Thursday, 22 March 2012
The Bradford Student (newspaper)
Three articles scanned from the new paper. All relate to work that we are involved with. It's good to see our work picked up in the student union's own publicity stuff. The e-voting system has made a big difference to the turnout and the 24x7 nature of the service.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Eddie Obeng
Speaker at UCISA12 conference showed this video. Take a look - it's worth 9 minutes of your valuable time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yVIe1MOpiHU
Friday, 16 March 2012
Green IT - managed PC shutdown
IT Services launching new power saving initiative on Monday 19 March – Managed PC shutdown
Starting on Monday, any staff desktop computers that are not in use after 19:00 will be automatically shutdown to save energy. Any Microsoft Office ® documents left open and unsaved on your PC will be automatically saved for you to continue working with when you re-start your PC. Other documents will not be saved, and we would therefore remind you to save your work regularly, and certainly before you leave your PC unattended.
A new piece of software, which has been deployed on all University computers, will start checking for any user activity on your PC from 18:30, and if no keyboard or mouse usage is detected will shutdown the computer at 19:00. The process will be repeated at 19:30 and 20:30.
The user guide for the system can be found here.
Why is this being launched?
During the last three months, our monitoring has indicated that a significant number of computers are left on and unused for long periods of time. Preliminary analysis of the data shows that we can save around £29,000 per year by shutting down PCs that are not in use. This equates to 315MWh of electricity and 171 metric tonnes of CO2 which is the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 31 buses.
More information
We have consulted with pilot areas, and staff feedback has been positive, but if you experience any difficulties then ICT Service Desk is always on hand to help on ext. 3333 or email ictservicedesk@bradford.ac.uk
Starting on Monday, any staff desktop computers that are not in use after 19:00 will be automatically shutdown to save energy. Any Microsoft Office ® documents left open and unsaved on your PC will be automatically saved for you to continue working with when you re-start your PC. Other documents will not be saved, and we would therefore remind you to save your work regularly, and certainly before you leave your PC unattended.
A new piece of software, which has been deployed on all University computers, will start checking for any user activity on your PC from 18:30, and if no keyboard or mouse usage is detected will shutdown the computer at 19:00. The process will be repeated at 19:30 and 20:30.
The user guide for the system can be found here.
Why is this being launched?
During the last three months, our monitoring has indicated that a significant number of computers are left on and unused for long periods of time. Preliminary analysis of the data shows that we can save around £29,000 per year by shutting down PCs that are not in use. This equates to 315MWh of electricity and 171 metric tonnes of CO2 which is the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 31 buses.
More information
We have consulted with pilot areas, and staff feedback has been positive, but if you experience any difficulties then ICT Service Desk is always on hand to help on ext. 3333 or email ictservicedesk@bradford.ac.uk
Friday, 9 March 2012
IT Services Newsletter #34
Trying to keep up with sending these newsletters out is always a bit of a challenge as there is a long list of other things on the “to do” list.
One of the things that I have been doing since the start of this calendar year is monitoring my own “work/life” balance so it does mean that I’m trying to prioritise some of the time I spend on different things each week. I’m sure that we all do similar sorts of things whether we call it monitoring or not, but I’ve found it quite interesting to just be more aware of this one a week-by-week basis.
The following is a fairly random selection so apologies if your own news is not here.
JBP Building Level 1 and 2 Changes
You should be aware now of the £1.5 Million investment plan to make the next phase of major changes to these levels of the JBP Building to improve energy assessments and also deliver a major change to the student experience. These will be starting shortly in terms of enabling works and will be ready for some time around the beginning of the new academic session. The impact on the floor that we occupy is significant during the building works. There has been quite a bit of fluidity to the plans which is why I am circulating the latest known information on the project although it is subject to change. It appears that the start date for building works proper will be after exams i.e. end of May, but the enabling works will continue at pace until then.
The following rooms will have a change of use as follows:
Consultation on IT “at risk” periods
The IT Board is currently consulting on IT “at risk” periods and there is a document on the department web pages seeking views and feedback on the proposed options and any other alternative that might emerge. The closing date is March 16th. We will decide at the next IT Board. The link is here
Clearing “embargo”
We are also recommending a change to the Clearing “Embargo”. In recent years, Estates and IT Services have been instructed via the Confirmation and Clearing Working Group to suspend infrastructure (voice and data related) activity for an extended period up to ten days before “A” Level results Sunday until the last day of Clearing operations. Any changes to the SAINT system are approved by the Director of Academic Administration. The IT management team have debated the pros and cons of this approach with respect to risk management and concluded that, although a Clearing “embargo period” could remain, all work should not be affected by it. Go ahead/completion of jobs during this period should be considered on a case-by-case basis, via a Change Management approval process. Approval for this recommendation will be sought at the next Clearing and Confirmation Working Group meeting (April 2012) and is going to next week’s Information Systems Committee (ISC).
Emergency Contact Details
There will shortly be a mini-campaign by the HR team to try and improve the quality of the contact information held on the HR system and accessible self-service through MyView. It has been trialled and it means that some basic personal details can be updated and saved directly to the HR system. The driver for this partly relates to meeting obligations around data protection (keeping personal data accurate) but also for emergency purposes if necessary. You may spot a change to the MyView interface when this is launched.
Benchmarking Updates (Tribal)
Still nothing to report on this which might lead you to conclude that the results were not quite as expected i.e. we perhaps benchmark better against the selected “aspirational” peer group than had been expected. Briefing sessions have been going on with Deans and Directors on a one-to-one basis and the one for LSS is scheduled for late March. There will be more detail to report after that.
Reminder: Green IT Nightwatchman launch
This energy saving initiative is due to launch in the week commencing March 19th. There will be marketing information circulating shortly. The impact on us should be none or minimal. However, although the system has been running in the background for some months the actual “policies” for hibernating and suspending monitors and PCs has not been implemented. If you are interested in more information on this then please ask Dave Ewen. It would be helpful for all of us to be aware of this high impact change in case it has unintended consequences. The service will save around £30k per annum in electricity costs.
You should be aware now of the £1.5 Million investment plan to make the next phase of major changes to these levels of the JBP Building to improve energy assessments and also deliver a major change to the student experience. These will be starting shortly in terms of enabling works and will be ready for some time around the beginning of the new academic session. The impact on the floor that we occupy is significant during the building works. There has been quite a bit of fluidity to the plans which is why I am circulating the latest known information on the project although it is subject to change. It appears that the start date for building works proper will be after exams i.e. end of May, but the enabling works will continue at pace until then.
- The Student PC Clinic – will be shelved for books moving from other floors. The clinic will be re-located to JBP Building Level Zero (Group study room 4)
- The meeting room (01.4) – will also be shelved for books.
- The “old” machine room (01.42/01.13) and adjoining space (01.8) will be shelved for books.
- Some of the space that is currently in the staff “access” zone will also be shelved for books (01.17, 01.22. 01.35) – this will be a service that is provided on a “fetch” basis
- Library Systems Team will be relocating to 01.26, 01.26 and using 01.27 for storage for the duration of the building works - likely moving date towards end May
- It is possible that some of the walls/doors around the machine room area (01.8/01.42) will be demolished. Hence printing services currently located in the Level 01 lobby will be moving to 01.44 and 01.53 (one printer and release station in each room).
The IT Board is currently consulting on IT “at risk” periods and there is a document on the department web pages seeking views and feedback on the proposed options and any other alternative that might emerge. The closing date is March 16th. We will decide at the next IT Board. The link is here
Clearing “embargo”
We are also recommending a change to the Clearing “Embargo”. In recent years, Estates and IT Services have been instructed via the Confirmation and Clearing Working Group to suspend infrastructure (voice and data related) activity for an extended period up to ten days before “A” Level results Sunday until the last day of Clearing operations. Any changes to the SAINT system are approved by the Director of Academic Administration. The IT management team have debated the pros and cons of this approach with respect to risk management and concluded that, although a Clearing “embargo period” could remain, all work should not be affected by it. Go ahead/completion of jobs during this period should be considered on a case-by-case basis, via a Change Management approval process. Approval for this recommendation will be sought at the next Clearing and Confirmation Working Group meeting (April 2012) and is going to next week’s Information Systems Committee (ISC).
There will shortly be a mini-campaign by the HR team to try and improve the quality of the contact information held on the HR system and accessible self-service through MyView. It has been trialled and it means that some basic personal details can be updated and saved directly to the HR system. The driver for this partly relates to meeting obligations around data protection (keeping personal data accurate) but also for emergency purposes if necessary. You may spot a change to the MyView interface when this is launched.
Still nothing to report on this which might lead you to conclude that the results were not quite as expected i.e. we perhaps benchmark better against the selected “aspirational” peer group than had been expected. Briefing sessions have been going on with Deans and Directors on a one-to-one basis and the one for LSS is scheduled for late March. There will be more detail to report after that.
Reminder: Green IT Nightwatchman launch
This energy saving initiative is due to launch in the week commencing March 19th. There will be marketing information circulating shortly. The impact on us should be none or minimal. However, although the system has been running in the background for some months the actual “policies” for hibernating and suspending monitors and PCs has not been implemented. If you are interested in more information on this then please ask Dave Ewen. It would be helpful for all of us to be aware of this high impact change in case it has unintended consequences. The service will save around £30k per annum in electricity costs.
Performance Recognition and Re-Grading
LSS has set a date for the next performance recognition process in mid May, and HR has also informed us that the University has moved to a quarterly re-grading process on a rolling basis. The latter process used to be annual I think, but has recently been somewhat ad hoc. These are the more formal ways that the University recognises our performance and contributions. On a day to day basis lots of people do great things for the department, for LSS and for the University and quite often these are directly for our students, academics or administrators. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the last few weeks in upgrading the payroll and HR system and servers so that we are ready for the April tax year-end and to pay our wages! It has been a team effort across IT services involving at least some of the following people and I apologise if you have had some involvement and are not mentioned here: . Our colleagues in other areas may not realise how much impact a service upgrade can have, and perhaps that is how it should be. Thank you for making this happen.
Smaller Successes
We now start our monthly IT Board meetings with an agenda item celebrating some small (and it turns out not so small) successes. This idea was shamelessly borrowed from the CED team:
- Replacement air conditioning unit now installed in E60 – there have been intermittent failures since Summer 2011 – it’s now “cold” (even though the weather is also “cold”!)
- The presentation to ISC on “student feedback and future landscapes” was well received and is now being repeated at Learning and Teaching committee.
- Housekeeping tour of all server rooms had taken place – the rooms are in a good state
- Seven systems are in the process of being switched off: Powersolve, ICON, Research Grants, ORBIT purchasing, Business Objects v5 and v6, INGRES Data warehouse.
- There had been over 2,500 RMS “quick” jobs entered by the LSS customer services team in the last month as a result of the enabling work by the continual improvement team.
- There had been a very successful day long IT and Estates “working together” event using web/video streaming technologies (UCISA event was running in parallel in Birmingham).
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Library Systems
There was a JISC/SCONUL workshop on the future of library systems in January 2012.
This was posted by Ben Showers with some useful links to follow up
====
Firstly, I just wanted to say many thanks again for your contributions and hard work during the recent Library Systems workshop. I found the two days incredibly useful, as well as interesting, and I think the two days worked well as a way to flesh out some of the issues and considerations around a complex area like library systems and services.
I wanted to let you know I have written a blog post about the event: It includes some links to presentations and Lorcan’s video (note: At the time of writing this Lorcan’s presentation isn’t posted on OCLC’s YouTube channel yet – but I’ll link directly via the post when it is up).
SCONUL are also adding the presentations to their website so these will be available there shortly too.
The workshop was intended as a way to inform the library systems funding call I have recently been drafting, and I think has helped shape a potentially very valuable piece of work. I would urge you all to keep your eyes peeled for the announcement over the next couple of days (I believe it will be very early February): If you have any ideas etc then do please feel free to contact me or pass my details onto colleagues.
I also wanted to point you all to David Kay’s short synopsis of the prioritisation activity you all undertook around the Library Systems ‘objectives’: http://bit.ly/zW9dep I think this captures those areas well, and gives a good sense of some of the areas that might be beneficially pursued in developing a new vision for library systems.
Ben Showers
Programme Manager, Digital Infrastructure
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
This was posted by Ben Showers with some useful links to follow up
====
Firstly, I just wanted to say many thanks again for your contributions and hard work during the recent Library Systems workshop. I found the two days incredibly useful, as well as interesting, and I think the two days worked well as a way to flesh out some of the issues and considerations around a complex area like library systems and services.
I wanted to let you know I have written a blog post about the event: It includes some links to presentations and Lorcan’s video (note: At the time of writing this Lorcan’s presentation isn’t posted on OCLC’s YouTube channel yet – but I’ll link directly via the post when it is up).
SCONUL are also adding the presentations to their website so these will be available there shortly too.
The workshop was intended as a way to inform the library systems funding call I have recently been drafting, and I think has helped shape a potentially very valuable piece of work. I would urge you all to keep your eyes peeled for the announcement over the next couple of days (I believe it will be very early February): If you have any ideas etc then do please feel free to contact me or pass my details onto colleagues.
I also wanted to point you all to David Kay’s short synopsis of the prioritisation activity you all undertook around the Library Systems ‘objectives’: http://bit.ly/zW9dep I think this captures those areas well, and gives a good sense of some of the areas that might be beneficially pursued in developing a new vision for library systems.
Ben Showers
Programme Manager, Digital Infrastructure
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
Monday, 6 February 2012
University of Bradford UCU local association blog
It was useful to find a link to the blog and a recent posting about the introduction of e-marking. It appears that the introduction of a pilot service has been extended and with some negative consequences for some UCU members. That is regrettable.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
IT Services Newsletter #33
This is the first newsletter of the new year. A belated welcome to 2012! There has been an awful lot happening as usual so this update will only cover a few of the things that might be of interest.
As always, comments, feedback and input for next time always welcome.
Benchmarking Updates
I understand the initial findings of the TRIBAL benchmarking survey are now with the Senior Management Team at the University. This was mentioned at yesterday’s Information Systems Committee (ISC) where there was a comment during our presentation on the 2011 student survey that benchmarking seemed to indicate that we had fewer computers for students than comparators. That’s quite interesting for our marketing – the prospectus currently boasts an enviable student/PC ratio. During the last couple of months we have been working with Purchasing and LSS admin to benchmark our University IT operating costs. We used a company called Mercato to help with the analysis and a summary report was also presented to ISC yesterday. If you want to see that please let me know. Basically it says we are overall achieving “best in class” costs for IT consumables etc (defined as cost price + 3% average). There is however, a good deal of variation around the average and therefore some things are apparently under cost price, but others exceed it by a greater margin. Therefore there are some opportunities for us. We have signed a two year deal with Mercato to benchmark every 6 months and also to provide the online tool for spot price checking - this will also be available to all the School IT people as well.
Business Continuity Planning
The recent fire in the Richmond Building (Life Science laboratories) has once again focused attention on this topic mentioned in the last newsletter. There were already activities taking place with insurers to develop more robust departmental plans. As a result of our work with Jermyn Consulting we are a little ahead of the game as we have a plan prepared (although not yet tested fortunately). We welcome your views on that plan and whether we have captured the key processes. Please ask your manager for a copy if you are interested in this topic and wish to contribute. The closure of the Sports Centre due to Legionella in late 2011 provides an example of the type of interruption that is predictable and can have significant financial and reputational consequences.
Hotmail Issues – now resolved
This was also reported at ISC yesterday – although now resolved it took a lot of time and effort, particularly from infrastructure team to put mitigating actions in place. A full report is available if you are interested let me know.
Green IT news
This is about the PC power down project (using some software called Nightwatchman) which we have been working on for the last few months. Dave has been doing a fantastic job on getting it rolled out across the whole campus almost transparently to the user in a monitoring mode to being with. The first set of baseline analysis from the service which is now installed on almost 2,500 devices (PCs and laptops) across the campus. This is for the 18 day period January 9-26th. If we implement the proposed power saving patterns (i.e. evenings and weekends), it would appear that the power management service will save in the order of £30k in the first year in electricity costs (based on current pricing) and 179 metric tonnes of CO2. There is a very detailed set of data/reporting available. This will provide a payback on investment that is well within 12 months period. Not many Green IT projects are able to say that I suspect (or even Green projects generally!)
Room 01.8
The LSS admin team have really made a difference to our objective to clear level 01 a room at a time in the hope that the refurbishment work will start soon. We continue to live in hope and will be ready when the investment funds are released. In the meantime, the latest room to be tackled is 01.8:
• The porters have remove the umpteen bags of rubbish that we filled the other Friday afternoon;
• The locksmiths have dismantled the old safe and taken it away;
• The joiners have been in a dismantled the wooden shelving in room 01.8 and reassembled in Room 01.23 (you probably see a charge for this work on your accounts);
• The cleaners have been in to wipe the shelving down and vac up the detritus resulting from the shelving being put up in Room 01.23;
• Once Room 01.23 is cleaned, we will move their equipment onto the shelving;
• …and Room 01.8 will be looking a little clearer although you might notice the flotsam and jetsam on the floor but I’ve suggested to cleaners that the room is cleaned once everything has gone from the room rather than doing it in stages….
• Some things still to be done in Room 01.8, metal stuff and old equipment to go - but little steps and we are getting there.
Some news items from the IT systems team
• eMarketplace went live during December, initially just for Life Sciences. eMarketplace is an extension of the Purchasing process, allowing staff to purchase from the Science Warehouse web site but keeping the order details in E5.
• Pre-Award Grants was launched live on 12th December. Pre-Award Grants allows for the processing of research grant bids to the point where the grant has been awarded, when it is picked up by a different part of E5.
• Both eMarketplace and Pre-Award Grants were part of the FBSS project. Further FBSS-related modules (Travel Expenses, Purchase Card) would be handled outside the project as both had outstanding issues which needed sorting before any work was even started, this could take some time. As a result the FBSS project had now been closed, there will be a Lessons Learned exercise around March 2012.
• The tool for Mobile support had been completed by and handed over to Servicedesk, being favourably received.
Staff Retirement
Just in case there is anyone not aware (you never know) Christine Thacker has given us notice that she is retiring from the University at the end of July 2012. Christine has been such a long-serving member of our team and the Computer Centre before us. She knows so many people throughout the University – perhaps almost everyone will have spoken to Christine at one time or another? There is very little that she hasn’t seen or heard over the years at this place, and to capture that experience and knowledge is going to be impossible. Of course we will be celebrating all this a bit nearer the time as we approach the end of an era!
Continual Improvement Team
This initiative was introduced as a result of our plans to extend the concepts of ITIL (best practice IT service management) and in particular focus on the start of the new academic year. A small team of people who have contributed to this work over the last 3 months with colleagues from both IT Services and LSS Customer Services. We think it has been a really useful exercise and it has mostly met its original objectives, and also provided some other unanticipated benefits too. Therefore we are going to extend the activity for another 3 months with a revised brief and membership which we are just agreeing. The informal report and recommendations which relate to intake etc are attached with comments and feedback welcome.
Access Cards
We had a request to obtain a couple of access cards for the “staff zone” on level 01. This was for occasional contractors and visitors (and for staff who might have forgotten their card too!). There are now two visitor cards available from the LSS admin office which can be booked out in the usual way.
A fitter department – one kilometre at a time?
For those who are not aware, there is a challenge which started in January to try and cover 2012 kilometres (or miles) in 2012 the Olympic Year. A number of us are having a go at this and I am also going to try and do a charity ride in the Summer to Amsterdam (which as someone has already pointed out will be mostly by sea!).
Smaller Successes
LSS Managers attended a new staff induction session in January. Reported back that one person waxed lyrical about our IT systems - he said this was the first institution he'd been to where "the IT systems work for me", and he'd not had to do battle to get access to things or make them work. Well that’s one satisfied customer at least!
Until next time
As always, comments, feedback and input for next time always welcome.
Benchmarking Updates
I understand the initial findings of the TRIBAL benchmarking survey are now with the Senior Management Team at the University. This was mentioned at yesterday’s Information Systems Committee (ISC) where there was a comment during our presentation on the 2011 student survey that benchmarking seemed to indicate that we had fewer computers for students than comparators. That’s quite interesting for our marketing – the prospectus currently boasts an enviable student/PC ratio. During the last couple of months we have been working with Purchasing and LSS admin to benchmark our University IT operating costs. We used a company called Mercato to help with the analysis and a summary report was also presented to ISC yesterday. If you want to see that please let me know. Basically it says we are overall achieving “best in class” costs for IT consumables etc (defined as cost price + 3% average). There is however, a good deal of variation around the average and therefore some things are apparently under cost price, but others exceed it by a greater margin. Therefore there are some opportunities for us. We have signed a two year deal with Mercato to benchmark every 6 months and also to provide the online tool for spot price checking - this will also be available to all the School IT people as well.
Business Continuity Planning
The recent fire in the Richmond Building (Life Science laboratories) has once again focused attention on this topic mentioned in the last newsletter. There were already activities taking place with insurers to develop more robust departmental plans. As a result of our work with Jermyn Consulting we are a little ahead of the game as we have a plan prepared (although not yet tested fortunately). We welcome your views on that plan and whether we have captured the key processes. Please ask your manager for a copy if you are interested in this topic and wish to contribute. The closure of the Sports Centre due to Legionella in late 2011 provides an example of the type of interruption that is predictable and can have significant financial and reputational consequences.
Hotmail Issues – now resolved
This was also reported at ISC yesterday – although now resolved it took a lot of time and effort, particularly from infrastructure team to put mitigating actions in place. A full report is available if you are interested let me know.
Green IT news
This is about the PC power down project (using some software called Nightwatchman) which we have been working on for the last few months. Dave has been doing a fantastic job on getting it rolled out across the whole campus almost transparently to the user in a monitoring mode to being with. The first set of baseline analysis from the service which is now installed on almost 2,500 devices (PCs and laptops) across the campus. This is for the 18 day period January 9-26th. If we implement the proposed power saving patterns (i.e. evenings and weekends), it would appear that the power management service will save in the order of £30k in the first year in electricity costs (based on current pricing) and 179 metric tonnes of CO2. There is a very detailed set of data/reporting available. This will provide a payback on investment that is well within 12 months period. Not many Green IT projects are able to say that I suspect (or even Green projects generally!)
Room 01.8
The LSS admin team have really made a difference to our objective to clear level 01 a room at a time in the hope that the refurbishment work will start soon. We continue to live in hope and will be ready when the investment funds are released. In the meantime, the latest room to be tackled is 01.8:
• The porters have remove the umpteen bags of rubbish that we filled the other Friday afternoon;
• The locksmiths have dismantled the old safe and taken it away;
• The joiners have been in a dismantled the wooden shelving in room 01.8 and reassembled in Room 01.23 (you probably see a charge for this work on your accounts);
• The cleaners have been in to wipe the shelving down and vac up the detritus resulting from the shelving being put up in Room 01.23;
• Once Room 01.23 is cleaned, we will move their equipment onto the shelving;
• …and Room 01.8 will be looking a little clearer although you might notice the flotsam and jetsam on the floor but I’ve suggested to cleaners that the room is cleaned once everything has gone from the room rather than doing it in stages….
• Some things still to be done in Room 01.8, metal stuff and old equipment to go - but little steps and we are getting there.
Some news items from the IT systems team
• eMarketplace went live during December, initially just for Life Sciences. eMarketplace is an extension of the Purchasing process, allowing staff to purchase from the Science Warehouse web site but keeping the order details in E5.
• Pre-Award Grants was launched live on 12th December. Pre-Award Grants allows for the processing of research grant bids to the point where the grant has been awarded, when it is picked up by a different part of E5.
• Both eMarketplace and Pre-Award Grants were part of the FBSS project. Further FBSS-related modules (Travel Expenses, Purchase Card) would be handled outside the project as both had outstanding issues which needed sorting before any work was even started, this could take some time. As a result the FBSS project had now been closed, there will be a Lessons Learned exercise around March 2012.
• The tool for Mobile support had been completed by and handed over to Servicedesk, being favourably received.
Staff Retirement
Just in case there is anyone not aware (you never know) Christine Thacker has given us notice that she is retiring from the University at the end of July 2012. Christine has been such a long-serving member of our team and the Computer Centre before us. She knows so many people throughout the University – perhaps almost everyone will have spoken to Christine at one time or another? There is very little that she hasn’t seen or heard over the years at this place, and to capture that experience and knowledge is going to be impossible. Of course we will be celebrating all this a bit nearer the time as we approach the end of an era!
Continual Improvement Team
This initiative was introduced as a result of our plans to extend the concepts of ITIL (best practice IT service management) and in particular focus on the start of the new academic year. A small team of people who have contributed to this work over the last 3 months with colleagues from both IT Services and LSS Customer Services. We think it has been a really useful exercise and it has mostly met its original objectives, and also provided some other unanticipated benefits too. Therefore we are going to extend the activity for another 3 months with a revised brief and membership which we are just agreeing. The informal report and recommendations which relate to intake etc are attached with comments and feedback welcome.
Access Cards
We had a request to obtain a couple of access cards for the “staff zone” on level 01. This was for occasional contractors and visitors (and for staff who might have forgotten their card too!). There are now two visitor cards available from the LSS admin office which can be booked out in the usual way.
A fitter department – one kilometre at a time?
For those who are not aware, there is a challenge which started in January to try and cover 2012 kilometres (or miles) in 2012 the Olympic Year. A number of us are having a go at this and I am also going to try and do a charity ride in the Summer to Amsterdam (which as someone has already pointed out will be mostly by sea!).
Smaller Successes
LSS Managers attended a new staff induction session in January. Reported back that one person waxed lyrical about our IT systems - he said this was the first institution he'd been to where "the IT systems work for me", and he'd not had to do battle to get access to things or make them work. Well that’s one satisfied customer at least!
Until next time
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