UNB s Mobility Strategy 2016 2017 The vision for enhancing UNB through creative use of mobile technology: We will help grow and strengthen UNB by continuing to deploy innovative mobile technologies that enhance the academic, administrative and social fabric of the university. We will iteratively improve processes for mobile technology procurement, provisioning and support throughout the university in support of that objective. Our goal through this strategy is to leverage mobile technology to enhance services, to reduce costs and to provide new teaching, learning and research opportunities for the university community via mobile technology. We will do this while balancing user expectations for ubiquitous mobile access to data and services with UNB s information security responsibilities and policies. We will continue to be adaptable, responding enthusiastically to technological change and adopting mobile technologies where feasible and practical. We will further enhance our leadership in mobility amongst our peers. UNB s first mobility strategy resulted in a major overhaul of UNB s enterprise mobility services, with a new wireless communications provider, TELUS, as well as a new model of service delivery through the mobility centre. Through this transformation, we have established UNB as a leader in the cost effective and productive use of mobile technology in higher education in Canada. We have also established a robust mobility policy for the institution. The previous strategy also saw a major upgrade to UNB s on campus Wi Fi services and the successful deployment of a university wide app that offers students, faculty and staff enhanced, mobilespecific access to enterprise data. This renewed strategy seeks to build on those gains. Specific mobility goals and objectives aligned with the UNB Strategic Plan: 1. Provide an exceptional and transformative student experience P6 Tools* Support technologies that students need and want P1, P6 (See page 6) Student mobile usage at UNB continues to grow at a significant pace, with overall mobile access to UNB websites up more than 37% in 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Additionally, the number of devices on the UNB wireless network has also increased 15% year over year. Increasingly, students expect to easily connect multiple devices to the campus network. Combined with the deployment of tools such as Skype for Business and Office365 for students,
along with future cloud services, demand for high speed wireless access will continue to grow. As the foundation for enabling student access on campus it is critical that the Wi Fi service offered by UNB be easy to use, robust enough to handle demand in high traffic locations and fast enough to meet demand expectations. We will: Conduct a comprehensive survey and gather qualitative feedback from students across UNB to determine current satisfaction levels and examine potential opportunities for improvement and to provide inputs for next generation wireless planning; develop a set of standards for regular Wi Fi quality assurance in high traffic areas; develop a set of standards as part of the ITS service catalogue for Wireless service robustness, resilience and performance. Enhance student engagement with UNB through access to personal data P1, P3, P4, P5 More than 6,300 students, faculty and staff have used the UNB enterprise mobile app over the past 12 months and our aim is to continue to build on this success. We will: Upgrade the UNB app to include class registration and use of the notification features; develop a process for gathering and prioritizing student input on future improvements to the app; help students realize the value of the app by delivering a communications campaign to raise awareness of the app and its value for students 2. Build a better university Protect university assets and university data P1, P4, P6 With more than 450 enterprise owned mobile devices and growing, plus innumerable tablets and laptops, UNB needs to ensure that institutional data is appropriately protected. To protect UNB owned devices and data, a mobile device management (MDM) / enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform is required to assist with managing device security settings, erasing lost or stolen devices and enabling enterprise mobile app distribution and management. We will: Define the requirements for a MDM / EMM platform that can appropriately secure UNB owned smartphones and tablets as well as enable asset and app management. We will procure a solution that meets those requirements and deploy it to all applicable UNB assets in a deliberate, phased approach, including appropriate communication to staff and faculty
affected; we will develop and implement standards and tools to assist / enforce device data encryption to reduce risks from lost or stolen devices. Develop enterprise mobile technology standards P1, P2, P3, P6 UNB has adopted a corporately owned, but personally enabled (COPE) strategy for its enterprise owned devices. Under this approach, eligible university employees as defined in the mobility policy are provisioned with a mobile device and have a relatively broad range of platforms to choose from including Apple s ios, Google s Android, Blackberry and Microsoft s Windows. While this has enabled greater user choice and device satisfaction, it has also resulted in greater resource demands for technical support. Some platforms, notably Google s Android, have a less than optimal approach to fixing and deploying critical security patches. We will: Conduct a needs and risk analysis to determine the benefits of streamlining the number of mobile platforms UNB supports at the enterprise level. The results of this analysis will act as inputs into the ITS Service Catalogue. This potential streamlining will not affect BYOD device support. Foster a culture of mobile productivity P1, P6 UNB s leadership, from managers to directors and executives, rely on mobile technologies to increase productivity and support many of their responsibilities. Picking the right mobile technologies can make the difference between success and frustration and knowing how to make the most of each device can result in tremendous value for the university. Through the use of the mobility centre, ITS can support the university community by providing orientation and training opportunities for existing and new leaders. We will: Develop, with appropriate partners, a technology on boarding process for new hires at the manager or higher level. This orientation will leverage the mobility centre and cover both mobile and traditional technology access. We will also promote and provide training sessions to current UNB leaders to improve productivity. Improve access to enterprise data on mobile devices P1, P3 Apple ios devices account for more than half of all UNB owned enterprise mobile devices and an even larger share of BYOD devices used by faculty, staff and students. However, it is
currently difficult to access data in UNB s file storage environment from these platforms. Providing improved access will increase productivity and improve security as users will feel more confident and comfortable storing data on UNB network storage instead of saving such data on devices. We will: Determine how ITS can improve access to enterprise data primarily via ios by leveraging platforms such as SharePoint or through other tools and methods. Integrate mobile devices with UNB s future video conferencing infrastructure P1, P5 With the successful deployment of Skype for Business as the enterprise wide, supported chat and video collaboration tool, it is likely that user expectations for integration between such devices and other UNB videoconference infrastructure will increase. Supporting such integration fosters improved cross campus relationships as well as aid in productivity for university administration. We will: Determine how Skype for Business can be integrated into high end video conferencing solutions through research and small scale testing. 3. Financial resilience and responsibility Establish UNB central volume app procurement P1, P2, P4 Third party mobile apps are an integral part of the productivity benefits offered by modern mobile devices. Over the past several years, the purchasing model for apps has evolved from a strictly consumer focused model to one that supports enterprise app purchase and deployment. Moving to an enterprise volume app purchase model offers a number of benefits to UNB, including ensuring apps purchased by UNB are retained by the university instead of the end user who may have purchased the app initially and been reimbursed for the purchase. By retaining apps, UNB can redeploy them as necessary, increasing efficiency. By purchasing apps in volume, UNB can achieve economies of scale. Establishing enterprise volume app purchasing models will support both UNB administrative and academic activities. Enterprise volume app purchasing will also bring mobile app purchasing in line with established UNB and ITS business processes for IT procurement.
We will: Explore a central UNB enterprise volume app purchase process and implement required technologies to support such a process for our enterprise supported platforms, in collaboration with UNB Financial Services and academic technology support units. The volume app purchasing systems will be integrated to the extent possible with the enterprise MDM / EMM solution. 4. Building a better province Expand the UNB wireless communications tender to include ECN members P1, P2, P4 UNB has achieved significant benefits from its revised mobility contract and new model for wireless communications service, device procurement and device provisioning. This model has since been adopted in various forms by other universities in Canada. In April 2017, when the current three year contract expires there will be an opportunity to expand the scope of the wireless communications service tender to include other university and college partners in the Educational Computing Network (ECN). We will: Update the UNB wireless services contract to include ECN members when it is due for renewal. Resources This second iteration of UNB s mobility strategy remains largely supported by ITS staff members, including specialists in web and application development, client support and operations. To achieve several objectives, strategic partnerships with UNB Financial Services, UNB Human Resources and UNB s academic technology support units in Fredericton and Saint John will be required. Others from various units and faculties may also be asked to participate in selecting, developing and delivering support to mobile users, through individual projects and initiatives. In many cases specific applications and tools selected for deployment will be funded initially by ITS. However, MDM /EMM service and other services will be funded through a charge back model, as authorized by the UNB Mobility Policy.
*There are several practical tools (P6) needed to achieve this renewed strategy: P1 Platforms e.g. types of devices supported (ios, Android, Windows, etc) specifically on smartphone, tablet and hybrid tablet/laptop form factors. P2 Procurement standards, COPE (corporately owned and personally enabled), BYOD (bring your own device), data plans, MDM/EMM tools. P3 Policy acceptable use, data protection, security, BYOD P4 Provisioning setup, support, maintenance, MDM P5 Publishing MAM (mobile application management) tools, creation, content and apps P6 Procedures documentation, instructions, guidelines, help. (From Float Mobile Learning, 2012)