UW-IT Insights – Winter 2015

Contents: HR/P Modernization pay frequency change | My Plan’s new features | Expanded classroom equipment maintenance | UW Profiles enhancements | Technology Recharge Fee update | In brief

HR/Payroll Modernization: UW to continue with semi-monthly pay in Workday

The Executive Sponsors of the HR/Payroll Modernization initiative recently made the decision to maintain a semi-monthly pay frequency instead of moving to a biweekly cycle due to the many complexities in UW’s pay practices, along with challenges in reporting employee compensation on a monthly basis to the State. The pay frequency for all UW employees will remain the same as it is now, occurring on the 10th and 25th of each month.

Continuing with a semi-monthly pay cycle in Workday will eliminate many issues that couldn’t be resolved for a biweekly pay frequency. It also will alleviate many of the concerns that employees raised regarding a biweekly pay cycle.

The HR/P team is now working quickly to analyze the impact of this decision on business processes, design, configuration and integrations, training and change management, and the many systems to be impacted outside the project. There will be shifts to mid-project milestones; however, it has not yet been determined whether it will be necessary to delay the December 2015 go-live. Additional information about impacts is expected to be available in six weeks, and will be shared when ready.

Meanwhile, work is continuing on the Configuration and Prototype phase by the many staff involved in the project. The project team continues to build Workday to UW design specifications and is validating employee data that was loaded into Workday.

MyPlan offers new registration hand-off feature: Use among students up tenfold

A new registration hand-off feature in MyPlan makes it easy for students to submit their quarterly academic plan to the registration system, giving them a single location to plan and register for classes. With this new feature, MyPlan usage increased tenfold, with more than 44,000 students logging in to register for classes during the first two weeks of winter quarter registration.

Student adoption of MyPlan, the UW’s online academic planning tool, has increased significantly, with 82 percent of first-year students and 66 percent of all undergraduate students using this service.

Access to MyPlan is being expanded to Washington Community and Technical College (CTC) transfer students, thanks to support from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant. A new feature lets anyone create a MyPlan account with Facebook or Google social logins, allowing CTC students to use MyPlan to prepare to transfer to the UW, and plan for and ultimately attain their UW degree.

Upcoming enhancements will enable students to sign up for course availability alerts and introduce a new “Academic Explorer” tool that lets students explore and compare UW programs. MyPlan was developed by UW-IT in partnership with the Provost, the advising community and the Student Technology Fee Committees on all three campuses.

Expanded maintenance program keeps UW Seattle classrooms ready to go

To ensure teaching equipment is working properly in UW Seattle’s more than 300 general-use classrooms, UW-IT’s Classroom Technology & Events (CTE) has expanded its maintenance program to midnight.

Three full-time employees and several student staff work the night shift, allowing projectors, speakers, microphones, computers and other equipment to be continually tested, repaired or replaced and ready for use the next day. They also offer equipment tutorials for instructors teaching night classes and are on call to assist them.

Improved UW Profiles, new Data & Analytics website offer better access to data

Enhancements to UW Profiles Web-based dashboards now allow faculty and staff to more easily see trends in UW student enrollment, course-taking, academic progress and degrees. These improvements, coupled with a new UW Data & Analytics website, provide faculty and staff with a wide array of data analytics tools and resources.

UW Profiles dashboards help users visualize and understand basic University data. Among the latest improvements: information can be viewed down to the major, degree or curriculum level; all visualizations have been translated into tables for ease of reference; and the default view is now to all enrollments and credit hours, not just tuition-based ones. Future improvements will allow users to build their own visualizations using the same underlying data.

The new Data & Analytics website showcases how UW faculty and staff can use central UW data to inform their decision-making. On this mobile friendly, accessible site you can request access to enterprise reports, analytics and data, browse online and workshop training or join a user group, and subscribe to news and alerts. The site provides quick links to the Business Intelligence Portal and the UW Profiles data visualization tool, as well as information to better understand, work with and use data.

FY 2016 Technology Recharge Fee rate will increase 1.9 percent to help address rising costs

The Technology Recharge Fee (TRF) rates for FY 2016 will increase by 1.9 percent, the first net increase since the fee was implemented in FY 2011, under a recommendation by the University’s IT Service Investment Board and approved by the Provost.

The increase is necessary to address escalating costs of IT operations, including enterprise software licensing, network security, geographic resiliency and essential facilities infrastructure.

The FY 2016 TRF rates, effective July 1, 2015, will be:

• $55.51 per month per capita for all academic and administrative units (current rate is $54.50)
• $50.91 per month per capita for the Medical Centers (current rate is $50.00)

The TRF provides support for essential information technology services delivered by UW-IT.

In brief:

• Save the date: UW TechConnect Conference, March 24, Husky Union Building. This year’s conference focuses on strategic directions to navigate information technology of the future, the impact of IT changes on how we approach our work and the importance of collaboration. The conference provides a unique opportunity to learn about emerging technology changes, explore a wide range of IT communities of practice and make personal connections. Find out more on the TechConnect Conference website.
• UW faculty and staff now have the same free access as students to Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, an online distribution of Microsoft Office for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Windows and Android phones. It includes the latest versions of Microsoft’s Office suite. Visit the IT Connect UWare page to download Office 365 ProPlus. This program is supported by the Technology Recharge Fee.
• The MyUW Mobile latest update includes a final exams schedule and final grades, and displays timely student information based on quarterly milestones. Students can view new content, released frequently, by visiting MyUW with their mobile devices.
• Select UW-IT news now available on Twitter. UW students, faculty and staff can follow us @uwitnews.
• The 2014 UW-IT Annual Report highlights collaborative efforts to help UW students, faculty, researchers and staff leverage technology to be more productive and effective, and outlines what’s ahead in 2015.
• The University’s 100G High Speed Research Network is fully in place and available to UW groups that need to share data with other research institutions throughout the world.
• UW-IT will conduct a Customer Experience Survey of randomly selected UW faculty, staff and students this spring to understand their experiences with UW-IT support and services. Results will be published in the fall.