Archive for July 2018

IT Solution Center self-service portal is now live!

by Anonymous in , , , , , , , ,

I'm so pleased to share that as of 5:00PM today we have launched the new IT Solution Center self-service technology support portal, powered by TeamDynamix.

The new IT Solution Center portal enables students, faculty, staff to:

  • Find answers to common technology questions
  • Submit requests for IT support
  • Browse the list of available technology services
  • View and update your open IT service requests and help tickets
A link to the IT Solution Center was added in our myCI, and we've provided links throughout the Information Technology Services (ITS) web site to the new Solution Center portal. All new tickets submitted via the support portal have been verified to be properly routing to our technical support teams.

Special thanks to Melissa Bergem and the ITS planning and implementation teams for their dedication to making this launch a success. Thanks to their dedication, we are able to launch our portal with over 70 new services, and a knowledgebase with over 40 articles.

TrackIT will continue to serve as an ITS legacy ticketing system for the time being as ITS technicians update and close any open tickets created on or before today’s 5:00 PM launch time. 

Over the course of the summer and fall, we will work with the few campus organizations (including Institutional Research and Financial Services) to migrate their ticketing process to the IT Solution Center; in the meanwhile these organizations will temporarily continue using TrackIT to manage support and ticket requests.

Please call the Solution Center at 805-437-8552 with any questions or issues about the new support portal, and thanks in advance for your patience and cooperation as we work through any remaining go-live glitches.

New IT Solution Center self-service portal is coming on July 26

by Anonymous in , , , , ,

We're pleased to announce the forthcoming launch of a new self-service portal for IT support, powered by TeamDynamix, on Thursday, July 26, 2018. This service replaces our legacy TrackIT ticketing system and provides greater transparency and flexibility for our user community and IT support teams.

The new Solution Center portal enables students, faculty, staff to:

  • Find answers to common technology questions
  • Submit requests for IT support
  • Browse the list of available technology services
  • View and update your open IT service requests and help tickets
On July 26, a new link in myCI will be available in myCI to provide easy access to the portal. You can get a sneak peek to the IT Solution Center here.

Please contact Melissa Bergem, IT Project Coordinator, at melissa.bergem@csuci.edu with any questions you may have about the new portal. 


Monthly Bulletin - June 2018

by Anonymous in ,

Our monthly bulletin provides a summary of activities & accomplishments for the department of Information Technology Services.

User Services

  • Supported the June 16 T&I “Staff Appreciation Day” and facilitated the Tech-E Award process
  • Worked with cloud printing vendor WEPA who has agreed to provide us with a FREE demo unit for 3 months
  • Piloting a new, “small form factor” instructor PC in some classrooms which could make future upgrade and replacement less expensive 
  • Encouraged IT Staff to participate in the most recent Six Sigma “Green Belt” training.  To date, eight IT staff members have completed the training
  • Deployment of new computers as part of the Summer Refresh Effort is well underway
  • 25% of active PCs on campus are now running Windows 10
  • Closed Ticket Analysis for the Spring 2018 semester: 4676 TOTAL
    • Academic Technology Services: 126
    • ASG: 569
    • AV/Classrooms: 294
    • Desktop: 1429
    • Financial Services: 16
    • HelpDesk: 550
    • InfoSec: 220
    • Infrastructure: 857
    • Institutional Effectiveness: 31
    • Labs: 103
    • myCI: 140
    • Other: 8
    • Web: 333

Application Services

  • Application Services project team attended a pre-kickoff meeting for Grey Heller ERP Firewall implementation project (also part of Information Security)
  • Team met to review handling of Integration Broker recurring error cleanup
  • Team continues to address ongoing requests from Enrollment Management, Financial Aid, and IRPE.
  • Neal Fisch attended the CSU Technical User Group in-person meeting on 6/7
  • Shawn Bochat addressed an ongoing issue with Dolphin CareerLink
  • Shawn Bochat continued assisting with CI’s Smart Planner post implementation

Infrastructure

  • Assisting PD and Parking Services with re-wiring of Police Department EOC trailer
  • Specified and installed new UPS (battery backup) at Broome Chiller plant
  • Configured and provided network resources as well as provided oversight of access control projects at University Hall President’s suite, Yuba Hall and Bell Tower East CAPS suite
  • One of the uninterrupted power supplies (UPS2) for the Data Center suffered failure after planned power outage; working with contractor on repairs
  • Participated in Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics
  • Provided consultation services to Police Department for new body cameras in interview room camera systems 
  • Upgraded firmware on network core switches
  • Preparation work for pilot program of WEPA printing solution
  • Final preparation, test/evaluation and migration from Cisco Ironport to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection for campus email spam protection
  • Ongoing effort to upgrade campus servers to latest applicable operating system.
  • Fileshare migration preparation
  • Worked with vendor to upgrade Blackboard Transact (software database)
  • Enabled single sign-on for a variety of new services for campus
  • Ongoing testing of Duo Multifactor Authentication service on VPN and single sign-on

Information Security

  • Team continues to address security requests/incidents related to email phishing and other end user actions
  • Duo Multi-Factor Authentication project: added additional members from T&I and DBFA to DUO Multi-Factor Authentication Proof Of Concept pilot group; work continues on final DUO end-user documentation
  • Began proof of concept for Palo Alto Networks Aperture cloud access service broker tool to replace CI’s current service from Cloudlock
  • Assisted User Services with the following security related items:
    • WEPA printing station proof of concept
    • Security hard drive disposal solution – setup contract revision with current vendor Shred-It for drive shredding
  • Met with User Services to discuss Windows 10 standard configuration rollout
  • Met with User Services to discuss encryption of computers
  • Reviewed current status of CI’s use of WhiteHat Security services for scanning CI’s main websites with Web Services
  • Met with Financial Systems staff to re-start Blackboard eAccounts project and procurement
  • Met with Phil Hampton to discuss data security requirements/implications for CalPass Grant
  • Met with Araceli Espinoza-Wade from Project PROMESAS to review data security requirements to support their research grant
  • Attended the monthly CSU Information Security Advisory Committee (ISAC) Monthly call
  • Attended two CSU ISAC Policy and Standards review meetings this month
  • Continued project rollout planning for PhishMe phishing awareness service.
  • Began T&I Business Practice annual assessments
  • Addressed regular monthly audits

Project Management

  • TrackIT migration: team has been completing service catalog buildout and quality assurance testing in preparation for July 26-27 cutover of Help Desk ticketing from TrackIT to TeamDynamix, and launch of the updated TeamDynamix service catalog. Training for ITS staff is scheduled in the coming weeks, and further communication to the campus is forthcoming. 
  • In conjunction with User Services team, ID Card Printer Hardware and Software upgrade project (Multicard/Rockwest/Badgepass) was completed and is ready for closure. 2 new card printers were added, doubling the existing ID card printing capabilities.
  • In conjunction with the infrastructure team, deployed new Microsoft spam filtering. Most web applications have been updated to use the new Microsoft mail exchange (MX) records to ensure continuous mail delivery; existing Ironpoint MX records will continue to function until remaining applications are migrated.
  • In conjunction with Infrastructure team, Blackboard Transact upgrade was completed successfully on 6/1. This upgrade enables support for 2 campus card projects: Online ID Photo Submission & migration from JSA to Blackboard Accounts for Dolphin OneCard self-service.
  • In cooperation with the Division of Business & Financial Affairs, launched a new Card Services service management and incident reporting process in TeamDynamix on 6/4. See: https://ci.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/Requests/ServiceCatalog?CategoryID=8267
  • RSS Risk Safety Solutions: implementation is progressing. Single sign on has been enabled. 1st training scheduled for end of July with Peer Gerber’s team. Coordinating with Peer and Nancy Gill to develop a communication plan for faculty, lab technicians, and facilities personnel.
  • Working with Information Security on PhishMe communication and rollout plan.
  • CI Fileflow (Perceptive Content) implementation: Infrastructure & Web Services team members were able to configure single sign on using myCI; however, due to a bug in Perceptive web client, it cannot be enabled until the bug is repaired. Currently negotiating change requests with vendor and team related to color scanning; data encryption; and file format export process for Phase 2 (intelligent capture of transcripts). Two brief outages of the system happened over the last month; investigation so far has been inconclusive, and we are monitoring and researching the issue with our implementation partner Shamrock Solutions. Working with vendor to complete design document and finalize dates for Phase 2 (go-live still expected at end of September).
  • Med+Proctor PeopleSoft integration project has been put on hold, due to changes in Student Affairs Wellness program leadership.
  • Salesforce integration project was cancelled by Extended University.  
  • Fall 2018 major IT project review cycle (for projects set to start or continue between 1/1 and 6/1/2019) is now open for new submissions; more information is available here: https://www.csuci.edu/its/projects/2018fall.htm

Web Services

  • ​ myCI 3.1: go-live date has been scheduled for 8/3. Changes include new ability to pin favorite services; new search for services; and visual design changes (including retirement of the legacy “old layout”). Detailed release notes can be found at https://www.csuci.edu/its/myci/myci31-release-notes-2018.htm
  • Working with Infrastructure & Information Security to resolve security issues discovered by regular automated security scanning; many were resolved by the move to Microsoft Azure infrastructure.
  • Migration to new web site search engine Searchblox (replacing Google Search Appliance for web site search on www.csuci.edu and related sites) is underway. Migration deadline was extended from 7/1 to 7/25 by the Chancellor’s Office. Team has completed initial Searchblox training is working on configuring search widget.
  • Development of new Nursing Program check-in/check-out functionality to help ensure HIPAA compliance is 75% complete. 
  • Launched updated version of CI Social Stream, which fixed some functionality which was broken due to Facebook API changes.
  • Completed web site renaming from Division of Technology & Innovation to ITS

Administration (AVP’s office)

  • Announced new organizational structure for information technology, reporting to the Division of Business & Financial Affairs. The Division of Technology & Innovation has been renamed to Information Technology Services (ITS). Jill Leafstedt and the Teaching & Learning Innovations team will now report to Provost Geoff Chase but will remain co-located in Solano Hall and continue to closely collaborate with ITS. Peter Mosinskis has been appointed as the Interim Assistant Vice President for Information Technology Services (AVP for ITS). Herb Aquino is returning to his previous position as Director of Technology Infrastructure. Herb will continue to lead both the infrastructure team as well as the Solution Center. Tara Hughes and Anderson Hanchett will continue to report to Herb. Dawn Canfield will report to AVP for ITS and will continue to lead User Services team as the Manager of User Services.
  • Held open office hours for ITS staff on 6/29 to discuss transition and answer questions
  • Updated organization chart and published new reporting structure to ITS web site. 
  • Brendan Aldrich, Chief Data Officer for the California State University system, will be visiting CSUCI on 7/12 to meet with selected academic and administrative stakeholders to discuss data and the power of creating a “data democracy” for the CSU
  • Participated in the Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR) Leading Change Institute from June 3-8 in Washington DC
  • Accepted to present at the 2018 Educause national conference on the topic of “Launching a Project Management Office: Lessons from the Front Lines”.
  • Scheduled to lead a breakout session in July at the 2018 CSU Technology Conference in Sacramento on Enterprise Service Management.  

Transition to Information Technology Services

by Anonymous in

Dear colleagues,


As you may have heard, the Division of Technology & Innovation has now joined the Division of Business & Financial Affairs (DBFA) as the department of Information Technology Services (ITS). 

I am deeply grateful to work with such a talented and dedicated group of technology professionals, and I'm honored to serve as the Interim Assistant Vice President for ITS during this transition period. 

There have been some questions about how our department's organizational structure is changing, so I'll take this opportunity to clarify. 

First, as Vice President Ysabel Trinidad mentioned in her email to ITS employees last week, Herb Aquino is returning to his previous position as Director of Technology Infrastructure. Herb will continue to lead both the infrastructure team as well as the Solution Center, and Tara Hughes and Anderson Hanchett will continue to report to Herb. Please join me in thanking Herb for his ongoing service and commitment to the success of IT and CSUCI.

In keeping with our structure prior to Herb's interim appointment, Dawn Canfield will report to me and will continue to lead User Services team as the Manager of User Services. I'm very pleased to welcome Dawn as a member of our department's leadership team, and am grateful to be able to share in her experience, wisdom and perspective. 

I'm grateful for the ongoing support, collaboration and collegiality of the Teaching & Learning Innovation (T&LI) team. While Executive Director of T&LI Jill Leafstedt and her team will now report to Provost Geoff Chase, the Faculty Innovations in Teaching (FIT) Studio, FIT Lounge and T&LI offices will remain co-located with ITS in Solano Hall. We remain committed to strengthening our partnership and communication to further the digital transformation of the University experience. 

The mission of ITS remains the same: to provide and support technology and innovative solutions that enhance the educational experience and University operations. We continue to work towards our vision of a technology environment that provides reliable, seamless and secure access to University services anytime and anywhere, while providing an exceptionally positive experience for every member of our community.

Right now the ITS team is focused on completing summer projects in preparation for the upcoming fall 2018 term and building partnerships with our new colleagues in DBFA. To facilitate communication about our work both within and outside of our department, we will be publishing a Monthly Bulletin here on the ITS News blog. The Monthly Bulletin will help share our accomplishments, and provide information about upcoming changes to our technology environment.

Please contact me if you have any questions about the transition or any of our active or planned projects. 

Welcome to Information Technology Services, and thank you for your continued support. 


Peter Mosinskis
Interim Assistant Vice President
Information Technology Services
peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu