Friday, February 1, 2008
Agenda
- Introduction of any people that are substituting for committee members
- Approval of minutes from January 10, 2008 meeting
- Any follow-up on budget discussions with Provost's office
- Discuss key IT Services projects anticipated for the new 12-18 months (led by Jim Davis)
- Committee review of suggested agenda items and identify any additional agenda items for committee discussion for spring semester
- Discussion on deployment and funding for campus wireless access points
- Good of the Order
- Adjourn
Attendance
- Attendees included
- Phil Spike (chair), James Alleman, Pam Elliot Cain, Jason Carroll, Floyd Davenport, Niki Davis (substituting for Ann Thompson), John Dickerson (substituting for Chris McCoy), Ian Guffy, Steven Herrnstadt, Lee Honeycutt, Kathy Jones, Steven Jungst, Karen Lawson, Sree Nilakanta, Anthony Townsend, Eldon Uhlenhopp, and Jim Davis
- Absent members
- Roger Baer
- Non-committee members in attendance
- Mike Bowman, Angela Bradley, Erica Fischer, and Maury Hope
Minutes
Friday, February 1, 2008
Meeting convened at 3:10 p.m.
Minutes from January 10, 2007 meeting were approved.
Jim Davis informed the committee that he submitted the budget proposals to the Executive Vice President and Provost, January 31, 2008. A budget item was added for the campus Emergency Notification System ($67,460 ongoing) too late for feedback from the ITS Advisory Committee. Jim also informed the committee about the university budget website and a budget recommendation for "Funding Administrative Computing." He offered to present more information on administrative computing funding to the committee if there was interest.
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Jim Davis gave a presentation on the 10 Strategic IT Efforts that are foreseen in the next 12-18 months. They included:
- ERP/Kuali/SOA
- Data Warehouse
- RMM
- Identity Management
- ITS Internal Processes
- Campus Email
- SAN Storage Archive
- Data Center Expansion
- Content Management
- Academic Technologies
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Maury Hope gave a more in-depth presentation of Kuali. A few questions arose from the committee.
- Do you modify the package or the business practice. Maury commented it is easier to change the business practice, but if you get involved at the "investing partner" level you have some say in the development, and Stephanie Fox (Controller) says this package is close to what we currently have.
- Have we looked for a way to leverage this with the other Regent's universities and split it 1/3 each to receive the same benefit. Maury commented there have been brief discussions, but one big difference is the University of Iowa's medical facility. They currently have a path they are heading down for financial systems and are developing their own for student systems. Jim Davis also commented that not everyone is at the same place at the same time, and some are not ready to change from their current model.
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Phil Spike asked the group to come up with some future possibilities the committee could address.
- Lee Honeycutt - Awareness of other unit's IT usage and projects rather than "thrashing" around ourselves. ITS needs to be a clearing house. Course scheduling has been developed internally for LAS but it has not been successful.
- Floyd Davenport - Need awareness, skill and support issues, identify projects in a larger format.
- Karen Lawson - What are the broader trends two - five years out?
- Pam Elliot-Cain - Longer term planning (e.g., the 5 year capital equipment, new technology, et. plan) and how the budget and planning go together.
- Ian Guffy - Where and how are student fees used. What is the role of ITS relative to the college and departmental IT departments, and how can duplications of service be minimized or avoided. Are there areas where ITS is not performing at an adequate level. As alluded to in previous discussions, and possibly part of the wireless internet funding discussion, should the Networks and Communication division adjust its rates for ethernet? How many computer labs on campus are funded by ITS, and are there are too many?
- Steven Herrnstadt - ITS scheduling, classroom space and class schedules are still done on paper.
- Kathy Jones - Personnel capacity, there are quite a few things that are "not on the top of the priority list" and we are limited in what we can do because of the number of people.
- Niki Davis - Consolidated support, centrally vs. colleges in relation to the speedy changes in for credit Continuing and Distance Education. One example was Adobe Connect.
- Tony Townsend - Long list of services available centrally.
- John Dickerson - Synergy with ITS, web content management system, leverage the knowledge back to ITS, collaboration on IT projects, when a project is coming up seek the feedback of other IT areas to get "ownership."
Wireless was covered briefly, but time was running short so the committee decided to discuss it further at a later date. Angela Bradley presented that the next step in the wireless plan would be more public spaces and some smaller buildings. It has been found that the outdoor areas are not used as much as once thought, so that has been limited. Some comments from the committee included a suggestion that wireless be considered part of the ongoing service model and be part of recurring funding. Another thought was that if you can't find a funding path or identifiable recipient then how do you pay for it. How does the RMM address these types of issues. A mission statement was suggested that articulates wireless is for learning purposes. Also a map of all wireless locations (ITS and colleges) would be beneficial.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:10pm.
