2012-2013-I.T.-Annual-Report.pdf - Nichols Hub

Nichols College

Information Technology Department

2012-2013 Academic Year

Annual Report

Kevin Brassard

Vice President for Information Services

July 17, 2013

http://nclive.nichols.edu/blogs/studentcenter/

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Index

Page

Preface 3

1.0 Introduction 3

2.0 Organizational Chart 4

3.0 By the numbers… 5

Help Desk requests

Servers

Server Storage

Business applications

User accounts

Personal Computers

Network Printers

Multi-function Devices

Network switches

Wireless access points

E-mail volume

Internet bandwidth

Phone system - # of handsets

Cable television outlets 4.0 Infrastructure

4.1 Desktops/Laptops 6

4.2 Servers and server room 7

4.3 Business Applications 8

4.4 Networks & cabling 10

4.5 Phones 11

4.6 Cable TV 11

4.7 Classrooms 12

4.8 Computer labs 12

4.9 Conference Rooms 13

4.10 Library 13

4.11 Web Site 14

5.0 Projects completed in 2012-2013 14

6.0 Projects targeted for 2013-2014 14

7.0 Results of Student Satisfaction Survey 16

8.0 Key Performance Indicators 18

9.0 Assessment 19

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Preface

This is the first report in what we hope to be an annual publication from the Information

Technology (I.T.) department. The intent of this document is to provide the campus community

with some perspective on what the I.T. department is doing to support the campus. As a

general rule, students, faculty, and staff come to the campus each day with the expectation that

their computers will turn on, get their e-mail, connect to Wi-Fi, browse the web, and make a

phone call. What is missing from this perspective is what is going on in the background to make

sure all of this happens in a reliable manner.

We hope you find this information useful in giving you an understanding of what we are doing to

insure that all of our constituencies have a reliable and productive technological environment in

which to teach, study, and work here at Nichols College.

1.0 Introduction

The primary objective of the I.T. function at Nichols College is to provide seamless support for

all technology-related hardware, software, and services. As technology has become more

pervasive in the learning environment and, indeed, in the general business environment, the

staff has had to adjust its strategies to accommodate the changing and ever expanding needs of

the client base.

This annual report is intended to provide perspective in the breadth and depth of coverage that

the I.T. function provides to the campus. Over the past several years, the portfolio of

applications that is maintained and supported by the I.T. staff has increased significantly.

Examples of relatively new applications include full building coverage for wireless internet

access (especially in the residence halls), Recruiter “customer relationship management”

software, myNichols portal, the card access security system, the video surveillance system, and

the new academic and audio-visual technologies in the new Fels Student Center.

Maintaining support for all of these systems has challenged the capacity of the department’s

staff. The college has had the good fortune of having a dedicated and service-oriented I.T.

support staff, many of whom have been employees at the college for more than 10 years. This

commitment to the college comes through in many ways that you see and experience on a daily

basis. However, this commitment is also evident in the times that you don’t see the staff, such

as on Sunday mornings when servers need to be patched and updated, or late in the evening

when a node in the phone system has crashed.

Included in this annual report, in section 7.0, is an executive summary of the results from our

first annual student technology satisfaction survey. While there have been periodic technology

surveys completed by students as part of class projects, this was the first survey run by the

department. The results of the survey provided, in several instances, confirmation on the high

level of service we provide our users. It also provided some insight into areas where we feel we

need to improve our service delivery or set reasonable expectations on what is possible.

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2.0 Organizational Chart – I.T. and Library

Kevin BrassardVP for Information Services

Cindy LafortuneManager of User Support

Services

Joe BelangerPC Support Specialist

Jared HamiltonAssoc VP for Enterprise

Applications

Jackie BakerSenior Systems

Analyst

Jim DouglasLibrary Director

Evelyn Nieszczezewski

Acquisitions

Matthew HaggardInstructional

Services/Reference

Pauline SroczynskiEvening Supervisor

Rosalba OnofrioPatron Services

Librarian

Melissa HuerasAdministrative

Assistant

Mike KubicTelecommunications

Manager

Nathan GristDirector of Servers & Network Operations

Craig BradyAssoc System Administrator

I.T. Work Study Students for 2012-2013 (under supervision of Cindy Lafortune)

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3.0 By the numbers (as of June 30, 2013)…

Help Desk Requests* opened 2,737

Servers

Physical 22

Virtual 90 (reside on 10 of the physical servers)

Server Storage 26.5TB (terabytes: 1TB= 1 trillion bytes)

Applications Supported

Business 33

Desktop 10

I.T. Support 12

User Accounts

Students 2,857

Faculty 169

Staff 228

Personal Computers

Desktop 453

Laptop 63

MacBook/iMac 10

iPad/Android/Windows8 tablets 35

Purchased during year

Desktop 81

Laptop 7

MacBook/iMac 6

iPad/Android/Windows8 tablets 16

Network Printers

Monochrome 27

Color 4

Multifunction Printers/Copiers

Monochrome 9

Color 21

Network Switches 84

Network Switch Ports 3,384

Wireless Access Points 217

E-mail volume (average received/day)

Good messages 10,000

Spam (blocked) 4,000

Internet Bandwidth

Residence Halls 5Mbps down/1Mbps up -- per student

Administrative Network 66Mbps

Phone System (number of lines) 469

Cable television outlets >580

* Help Desk Request count excludes I.T.-generated support requests

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4.0 Infrastructure

4.1 Desktops/Laptops

Approximately eight years ago, Help Desk staff did an open

competition/assessment between three major desktop/laptop

computer manufacturers. At that time the college was

converting from a student laptop/desktop program (each

incoming freshmen received a college-issued computer) to an

“optional” program. With the optional program, the college

made recommendations on what it saw as the best value for the

student, with regard to price, durability, and performance. The

winner of this competition was IBM (which later spun off the PC

division to its main supplier, Lenovo).

The Help Desk staff was so impressed with the IBM/Lenovo equipment that a decision was

made to standardize staff and faculty on this same equipment. Over the past several years, the

number of help desk requests submitted by staff and faculty for faulty hardware dropped

significantly (when compared to similarly aged products from previous hardware suppliers).

There is no standard refresh cycle for upgrading staff and faculty personal computers. The

major reasons for this include budget and logistics. Specific functional areas requiring higher-

level computing resources are targeted for relatively frequent upgrades. The remaining areas

are addressed on an as-needed and as-available basis.

Computers in major “public” areas are upgraded on a rolling 3 year basis. These areas

include: classroom podium computers, the three classroom student labs, and the public library

computers. The old computers made available from these upgrades are then pushed out to

other areas that have yet older computers. The computers run Windows 7 and Office 2010.

Most staff and faculty are currently running Windows 7 and Office 2010; with some older

systems still running Windows XP.

We continue to utilize Sophos as our antivirus software provider. This software has proven to

be more effective, overall, compared to our previous provider, Symantec.

Desktop hard drives are not backed up by I.T. It is college policy that all important business-

related files be stored on network drives. Staff and faculty have access to an “H” drive which

is allocated for their own work-related files, and is not accessible to anyone outside of

themselves and the system administrators. Most departments also have shared network drives,

which are used for shared documents and files. The myNichols portal offers another solution

for users to securely store and share files.

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4.2 Servers and server room

In collaboration with the Facilities Management department, we have

significantly upgraded the infrastructure of the college’s server room over the

past couple of years. Its air conditioning system was completely replaced in

2011 with a new system that is capable of handling the growing computing

needs of the campus. The battery backup system has also been upgraded to a

full-room system, which is tied into the backup generator. This generator,

fueled by natural gas, supports the server room and selected offices in I.T. and

Conrad Hall.

The College has migrated server computing to a virtual model, along with a

storage area network, both of which provide improved manageability, performance, and

reliability. As part of this migration, we have created a backup server environment in the

Athletic Center, allowing some minimal level of physical separation of environments. Encrypted

tape backups are still completed on a weekly basis, and are stored in a fireproof safe in the

basement of the Dining Hall.

By virtualizing our servers, we are able to reduce the number of physical servers running in the

server room, with an approximate ratio of 9 logical servers to one physical server. In 2005 we

had approximately 25 servers running 21 business applications. We now have 90 virtual

servers running on 10 physical servers. We have an additional 5 servers/applications that we

will target for “virtualization” over the next 1-2 years. We also have 15 physical servers that

cannot be virtualized, due to specific technical restrictions on what they run or the role they play

in our virtualized environment.

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Virtualization provides multiple opportunities for savings to the college, including:

reduced power to run the servers

reduced power to cool the server room

reduced hardware maintenance contracts

reduced downtime for applications.

To sum up the impact of this project, we have “gone green” in the server room!

From an equipment perspective, Nichols College has standardized on Hewlett-Packard for

servers running Windows, and Dell EqualLogic for storage (SANs – Storage Area Network).

4.3 Business Applications

We recently completed a major

initiative to bring the hosting of

our student information system

(Ellucian’s Colleague

application) in-house. In 2005

the college made a decision to

migrate from Jenzabar to

Datatel and, in the process,

joined a consortium (ICE) to

host the application. The

major driver for this decision to

host was cost management. In

general, this arrangement was

very successful for Nichols in keeping maintenance and support costs for the system contained.

Being a member of ICE, however, created some challenges in aligning our needs for new

modules with that of the other six schools in the consortium. Our need, and time-frame, to

innovate out-paced that of most of the other consortium schools. Therefore a decision was

made in October of 2011 to bring these systems in-house. The move of the systems in-house

was completed on schedule and under budget in May of 2012. With that move completed, we

have since been able to implement additional supporting software, including a mobile solution

(MOX), a new web-based reporting tool, the Recruiter CRM system for admissions, and

several additional modules for the Colleague student information system.

Also, over the past several years, we have seen the number of applications running at Nichols

increase significantly. These range from the low-key but important (Connect-Ed for emergency

notifications) to important, but targeted (card access system, video surveillance system) to the

ubiquitous (Wi-Fi access across campus). Each of these systems has presented challenges for

the staff to integrate them into the existing infrastructure, train users, and become proficient in

supporting and maintaining the applications.

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For your reference, below is a partial listing of the applications currently maintained, in some

manner, by the I.T. staff:

Application Function

Active Directory network user directory – single username/sign-on

Aruba controller & access points wireless networking

Building Control System environmental monitoring

Campus Manager student PC registration on network

CBORD (Odyssey/Micros) ID cards, meal plans, point-of-sale

Classroom manager Share student PC display at podium in labs

Ccure building access control system

Colleague/Datatel student information system

Connect-ED emergency notification system (hosted)

Ellucian Mobile/MOX Mobile device application for myNichols portal

Exchange e-mail and voice-mail

EZProxy access to library databases

Infoview/Business Objects Reporting software for Colleague

Meeting Room Manager conference room scheduling system

Millennium Library management system

MoodleRooms online course management system (hosted)

myNichols portal web-based content for students/staff/faculty

NetCommunity online alumni community (hosted)

OnSSI video surveillance

PaperCut print management for library computers

PAVE Judicial action/tracking system

PBX phone system

Perspective Public Safety incident reporting system

Raiser's Edge Alumni and donations tracking

Recruiter Customer relationship management

Researcher's Edge research support for Advancement Residence Life Cinema Movies on demand in residence halls

Service Desk help desk ticket tracking, computer asset tracking, user password self-service reset

Sophos anti-spam appliance anti-spam

Sophos anti-virus anti-virus

Synoptic Financial reporting software

TracDat Outcomes assessment tracking

Turnitin Plagiarism detection

TutorTrac Tutor scheduling in ARC

Visix digital displays

Web Site/Expression Engine web site

Web Site blogging server Blogging sites

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4.4 Networks & cabling

All buildings on campus are connected back to the server room in the

Conant Library, either directly or indirectly, via fiber-optic cabling.

Depending on the location, either single-mode or multi-mode fiber is used.

All in-building wiring is currently either cat5, cat5e, or cat6; with cat6

cabling being the latest generation in use. The primary functional

difference in these cables is the amount of bandwidth they are capable of

transmitting. With our current network environment, all three are sufficient.

The “core” switch in the network is from Extreme Networks, and has

been in place for approximately eight years. It supports 184GB of

switching capacity. Outside of the server room, Hewlett-Packard ProCurve switches are the

predominant switch located in networking closets in buildings throughout the campus. However,

our recent experiences have led us to begin a migration away from ProCurve switches to

Extreme switches “at the edge”. The volume and types of network traffic have increased over

the years, and the Extreme switches are doing a more effective job in keeping up with these

requirements.

We have significantly upgraded our internet connection over the past ten years. In 2005, the

college had a 6Mbps connection to the internet, which serviced all staff, faculty, and residential

students. Since that time, the residential students have been moved to their own segment of

the network with each student guaranteed bandwidth of 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload

service to the internet. The administrative network now has two internet service providers

(ISPs) to service its needs, including 6Mbps over dual T1 lines, and 60Mbps over dedicated

fiber-optic cable. The dual ISP services are managed via a load balancer. This load balanced

configuration provides a level of fault tolerance for the campus, in the event that one of the ISPs

has a failure or requires downtime for maintenance.

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Wireless networking is available throughout our campus. This program started with providing

wireless networking in the main public areas where students tended to congregate. These

locations included the Dining Hall, the former Alumni Hall Snack Bar, the library, and Davis Hall,

including the café and the classrooms. Conrad Hall was also included, to facilitate that

building’s numerous staff meetings. Since then, wireless networking has been extended to all

residence halls and the remaining classroom building, Academy Hall. This process provided

virtually 100% wireless coverage inside buildings on campus. Due to our limited documentation

of the construction materials used in certain residence halls, there are some defined

weaknesses in coverage in certain areas, and we are working to address these weaknesses.

4.5 Phones

We are currently in the process of transitioning from old TDM (time-

division multiplexing) technology for the phone system to the newer

VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) technology. Benefits to moving

forward with this transition include the elimination of dedicated phone

cabling (which typically runs in parallel with our data cabling), and a

simplification of our equipment infrastructure. In the future, this

technology will also allow us to implement new features, such as

teleworker capabilities (have your work phone ring at home or on your

cell phone, transparently).

In the residence halls, student phone connections have been completely eliminated. Courtesy

phones have been installed in the lobbies of the residence halls. Even without phone lines,

students still have access to IP-based phone services in their rooms, with services such as

Magic Jack.

Mitel is our current phone system provider. We have recently completed the migration of our

voice-mail system from a Mitel-based product to Exchange UM (unified messaging). This new

solution provides users with the ability to see their voice-mail messages in their inbox, and play

them from their computer, rather than dialing into the voice-mail system. This enhancement has

proven to be very popular with staff.

4.6 Cable TV

Basic and Expanded Basic cable television services are provided by

Charter Communications to students in the residence halls. Generally

speaking, there is one cable TV connection to each room.

There is currently no means of providing expanded services, due to

infrastructure upgrades that are necessary. Charter is in the process of

upgrading our infrastructure to convert the service from analog to digital and HD service. This

upgrade will provide improved signal quality, and will also expand the list of stations currently

available to students.

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4.7 Classrooms

A concerted effort has been made over the years to attempt to

standardize the technology footprint in all of the learning spaces on

campus. To that end, the I.T. department has collaborated closely with

the faculty Technology Advisor Committee to identify those technologies

that are most appropriately suited to the classroom.

We now have 25 classrooms (including some conference spaces used

as classrooms) with identical technology, including the control panel to

run it. Each classroom is equipped with:

A podium (custom designed and built by the Facilities Management department)

A personal computer

A jack to plug in a laptop computer

LCD projector and screen

DVD/VCR combo players

Wireless mouse

In addition, the Conant classroom has an interactive whiteboard. This whiteboard is primarily

used by the Education program, but is also available to any other faculty who wish to use it.

During the past year, four additional classrooms were brought online, with the opening of the

Fels Student Center. Three of these rooms are similar to the previously constructed

classrooms, with the exception of touch-screen controls, instead of push-button controls. Of

these three, two also include built-in audio conferencing. The fourth classroom in this building is

a 23 seat technology training center (computer lab), along with a network printer. In addition

to the technologies just mentioned above, this room also includes full video conferencing

capabilities.

4.8 Computer labs

Two of the 25 classrooms mentioned above (along with the

new Fels technology training classroom) are equipped to

serve as computer labs. The difference in these rooms is

that they have computer workstations for each student in

the class (24 in one room, 30 in the other), along with a

network printer. In the past two years, in a collaborative

effort with faculty and the Facilities Management

department, new desks were identified for these rooms that

allow the computer monitors to be lowered under the

desktop when not in use. This has proven to be extremely successful in two ways. These

rooms can now serve as lecture rooms when other standard classrooms are not available. The

http://nclive.nichols.edu/blogs/studentcenter/

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ability to lower the monitors also enhances the lecture portions of lab classes, where the faculty

now has an uninterrupted line-of-sight to all students.

Additionally, these rooms are equipped with software that allow faculty to block some or all

applications on the lab computers during classes; or allow students access to only certain web

sites.

4.9 Conference Rooms

There are 5 meeting rooms on campus (4 conference rooms and the

main auditorium) that are provisioned with technology. For the most part

these rooms are equipped with a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, a PC,

and a connector to plug in a laptop computer.

The main auditorium is equipped with a full sound board and light

system.

The Conrad first floor conference room is equipped with a Polycom

video conferencing system, capable of connecting with other video

conferencing units anywhere in the world. This room also has a voice-conference pod system

for full-room audio conferencing. This capability also exists in the technology training classroom

in the Fels Student Center.

4.10 Library

The library is equipped with 40

personal computers, available

to the campus community. These

systems are equipped with the

standard Microsoft Office suite.

These systems also have access to select software applications used in certain classes, such

as QuickBooks Premier and SPSS.

The library provides limited student printing to 3 networked monochrome printers; and has

color laser printing for a nominal cost per page. Student allotments are currently set at 500

sheets for single-sided printing, or 625 sheets for double-sided printing.

The library also has 6 group study rooms, equipped with a PC and a large screen display.

These displays are ideal for facilitating group projects/discussions by students.

Public computers are also available in the Davis Hall lobby (one PC) and Jazzman’s Cafe (four

PC’s).

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4.11 Web Site

Management of the campus web site and related services,

such as blogs, is handled by the Marketing department. I.T.

provides support for the “core” services that provide the

foundation for the college’s presence on the web. These

services include servers, basic patching of the

ExpressionEngine CMS (content management system),

domain names, and security certificates.

5.0 Projects completed in 2012-2013

The following is a list of some of the larger, and/or more significant projects completed in the

past academic year:

Student/academic:

Supported opening of Fels Student Center; new technologies included:

o Technology training room with 23 workstations equipped with dual monitors

o Scrolling stock ticker display in technology training room

o Touch screen podium controls in all classrooms

o Audio conferencing in 3 classrooms

o Video conferencing in 1 classroom

o Fully integrated audio-visual system in snack bar

o 3 additional digital message boards

Implementation of TracDat outcomes assessment software

Online self-service password reset software

Upgraded all podium computers

Implementation of the MOX mobile solution

Administration:

Implementation of Recruiter customer relationship management software

Support for outsourcing of payroll processing

Upgraded voice-mail system to provide integration with Exchange/Outlook inbox

6.0 Projects targeted for 2013-14

The following is a list of some of the projects planned for the new academic year:

Student/academic:

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Upgrade student computers in the library

Major upgrade to Wi-Fi network in residence halls to provide better coverage for

disparate devices

Move student e-mail to Office365; providing students with larger inboxes and access to

collaboration and cloud storage tools.

Ongoing upgrades/replacements of LCD projectors in classrooms

Assess next-generation technologies to be considered for classroom use

Upgrade of cable TV infrastructure to provide digital and HD service

Upgrade the LCD’s in Davis 109 computer lab from 17 inch to 21.5 inch displays

Administration:

Implementation of executive dashboards with online visibility to key performance

indicators

Upgrade server storage and backup capabilities

Upgrade core switch technology to avoid end-of-life support issues and take advantage

of technology advances

Implement new technologies for a call center supporting Admissions and Alumni

Create pilot project for document imaging to demonstrate proof of concept

Upgrade internet connection for “secondary” service provider to provide a 50-50 split in

internet bandwidth, compared to the current 90-10 split.

Complete telecom billing review to reduce monthly billing charges and increase services.

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7.0 Results of Student Satisfaction Survey

The Information Technology Department conducted a brief satisfaction survey of day students in

March, 2013. The intent of the survey was to gain a better understanding of student perception

of the quality of the technology and services provided by the Nichols College I.T. staff. Part of

the motivation for conducting this survey was to gain a better understanding of the feedback that

Bill Boffi received in his CLASS survey relating to technology. Regular satisfaction surveys are

also a requirement for NEASC accreditation.

A total of 117 students completed the survey. Where ratings were requested, the following

scale was used: 1-Poor, 2-Fair, 3-Good, 4-Very Good, 5-Excellent.

What follows is a summary of the questions, responses, and actions being taken to address

concerns.

If you have required help desk support in the past year, please consider your experience

and rate the following:

The professionalism and courtesy of the person that worked with you

4.12

Overall rating of your experience in the problem solving process 4.10

How quickly did someone contact you after submitting the request? 3.96

How intuitive was the form to submit your request? 3.78

How quickly was your problem resolved? 3.78

In general, I.T. received good to very good marks in all categories. With regard to how

intuitive the online help desk request form is, we are beginning discussions on how to

streamline the form and modify help desk workflows to route requests to the correct

individuals in the department. To improve the speed in resolving issues, we will look at

our workflows and communications with students. There are some cases where student

PC issues cannot be resolved quickly, due to hardware issues or corrupted software.

Please provide your level of satisfaction with the following technologies and services on

campus:

E-mail 3.62

Wi-Fi – student center 3.59

Classroom Lab PC’s 3.57

myNichols portal 3.52

Public PC’s (Davis lobby, Jazzman’s)

3.50

Library PC’s 3.38

WebAdvisor 3.35

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Wi-Fi – classrooms 3.32

Moodle 2.88

Cable television 2.88

Wi-Fi – residence halls 2.64

You will notice that the highest rated technology (E-mail at 3.62) is lower than the lowest

rated help desk service attribute (two items tied at 3.78). We will need to do more

research to better understand this result. One can speculate, however, that

technologies used in the home environment are simply more user-friendly, with less of a

need to scale, compared to similar business-grade services.

Looking at the lowest rated services, Wi-Fi in the residence halls has already been

discussed, and we have a plan in place to begin upgrades over the summer. The issues

with cable TV most likely relate to Charter’s unannounced decision to remove channels

from their analog feed (which is what students have access to) for expansion of their

digital and HD services. I.T. is in discussions with Charter to resolve this issue over the

summer, before the start of the fall semester. It should also be noted that several

students took the time to add a comment in the free form section of the survey

expressing frustration that more faculty don’t make use of Moodle for course

materials.

Although ranking at the top of the category, we are in the process of outsourcing

student e-mail to Microsoft’s popular Office365 environment. In addition to e-mail,

this project will also provide students with additional services, such as cloud-based file

storage and collaboration tools.

It is also interesting to note that Wi-Fi in the student center, while ranking relatively high,

second in the list, only garnered a 3.59 for a score. This result highlights the challenges

in providing technology support to students. In many cases we have observed students

with Wi-Fi issues have older laptops, where these systems don’t have the ability to take

advantage of newer/faster Wi-Fi technologies.

Please identify the one technology that you feel is missing from the classroom which

would enhancement the learning experience.

The following is a list of comments written in by students, with only minor editing to correct

for grammar and consistency:

Smart boards/interactive whiteboards (25 responses)

Teaching the professors HOW to use the technology

Require use of Moodle for all professors for assignments to be posted

The fact that some professors do not allow laptops in their class (2 responses)

I believe we should have the right to bring laptops and iPads to all our classes

All classrooms should have tables with outlets, not desks made for a 12 year-old (2

responses)

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It would be cool to have the option of skyping in class if the professor was unable to

come to class

Not all teachers use technology, or even Moodle. The best thing to enhance technology

is actually using what we have

Increased Wi-Fi (3 responses)

Printers in classrooms (2 responses)

More computers (3 responses)

Laptops

iPads (4 responses)

Macs (2 responses)

Mobile friendly school web site

An easier way to access or to see on myNichols all upcoming events on campus, not

just cultural events

8.0 Key Performance Indicators

Internal Processes:

o Average time to close student help desk requests

o As of July 1, 2013, a formal data collection mechanism has been

implemented that will allow I.T. to report on unscheduled downtime for key

systems:

Colleague

myNichols

e-mail

web site

network (wired and wireless)

Innovation & Learning:

o Use of new technologies (pilot and existing initiatives)

iPads in the classroom

wireless connectivity to projectors

Mac’s for video editing

o Technology renewal

Classroom projector upgrades

Podium upgrades

Mean time for closure of student help desk requests: 42 minutes

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The following is a chart showing, by month, the number of help desk requests open by

students, and total new help desk requests during the academic year:

9.0 Assessment

Overview

In general, investments in technology at Nichols will be largely driven by the strategic

plan of the college. However, the strategic plan generally addresses the academic and

business requirements of the college. There is typically very little in the plan that

speaks to the very large investments in “core” technologies that are enablers for

everything else that happens in the technology environment.

Infrastructure

Ongoing maintenance and the limited life of core technologies in the Nichols College

technology infrastructure will present challenges to the budget and services provided by

I.T. Specifically, our core network switch will begin to reach the end of its life, and

budgeting for its replacement will be challenged by the ever increasing demands for

new business and academic technologies. Examples of this competition include the

need for document imaging in the Business Office and Admissions/Financial Aid, and

the increasing need for Apple Mac workstations and supporting infrastructure.

Additionally, the ever-increasing demands for more computing resources and, more

specifically, server storage are not easing. The increased needs for server storage also

puts a corresponding strain on our abilities to backup all of this data, as well as the

capability to quickly and reliably restore it when needed.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Total

Student

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The domino effect of the two above paragraphs hits directly at our abilities to provide

business continuity in the event of a significant event. The cost of providing

contingency services is likened to buying insurance. The need is apparent, but the will

to spend the appropriate amount to provide proper coverage is challenged by the more

immediate, tangible needs of the business. Ultimately, the provisioning of a “disaster

recovery” solution must be determined by the President’s Council, and implemented by

I.T.

Academic

I.T. will continue to collaborate with the faculty Technology Advisory Committee on

creating a road map for academic technology upgrades and innovations. Potential new

areas that show promise include:

E-texbooks

Expansion of tablet use in the classrooms

Virtual desktop technology for students to have remote access to applications

such as SPSS and QuickBooks Premier

Administration

Implementation of document imaging

Rollout of executive dashboards

Assess potential benefits for outsourcing staff/faculty e-mail

Implementation of an enhanced disaster recovery/business continuity strategy

2012-2013-I.T.-Annual-Report.pdf - Nichols Hub

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Transcript of 2012-2013-I.T.-Annual-Report.pdf - Nichols Hub