Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #11

Update from Week Eleven

• Start of week meeting with Strategic Planning progressing positively and actions in progress.  Among other things we are working on options relating to renewal of reporting software tool or alternative approach by end February deadline.
• Managed 1-2-1s with most of my direct reports this week.  We also had a one hour "scrum" meeting.  Another round up of everyone's activities - potted highlights include:

1. Stafford Place is now up and running.
2. Digital signage - piece of work progressing on feasibility of a standard solution cross-campus.
3. Security of devices when travelling abroad raised by International Office which we are picking up
4. Pentest completed - written report will be circulated within two weeks.
5. WebServ3 migration in progress - aim to complete end Feb
6. MobileIron for mobile management - need to get going but also need to manage the administration and where it will sit.
7. The team calendar feature allows us to synchronise leave requests and planning these as a team when we move to IT improvement periods - suggestion that we have one more week of consultation on this internally before we go out to wider consultation.
8. Records Retention Day discussed - physical and virtual records and equipment. Date to be decided.  Scope to be decided.  Might need to sort out lost keys for filing cabinets etc .  There is an existing "clear desk policy".  Useful to give everyone some bullet points to follow so we approach consistently. Several drivers including having a safe and secure environment.

• Few staff related matters this week briefed separately via email and 1-2-1.
• Meeting ref Clearing - discussion much broader than this.  Nurturing workshop followed next day and that was a good session. We have a business lead for the strategy group going forward to bring this together (IT is enabler, business leading).
• Discussions with NorMAN regarding potential 24x7 outside hours support and quote organised.
• Met with Wolverhampton City Council IT Director.  Topics included digital transformation council initiatives, Data Centre sharing potential, digital signage approach and shared content, Clearing - potential use of Council Contact Centre facility as an option etc.
• Held call with Gartner Group and obtained competitive quote based on prior relationships.  Passed to procurement for follow up in due course
• Finished week with external returns group. 

Good News Stories

• F&G Directors visited - they would like to do a University of Wolverhampton case study and would like to share thinking about project management automation tools that they use across Estates and IT.
• Excellent meeting with Timetabling project manager.  Project set up is going well.  Moving to join the PM "pod" as base.
• No P1 incidents.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #10

Update from week ten

• Couple of meetings with Deputy VC this week - resulting at end of week with paper submitted for consideration regarding IT capital investment 17/18.

• F&G contract renewal still in progress - actions are with F&G at end of this week.

• Managed further series of 1-2-1s with most of my direct reports this week .  We also had a one hour "scrum" meeting which also included Faculty representation.  Really good round up of everyone's activities - potted highlights include:

• Positive discussions about the student face-to-face pilot for IT support and how it might assist Faculty requirements potentially

• Discussions about some process changes (not job changes) and about relocating from MI where some people are based - the driver is closure and relocation of MI.  The outstanding "job list" ia at 100+ (from 300+) which is good news.

• The Digital Campus team has been looking at a system to help manage projects and reporting more efficiently - operates SAAS.

• A successful demo of a virtual desktop workstation which looks positive.  Not got pricing yet - focus is for researcher community in the Faculty of Engineering.

• We have a "lead nurturing" workshop coming up - agenda issued

• Good discussion with Liverpool University about software testing as they are ahead of us - possible mentor has been offered.

• Working on Webserv3 migration as a priority - one casualty will be Surveyor tool (other tools like BOS and survey monkey have replaced it)

• Improvements to student PC finder are in progress

• Information Security Board has taken place and is now under review.

• JISC pen testing has been progressing - a couple of items which we are already addressing and final report due in 2 weeks

• Trade Union meeting which I have followed up (couple of bits of useful feedback) but predominantly on Library matters.

• Very useful call with re-seller picking up on previous work from before arrival - invited them to come and tell us all about the work they have been doing for another University which is aiming for best in class computing, network and AV on a greenfield site.

• Estates/IT monthly meeting today - no major new project since last time.

• Agresso Programme Board rounded off a pretty full on week.

Good News Stories

• Two excellent meetings on ECMS:  premeeting with CEO and then Project Board Meeting.  IT is on track and no reported issues at this stage for imminent project handovers in February and March.  Very good feedback on the consistent support from the IT teams over 12-18 months leading up to the launches and happy with how it has all been handled.

• Panopto Project Board seemed to be on track and some very positive feedback on progress - already as much use by mid-January as the whole of last year and the team describing Apps Anywhere and Canvas integrations as "superb" and "brilliant".

• No P1 incidents.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #9

Update from week nine

• Concluded NDNA contract and now ready for final signature - commencing February 1st. 
• Managed 1-2-1s with most of my direct reports this week.  Lots going on.
• We have attempted to come up with viable options and a recommendation for the Faculty of Arts student desktop replacement.
• The team did a lot of work at the end of last week to very tight deadlines (NUTS3 analysis).  I took some time on Tuesday for a demo of the work and also we discussed developments in learner analytics.
• The AV framework for Summer Programme and longer term moved ahead positively this week in joint meetings with Estates/IT/Purchasing.  We have an agreed way forward which gives flexibility.  There is a schedule going to LAPSAG on Monday.
• Few staff related matters this week including following up with absent staff, probation reports  and one or two contract issues which should now be sorted.
• Account meeting with External Relations led to a number of follow up actions relating to digital signage, T4 upgrade and some work with the team on single sign-on improvements (T4 related).  We did some pre-work within IT including agenda setting for the third workshop on "lead nurturing".
• DAS comms went out to all staff ref CPU vulnerability and CAB approved first stages in mitigation activity relating to servers.
• Very useful call with JISC on remote Data Centre hosting out of Leeds.  JISC is going to approach a couple of other Universities about the business cases they have used - opportunity to fast track writing that up if we can avoid re-inventing the wheel.
• Arranged meeting with Digital Transformation Director at Wolverhampton Council for next week - good to be looking external as well as internal.
• We have got invites to join the GDPR working group and have been working on the Cloud Policy executive summary for the Information Security Board.

Good News Stories

• Positive lessons learned meeting for the Science Centre (SCTP) new build on Science Park.  No significant issues reported with IT or Network planning or implementation despite the fact there was a fundamental change of approach during the process for how network would work for tenants.
• No P1 incidents.

Wolverhampton weekly newsletter #8

Happy New Year and here is the update from week eight

• NDNA contract successfully concluded for procurement of PCs, laptops etc via one-stop-shop approach.
• Updated capital plan one-pager on essential IT investments for 2017-18 with some more detail to backup the estimates.
• Worked on package of high priority staff recruitment so we have one overall submission covering IT and Digital Campus.
• Prepared a proposal for focused IT "improvement" dates during calendar years 2018 and 2019 and now with IT team leaders as first stage of consultation.
• Annual student account deletion progress has commenced - changes to the algorithm have identified 17k accounts which will be targetted over the next 3 months with first batch of emails going out on Jan 15th.
• Learned that IT account creation and deletion for all staff is currently manual and based on an internally developed system.
• Went through investment plan budget financials and by end of next week should have clear position - a lot changed over the last couple of weeks before Christmas as invoices were paid.
• Left field request about re-modelling Arena facility including potential cinema capability.  IT team are  providing some budget estimates into Estates.
• I am asking the team leaders to think about key (SMART) objectives for the next three months as part of performance management and to provide a focus up to Spring 2018.
• At our "scrum" meeting there was positive support for a team event (IT focused) to kick off 2018 and get people talking about the changes which will be happening.  We can also use this as an introduction meeting for some of our new faces and tell some good news stories from each of the IT teams.
• There is a global issue with Intel-based equipment which has emerged in the last few days . Patches are due for release next week. It's a vulnerability that has not so far been exploited according to UK National Cyber Security Centre, although its been there for years. More details here: The Infrastructure team are leading on our options to respond and communications.

Good News Stories

• Contingency arrangements put in place for Christmas and New Year break were not called on.  No service interruptions or issues (including power) throughout the extended period.
• Various staff office moves for Engineering at Telford went without a hitch over Christmas period.