University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

FAQs

All the facets of UB 2020 must be clear to everyone in order to advance the objectives of the initiative. A continuing series of questions and comments regarding IT’s transformation role were generated at the most recent Town Hall meeting. Following are responses to those queries.

1. What is the purpose of using Decision Director?

   It will be used along with workshops (focus groups) to acquire a broader view in reaching as many constituents as possible.

2. How can security be assured if we are using Dell’s image?

   This is our image, not Dell’s. We will have all of the necessary security features on our image. We can control every aspect of the image including the version of the operating system.

3. Is there any idea of the frequency of orders?

   We believe that the system will be completely dynamic—when you need one, ten, or a hundred, the price is the price.

4. Have other universities embarked on a student systems assessment?

   Other universities have been successful and unsuccessful in similar implementations, and we are learning from their transitions and experiences. Some have kept part of their legacy systems while upgrading other systems. We are in a really good position to learn from other’s successes and failures, and have a parallel process to talk with and visit peer institutions.

5. I’m concerned that I won’t be able to continue to have the access I need to the data warehouse and that I won”t be able to get the reports that I need.

   Through the workshops, which have been given lots of thought and attention, this is where the users will be able to provide that feedback. You’ll also have the opportunity to provide your input in the Decision Director survey.

6. How is data from the late sixties/early seventies going to play into this?

   The executive committee needs to determine how much data we will be bringing forward. They will be addressing the questions such as “Should we include up to the last seven years to satisfy requirements?” and “Should we bring all of the data along?”

7. The benchmarking that we did in the early stage of UB 2020 showed that we have far less IT staff to support faculty than our peer institutions. If we are going to increase the number of faculty, are there plans to increase the number of IT staff to support them?

   There’s a clear recognition that we will have to increase the level of support. As we streamline our operations, integrating our telephone systems and consolidating Web servers, more of our current resources will be available. Consequently, we will be able to maximize the assets and talents of our existing staff. However, plans to grow the university over the next 15 years in accordance with the UB 2020 strategic planning process include increasing the size of the UB staff by at least 600, President John B. Simpson told members of the Professional Staff Senate on Feb. 22. More

8. I like the approach of talking about a structure, but in some cases we need some concrete goals. Can we identify a few goals that should become part of our everyday language?

   UB 2020 places UB on a path to become one of the nation’s leading public research universities during the next 15 years. UB 2020 has four primary goals:

   1. "Building UB" with a comprehensive physical plan to provide a quality environment — a place with the finest classroom and work spaces, the leading technology, and superior meeting and public places.
   2. "Excelling in Academics," by leveraging areas of strategic strength.
   3. "Transforming Operations," creating model efficiency in service and process delivery (of which IT Transformation is an initiative).
   4. "Achieving Growth," with 40% more students, faculty and staff.

9. Some phone systems are so new. Where’s the logic in replacing them?

   Over the past three years, intensive analysis has been devoted to understanding requirements for a telephone communication system that will support UB’s academic and research mission and prepare our university for the 21st century. UB currently supports over 80 separate telephone systems that provide uneven coverage, inconsistent feature sets, and are costly to maintain and individually replace. As a major goal of the UB 2020 IT Transformation process, a new feature-rich telephone technology has been identified, and implementation plans were devised and reviewed. We are pleased to announce the start of the implementation of the UB 2020 IT Strategic Transformation project to provide the campus with a uniform feature-rich telephone system, the Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Project. More

10. What do you see as the practical impact on the schools from implementation of workstation standards?

    The impact of workstation standards depends on how they are implemented. Hopefully, the recommendations are those in which schools will want to "opt in," if that is in fact the model chosen. The other major challenge of the workstation standardization team is to recommend a refresh cycle that will allow for consistency. While very dated computers would no longer be supported, a refresh cycle will lead to more productivity and a better UB.More

11. Is there some consideration being made, in mathematics, for example, that may require more powerful software? Those exceptions may be far more common than we think.

    The workstation standardization team consists of well-informed people representing those areas, so we have a good handle through the discussions on the diversity that we have to support. We are operating on the 80/20 rule; the 20 percent will be the exceptions. We are certainly not going to recommend that everyone has to use the same system. We absolutely recognize the diversity of needs, platforms, etc. Every user will have what he or she requires at the end of this process. (Please refer to the IT Bill of Rights.) It’s important that the campus community trust this process, as we are working in the best interest of UB.

12. I've heard people say that they are concerned about centralizing computer purchases and relying on central imaging, etc.

    The workstation standardization team, through its discussions, has already determined that the creation of a single image is not the optimum solution.

13. How do I tell my staff how they will be engaged in projects like services consolidation and workstation standardization? What are the benefits of these teams’ discussions? Projects like ePTF have definable benefits, but these other projects’ benefits are vague.

    The interviews conducted in twenty-eight areas resulted in the identification of several IT implementations that may possibly be solutions that people are not yet aware of. The data collected in the interviews is invaluable in providing efficiencies to all of us.

    At the January 5th, 2007 Information Technology Town Hall — consisting of a series of round table discussions - attendees were given the opportunity to participate in informal discussions led by project team leaders and members. For about two hours, free-flowing exchange of experiences, discussions about project issues and goals, and exchange of questions and answers occurred among the eighty or so participants. More

14. E-mail systems are growing exponentially. Where is that being handled?

    The services consolidation team identified sixteen e-mail systems on campus as a result of the interviews. Two-thirds are using central e-mail; the balance is using Exchange or UNIX e-mail systems. In team discussions, people are recognizing that consolidating e-mail services to one or two would create efficiencies.

15. How will the goals of the IT Transformation help our IT staff do their jobs better to deliver the best services.

    Minimizing the utility work that our IT staff must do will give them the capacity to redirect efforts in a more exciting and meaningful way to support teaching and research at UB.

Questions and comments raised at future Town Hall meetings will be answered in this space. Your interest is appreciated.