Technology Planning & Priorities Committee
June 3, 2016
Present: Janet Scannell, Fred Rogers, Paul Thiboutot, Tommy Bonner, Carolyn Livingston, Elise Eslinger,
Bev Nagel
Agenda:
1. Minutes from April 14th meeting.
2. Any action items regarding the “sexual misconduct” email and auto-deletion? Policy or procedure clarifications?
3. Salesforce debrief and proposed next steps. [with Becky Z, Shannon s., Kim B and Julie C]
4. Consideration of Voice over IP (VoIP) vs traditional Telephony for Science Complex.
5. Clarifications about the move of file storage to Dropbox & Google Drive
6. Financial / Budget considerations. [Funding computer & AV “expansion” and time frame for new software funding and implementation.]
Minutes from April 14 meeting:
Paul motioned and Carolyn seconded approval of the April 14 minutes.
Any action items regarding the “sexual misconduct” email and auto-deletion? Policy or procedure clarifications?
Members felt the email was a violation of our use policy. Janet recommended that our policies be looked over, updated and reviewed by a lawyer. It was suggested that Any Sillanpa also be included in this review. ITS will work on this then bring any recommendations back to TP&PC and Tuesday Group for discussion.
Salesforce debrief & proposed next steps:
Becky Zrimsek, Shannon Schultz, Kim Betz, and Julie Creamer joined our meeting to give us an update on Salesforce in their respective areas of Alumni Annual Fund, Career Center, and ITS.
Overall there is great enthusiasm for Salesforce in the departments using it and alumni volunteers. 20% of alumni volunteers have logged in so far. The Career Center staff is using it internally and likes the ability to see who has been in touch with alumni for what reasons. This Cloud based tool is easier to use and people are liking the mobile interface. Julie commented that her talented Carleton technical staff put in more work than planned and feels that moving forward we can handle future projects without a need for the consultant.
As we get these various projects up and running, it gets us closer to turning off Cognos and realize the cost savings associated with that. Julie then reviewed a timeline for the next proposed projects.
· June – August: Careers Alumni Board and Alumni Council.
· Sept. – Jan. ’17: AAF 2.0, 25th Reunion and 50th Reunion
· Feb. – March ’17: Reunion Outreach Volunteers and Senior Gift
As we add more classes and initiatives into Salesforce we will need a few more licenses and consider any impact it has on staffing needs.
Consideration of Voice Over IP (VoIP) vs traditional Telephony for Science Complex
We are in the stages of planning infrastructure and need to make some decisions soon about telephony in the new Science Complex. Janet reviewed a handout on VoIP and also some Educause Core Data survey results.
· Our current PBX is outdated technology, but we will continue using it till it fails.
· We do have VoIP phones in a few places on campus – ITS Helpdesk and AAF call center.
· VoIP technology would save us running a lot more wiring plus separate jacks for network and data ports.
· The intent would be for administrative assistants to have a VoIP phone. Everyone else would get a headset to plug into their computer. Safety locations (like elevators) would connect directly to the analog phone system for highest reliability. Current use of desk phones in the science buildings is minimal.
· VoIP phones/headsets could be moved easily as offices change without the need and cost of a Telecom technician to make the physical changes.
· St. Olaf is moving to VoIP campus wide in the next 3-5 years.
After discussion, the committee favored moving forward with installing VoIP technology in the new Science Complex.
Clarifications about the move to of file storage to Dropbox & Google drive:
Janet handed out a large packet of information for each committee member to take back to their divisions. ITS is also going around and meeting with departments prior to their move. She also pointed out a few issues we discovered from the early adopter e-mail migration with calendar appoints. Faculty accounts will be moved to Gmail June 8th and 9th followed two weeks later by staff. Janet also encouraged divisions to make the file storage move when the time is right – there is no need to rush. “Reimagine” and plan for the new file storage structure first, then move. Let us know who we can help.
Addendum:
I wanted to let you know that we discovered most (potentially all) of the missing calendar appointments have been explained and can be avoided.
Austin, Julie and I had been migrated previously as part of testing and the clean-up process was unaware of a needed step, so the “shadows” in Google were canceling our appointments. We will be doing more testing today, but at the moment it appears that the issues will be limited to changes to the location or subject of one item in a series. Changes to the day or time of one event in a series moves just fine.
Also, a reminder to talk with your divisions about the timing of the development of an “information management plan” like what the Library created, and how that effort may affect the timing of your move to Dropbox. Please let me know how we can best support you and your folks in figuring that out. And let me know if you decide to delay your Dropbox migration date.
Two things we didn’t get to on Friday… regarding shared accounts and the photos in Google.
· First, we are talking with your representatives (“Super Heroes”) about shared accounts, like “admissions@carleton.edu” but I wanted you to know that the “shared mailbox” approach we’ve been using doesn’t migrate directly to Google. There are several options using Google Groups, but they will be a change to the business process.
· Second, I had suggested previously that we copy the photos from the Campus Directory to Google so the image in the round circle would match a campus photo. It turns out that is more brittle to do than we had realized, so I want to rescind that suggestion. We’ve been using Google Docs without doing that, and we want to leave it self-directed. I will suggest a location in our policies/handbook to state the photo should be “professional”. Janet
Financial/budget considerations:
At our April meeting, Janet highlighted a few current and future demands which could affect our operational budgeting and noted a few more at this meeting.
· In 2011 approximately $400,000 worth of equipment was installed in Weitz (computers, projectors, digital signage displays) from the project budget. It’s time to replace some of that equipment and those replacement costs were not budgeted for.
· There has been a recent growth in head count for the college, which in turn affects equipment expenses for ITS. We are asking when there is an headcount increase to add $2500 to the ITS budget for computers and software, plus build in funding for computer replacements.
Meeting adjourned at 3:40
Candyce Lelm