IET Report : UC Davis Information Technology Planning and Initivatives
Administrative Computing Policy sees positive changes to process
Since the UC Davis Administrative Computing Policy (PPM 200-45) was adopted in September 2007, thirteen administrative IT projects have been reviewed with the most recent being Kuali RICE, the Integrated Curriculum Project, Online Giving System, and Telecommunications eBill. Planned reviews include the Campus Data Warehouse, UC Ready, and the campus NetID and Kerberos KDC Replacement projects. See the latest project review status: admincomputing.ucdavis.edu/projects
Last summer, the process was revised based on feedback from the first year’s participants. Key changes include the addition of conceptual reviews earlier in the process to help inform sponsors before projects are fully defined; the creation of a dedicated SmartSite to promote dialog among sponsors and reviewers; and improved integration with the Administrative IT Roadmap. The changes to the process have been well-received and broadly endorsed, and are currently being reviewed for formal adoption into a revised PPM 200-45 policy. Contact: Jeff Barrett, jtbarrett@ucdavis.edu. Web site: admincomputing.ucdavis.edu
IT Administrative Services Roadmap kicks off next phase
In fall 2008, under the endorsement of Interim Provost Barbara Horwitz, the campus Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors (CODVC) began the process of designating individual conveners for each of the nine administrative “domains” identified by the IT Administrative Services Roadmap. Vice Provost Pete Siegel and members of the Roadmap Steering Committee met with the CODVC in December to kick off the next phase of the roadmap which includes several facilitated sessions for CODVC members and designated conveners. The formal establishment of the nine administrative domains and the role of domain conveners, when brought together as the Coordinating Council, are especially relevant during periods of reduced resources. Horwitz specifically referenced the role of the Coordinating Council to help “…develop a process and timetable for periodic review of significant IT investments, regardless of funding source.” Contact: Dave Shelby, drshelby@ucdavis.edu. Web site: vpiet.ucdavis.edu/itroadmap.cfm
ACADEMIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION DOMAIN
Convener: Academic Personnel
MyInfoVault upgrades continue
IET and Academic Personnel continue to enhance MyInfoVault (MIV), the system that creates electronic dossiers for faculty academic promotion and merit actions. The newest version became available in December and offers users the ability to upload letters and documents from departments and deans’ offices. This new feature makes it easy to add documentation in support of personnel actions while still maintaining the data repository for dossier data. The design phase has begun for the workflow and role management upgrade which will effectively eliminate the last of the legacy code in MIV. The Kuali-Rice Enterprise Workflow will be implemented as a centralized workflow service to be used by MIV. Improved features will include more refined roles and permissions, improved dossier routing, notifications, and tracking information. Schools and colleges representing 125 departments and 3,200 accounts use MIV and have provided important feedback as the MIV group develops each upgrade. Contact: Joyce Johnstone, project manager, jmjohnstone@ucdavis.edu. Web site: myinfovault.ucdavis.edu
ENTERPRISE ASSET MANAGEMENT DOMAIN
Convener: Office of Resource Management and Planning
Campus capital plan to be integrated into FacilitiesLink
Capital planning details for the central campus and UCDMC will be integrated and maintained within FacilitiesLink. The managed information will assist in the reformulation of the capital plan which will enable the campus to receive delegated project approval authority from the Regents. This change to Regental policy will reduce workload associated with the capital planning process. Data integration will start in January 2009. Contact: Eric Rothgarn, chief systems architect, Office of Resource Management and Planning, erothgarn@ucdavis.edu
FINANCE DOMAIN
Convener: Office of Administration
Enhanced WebPAN system streamlines work for reviewers
In October, Accounting & Financial Services’ Payroll Personnel System (PPS) Admin Group and Payroll department introduced enhancements to the PPS Post-Authorization Notification (PAN) system. Departments now have the ability to split PAN reviewing responsibilities according to employee type so that mandatory and back-up reviewers receive only the PANs for which they are responsible. Staff employees are split into four categories: SMG, MSP, Non-student PSS, and Student PSS. Academic employees are split into six categories: Faculty, Researchers, Academic Admin, Other Academic, Grad Division, and Medicine. Web site: pps.ucdavis.edu/PANsystem.cfm
New tax system helps international employees with tax reporting and compliance
In fall 2008, the campus implemented Glacier, a secure Web-based system designed to assist international faculty, staff and student employees with U.S. tax compliance. The system supports individuals living and working in the US who have Nonresident Alien tax status. Glacier determines tax residency and withholding rates as well as any income tax treaty eligibility by using an individual’s immigration status and residency. It also manages paperwork, data, and file reporting statements with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Glacier is currently in use at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and UC Riverside. Questions on Glacier can be directed to glacier-help@ucdavis.edu. Web site: accounting.ucdavis.edu/glacier
UC-wide collaboration on the Kuali Financial System continues to move forward
UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara have launched a formal collaboration with the Kuali Foundation—a national consortium that creates community-based software for universities—to develop the Kuali Financial System. A UC project charter was created and defines DaFIS as the baseline for UC development. Several of the UC Office of the President Chart of Accounts reporting attributes have been developed and added to the base system as extension attributes. Subject matter experts at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine are jointly testing the development and will formally approve the design. In March 2009, the Kuali Foundation plans to release Accounts Receivable and Capital Assets modules as well as enhancements to the base FIS and Purchasing/Accounts Receivable modules. UC Davis is devoting functional and technical resources towards achieving this milestone and will start planning for various implementation activities in spring 2009.Web site: accounting.ucdavis.edu/projects/UCDKuali
Accounts payable and payroll move towards paperless operations
The UC Davis Office of Administration in partnership with the UC Davis Health System, has successfully deployed an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) in the Accounts Payable and Payroll offices of the Davis and Sacramento campuses. In addition to all four units imaging paper documents the scanned accounts payable documents have been integrated with DaFIS Decision Support (DS) enabling DS users to seamlessly access information. The project team is working with UCDHS Finance on the next phase of EDMS with implementation targeted for February 2009. The project has completed the campus computing policy PPM 200-45 review process and thanks the campus community for its feedback and help with technical planning and implementation. Web site: accounting.ucdavis.edu/projects/edms
PAYROLL/HUMAN RESOURCES DOMAIN
Convener: Office of Administration
PPS Decision Support efforts for central administrative offices
The IET Payroll & Personnel System (PPS) Decision Support (DS) unit assisted the UC Office of the President (UCOP) during the past several months by providing reports from several campus departments: Human Resources submitted information about rehired retirees; the Payroll Office provided information on employees receiving Surepay statements via email; and the Kuali Labor Distribution team analyzed payroll costs and submitted a Child Care study. Several DS reports have been added or enhanced and provide the following support: assist central offices with monitoring employee VISAs, review employees in a senior management program; assist departments in identifying how best to classify changes in PPS on academic employees; and audit employees’ service credit
PPS Support also worked with the Accounting Office to reconcile multiple years of benefits consolidated billing accounts, and the Decision Support system recently underwent several security enhancements. Access authentication was upgraded from DistAuth to CAS, and more access rules were added throughout the system to guard against any further system Web vulnerabilities. Contact: Debbie Lauriano, director, IET-Application Development, dalauriano@ucdavis.edu.
PeopleAdmin simplifies processes to support recruitment and position management
Human Resources successfully launched the pilot phase of the PeopleAdmin Project having tested the system from end-to-end, and fully implemented the new service on December 15. PeopleAdmin delivers a streamlined and simplified process to support position management, recruitment and online employment applications. Both the position management and requisition/recruitment modules moved into production late last fall, and approximately 349 campus users attended the 90 minute training sessions. Web site: employment.ucdavis.edu
RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION DOMAIN
Convener: Office of Research
Accounts payable and payroll move towards paperless operations
The UC Davis Office of Administration, in partnership with the UC Davis Health System, has successfully deployed an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) in the Accounts Payable and Payroll offices of the Davis and Sacramento campuses. In addition to all four units imaging paper documents, the scanned accounts payable documents have been integrated with DaFIS Decision Support (DS) enabling DS users to seamlessly access information. The IET Payroll & Personnel System (PPS) Decision Support (DS) unit assisted the UC Office of the President (UCOP) during the past several months by providing reports from several campus departments: Human Resources submitted information about rehired retirees; the Payroll Office provided information on employees receiving Surepay statements via email; and the Kuali Labor Distribution team analyzed payroll costs and submitted a Child Care study. Several DS reports have been added or enhanced and provide the following support: assist central offices with monitoring employee VISAs; review employees in a senior management program; assist departments in identifying how best to classify changes in PPS on academic employees; and audit employees’ service credit.
Collaboration continues on new research administration system
The Office of Research and Office of Administration (OOA) are co-sponsoring the planning and development of Kuali’s research administration system. In March 2008 the committee approved the migration from InfoEd to Kuali Coeus, and at present, the UC Davis team is working on the implementation of release 1 which includes proposal development, budget development, and grants.gov integration. UC Davis plans to pilot the Kuali Proposal Development system by winter 2010.
In conjunction with UC Berkeley, UC Davis is developing a UC-wide collaboration to coordinate the development and implementation of the Kuali research administration systemwide. The Kuali research administration system will provide principal investigators with streamlined routing of research proposals, seamless integration for submitting grants.gov proposals, a tool to build multiple budgets and, integration within the Kuali Financial System. Web site: kuali.ucdavis.edu
STUDENT AND CURRICULUM DOMAIN
Convener: Student Affairs
Banner Revitalization project update
Student Affairs and IET have joined together for the Banner Revitalization project and release of Banner 8. With SunGard ensuring Banner 7 support through 2010, the team plans to implement the upgrade to Banner 8 in fall of 2010. Some revitalization work is already making its way into production, setting the stage for business process changes that will reduce the amount of effort to apply vendor upgrades to UC Davis’ instance of Banner. Communications and training opportunities will be developed to help users transition to the new processes. Contact: Debbie Lauriano, director, IET-Application Development, dalauriano@ucdavis.edu
Partnerships result in new reports in SIS Decision Support
The SIS Decision Support (DS) reporting system continues to receive several new reports with more in the developmental phase. As a result, more collaborative partnerships have ensued. Instructional workload details and statistical reports have been developed with the Office of Resource Management and Planning for use within individual colleges as well as central administration. Trend analysis reports arebeing developed for campus management as part of the Campus Data Warehouse enhancement project. Updates to the system’s security have made it possible to create custom SIS DS reports that are available only to personnel with Banner access. Several operational reports are in production and more are being developed. Prototypes of the reports, now being tested, are scheduled for a spring release. Contact: Debbie Lauriano, director, IET-Application Development, dalauriano@ucdavis.edu.
Campus Data Warehouse enhancement project progresses
The Campus Data Warehouse enhancement project—a collaboration project between Student Affairs, Office of Campus Community Relations (OCCR) and IET—will provide easier, more consistent access to information in response to campus business and policy questions. Campus management and technical staff have identified several immediate needs which are currently being addressed. A policy regarding Data Administration has been drafted to improve the consistency and speed of access to data and to make sure that security standards are in place. Partnerships have also been initiated with technical staff on campus to develop a collaborative effort model. Data accuracy is another top priority, and a quality control model is being developed while the current CDW data snapshots are undergoing validation against the source Student Information System. Contact: cdw-eproj-team@udavis.edu
Common Architecture and Administrative Services
IT architecture to help provide a framework for future projects
Work has begun with the campus community to analyze, design and deploy the UC Davis information technology infrastructure architecture so that it meets campus technical and business requirements and furthers the campus mission of research, teaching, and public service. The effort aims to create principles and a framework for the overall IT architecture to ensure IT‐based systems evolve and support the needs of the campus effectively and securely over time. It also seeks to apply the framework (via the PPM 200-45 process) to areas that directly support business functions—such as identity management, middleware and applications and course management—to promulgate the use of standards, reduce duplication of effort, and provide a roadmap for future planning. Contact: David Walker, IT architect, dhwalker@ucdavis.edu
UC Davis cyberinfrastructure upgrade
Work is underway to define a flexible UC Davis cyberinfrastructure (CI) architecture that will make the best use of existing resources, take advantage of immediate opportunities, and easily transition off old technologies. The distributed CI environment includes: computer storage, networking, specialized equipment for data collection and visualization, data schema and formats, and the space to house it all. This effort is also intended to address the need for a balance of resources in research labs, departments, and shared resources on campus and between campuses. While the current CI focus has been on research computing needs, long term initiatives include planning for a new data center to replace the current one scheduled for removal. In the meantime, the campus will continue to provide cost effective space available for departmental computing resources. Contact: Russ Hobby, rdhobby@ucdavis.edu. Web site: vpiet.ucdavis.edu/computingfacilities.cfm
Server Room Space Evaluation Committee to examine retrofit requests
The Server Room Space Evaluation Committee (SRSEC), a subgroup of the Strategic Approach to Investments in Computing Facilities, (vpiet.ucdavis.edu/computingfacilities.cfm), consists of broad campus representation including experts in computing facilities, high performance research computing, cooling, and campus real estate. The campus incurs large costs for the retrofit and maintenance of departmental server rooms. In an effort to address campus server room needs, the SRSEC has been charged with examining the requests for server room retrofits to determine if they are cost effective and suggesting possible alternatives when reasonable. The SRSEC is working with various departments to make collocation space available to clients that have administrative or high performance research computing needs. Web site: srsec.ucdavis.edu. Contact: Morna Mellor, Director, IET-Data Center and Client Services, mwmellor@ucdavis.edu.
Campus virtualization service in final stages
The IET-Data Center is in the final stages of completing a proposal for server and storage virtualization as a campus service. Cost savings, simplicity, and increased productivity are some of the benefits departments may enjoy if this service is offered. Clients will be able to take advantage of highly available server and storage resources while still maintaining complete autonomy over the administration of their systems. During the spring, a workgroup from the Data Center met to evaluate virtualization platforms, including VMWare, XenSource, and Hyper-V. VMWare was selected, in part because it provided the best management features for an enterprise-level service among the platforms evaluated. The workgroup also evaluated 17 servers and found the average CPU utilization was only four percent. Currently the virtualization team is working with campus Facilities Management to measure actual server power usage in order to build a total cost model. The team has completed a Service Implementation document and is working on the business plan to present to campus leadership. In late August, the external vetting process began with the Technology Infrastructure Forum (TIF) Infrastructure sub-committee as well as the entire TIF. If funding issues are resolved, deployment of the service could occur as early as January 2009. Contact: Dave Zavatson, project lead, dhzavatson@ucdavis.edu
Data Center network gets upgrade in late December
On Sunday December 21, the Data Center network underwent an upgrade that affected the following campus-wide services: MyUCDavis, Smartsite, DaFIS, SIS services, and all email services. The upgrade occurred from approximately 5 am until 1pm and during that time, Data Center staff took advantage of the network outage to perform preventative maintenance and upgrades on other infrastructure equipment. Contact: Dave Zavatson, project lead, dhzavatson@ucdavis.edu