Lincoln University Office of Information Technology Monthly Activity Report. September 2012 Action Items

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Kerrie Sara Fletcher
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1 Lincoln University Office of Information Technology Monthly Activity Report Prepared by: Joel Sovanski, OIT Technical Director September 212 Action Items Name Start Date Description Value Statement Regional Manager Visit VP Central Region Visit Security Certificate Audit Internet Explorer Vulnerability Datatel SQL migration Colleague WebUI 4.4 9/19-2 Dan Mincheff, Ellucian Regional Manager will be onsite visiting the LU leadership team and working with onsite staff. 9/2 Vice President of the Ellucian Central Region Brian Bledsoe will be onsite visiting the LU leadership team and working with onsite staff. 9/1 OIT inventoried and reviewed all LU server encryption certificates prior to the Microsoft change in encryption standards in October. All LU certificates meet the new standard for complexity. 9/17 The media has latched onto the recent Microsoft Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability. The patch for the vulnerability was issued by Microsoft on the 21 st and OIT immediately deployed it to campus computers. 11/29/1 Ellucian was contracted by LU to Migrate the Colleague Application (formerly Datatel) from the UniData Database to the Microsoft SQL database. The new database structure will allow LU to more easily integrate with 3 rd party systems, simplify system management, and facilitate better access to the data gathered and stored in it. The migration involved 3 primary areas of work. Reformatting the data to work within the new database structure. Updating the custom code and programs to work with the new database. Migrate reporting from Cognos to the Colleague ODS/Business Intelligence reporting platform. 9/1 The Colleague WebUI version 4.3 was implemented and then upgraded to version 4.4 to address several issues with 4.3. The upgrade did require a server restart on 8/27 to apply more CPU resources to the application. Dan Mincheff brings many years of higher education IT leadership experience. He works with the schools leadership and the local and remote Ellucian staff to assure LU s IT needs are being met. Brian Bledsoe brings many years of higher education IT leadership experience. He works with the schools throughout his region to assure customer s IT needs are being met. Security certificates are used to encrypt communication between servers and computers. All websites requiring logins should be using a certificate to encrypt the data. The encryption ensures a hacker cannot intercept the data and use it for malicious purposes. OIT regularly analyses new vulnerability threats to software the campus uses. In this case the disruption from the work around would have been disproportional from the actual security risk posed LU. OIT opted to wait until the patch was release 4 days later. The project was completed in 2,165.5 hours and exceeded the estimated cost by only $15. The savings from the difference between Professional Services hourly rate and our hourly rate on this project saved LU $37,51. Migrating Colleague to the SQL platform saves LU $11, in software and hardware maintenance. I would like to thank all the departments, faculty, and staff who worked on this project. Without their effort in working with the developers and testing throughout the summer, this project would not have completed on time. The WebUI 4.4 interface was introduced. Among several enhancements are: Context cards that auto-close or stay open when you finish with a form The option to export your search results to Microsoft Excel Easier navigation when you work with several students across different forms A new Favorites feature that allows you to create shortcuts to your most used forms and processes Various security, performance, and reliability improvements.

2 Facts/Nelnet 8/14 As part of the SQL Migration of Colleague OIT took the opportunity to improve the Facts/Nelnet 3 rd party integration. Green Initiatives 9/1 OIT performed a Data Center server virtualization electrical power savings report. Comparing the Data Center UPS utilization from 27 to 212, we have seen a 4% decrease in utilization. During the same period we have seen a 283% increase in the number of servers in the Data Center. Mcafee Audit 9/1 Mcafee requested a licensing audit due by 9/19. We were last audited 3 years ago. We passed the audit. Board of Curators Accounts JCTV support report IT costs FAC switch Upgrade 9/1 Create LU accounts for the Lincoln University Curators. 9/1 JCTV requested a report on the amount of money LU spends supporting the TV station from the central IT budget. 4/13/1 Increased the network connections in Richardson Fine Arts Center to accommodate the new Graphics Arts computer lab of 12 Apple computers. OIT was able to eliminate 17 steps from the Student Account work flow and save 8.7 hours of work annually. Using the Jefferson City mean income hourly rate of $14., LU was saved $ in wages that can now be applied to other tasks. 12 new servers brought online over the summer and shutting down 1 server has saved LU $6,75.5 annually (annually 4818 KW per year per server at 9.7 cents an hour) For our entire virtual server farm of 5 physical, 46 virtual, and one server decommission, we are saving LU $19, annually in electrical utility costs. OIT maintained records of the usage of the licenses in accordance with the license agreement. This resulted in a very quick and painless audit. Legal Counsel recommended that because the Curators were conducting LU business that they may fall under the Missouri Sunshine law. Archiving their correspondence through the LU system assures compliancy. OIT estimated that LU spends $4, annually to support KJLU from the central IT budget. The University saves KJLU $3,852.8 annually because of academic and bulk pricing. Using the MHEC contract LU received a 48% discount off retail that saved LU $1,176.. The additional connections will be used in the future. The lab will be used to teach computer graphics courses. Call Center 7/11 We worked with the First Year Experience, Financial Aid and Student Accounts to setup a call bank for Call Center calls during the month of August. South Campus Bldg. Wireless MERC Governance Board Meeting OIT Annual Report Business Department Accreditation ODS Database efficiencies 8/13 Continuing Education Department reported poor wireless performance in their building. It was found a wireless access point was never installed after the remodeling of the building. We worked with Kathy Pabst to install a new access point.. 9/26 MERC, the Missouri Education and Research Consortium conference call. The agenda involved changes to the governance charter. 35% growth. Adding Cities & counties. Low enrollment to M3 conference. 9/21 The OIT annual report was submitted to CIO. Please contact Joel Sovanski for a copy of the report. 9/21 The business department requested an IT manager to answer questions concerning the Business Accreditation study. 9/25 Aaron Dixon changed the data storage system for the Colleague ODS Reporting Server. FTP Server 9/1 Samson Tesfaye is requested an FTP server for file transfers with other researchers across the Internet. Ticket: REQ LU experiences upwards of 3% increase in calls to student support areas around the month of August. Bringing more phones and people to answer them during this time period helps address the student s questions more quickly and helps key staff to focus on the processing work required to admit a student to LU. Wireless internet access has become a necessity for business, especially in an area such as the Continuing Education conference center. MOREnet has seen a 35% growth in network capacity. It is expanding service to cities and counties. Enrollment to the M3 conference is lower than normal. Aaron Dixon will be presenting at M3 on Virtualization Technology. We take pride in our accomplishments meeting the University s goals. The OIT report includes all of the monthly reports along with additional trending and statistical information. This year we were able to demonstrate over $6, in ROI for LU. OIT understands that without accreditation, students will not be attending LU. We do everything we can to support the accreditation process. The changes will improve performance, storage capacity, and the backup reliability. The server will help Samson collaborate with other researchers. OIT was able to configure the server and service 2 days ahead of schedule.

3 Maintenance 7/3 The annual Educause Domain registration was completed for lincolnu.edu. Support 5/1 The Alcatel-Lucent reseller JMA was consulted on an advanced phone service issue with our phone carrier. Maintenance 7/1 Renewal of the Alcatel-Lucent Data and wireless system maintenance Licensing 5/1 The Microsoft license name was placed under the wrong name. Mark Heckman worked with World Wide Technologies and Microsoft to correct the issue. Patching 9/17 The Alcatel-Lucent phone system was upgraded from version 9.1 to 1.1. This renews the ownership of the Lincolnu.edu Internet address. This address for all intents and purposes is our online brand. The $4 annual cost is far less than what companies pay for their addresses. JMA verified our findings and we were able to pressure the service carrier to fix the issue on their side of the connection. Renewal continues license usage, vendor support, hardware replacement, and software updates. The MHEC contract discounts maintenance at 15%, this saved LU $3, Proper record keeping avoids confusion and issues with the support and renewal of maintenance and licensing. Agreements with LU and vendors must be made using the institutions legal name. The upgrade improves reliability and increases capability. The update also keeps the system under manufacture support.

Mbps 3 25 2 15 1 5 Network Activity Student User Account Activity 211-212 Email Docs Calendar September email Delivered Email Blocked SPAM Blocked Virus % 23% 77% 1 Internet Bandwidth

Online Reset Passwords reset by Help Desk Locked Out New Enrollment May June July August September The chart to the left shows the number of users who used the online utility to reset

4 Mbps Network Activity Student User Account Activity Docs Calendar September Delivered Blocked SPAM Blocked Virus % 23% 77% 1 Internet Bandwidth September 212 Total Incoming bps Total Outgoing bps /1 9/3 9/5 9/7 9/9 9/11 9/13 9/15 9/17 9/19 9/21 9/24 9/26 9/28 9/ Self Service Reset Password Account Activity Online Reset Passwords reset by Help Desk Locked Out New Enrollment May June July August September The chart to the left shows the number of users who used the online utility to reset their password, newly enrolled into the system, and who locked themselves out after 5 failed attempts. Users can either retry after a brief timeout or they can call or visit the Help Desk.

5 Help Desk Tickets Resolved Tickets Customer Satisfaction Survey Top 5 Incidents by Category Top 5 Requests by Category Wireless PC Hardware Printer / Periferals LAN Mailbox

6 Help Desk Customer Satisfaction Comments Ticket Number INC REQ INC Note: The system was infected with a severe Virus. CHD staffed escalated the ticket and contact local staff concerning the priority of the ticket. REQ REQ REQ REQ REQ18512 REQ18663 REQ REQ INC REQ REQ REQ REQ Comment I think we've had trouble with this piece of equipment before, so I'll be interested to see whether there's a problem again in the next few weeks. Nonetheless, we appreciate the support in getting our issue resolved! Tim said he was new since July, so that is why I gave him some slack because it took forever to get it fixed, it seemed. However, he was extremely polite and had wonderful manners. E. Miller I had no computer access at all for 3.5 hours and had to make three telephone calls to the OIT line before someone came and fixed the problem. Lack of customer service skills; I had a specific case request but he tried to "skirt" around that request for an easier solution for him. Thank you for the excellent work! I am rather curious as to why this survey was sent but thanks for the service which was good. Thanks. Cole helped me be able to access my Lincoln from an icon on my phone that appears when I have new mail. He did a great job, and I hope that you can post the instructions on setting up this type type of access on Moodle for everyone, since this is now the primary way of communicating at Lincoln. Thanks! Great job! Thanks! o matter my issue I get immediate help. GREAT TECH STAFF!!!!!!!!!! Excellent customer service; a great example for all LU Elllucian employees to follow. The Ellucian LU team need to recognize and appreciate this techs knowledge and expertise. Well done. I have had problems with timely service in the past, but this was great! This is the 2nd time in the last few weeks we had problems with the printer not communicating with the computers. I am hoping the issue is resolved now. Prompt, nice to have such a reliable technician to work with. Quick speedy service on getting my problem resolved Follow up phone calls asking for missing/required information helped the process progress more quickly. I was pleased that Aaron took the time to find the information that was required to resolve the issue. This type of initial individual set up is routine and should have a form to request these services identifying the required information. He was very friendly and very helpful. We got the problem fixed in minutes with few hiccups, and he helped me work through any such hiccups that ocurred.

7 REQ REQ REQ Laptop not connected to printer, unable to move between my computer and the laptop. Technician seemed to bothered to even connect to the internet. Mark always is prompt and does a great job! I ended up calling and talking to 4 different people, if I'm not mistaken. Mine was an unusual case being my records were incorrect, and the first couple people I talked to kind of gave up on me. But the 3rd person, or second to last if you have records of that (I didn't catch his name), did an excellent job. He was very polite and professional like you rarely see anymore, he didn't mumble what he was asking me, nor did he hang-up until all my questions were answered and I knew right where to go to resolve the issue. He even got me the number for the records office. I wish I had talked to him in person so I could tip him. Really, this man, whoever he is, definetly deserves a raise.

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