Business Activity Projects

My Sustainable Print

• The Schools of Management and Languages and Culture as well as Human Resources have now moved to the new Proof of Service service and it is proving very popular.
• Consultations to decide how the future service will work locally are now drawing to a close.
• The next step is to procure a Framework Agreement that will determine the University’s printer fleet for the duration of the service.
• Implementation will take place commencing 16th September 2013 and lasting 4 months. As with all our projects we will avoid disruption during busy times, e.g. Registration.

Print Audit and Submission Software

• The student system is now live

Other Developments

• Print & Design Solutions are in discussions with ICOSS as they are in the process of replacing their wide format printing equipment, plus future arrangements for them to provide ICOSS with a printing service
• Janine Barraclough has been appointed Vice-Chairperson of the Association of Print Managers in Education group
• All MFP and MFD devices on campus have to be approved by CICS or Procurement in support of the MSP project
• Meetings to discuss printing and scanning devices working on the Windows 7 Managed Desktop have taken place
• Janine Barraclough has met with with the newly appointed Closer Collaboration Project Manager and more formal meetings are to be arranged to discuss space management and Varsity Gifts
• The MSP Project Team and the Replacement Project Desktop Team are to work closely together to ensure that printing environments in departments do not prevent the implementation of Windows 7 Managed Desktop

Communication and Collaboration Projects

Replacement MUSE

• We are now in an intensive period of development of Phase 1 (Access to services)
• Preparations are being made to start work on Phase 2 (Personalised Home Page, Student Profile)

Text Messaging System

• The Text Messaging System has been successfully tested
• Functionality to make it possible for authorized staff to text students will shortly be added to CIES.
• It is now possible to enter your personal mobile number in MyJob, so you can be kept informed of major incidents affecting your work at the University. Staff who have work-provided mobile phones will have their numbers added by default.

uSpace Closure

• As part of replacing MUSE, from July 31st MUSE Groups will no longer be accessible. In recent weeks we have contacted a leader for each group to see if there are any documents which need extracting, and providing support in moving groups which are still heavily used to an alternative solution.
• Uspace is closing in the Summer 2014, but don’t panic, there is time before we close it down. More details to follow once they are known.

Other Developments

• We are looking at new Google products to improve search facilities on University websites
• The Open Day mobile app will be tested at the forthcoming Open Day in June to gather stats and feedback so improvements can be made in the future. Staff are also carrying out barcode scanning of visitors to track behaviour and attendance during the day
• Jessops West, Jessops Victoria and the Sound House have been migrated to IP Telephony allowing us to decommission the telephony hardware providing services to the area. This will save on both power and space within our comms room. It also negates issues of connectivity for planned building work in the area over the next few years
• The majority of the new hardware for the voice core upgrade is onsite and being configured by our maintainer for implementation over the weekend of 28th - 30th June. Changes are ongoing to the current system to ensure all remaining equipment is compatible and supported
• A review of the external automated switchboard options has resulted in an agreement not to proceed
• The first meeting of the Google Steering Group took place on 10th June
• A review of cPanel as a service is being implemented
• Migration of MUSE groups is nearing completion
• New SLAs will show measurements of performance and will be live on our website in the coming weeks

Corporate Information Projects

Admissions Auto Email

• Current processes have been reviewed and documented along with functional requirements of the new system.

Incident Contacts

• The project is about to restart with the emphasis on providing contact details for use by departments in the event of an incident. This information will be searchable and extend to external contacts such as contractors. Once the project membership has been confirmed the project group will meet.

Student eFile

• Work continuing on initial set of documents
• Testing software in CiCS
• Timescales becoming tight

Student Systems Review

• The final project report, with recommendations, has been drafted and will be finalised shortly.

Other Developments

• Meetings have taken place for a replacement for Docent
• Problems with the e-Recruitment upgrade has extended the completion date
• HR, Finance and CiCS will be taking their lists of change requirements to the next SAP Forum to agree the work schedule for the coming year
• Both the Forecasting and Finance Reporting Projects have been put on hold until the PGS led project to deliver an updated organisational structure for the University has been delivered
• Work on the Admissions MI View is progressing. Security has been removed so more people will be able to use it
• Web pages are being produced to inform staff how to get advice and help with scanning
• Archived photos are being scanned into a digital asset register using ContentDM software purchased by the Library

Help and Support Projects

Other Developments

• 30 licences of HipChat have been bought with a view to running a pilot of the software. A HipChat Google Group has been set-up and a ‘Ground Rules’ document has been shared amongst the group to establish the way in which we expect to use the software. HipChat is a private instant messaging network for companies, teams, and organisations. Features include: chat rooms, file sharing, and searchable chat history
• A demonstration from a Hornbill representative took place at the beginning of June to show how we can take Supportworks forward to incorporate the Service Catalogue and establish processes for incident, problem, change management and service requests. Integration of services was also looked at
• Meetings have taken place with the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health and with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• A 'Train the Trainer' course was run in May for members of staff in Support Services. Feedback was very positive and it may be that we offer the training again to other interested staff
• Training on the use of Google Calendar has been organised for the Porters and may lead to other areas of IT training

Infrastructure Projects

Replacement Desktop 2

• Work continues on the rollout of the Windows 7 Managed Service to staff within Professional Services and Academic Departments.

Other Developments

• Exploring browser based access to filestore for Novell replacement. Key challenge is transferring access rights from existing shared areas.
• Talking to service owners and users about requirements for replacement of current tape backups
• Oracle/Solaris blade chassis delivered
• The blade tender for Vmware is due for completion on 13th June and the aim is for implementation in early July
• File & Print: Non-CIFS related failures of Barbrook have been sent to Novell, who require some changes before they will look further
• Hardware has been received for Ethernet fabric for data centres. Isolated testing is in progress
• Cross group technical discussions covering potential uses of Active Directory and desktop options as transitioning away from XP in its various forms have taken place
• Cross Group technical discussions on infrastructure planning, capacity planning and system types to use for Database systems have taken place

Learning and Teaching Projects

Online Programme Management System

• Development work on the Accreditation system (project phase 1) has been completed along with user testing.

Programme Regulations Online Management System

• A new IT system is being developed to input and update Programme Regulations. Departments are being contacted with regard to there more complex regulations. The system is scheduled for rollout in Nov 2013.

SHIP (Sheffield HEAR Implementation Project)

• A searchable HEARable activities web page was launched in April 13.
• The batch upload of students to the activities they have completed went live at the beginning of June 13.
• HEAR as a formative document will be delivered via MUSE to current 1st year UG students in July 13.
• Interim HEARs will be available, via the Digitary system, so that students can provide third parties (especially employers) with access to this document before graduation,
• Exit HEARs will be produced for UG students on 2 year programmes in July 14
• A HEAR website has been set up at www.sheffield.ac.uk/hear. This has been revamped into a staff-facing website; a second student-facing site has been created as part of SSiD’s web review project.

Other Developments

• The problems associated with myPC appear to have been solved by fixing a coding error
• A final report has been produced on technology enhanced feedback by the consultant from the HEA
• Chris Clow has been appointed as Teaching Technology and Media Manager. He will be responsible for managing the team looking after teaching space support, as well as creative media and media support to events. Ian Whelpton will continue to be responsible for technical AV installations and workshop work
• The new timetable is almost complete with the deadline for for this year’s room requests for next year’s timetable due by the end of this month
• We facilitated 8 on-line exams using MOLE2. The demand for on-line exams will continue to grow and is part of the e-learning strategy, however support is an issue over the long term
• The learning technologies team have been running a series of training sessions on how to make the most of Turnitin both for e-submission and e-feedback
• The annual summer refurbishment is about to begin: all PCs in the IC, as well as various other rooms will be replaced this year; teaching space refurbishments are also being carried out
• Collaboration with Computer Science and the Faculty of Engineering on accommodating their special requirements on machines running the standard managed desktop are continuing quite successfully. The Desktop and Infrastructure teams have made some progress on dual boot and Computer Science will now discuss slightly different ways of working with academics in the department that might make it possible to use the Windows 7 desktop

Research Projects

Other Developments

• Iceberg OS has been completed although there are a few issues still outstanding
• Planning with Psychology to move their local HPC users onto Iceberg, they have indicated they wish to purchase nodes on the central cluster too
• Two medium term issues with iceberg hardware need to be addressed: what to do with the old AMD nodes and what action will be taken when we hit the port limit on the old core switches
• AMRC training course was well attended
• Growing use of R represents a support challenge as it is aimed at sophisticated stats users
• New web pages and wiki pages for N8 facility have been created locally
• Working on Phase II of the Apex based contracts system