Philip Baczewski reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that DCSMT met on December 1 and December 15.  The December 1 meeting featured a presentation by Armin Sabeti and Todd Phillips of Intel.  They provided an overview of Intel's processor roadmap and a demonstration of Intel's vPro technology which allows for remote management and provisioning of workstations by integrating onboard hardware technology with standard tools such as Microsoft's SMS and the Altiris management suite.  On December 15, Chris Straus and Don McClure, CITC call tracking system administrators, provided an overview of the ITSM 7 system which is an upgrade of our current Remedy call tracking system.  The new call tracking system will allow customization of problem categorization by support area and will give distributed managers the ability to configure and manage their specific sites. Active testing involving distributed support areas has begun and will continue after the holidays.  The new system is tentatively targeted for a mid-spring rollout.

EIS Planning Group 

John Hooper reported for the EIS Planning Group that their Program Management Group had met and discussed the charter for the PeopleSoft 8.9 upgrade.  They also had a meeting of the EIS User’s Group where they discussed the charter as well as the upgrade of the Learning Enhancement module.  Other items of discussion were the imaging application, CRM project (which is underway), the RFP for help with budget applications, which has had to go out for bid again due to only getting one bid response.

Learning Enhancement Planning Group 

Patrick Pluscht reported for the Learning Enhancement Planning Group that Horizon Wimba’s Voice Tools has been rolled out and is in use for the spring semester.  Live Classroom has the new server built.  They are looking at how to administer its use outside of WebCT Vista.  Horizon Wimba provides 24 x 7 technical support but there will be a need to administer virtual room scheduling.  The Live Classroom product can also be used for web conferencing of administrative meetings.  It is licensed for 2,000 simultaneous users, and they are hoping to get administrative support in the scheduling process from distributed areas.  In the discussion that followed, Tim Christian suggested that whenever distributed areas are going to be involved, it would be a good idea to demo a product or discuss an acquisition at DCSMT prior to its purchase and/or implementation, so that the distributed areas know what’s coming.  Patrick agreed to plan a demo of the Horizon Wimba products at the January 19^th meeting of the DCSMT, and pointed out that Horizon Wimba’s software support is very good, and they can be contacted directly by any end-user.  The only support needed by distributed areas would be in the scheduling of the product usage and that only when needed. 

Standards & Policy Planning Group 

Tim Christian reported for the Standards & Policy Planning Group that a complaint had been received by Human Resources about some wording in the Computer Use Policy; therefore, his committee would be reviewing that policy.  He asked that IRC members send him any comments regarding that policy.

Student Computing Planning Group 

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Student Computing Planning Group that a sub-committee had a conference call with a representative of RUCKUS.  It was clear that there must be a student buy-in of this service before it is pursued any further.  Elizabeth said that the RUCKUS representative is scheduled to make a presentation to the Student Senate in January.  There was some discussion about the need for some sort of copyright infringement service or device, and how they operate.

Timekeeping software 

In response to a question about the status of the timekeeping software that CITC purchased, Margaret Ambuehl reported that the software is being used in three UNT departments, and is a “time-clock” application which interfaces with the EIS Time & Labor system.  Another set of departments will begin using the software in January.  Margaret added that following the upcoming PeopleSoft upgrade, they plan to implement a self-service time reporting procedure for all departments. 

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.