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October 2007 Update

In This Update


UW Microsoft Exchange Service Is Live

The new, centrally managed UW Microsoft Exchange Service launched September 4, with the Information School, School of Nursing, College of Forest Resources, and Career Center among the first users. These departments successfully migrated their local Exchange servers to the central environment. Over 400 users are on the system, and more than 20 other departments have expressed interest. The service currently includes Exchange Server with Microsoft calendar and email, with Sharepoint to be added in the future (more details below).

This initiative has been a collaborative effort between schools and colleges and C&C to provide a centrally managed Microsoft Exchange environment at the UW. Key contributors include the School of Business, School of Engineering, College of Forest Resources, Graduate School, Information School, School of Nursing, and UW Bothell. The close partnership that enabled a successful launch within a tight timeframe will serve as a model for future projects. The fee for Exchange is $8 per mailbox per month (mailbox size is 1 Gigabyte standard, with 2 Gigabytes available on request). This amount may be refined as costs and economies of scale are identified, but the current fee is expected to be in place until at least June of 2009. Fees for other products, including SharePoint, will be determined as product features and support strategy are developed in partnership with the UW community over the next several months.

The SharePoint offering is also making progress. Several pilot sites are up and running, including the Department of Psychiatry and the UW Strategic Roadmap for Information Management and Administrative Systems initiative.

For detailed information, including FAQs and how to get involved, please see the new initiative Web site at http://www.washington.edu/computing/msca/


Provost Forms Collaborative Applications Committee

UW Provost Phyllis Wise formed a task force in mid-September to assess the current landscape of collaborative tools. Because multiple collaboration tools are being used at the UW, the Provost has asked the task force to think about this proliferation of tools and provide some strategy to consider their purposes and interactions.

The committee will bring its recommendations to the University Technology Advisory Committee (U-TAC), the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (A-TAC) and the IT Resource Sharing Group. C&C's Emerging Technology group is providing staffing for the committee, whose first meeting was October 8.


Fostering IT Special Interest Groups

A new UW-wide initiative began this summer to form "Special Interest Groups" (SIGs) to discuss a wide range of technology issues. The purpose of the SIGs is to encourage cross-institutional dialog and build community. Another important goal is to identify and address key issues and influence the direction of services, support, and IT decision-making.

The effort is being coordinated by the UW Computing Directors group, with support from C&C and OIM. The initial focus is on information technology issues, but the project may well grow to encompass SIGs on a wider variety of topics, such as "green buildings" or "human resource policies."

While some SIGs may be tactically oriented, sharing best practices and "how-to" information, others will be more strategically oriented, helping to shape future requirements and directions of UW technology products and services.

"Our interest in helping to formalize these SIGs is to keep everyone better connected within the UW IT community," said Joseph Wolfgram, Chair of the UW Computing Directors group. "We'd like to provide an online collaborative environment for the SIGs that would allow professionals within our IT community to meet others with similar projects, identify and help quantify the need for particular services or support, and bring this information back to C&C, OIM, and other advisory committees for consideration."

To accomplish those goals, a survey will gauge interest in such topics and to potentially connect others with similar interests in an efficient manner. To support the initiative, members of the Computing Directors group have developed a new SIG portal Web site.

For more information about this effort, please visit http://sig.washington.edu/


C&C Meets With Principal Investigators to Anticipate Future Technology Needs

C&C is meeting with UW faculty researchers to glean a broader understanding about their research and collaborators, where their disciplines are headed, and what the UW and C&C should do next with technology to support their work.

An initial round of discussions took place in August and September with some PIs in such areas as global health, computational photography, cell phone research and health, and molecular basics of movement with computational modeling. C&C looks forward to meeting with many more researchers throughout the university, individually or in research groups or centers.

After the rounds of talks are complete, C&C plans to report back on ideas for the future of cyber-infrastructure needs at the UW.


Request Tracker: UW Scoping Study Recommends Central Service

After surveying potential users about the need for a standard work-request /ticketing system at the UW, a scoping study team has recommended that a centralized service be offered. The team of C&C staff and representatives from UW academic, administrative, and technology departments was formed earlier this year to research the need for a central work request/ticketing system. The team was formed in response to interest expressed by UW colleges and administrative departments in C&C's Request Tracker (RT) system.

The team surveyed potential users this summer to assess their needs. A total of 38 respondents from 29 UW departments completed the survey, which included identifying requirements needed. The team found that the key reasons for wanting a ticket tracking system include improved customer service and communications, reliability and speed, issue transparency, and better metrics.

Based upon the survey findings, the team has recommended that the UW:

  • Develop and offer a central Request Tracker (RT) service to the UW community
  • Develop a funding and support model that involves the user community as partners
  • Pilot the service with one or two UW departments

These recommendations have been approved by the project sponsors, University Registrar Todd Mildon and C&C Assistant Vice President for Service Delivery & Support Scott Mah. The project team is now developing a plan for implementing these recommendations.


OIM Update: Strategic Roadmap Gearing Up

The UW Strategic Roadmap for information management and administrative systems (IM/AS) is kicking into high gear. The roadmap will define a vision for the future of IM/AS and propose an action plan with short- and long-term priorities.

A UW-wide Roadmap Working Team launched in October to coordinate the effort and recommend priorities to the Information Management Advisory Committee (I-MAC). This effort, coordinated by the Office of Information Management (OIM) will involve more than 175 people on task groups, working teams, advisory teams, and the I-MAC.

OIM also announced its organizational structure in a letter to deans, directors, and chairs on August 2 (see http://www.washington.edu/provost/oim/OrganizationalDesign.pdf).

To keep updated on OIM's short-term progress, please see the latest "OIM Highlights" on the Office of Information Management Web site at http://www.washington.edu/provost/oim/

For a more detailed overview of the roadmap effort, please see the new OIM Web site at http://www.washington.edu/provost/oim/roadmap/


C&C's Longer Support Hours Benefit Faculty, Staff, and Students

C&C expanded its customer support hours last month to provide additional and more convenient customer service for faculty, staff, and students on UW NetID, computing, and network issues. Customer support is now open three more hours in the evenings, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Help from C&C Information and Technical Support is now available by phone at 206-543-5970, by email at help@u.washington.edu, or walk-in (Mary Gates Hall 011) during these times:

  • Monday through Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (Closed Saturday)
  • Sunday: 1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

These extended evening hours also enables enhanced support for staff working second shift at UW Medical Centers.

Additional information about getting computing-related help from C&C is available on the Web at http://www.washington.edu/computing/contacts.html