May 6, 2015

IT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA

Meeting called to order by Cruse Melvin at 10:00am and adjourned at 10:45am

 

Attendees: Cruse Melvin, Steve Doblin, Vicki McNeil, Priscilla Parsons, Charla Pate, Kevin Smith and Juan Zabala.

Approval of Minutes       

Wed., April 1, 2015

(Cruse Melvin)

Minutes were distributed and approved as written.

Monthly Status Report Discussion

(Priscilla Parsons)

ACTIVE PROJECTS:

• Wireless – 90% complete
  
  • New “sign-on” process to be implemented June 8th; concurrent with LU Big Red
  • Discontinue LU Big Red / Cardinal – July 23rd
  • Naming the wireless network – Kate, Charla, Juan, Patrick, Jacob
  • This group has been asked to work on naming the wireless network.  Let Priscilla know if any other recommendations to work with this group.   
• ODS Application upgrade – 100% complete
  
  •  The upgrade went well for all 3 institutions.
    
    
• Active Directory upgrade
  
  • Communicator – IM replacement is pre-req (scheduled completion late June 2015)
  • The Active Directory upgrade is in progress but one of the snags they ran in to is the “Communicator” tool.  This tool is for instant messaging and is used actively by about 90-100 people on campus.   The problem is Communicator is old and is not a supported product and will not work with the new upgrade.  The decision was made not to  decommission the Communicator tool until a replacement for instant messaging is in place. 
  • Contract has been signed – First onsite session June 15th
    
    
• Virtualization of Campus Labs – 100% complete
  
  • The first phase of the virtual labs is 100% complete.  The things listed below are the activities that still need to take place after the 1st phase. Note:  these virtual labs will include virtual desktops.
  • Operational plan – automatic provisioning, etc.
  • Strategy for expansion (need conversations about these items)
  • Approval model (will not move to publicize until decision is made on approval model)
  • Financial model
    
    
• Security Camera System Replacement / Access Control
  
  • Cameras installed in phase I locations – These are up and running Funding approved for 3-FY full replacement - Funding strategy will span next 3 fiscal years, but it is anticipated that all existing cameras will be replaced on campus within the next 18 months.
  • Police Department & IT will develop prioritized replacement schedule
  • Access Control meeting: Cruse, Priscilla, PD, Facilities, HR         
  • A meeting will be scheduled with Priscilla, Dr. Melvin and representatives from Facilities, Human Resources and the Police Department to discuss how access control will be managed.  
    
    
• Touchnet Marketplace & Cashiering
  
  • System available in production; First “store” in progress by Finance
  • This system which will allow LU departments to sell items online, is technically ready to go. However, there are some questions with regard to a credit card contract.   In addition, our Touchnet contract is coming up for renewal at the end of June and these are typically 5 year renewals.  The question is what is the System Office going to do with the contract?  A meeting was held with Twila, Mike, Priscilla and Joanna and the contract review process has been started.  
    
    
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
  
  • Ellucian Recruiter solution selected as cloud-based SaaS
  • Executing Ellucian Jumpstart program – go live end of June, 2015
  • This new system is cloud-based and therefore has the advantage of being able to roll out in quick order. The base-line functionality should be live by the end of June.
    
    
• Housing System (Starez)
  
  • New desktop client install – Mid-May
  • CAS Single-Sign on – on hold per Dr. McNeil for appropriate scheduling
    
    
• External Data Network upgrade
  
  • New contract under legal review
  • Scheduled go-live August 31, 2015
  • With the wireless expansion, our estimates are close to over 5x the number of students accessing wireless. Our band width is already somewhat constrained. We currently go through UT but they cannot provide additional bandwidth to us without a significant infrastructure upgrade here in Beaumont so the plan is to move off UT and connect directly to LEARN. This should take us 3-5 years out.  IT is working with Legal on the contract.  The contract with UT ends at end of August.  We will not buy all 10GB worth of bandwidth at first.  In the fall we will double the band width we have now, and we will be able to scale up once we see the traffic patterns.
    
    
• Bosscars (Parking Permit System) upgrade – LU & LIT
  
  • Will allow students to purchase permits online for distribution via USPS mail
  • Schedule completion July 1st (pending scheduling review with Parking Office)
  • With this new software, Dr. Melvin stated they are in the discussion phase of taking the Parking Office out of the Parker Building and combining it with the Cashier’s Office.  This would start with fall 2015.
    
    
• Banner 9 / Banner XE
  
  • Lamar is one of Beta partners with Ellucian for HR module of Banner 9
  • Findings from beta partnership were presented at Ellucian Live (New Orleans) – April
  • Introduce HR staff to new version of Banner – May 2015. This is an introduction to HR staff only.  They will roll out module by module and we will bump between the 2 systems for a while.  Priscilla asked Ellucian about coming to do an Executive briefing the first week of June.  
    
    
• Windows 2003 upgrades. (Upgrading to 2012).
  
  • Windows 2003 becomes unsupported July 2015
  • There are still about 20 servers on this system.
  • Applications running on a Windows 2003 server are being reviewed (Athletics XOS) IT is working with Jason Henderson.
    
     

Completed Projects

• ODS Application Upgrade
  
  

Upcoming Projects (Note:  2 previous months upcoming projects moved to Active)

• Residence Hall Internet Service Upgrade. Dr. McNeil is talking with Time Warner about going wireless and getting digital cable in residence halls by August 1st.  Time Warner is not moving quickly and she is considering changing to another company such as AT&T.
• Microsoft O365 (email, collaboration, video conferencing) –in planning stage
• Workflow
  
   

General

Outages:  None

Academic Computing Committee

         (Larry Osborne)

 Academic Computing Committee

 No report given.   

Other Items

Priscilla Parsons:   

1. The Service Desk is moving from the 1st floor of the Library to the 7th floor and management of the Library labs are transitioning to IT.  
2. Copies of the policy “Acquisition Review of Information Technology Resources” were provided.  Priscilla stated that IT and Finance were involved with revisions of this policy along with select faculty.  It has gone through the Academic Technology Committee and was reviewed by both Dr. Melvin and Dianne Thibodeaux.  It was sent out electronically to the IT Steering Committee for review and approved, with the exception of Dr. Doblin.  Once Dr. Doblin has had the chance to review and approve it, the policy will be sent to President Evans.   
   
    
   
   

Steve Doblin:  Priscilla was asked if there had been any feedback on the additional wireless coverage.  She stated no.  IT had planned to send out a survey but that did not happen.  Dr. Melvin commented that yes, people have noticed, and he has heard comments.  The 6th floor of the John Gray Library has the largest usage.

 

Cruse Melvin:

1. Dr. Melvin asked that Academic Support Strategic Planning be put on the action list. What IT will be providing in the way of academic support will involve a substantial amount of commitment.
2. There is a new “app” available from the Police Department for Lamar students, faculty and staff called myPD.  Chief Flores sent out the announcement to a select    group but a campus-wide announcement will need to be sent out.

Next Meeting Wednesday, June 3, 2015 10:00 a.m. Plummer Conference Room #102