Information Technology Committee Meeting Notes

 

Date: November 28, 2000

Time: 12:00-2:00

Location: McHenry Library – Room 481

 

1.      Welcome and Introductions

Members Present:  Scottie Brookie, Kathleen Dettman, Bill Hyder, Pat LeCuyer, Charles McDowell, Larry Merkley, Terry Schalk, Robert White

Staff Present:  Stephen Hull

Guests:  Linda Kittle - P&B Strategic Planning, Janine Roeth - CATS Support Center, Don Calerdine - Chancellor’s Office, Dan Snodgrass - Humanities Computing.

 

2.      Strategic Directions

The purpose of this discussion was to begin a strategic planning process dedicated to establishing the following:

A.     Identification of the range of Information Technology tasks which need to be supported.

B.     Adoption of a set of criteria and a methodology for assessing these Information Technology challenges.

C.     Selection of specific tasks based on this methodology.

D.     Development of a set of guiding principles that can be applied to the deliberation of current and future Information Technology issues.

E.      Inform the university budget process with focus on Return On Investment (ROI) criteria.

Points discussed were:

·        The committee should continue to review issues based on an emerging set of priorities and guidelines. 

·        These priorities and guidelines should be set as a result of “lessons learned” from review experience.

·        A campus Information Technology Strategic Plan will include principles derived from issue review experience.

·        For now, the goal of an IT Strategic Planning process should focus on the identification and integration of concepts and guiding principles which facilitate the rapid adoption of solutions, rather than the production of a specific document.

·        There are already a number of documents that define the long term IT vision of the campus.

·        ITC should be looking for principles to facilitate the adoption of solutions, even if incomplete, rather than wait for “perfection.”

·        In order to make the best use of ITC time we should: develop broad planning assumptions, require clearly defined baseline project support, and set specific budget priorities and boundaries.

·        ITC is also charged with providing administration with an Annual prioritization of IT expenditures and benefits.

·        The committee should consider and act on items that have an immediate beneficial impact on the campus (quick wins).

·        The committee may consider as part of its role to serve as a campus conscience to encourage IT issue resolution/action.

·        ITC should seek and receive direction from PAC for setting strategic priorities.

 

Action:  Larry and Steve are to develop an IT issue assessment matrix which facilitates the review and prioritization of current and future topics.

Action:  Steve is to derive and organize emerging principles for committee review.  Upon ITC review these will be compiled into a work “ in progress” which will be posted to the website for further comment.

 

3.      SPAM Policy – Janine Roeth

This new CAT’s Implementation Guideline was introduced and received by the committee. The committee was then asked if items with system policy and standard implications should regularly be brought to the committee’s attention.  The committee membership endorsed this proactive approach and encouraged Janine’s office to continue to introduce relevant items that come to their attention.  Janine also indicated that CATS maintains a web page which links to UC and UCSC computing related policies and standards.

 

Action:           Janine should continue to bring the ITC’s attention to relevant Information and Computing System policies, standards, and issues.

 

4.      Calendaring: Corporate Time - Janine Roeth, Dan Snodgrass, Don Calerdine

This item was a follow-up to the presentation at the November 14 meeting.  Four key topics were discussed:

  1. Corporate Time / Exchange - There was a discussion of the differences between the Corporate Time calendaring proposal and the Exchange calendaring system adopted by the Chancellor’s Office and the Planning and Budget Office.

·  Exchange represents a fully integrated suite of office productivity tools that offer advantages to the user once they have been properly trained, and if they can benefit from the range of tools available with Exchange.  Corporate Time would be deployed specifically as a calendaring system.

·  Exchange supports the Chancellor’s executive Document Management System that relies on the integration of tools that Exchange has.  Corporate Time cannot integrate with this system at this time.

·  If the ITC accepts the recommendation of the calendaring task force and adopts Corporate Time as the supported standard for campus calendaring, certain administrators would have to maintain both systems in order to calendar with the Chancellor’s Office and the Document Management System (Exchange), and also calendar with the campus staff and faculty who are using Corporate Time.

  1. Implementation Plan – The calendaring system implementation, as described in the task force plan, outlines the implementation of Corporate Time that would be coordinated by CATS. 
  2. Implementation Costs – According to Larry, Student Affairs, BAS, and the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office have agreed to assume the initial implementation costs as outlined in the task force plan. This would need to be reconfirmed once a recommendation is made.
  3. Training Costs – After the November 14 meeting, it was noted that the proposal at that time did not include costs for training users and computing coordinators. This was brought to the calendaring task force, and at this ITC meeting task force representatives presented a revised implementation Training Overview that included estimated costs for training.
  4. Addendum: Ongoing Service Costs –ITC had previously expressed concerns regarding potential ongoing support costs for this project. there was no time to discuss this item.  In post-meeting communications Kathleen Dettman raised this issue.  CATS subsequently reported that it would be willing to assume the ongoing costs to maintain the Corporate Time license, maintenance and renewal costs based on a $21/user annual fee payable in advance.  They believe that they have set a fee that is based on realistic estimates of the number of users who are expected to opt into this calendaring system.

Discussion:  The ITC accepted the estimated costs for implementation and indicated that they believed they were thorough and reasonable.  It was noted that this initiative has been under review for almost two years and more delay should be avoided if possible.  Finally, it was acknowledged that calendaring technology is rapidly changing and noted that the campus should anticipate new standards to emerge in the future which may be more fully integrated with other calendaring systems and office productivity software.

 

Action:  Larry Merkley is to confirm funding commitments for this initiative and advise John Simpson of the committee’s unanimous support for the development of an adopted campus calendaring system.    

 

5.      Data Warehouse Service Review – Linda Kittle

Kittle provided the ITC with a brief introduction to the new UCSC Data Warehouse management status.  The Data Warehouse project management currently remains the responsibility of Planning and Budget under Linda’s supervision as the Director of the newly established Office of Strategic Planning. It continues to work cooperatively with the CATS Applications Development and Support unit.  Efforts are currently under way to hire a replacement CATS-ADS programmer analyst to provide technical support for the project. 

 

The goal of the presentation was to introduce the ITC to the Strategic Planning Offices’ Data Warehouse Administrative Information Needs Assessment and System Service Review.  This effort was initially a part of an internal review plan, but since the goals and methodologies of the Information Needs Assessments, and the System Service Review resonates with the charge of the ITC, Linda invited Larry Merkley to monitor and advise the process.

 

The Data Warehouse Service Review plan was described to the ITC, and Linda indicated that the data collection process is scheduled for completion in January 2001.  The process is essentially designed to determine:

·        How well the DWH is meeting the strategic information needs of the campus?

·        Whether the DWH unit is resourced at levels adequate to meet baseline campus information needs?

 

The ITC expressed a great deal of interest in the service review process, and the future of the Data Warehouse.  There was general agreement that the Data Warehouse Service Review will serve as a valuable process in the establishment of a model for future campus information system service reviews.  Points of discussion included:

·        Adequate support for development and maintenance is critical to project success.

·        The campus should explore a variety of support models in order to more effectively achieve system goals.

·        The review must include the development of a cost / ROI model.

 

Action:           Linda Kittle was asked to provide the ITC with an update on the results of the data collection stage when it is completed.

 

6.      Committee Business

A.     Proposed New Items

1.      Campus Wiring Standards for new Physical Science Building construction. – Pat LeCuyer

·        Pat indicated that in an effort to reduce construction costs the campus is considering reducing the information wiring.

·        Some ITC membership emphatically objected to any cutbacks in this aspect of the building plans for both functional and economic reasons.

·        It was agreed that this would be discussed at our next meeting.

2.      Email Rates – Pat LeCuyer

3.      Computing Equipment waste disposal – Scottie Brookie

 

Action:  Larry is to add these items to the list of issues for review, and place the Campus Wiring Standards item as a high priority due to the immediacy of building cost decisions.

Action:  Larry and Scottie will explore waste disposal alternatives.

 

7.      Next Meeting:  Wednesday, 12/13, 12:00-2:00, Kerr Hall, Room 283.  Lunch will once again be provided.

 

8.      Adjournment at 2:00 PM.

 

 

Maintained by Stephen Hull.

Last modified on 12/8/00.