Projects
IT Related Projects May 2010
E-mail Development Projects
The University is undertaking a major programme of projects to enhance e-mail and associated facilities for both staff and students. An Advisory Group https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/diss/cc/uniwide/Projects/Current email projects/Email-Advisory-Group, chaired by Professor Terry Kavanagh with representation from across the University, is meeting at intervals throughout the programme to advise on the University's requirements and to review progress.
Staff Email: The move of staff email to Microsoft Exchange is proceeding well, with 47% of users now migrated. A target date of 31 August has been set to complete the migration.
Student Communication and Collaboration: Feedback has continued to be very positive for the new Google Apps student system, with usage statistics indicating a high level of interest in Google Calendar and Google Docs. IT Services is continuing to work with Google to exploit Google Apps to its fullest potential, and a Google based Alumni service will be launched in June 2010. This will give Loughborough students "E-mail for life" on graduation, and also preserve any existing email, contacts, documents etc stored on the Google service. Many members of staff have expressed an interest in using the collaborative features of Google Apps. In response to this, a pilot staff Google domain will be made available in Summer 2010.
Office 2007
http:///office2007.lboro.ac.uk
The majority of staff are changing from Office 2003 to Office 2007 at the same time as their e-mail is moved from CommuniGate onto Exchange. Information to support the move from Office 2003 to 2007 is available at the following link: http://office2007.lboro.ac.uk. Bespoke training courses are being offered to departments and individuals may also sign up for general ones via the Staff Development service.
Student Portal
Following a widespread consultation IT Services is now developing a "student portal". This will provide a personalised entry point into University IT systems for students, in the spirit of online stores and banking services. The student portal will be launched later in 2010. Initial facilities to be provided will include previews of students' e-mail and calendars, feeds of news and events from the University and the Students Union, and deep links into the relevant areas of Learn and Library systems. The portal will also provide a framework for new student self-service facilities to be developed. A key part of the portal project is a technology known as "Single Sign-On". This streamlines the authentication process and reduces the number of times that a user name and password is requested by IT systems. Following a successful student portal launch, it is intended that work will begin on a staff portal, to be launched by Summer 2011.
High Performance Computing
The supplier (Bull) has installed the cooling unit in Holywell Park, and is currently commissioning the new facility at its factory, for delivery and installation in June. The project remains on schedule.
Strategic Partnership for Infrastructure
Two competitive returns have been received and at the time of writing, these are being evaluated by members of the Project Management Board.
Loughborough University Student Information (LUSI)
Current major development strands within the LUSI programme are as follows.
Applicant Portal
The new online application facility for postgraduate admissions has been implemented. The new facility provides functionality for applicants to save the form for completion later and to track the progress of their application.
Online Module Selection Facility
The online module selection facility, being developed with Civil Engineering, is being run as a pilot in Civil Engineering.
Post Graduate Research Enhancements
The project team has completed the process review of the administration of research students, and has prioritised and scheduled the changes identified to improve the business processes. Some of the enhancements have been implemented including a read-only facility for departments to access the research student information on LUSI and the functionality for departments to be able to change a student's supervisor.
Points Based Immigration
The changes required for the new Sponsorship Management System are in progress.
Student Accommodation
We are working with imago and Kinetic Solutions to ensure the necessary changes to Kx are in place in preparation for the new academic year.
Web Content Management
The University has recently acquired a new web content management system (WCMS). After an lengthy procurement process, the Site Manager WCMS, from Terminal Four, was chosen as the preferred system for Loughborough University. Site Manager is used extensively in higher education and Loughborough is Terminal Four's 50th HE client.
Between now and September, the University's Marketing and Communications Department will be working with IT Services and Terminal Four to develop a number of pilot sites using the Site Manager WCMS. This includes some of the main University's main sections, for example "News and Events", "Postgraduate Prospectus", and "Online News at Loughborough".
Following the launch of these pilot sites, we will be undertaking a phased adoption of the WCMS across all academic and support service departments. In preparation for this, the Web Development Manager will be meeting with department heads and their key web publishers in the next few months. These discussions will be designed to evaluate current web position, identify future requirements and help inform when departments be moved into the WCMS.
The aim is for the majority of academic and support service departments to move into the WCMS by Autumn 2012.
More details of the timescales for WCMS adoption will be published in the next few months and WCMS drop-in sessions, giving web providers an opportunity to see it in action, are planned for later in the year.
More information on the Web Content Management System project or the University website development in general can be found on the Marketing and Communications Intranet – https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/service/marketing/uniwide/web/.
University Financial Management Systems
Work on the ePayments project continues to progress well. The first meeting of the ePayments User Forum has been held and representatives from across the University were enthusiastic about the new on-line store facilities that will be implemented. The first phase will include accepting online alumni donations and taking payments for conferences, short courses and publications. The newly recruited ePayments Co-ordinator is due to take up her post in June and it is envisaged that the on-line store will be "open for business" over the summer.
Testing of the recurring card payment and paperless direct debit functionality is nearing completion. Finance have rethought their requirements and now seek to use these functions in the back office rather than opening them up to students as self service facilities.
Human Resource Management (Midland Trent)
The Business Objects management reporting tool has been upgraded to a new, web enabled version and rollout of this is now under way.
A business case and detailed costings have been presented to Operations in regard to upgrading Trent to a newer version (iTrent), renewing the hardware infrastructure and introducing a range of new facilities including staff and manager self service, web recruitment, electronic payslips, health and safety and training administration. The business case included detailed assessment, with financial analysis, of the benefits that this project would bring. The option of hosting the solution off-site was considered in depth but, on balance, it was considered that this was not appropriate for Loughborough at the present time. A decision from Operations is awaited.
Central Timetabling
A contract has been agreed with Serco for the Facility CMIS software. The hardware to support the development system is being installed and we plan to install the software during June. The Software Engineer to support the implementation has started, and the Timetabling Manager is to start in July. The team has started to work with the Serco consultants to plan the phased implementation.
Research Publications Projects
Piloting of an on-line Personal Research Plan is underway. The initial design has been well received, and work is underway to redevelop using a different technology to support users on a wider range of technical platforms. Redevelopment work is due to be completed during June, and pilot work will resume with further departments.
Following the conclusion of a Feasibility Study, the University issued a tender in January to acquire a comprehensive Research Publications System. Such a system will replace the current, aging Publications Database. The new system will store and manage research output and metadata and will integrate with the Institutional Repository to create a single point of entry for research material. The system will, in many cases, automatically harvest the material from relevant external publications.
A number of responses were received in response to the tender and careful evaluation is being undertaken. The responses have been shortlisted, and demonstrations of these solutions to a carefully chosen audience is under way. Information is being gathered from reference sites and visits to a small number of these are being arranged. It is planned that a supplier recommendation will be made by the project Steering Group during June. The University has stated that it wishes to have the chosen system operational from the start of the new academic year; this is an ambitious target but, as long as the University has sufficient resource available, suppliers have indicated their confidence in being able to meet it.
PIPaL (Process Improvement at Loughborough)
This JISC-funded project, relating to Customer/Partner Relationship Management at Loughborough, has been completed. A case study and final report have been delivered to JISC who have been very complimentary about the project.
The outputs from this project have been discussed with key stakeholders and will be used to inform how this area of work will be taken forward. Information about the project can be found on the project web site http://jiscpipal.wordpress.com.
Campus Card Access Systems
A detailed rollout schedule has been produced as per the IT Steering Group request, which begins with residences, then focuses on areas potentially to be used by team GB, then finally through the rest of campus. Plans are in place to issue new "smart" cards to all staff during autumn 2010.
Simplification of Human Resources Processes - Identity Management
An initial scope report for a robust and transparent identity and access management system has been put forward within the value for money agenda as an essential requirement for meeting some of the objectives of the simplification of processes.
Service Quality Improvement Programme
Via this programme of projects, IT Services is reviewing existing practices and, where appropriate, implementing improvements based upon globally recognised good service management practice.
The two projects which we are progressing at present are Service Catalogue Development and Management , and Incident and Request Management.
The first of these has made good progress in the production of a catalogue providing information on those services available to ITS's customers and users, and the catalogue will be delivered via the ITS web-site very soon. We anticipate that it will subsequently evolve to more specifically meet the requirements of different customers and users, and recognise that the concept could be developed to cover all services, not just ITS or IT.
The second is making good progress in reviewing how we handle issues with, and simple requests related to, our systems, both at the Service Desk and between the Service Desk and other ITS teams. New procedures have been developed and are in the process of being discussed/agreed or implemented within ITS. A project to acquire a Service Management toolset to support this and related areas of work is expected to follow very soon. We recognise that both procedures and toolset might usefully be adopted by other services.
Wireless Rollout
Wireless usage on campus has exceeded expectations and during the summer months, IT Service will continue to roll out additional access points and update the infrastructure to accommodate the increase in users. Wireless Access Points are being included as part of the blueprint for all new builds and refurbishment across campus and students are seeing wireless access as an essential part of their connectivity on campus.
Windows 7
The project to develop a University desktop and laptop service, for both staff and labs, based on Windows 7, is progressing well.
Development of University IT Labs
Over the summer the ground floor of the Haslegrave building will be redeveloped into a high quality IT learning suite, with IT labs both for general booked and open access use, and specialist labs for Computer Science students. The PC Clinic and IT Pitstop Hardware Support Service will also be based here. The area will be fitted out with modern Apple Mac computers, running a "triple boot" system to enable them to be used as Windows PCs, Apple Macs, or running the Linux operating system.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention
As part of recommendations from the University internal auditors, the Intrusion Detection/Prevention system, which highlights malicious activity on the University network, has been updated. The previous system was end of life and a number of years over the ideal replacement cycle. The new system was implemented ahead of the auditor review meeting on the 16th April.
VPN - Remote Working Portal
The VPN/Remote Working Portal was upgraded over the Easter vacation following a discussion at the last ITC meeting. The removal of the split tunnel feature ensures full secure access to the University and Internet resources whilst the VPN is activated. This also allows seamless access to electronic journals which was sometimes problematic depending on what journal provider was being used.