Université d Ottawa University of Ottawa OPTIMIZING FOR CHANGE Information Technology Annual Report 2014-2015 it.uottawa.ca
TABLE OF CONTENTS p.3 01. INTRODUCTION p.4 02. ENHANCING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE: THE SIS PROJECT p.6 03. SUPPORTING FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION NEEDS p.8 04. ALIGNING THE IT FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT BUSINESS OBJECTIVES p.9 05. CONTINUOUS COST OPTIMIZATION OF RESOURCES p.9 06. PRIORITIES 2015-2016
01 INTRODUCTION It s been a very busy year. With all the activity going on, you may have missed the name change from Computing and Communications Services to Information Technology. The goal of changing our name was to eliminate confusion with similarly named groups at the University. This change also reflects industry trends, modernization of terminology, and makes it easier for clients to find/reach us. The Student Information System (SIS) Replacement project was a huge undertaking in 2014-2015 that saw several resources assigned to it, causing an important recruitment effort to backfill and sustain regular operations. In addition, Information Technology completed the first year of its Enterprise Architecture three-year project roadmap. By focusing on projects identified as a priority by the community, we moved forward on initiatives that deliver significant value for the University and progressed on strengthening our IT foundation. Throughout it all, partnerships played a significant role in our projects and will be instrumental in navigating future challenges. Read further to find out more about some of Information Technology s key initiatives during the past year. As the world becomes even more connected than ever before, partnerships are at the heart of successful delivery of new services for students and the University community. Shared applications at the University which are scaled for the whole campus provide added value which ultimately benefits the activities of learning, teaching, and research. Danielle Levasseur, Chief Information Officer 2014-2015 Annual Report 3
Implementation of 76 retrofit projects for changes required to existing applications used in faculties and services that support the integration of the SIS solution into the University s technological landscape; Completion of decommissioning projects that address applications that are no longer relevant because their functions are fulfilled by the new solution or a companion project. As a result, the fit-gap analysis was completed and project planning, infrastructure implementation, and the solution design were initiated. The project is progressing in accordance with the project schedule, and is a stimulus for positive change that improves the student and staff experience through opportunities such as: Professional development of staff involved in the project; Optimization of processes 02 ENHANCING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE: THE SIS PROJECT We are working together to fulfill a vision of delivering a revitalized student system that facilitates student administrative processes and their journey at the University of Ottawa. The process involves an open dialogue that focuses on transforming the way we work together and with students to create a more efficient and consistent student experience. Johanne Bourdages, Associate Vice-President Academic The Student Information System (SIS) is central to the key processes in the student lifecycle from recruitment to graduation. Information Technology and the Registrar s office are replacing the University s homegrown and outdated SIS with a best-in-class, commercial solution (Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions). The SIS Replacement project is truly a catalyst for modernizing and optimizing our business processes, including: Review of key functions in the student lifecycle Deployment of companion projects which are not necessarily related to the new SIS but part of its ecosystem: Identity and Access Management solution, Teacher Course Evaluation System (TCES), and Course and Program Catalog; Much of the work this past year focused on the necessary discussions, analysis, and preparations required in deploying the new SIS in 2016. The project relies on the active involvement and partnerships with the campus community including the executive administration, users, faculties, services, external consultation partners, and in particular, the Registrar s Office. The partnerships forged through this project provide a solid foundation resulting in early successes, which positively impact the project. There is a collective openness to change, a commitment to minimal customization of the solution, timely decision-making, and a dedicated and experienced project team. including the amendment of 27 academic rules and regulations, revision of the structure for academic fees, health insurance for international students and improvements to the invoicing process, to date; Evolution of the organizational culture to be more open to change and rigorous project management practices. 2015-2016 will be a significant year for the SIS project. By the end of 2015, the solution design and configuration will be completed. All enhancements as well as interfaces and retrofits to interfacing applications will be completed by spring 2016. The team will then start a test period that will last until the fall 2016. Furthermore, several initiatives, part of what is 4 Information Technology
referred to as companion projects, will be undertaken to allow for the decommissioning of the old mainframe while ensuring business continuity. Some applications will no longer be required with the new SIS. To ensure a smooth transition, work on decommissioning them is planned next year. These applications include: A/R and DEPS (financial deposit system) Docunet (online ordering of documents) ERES (Electronic data Interchange for transcripts) FSMS (financial aid system) HMSS (housing management support system) InfoWeb (student and employee applications requiring login) KAMS (computer account management system) RTIS (research trust and information system) SFAMS (student financial management system) TELE (telephone directory) UOTT tables (used in various applications) WebSphere (e-commerce) The implementation of the new Student Information System relies on the collaboration and significant contribution of the project team and the entire University community to support the successful completion of the University s new SIS solution within the identified timeline. The project timelines: SIS NUMBERS 40,000+ students will use the new system 900+ institutions currently using PeopleSoft Campus Solutions 300+ workshops held that focused on design and integration 80+ staff from Information Technology and faculties/ services working together to implement new SIS 2014-2015 Annual Report 5
Web Content Management System 03 SUPPORTING FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION NEEDS Partnering to better support our researchers/professors and administrators in their regular activities. Academic CV management solution Different academic CV management solutions were being used at the University, some of which had complicated user interfaces for professors, involved multiple manual processes, and hours of work for administrative staff. With a shared vision of a single tool that met overall needs, the deans approved the recommendation to adopt a single tool institution-wide, UNIWeb. UNIWeb was the technology among those used at the University that addressed most of the stakeholders needs and requirements. The new system offers numerous benefits, including: modernization of the processes increased connectivity among professors and researchers integration with other applications that optimize processes such as promotions and grant applications a more intuitive web interface that offers more flexibility in entering and exporting data academic CVs that can be saved or exported in formats that meet reporting and application funding guidelines a research social network tool to facilitate connections to researchers with similar research interests access to summary institutional metrics. A pilot for UNIWeb began this year for 300 users, and planning began to roll out this new service to all academics by June 2016. Over the last year, uottawa.ca website received over 96 million page views. The major focus on the Web was the migration of University sites to a new content management system (Drupal). The latter offers the University community a common resource to managing its web presence. The Web team worked with the Communications Directorate, the faculties (including some research centres and institutes) and services to migrate these sites. There were over 100 websites migrated to the new Drupal centralized platform, which by the end of April brought the total number of sites on the new platform close to 225. We will be continuing the sustained rate of migrations until the December 2015 deadline to ensure University sites are accessible and ported into Drupal. This has been a large and highly collaborative project that required the help of many people from across the University. Websites of uottawa research centres and institutes are essential for communicating to the broader world, including potential trainees and grant reviewers, about the innovative and high impact research that is conducted at the University. And I believe the new OISB website now matches our outstanding research and shows us off to the world. Kristin Baetz, Interim Director if the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology and Associate Professor 6 Information Technology
PRINT NUMBERS Employee portal In partnership with Human Resources and the Communications Directorate, phase one of the employee portal was completed and uottawa s first employee portal, VirtuO, was launched. This initial version of VirtuO provides employees with a single point of access to applications and information relevant to their work. This release of VirtuO integrated the suggestions of employees and teaching staff from across the University. In addition to having tabs for Teaching and Research, Human Resources, Services, Policies and procedures, and News and Events, it also allows employees to tag their favourite applications for easy access. The employee portal will continue to grow and evolve to meet the changing needs of the University and incorporate more user requirements. There have been over 4,000 unique employee logins, and on average, there are 400 daily logins. Centralized faculty and service printing docucentre is a partnership between uottawa and Xerox to offer the University community competitively priced printing and finishing services at convenient locations across uottawa campuses. The service benefits the uottawa community since a portion of profits are reinvested within the University; Information Technology capitalized on the opportunity to capture some of the $1.5 million in print/production spending that was being done off-campus. Changes were implemented to improve production times including the hiring of additional production staff, and an open dialogue was initiated with the faculties to understand their print and production needs. Revenues increased 24% since fall 2014. 20.7 million black and white impressions at docucentre 1.19 million colour impressions at docucentre 29,817 course packs produced by docucentre WEB NUMBERS 96 million + page views for uottawa.ca over the year 17% increase in mobile visits 25 students employed by docucentre throughout the year 2014-2015 Annual Report 7
04 ALIGNING THE IT FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT BUSINESS OBJECTIVES Security Roadmap As part of a concerted effort to formally integrate security into all IT operations and endeavours, we launched a three-year security roadmap. Mobility, cloud-based solutions, web, and interconnectivity increase the vulnerability of institutions and require increased security investments. The implementation of a security foundation was established with technology investments in Identity and Access Management, web security, email security, and patch management initiatives Implementation of the security roadmap will provide a strong foundation to support confidentiality, integrity and availability of uottawa s critical business services and data. Sandeep Gupta, Security Architect Improving infrastructure reliability & performance A health assessment of our infrastructure resulted in a three-year roadmap to improve the IT infrastructure, enhance infrastructure performance, stability, robustness and reliability. The elaboration of a three-year technical architecture roadmap will support our objective to provide more robust and reliable infrastructure to better support the business community. The roadmap includes key deliverables to improve systems and processes, manage infrastructure complexities, implement monitoring solutions, and introduce sustainability initiatives to improve the user experience and provide efficient access to services. Identity Access Management (IAM) As part of the focus on security and streamlining the user experience, Information Technology is working on providing an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution. This will provide secure access to resources and information through a single IT account. A common IAM solution is planned for winter 2016 and will require identifying institutional requirements, reviewing the design of the new system, and development of the system. Security roadmap overview: 1. IT security policy and IT security standards: created the policy and developed related standards based on industry best practices; 2. Secure web gateway: configured protection against cyber security attacks originating to and from the Internet; 3. Secure email gateway: implemented measures to protect users and systems from email security threats; 4. Enterprise patch management: deployed a centrally-managed solution to manage software updates, upgrades and fixes; 5. Security risk management, security architecture and design review: implemented a framework to measure security risks and outline appropriate protection mechanisms. 8 Information Technology
05 $300,000 in software and hardware cost savings reinvested into new applications and infrastructure CONTINUOUS COST OPTIMIZATION OF RESOURCES Cost savings in software and hardware expenses were achieved in the past year by renegotiating contracts, leases, and changing vendors. The approximate $300,000 was reinvested into new applications and infrastructure to supplement costs required to revitalize IT at the University. We continue to look for ways to exercise due diligence and sound management, and bring innovation to the institution. 06 PRIORITIES 2015-2016 The focus for 2015-2016 will be on the completion of initiatives related to the SIS replacement project. Security will also be a significant prioirty with the delivery of initiatives identified in year two of the roadmap. Other important projects include the architecture of a research management solution, and document management and workflow solution; a needs analysis for an e-commerce solution; and an assessment of the institutional HR management and payroll system in preparation for a major Banner update planned for the following year. Enterprise Architecture roadmap projects To identify and plan the next technological investments, other projects identified on the Enterprise Architecture roadmap which Information Technology will be working on include: Student experience: modifications to the Housing application including a meal plan option, improving the telephone system for InfoAdmission Academic & research: TOPAZ (animal census & billing), ereviews, online evaluation system, explore for a storage solution for researchers Corporate and administrative: phone number management system, etravel, employee lifecyclebased electronic transactions, creation of a service catalog, Office 365/Lync pilot 2014-2015 Annual Report 9
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