A Federated Model of Computing Support at a Large State University

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A Federated Model of Computing Support at a Large
State University

• Maurice Leatherbury
• Senior Director of Academic Computing and
  Assistant to the Associate Vice President for
  Computing and Communications Services
• University of North Texas

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Federated

• Federal of or constituting a form of
  government in which power is distributed between
  a central authority and a number of constituent
  territorial units
• Formed by a compact between political units that
  surrender their individual sovereignty to a
  central authority but retain limited residuary
  powers of government

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UNT Background

• 27,500 students
• Fourth largest in Texas
• 9,000 desktop computers
• Gigabit fiber backbone, 10/100Mbps Ethernet
  throughout
• DS-3s to both I1 and I2
• Netware, Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Linux, OS/390,
  Apple OSes supported

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Computing Support Structure

• Computing Center 160 FTEs
• Administrative Computing
• Academic Computing
• Mainframe Technical Services
• Networking and Communications Services (datacomm,
  telecomm)
• Each of eight colleges/schools plus major
  administrative units has its own LAN/desktop
  support personnel
• About 45 FTE employees
• Microcomputer Maintenance Shop builds and
  supports desktop computers, sells and maintains
  Dell laptops
• Classroom Support Services provisions classrooms
  with data projectors, VCRs, etc. and maintains
  them

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Computing Governance

• Computing Center reports to Vice President for
  Business and Fiscal Affairs
• Information Resource Council represents all
  colleges and schools as well as major
  administrative areas (administration, budget,
  etc.)
• Major policies and computing decision
  recommendations come from the IRC
• Information Resources Steering Committee (the
  President and Vice Presidents) make final
  decisions or recommendations to Board
• General Access Lab Committee represents 13
  computer labs that are funded through student
  fees, makes policy and sets lab budgets from a
  student technology fee
• General Access Lab Managers Committee composed of
  lab managers
• Distributed Computing Support Management Team
  composed of managers of major desktop support
  units on campus (i.e., excludes CC administrative
  and academic units)

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Funding Model

• Computing Center gets capital equipment funding
  from HEAF off the top, salaries and operating
  from MO
• Distributed units get equipment/software funding
  from HEAF through VPAAs allocation to the
  colleges and schools (computing needs compete
  with other capital equipment needs such as
  research equipment)
• Distributed units personnel and operating costs
  come from general college/department funds
• Computing Center pays for many central functions
• Novell Netware
• Microsoft Campus Agreement
• Remedy Call Tracking
• SAS and SPSS licenses
• Sun hardware and software maintenance
• Data communications (no chargeback)

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Brief History

• February, 1996 the IRC formed Ad Hoc Committee on
  Distributed Support Issues because of problems
  with support across campus
• Charged it to study
• Organization, training, career development, cross
  training of distributed support staff
• Server consolidation
• Software tools to facilitate network
  administration
• Consider formal coordination of decentralized
  computing units
• Develop guidelines or standards for computer
  support staffing levels

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Brief History (cont)

• July 1996 Provost established Distributed
  Computing Support Management Team (DCSMT)
• Membership from all major desktop support units
  on campus (colleges, administrative offices,
  etc.)
• Chair is Director of Academic Computing, who also
  advises colleges and administrative units on
  hiring and evaluation of support personnel
• Ad Hoc Committee established CSQ (Computing
  Support Quotient) goal of 100 support units
  (users machines)/2 per support person
• Range of CSQ was 44 (Library) to 275 (Physical
  Plant.) Average was 140
• Faculty Senate passed resolution requesting
  additional staffing in computing support

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Additional Staffing

• 11.75 new positions were added
• Majority went to colleges/schools
• Three positions were upgraded to provide equity
  among units
• 351,000 new funding, 75 first year, 50
  subsequent years provided by VPAA

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Current CSQ
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Computing Support Salaries
Grade Salary (entry)
Computing Support Specialist I 30,270
CSS II 33,732
CSS III 36,960
CSS IV 40,536
Computing System Manager I 44,532
CSM II 49,008
CSM III 53,916
CSM IV 59,424
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Distributed Computing Support Management Team

• On the Web at http//www.unt.edu/dcsmt
• 22 members, including the computing support
  manager at UNTs System Center in south Dallas
• Chaired by Director of Academic Computing
• Meets every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month
  (System Center participates via videoconference)
• Additional persons usually attend CC security
  coordinator, Assoc VP for Computing and
  Communications Services, campus-wide networking
  support personnel, etc.

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DCSMT Functions

• Coordinate efforts of central and distributed
  computer support units for efficiency and
  effectiveness
• Improve distributed computing environment
• Implement recommendations of Ad Hoc committee on
  computing support

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DCSMTs Relationship to Other Computing Groups

• Chair of DCSMT reports on its activities to the
  IRC
• DCSMT recommends policies and procedures to the
  IRC (it DOES NOT make policy!)
• Many DCSMT members are also members of the
  General Access Lab Managers Committee
• Most colleges/schools have technology committees
  with DCSMT members participating

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Major DCSMT Initiatives

• Campus-wide call tracking system (Remedy)
• Desktop OS standardization (Windows 98, NT)
• Laptop computer standardization (Dell)
• Productivity suite standardization (MS Office,
  some Corel Wordperfect)
• Virus checking standardization (McAfee)
• PDA support (Palm OS)

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Major DCSMT Initiatives (cont)

• Students in the Novell tree
• Network management tools (Managewise, DSExpert)
• Y2K readiness
• Hourly worker wage study
• CSS/CSM classifications minimum requirements
  change

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Major DCSMT Accomplishments

• Communication! (CC to distributed units)
• Communication! (Distributed units to CC)
• Communication! (Distributed units to distributed
  units)
• Communication! (Computing support to campus in
  general)
• Most DCSMT meetings end with status reports from
  each attendee, discussing problems, solutions,
  etc.

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Distribution of Responsibilities

• Computing Center
• Fund campus-wide software (MS Campus Agreement,
  Remedy, etc.)
• NDS tree, Active Directory coordination
• Data communications funding and maintenance
• Help Desk for students, administrative computing
  questions, general computing questions
• Compaq server maintenance
• Administrative systems
• Central planning (DIR, etc.)
• Security planning coordination

• Distributed Units
• Fund local hardware and software
• Support all of their users computing needs
  except for administrative systems
• Help desk for their users questions
• Conform to campus standards (datacomm, NDS,
  security, etc.)

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What Makes the Model Work?

• Standardization
• Desktop computers, LAN servers, Laptops, Novell,
  Microsoft, Etc.
• Funding
• Computing Center supports campus-wide
  initiatives, has carrot to gain acceptance
• Distributed units have enough to meet most
  computing needs
• Staffing
• Generally adequate to provide desktop support
• Cooperation
• Partnership between central computing and
  distributed computing

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EL PASO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

• SCT BANNER 2000
• INTEGRATED ADMINISTRATIVE SOFTWARE SYSTEM
• EVALUATION AND SELECTION

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Integrated Administrative Software System
Evaluation and Selection Process

• May 1996 - ORACLE DBMS purchased
• June 1996 - IASS Committee Formed
• July 1996 - Jan 1997 - IASS RFP drafted
• Feb - April 1997 - RFP issued for consultant to
  review IASS RFP
• Sept - Nov 1997 - Consultant selected and review
  of IASS RFP completed
• Dec 1997 - Feb 1998 - IASS RFP draft finalized
• March- May 1998 - IASS RFP issued evaluated
• June - August 1998 - on-site demos

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Integrated Administrative Software System
Evaluation and Selection Process

• Oct - Dec 1998 - Software Evaluation Team, 11
  members 2 Vendors Evaluated with Four Offsite
  Visits
• Jan - March 1999 - Vendor Negotiations
• March 1999 - SCT Banner 2000 approved by Board of
  Trustees
• May 1999 - Kickoff Business Process Analysis
• Dec 2000 - Finance Module Go-Live
• March - June 2001 - Finaid Student Go-live
• Jan 2002 - H/R Go-live

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Integrated Administrative Software System
Evaluation Criteria

• Weighted scores by criticality
• General System
• Admissions
• Registrar/Records - Credit and CE
• Financial Aid
• Financial System
• H/R
• Technology
• Vendor
• Other - WEB, Reporting, Support

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Integrated Administrative Software System SCT
BANNER Selection

• Price
• State of Texas/DIR
• TX Connection Consortium
• Functionality - General, Student, Financial Aid,
  A/R, Tuitions, G/L Accounting
• WEB V/R functionality
• Technology
• Less Strong in H/R and Purchasing

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SCT BANNER ImplementationTIPS

• Budget - doubled estimated implementation hours,
  overtime and part-time, departmental equipment
  (PCs, monitors, network printers), materials
  duplication, licensing, servers and network
  equipment, upgrades, Summit evaluation trips
• Site evaluations - Pick sites that are on same
  version if possible
• Training - Dedicated training rooms, Train the
  Trainer, Internal training documentation, smaller
  training areas
• No Base Line Modifications

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SCT BANNER ImplementationTIPS

• Business Process Analysis - EPCC ready/SCT not,
  Change processes not system
• Project Management - Internal Full time, external
  part time, Change Management is key
• Staffing - backfill key positions, develop
  vacation accrual policies
• Project Management Team - Senior Management Level
  including Functional Team Chairs
• Functional Teams - Chaired by Director level or
  above, users assume ownership
• Document record all meeting and decisions

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SCT BANNER ImplementationTIPS

• Functional - Cumbersome maintenance Approval
  Queues, User profiles, Security Matrix, etc
• Integrated General Person - Triple Caution
• Reporting - State Reports solution in progress,
  canned reporting not great, ODBC reporting has
  security and performance issues, Get Help!!
• Technical - Licensing, Training Hands on, Staff
  Retention, multiple Servers needed,
  installations, PCs, network printers,
• Extras - A/R Cashier system, Counseling and
  Testing MS ACCESS system, Payment server

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SCT BANNER ImplementationEPCC Status

• On track overall
• Outstanding issues - Reporting, Internal
  Training, Departmental Equipment, Banner
  Installations, Credit Card Payment
• Vendor Support Good overall

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Banner General

• GEAR UP FOR BOOT CAMP!!