IT Services Newsletter #39

It’s nearly the end of the Summer, and it feels like it has been especially busy this year. There have been building works all around us in the JBP Building, demolition works for the Kirkstone and Bradford Halls, and the development of SEC and two new sport facilities on the doorstep. The campus has changed a lot this Summer and of course, so too have some of the virtual and physical technology services. Some of these are reported below. It has also been a very challenging year for student recruitment and intake from the perspective of bringing good quality high tariff students into our courses, as well as a couple of technology challenges! My understanding is that we are still some way off the recruitment targets for some Academic Schools. This may mean some re-calibration is needed in academic delivery and related administrative/support activity. It is therefore timely that the University is also beginning a review of all its professional services following the academic school reviews last session. Let’s hope for a relatively smooth start to the new year which is always a fantastic time to see the students back on campus again.

Recruitment News

 

We are continuing to recruit to a number of fixed term vacancies in the IT systems team (5 posts) which mainly relate to the University investment plan. We have shortlisted candidates and are now moving to interview stage. You may not be completely surprised to hear that we failed to find a replacement for Christine Thacker despite external and targeted advertising, so some interim arrangements are now being proposed, while we take stock. There are Request for Staff Appointment (RSA) forms in the system for a replacement for Hanif Sidat, which we hope to announce in due course.

Continual Improvement Update

 

The recommendations made by this team last year, have led to the creation of a co-ordinated University enrolment helpline which was established a week ago when the pre-enrolment portal (PEP) was launched for new students. There have been a number of process improvements to the online process which have involved a number of people in IT Services, LSS Customer Services and the Hub. The PEP was launched to plan with particular thanks to Richard Davis for making that happen. Within 12 hours of launching the system to the first batch of 1500 Home students, over half of those students (760) had logged on to the PEP and one third (479) had completed the process. Since then further students have been released into the system successfully. We also took the decision to separate the PEP processes from IT account registration – new IT accounts are all automatically processed when students change status on the admissions system. As at September 5th over 3,200 new IT accounts have been automatically created since the first days of clearing and over 2,500 students have already self-registered by setting up all their password details and shared secrets etc – which is almost 80%. That is really excellent and our thanks to Steve McCain and Jacqui Cuthbert in particular, for their efforts in simplifying and streamlining the process and also the support documentation.

 

Clearing 2012

 

Following on from the recent recruitment update from the Vice Chancellor to all staff, I would like to add my own thanks and appreciation to everyone involved in making the results day, clearing and confirmation processes as relatively smooth as we could make them, in all the circumstances. We’ve obviously been dealing with a recurrent SAINT service interruption (now “fixed”) but that did not affect any business operations in a critical way. We have also been dealing with a very specific voice related issue which only affected a few extensions but they happened to be partly in the Admissions Office in Richmond Building. Typical! It is only because we have people who know what they are all doing, and know the University systems inside out, that we continue to manage this and deal with problems when they do arise in a calm and professional manner. Although I’m not sure it felt quite like that at 4pm on Bank Holiday Friday! Students are still applying and being recruited albeit in much smaller numbers now and the final numbers are hard to predict accurately – but see above for creation of 3,200 new IT accounts so far for a performance indicator!

 

Multi-Function Devices (MFD) for Printing and Copying

 

If you have wandered around the Library Building you will have noticed the arrival of lots of shiny new Hewlett Packard MFD’s for the re-launch of this important student service at the start of a new academic session. There are about 20 new devices being commissioned to replace a mixture of printers, copiers and previous generation Ricoh MFDs. All the devices that are being replaced are completely “worn out” after years of good service and were struggling to provide a great student experience towards the end. This new fleet should make a real difference to the service. You will have also noted that we are “taking our own medicine” and have launched a shared staff print service on the IT Services MFD. This uses the pharos account system to “pull” printing securely when you go and fetch your print output. All appears to be working well and thanks to Dougie McHattie for setting all that up, providing the instructions and managing the “change control” process.

 

In Other News

 

• The Key Information Sets (KIS) return was submitted to the deadline at the end of August. Most of the work has taken place around data collection and verification processes, however, it has also used a brand new module in the SAINT student system for this purpose. My thanks to those involved in putting the system “live” and putting the various upgrades to it, as we went along, and to some very tight timescales. This is now an ongoing piece of work and will be routinely submitted for comparison by students and potential students with other Institutions.

 

• For students at the start of the new term, we have moved the PC cluster from Chesham to Student Central permanently – to enable major refurbishment of Chesham for EDT and provide open access PCs in the Learning Mall. We intend to close the elderly JBP small cluster rooms on level 01 – kit will be relocated to the refurbished spaces on floors 1 and 2 of the new Library refurbished space – with light, air, and space! The flagship PC cluster room (JBP 01.53) has new paint, new flooring, (some) new chairs and also brand new state of the art computers. We have launched a brand new scanner service to replace the old facility on Floor 0.

 

• For academic staff, we have replaced and upgraded all the lecture theatre (GTA) computers to a standard high spec for Windows 7, we have set up an auto start and auto update procedure for out of hours updates to things like virus software/windows, and we have re-implemented the power saving on these computers.

 

• We held a second “IT and Estates Working Together Event” last Friday. It was a half day event covering a wide agenda from wiring closets, new builds, managing contractors through potential for shared servicedesk systems/operations. The event also included a presentation by Margaret Ekpo who has been working in Estates as graduate intern on reducing business travel with a particular focus on evaluating and making recommendations on “virtual meetings”. This was really helpful, including a set of specific recommendation and was followed up with a presentation to all interested University staff at a lunchtime briefing today. We will discuss the recommendations at the September IT Board.

 

• We are preparing for the BASE conference which happens on Tuesday September 11th. As it is a one-day event there is a lot less involvement than with the British Science Festival, however we are making various support arrangements including supporting the exhibition to be held in the Richmond Atrium, and also the provision of wi-fi for up to 600 campus visitors. The event has been advertised on the University home page where you may have spotted Ken Livingstone, who is one of the keynote speakers.

 

• The professional service reviews are beginning. IT Services has been invited to participate as a panel member for each of the reviews that are planned over the next 6 months. The panel will also include external membership. We look forward to making a constructive contribution to these activities, with a particular interest in technology and how we future proof the University in respect of its current and future requirements.

This is just a quick snapshot of some of the projects and activity that are crossing my desk and which might be of interest. There is, as always, lots of other activity happening, so apologies if your work wasn’t included – please let me know for a future newsletter.