. We've changed the name of CMS to ITS, and we now have a nifty new logo and great looking black shirts! More importantly, we have collectively begun to re-examine our processes, procedures, and even the way in which we are organized in order to improve our overall effectiveness. As part of this process of self examination, we have developed a far-reaching vision and a set of values to help guide us in the planning and development of our organization's culture and directions.
Of course, progress is easy when you begin with a great group of people--sharp, experienced, and dedicated to excellence. Moreover, I really appreciate everyone's openness and willingness to discuss things in a collegial way--even when we don't always agree. Thanks for all of your great work, support, and good will. I hope our values of excellence, citizenship, and fun will continue to guide our future work. I especially want all of you to pay attention to the fun part during this holiday season. My very best goes out to all of you and your families for a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year. I look forward to working with all of you as we continue to build on the progress we have made.
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IT Professional Development
Below is information about the professional development activities in which members of the University's IT community have been involved. Those who want more information about the various topics and events can e-mail the participants.
Presentations
Paul Gandel, with Arnold Hirshon, executive director- NELINET, Inc., presented several sessions at the 2007 Changsha Conference, "The Role of the Library in the Virtual and Collaborative World," in October. The conference was co-hosted by iGroup Asia Pacific Ltd., Tsinghua University and Hunan University. Topics included in their presentations were understanding the future technology environment, Library 2.0 and beyond, library management tools, strategic planning, and project management. Gandel and Hirshon also presented at iGroup Workshops in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Conferences and Workshops
Andrew Robinson attended the Society of Broadcast Engineers annual convention at Turning Stone in Verona in October. During the convention he participated in a session for students who want to pursue careers in television; he also learned about technology upgrades that could benefit Orange Television.
Robinson was also one of 19 invited participants in the 2007 Faculty Seminar sponsored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation in Los Angeles in November. The seminar included sessions with Hollywood producers, writers, directors, and programming executives.
Elizabeth Moore and John Capozzolo attended the NYCHES conference at Ithaca College in October (New York Computing and Higher Education Symposium). The conference included discussions on Windows Vista and Office 2007 deployment, imaging and documentation procedures, print management applications, and classroom technology.
Steve Sartori attended PhotoPlus Expo 2007 in New York City in October. The event included exhibits of the latest imaging and photographic technologies from almost 300 vendors as well as seminars on equipment, creative solutions to imaging problems, and workflow issues.
David Tiedemann coordinated Syracuse University's participation in the ninth Megaconference, sponsored by the Internet2 Commons, in November. The event is said to be the world's largest video conference, connecting more than 400 locations around the world via the Internet.
During the conference, Tiedemann hosted and provided technical support (with support from Shannon Thibault) for two presentations: " Flag of Earth," presented by Judy Cadle; and "Distance Counseling: A Live Demonstration," presented by Stephen Wright, academic advisor in the University's Honors Program. | |
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IT Connections is published monthly by Information Technology and Services. Story ideas can be submitted to Judy Holmes by the third Wednesday of each month. |
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