UNT IRC Meeting Minutes
December 19, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
INFORMATION RESOURCES COUNCIL
December 19, 2006
VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: MAURICE LEATHERBURY (for PHILIP TURNER, CHAIR), PAUL HONS (for JUDITH ADKISON), PATRICK PLUSCHT, TIM CHRISTIAN, JOE ADAMO (for LOU ANN BRADLEY), ELIZABETH HINKLE-TURNER, UWE ROSSBACH, JON NELSON, JOHN HOOPER, RAMU MUTHIAH, MARGARET AMBUEHL, CATHY HARTMAN (for DON GROSE), BRUCE HUNTER, SCOTT WINDHAM
NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP BACZEWSKI, SUE ELLEN RICHEY (Recording Secretary)
MEMBERS ABSENT: CHARLIE ANDREWS, GINNY ANDERSON, SARA WILSON MCKAY, ROBERT NIMOCKS, RAY BANKS, BOBBY CARTER, JIM CURRY, CENGIZ CAPAN, GUILLERMO OYARCE, ABRAHAM JOHN, STEVEN KING, CHRISTY CRUTSINGER, JOHN PRICE
GUESTS PRESENT: JIM BYFORD
The minutes of the November 21, 2006, meeting were approved as distributed.
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.
The Communications Planning Group had not met since the last IRC meeting and there was no report.
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.
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 19th 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.
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.
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.
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 adjourned at 2:45 pm