ITS Annual Report 2007

IT Services was formed fifteen months ago to ensure that central IT services were delivered according to institutional needs with improved efficiency and customer service.

Throughout 2006-07, IT Services have continued to develop and improve existing facilities in consultation with our users. We have continued to review what we do and how we do it, seeking to respond to a variety of user needs. These needs include the need for transparency and accountability, the increasing rate of technological change that shows no signs of abating, the ever-developing needs, expectations and capabilities and indeed numbers of users of our services, and the imperative to respond to changing organisational structures within the College.

This is IT Services’ first report to our users that highlights some (but not all) of the key services that we have delivered over the past year that contributed to the College’s aims in learning and teaching, research and administration.

Strategic Developments

Goldsmiths IT Strategy. Over the past 12 months ITS and the IT steering group have developed the College IT Strategy. This is an important step towards ensuring the College has a flexible and responsive Strategy to changes in technology and the needs of the College via clear and inclusive debate on an annual basis. The IT Strategy will give a direction and focus for technology, service delivery, service development and financial investment. The strategy will parallel the vision of departments and will actively address strategic IT issues and demands as well as give an overall institutional direction.

Re-organisation of ITS. The focus of the newly formed ITS is on radically improving service delivery, breadth and quality, as that is where most demand is focused. In addition, the increasing importance and complexity of the systems that ITS run, support, maintain and manage also gets more important and complex.

ITS had to change its flat structure and improve resources in a number of high risk areas in ITS that have the most impact on the business of the college. We completed the reorganisation of ITS last summer. The new structure will enable ITS to be agile and able to respond to the changing needs of the College in an effective and efficient way.
Bulk purchase of Computers. I am pleased to report on the success of the bulk purchase of computers this summer. We collectively saved more than £130,000 on the PCs alone. The quality and hardware specifications we purchased were the latest the market had to offer.

One of the long term benefits is the standardisation of computers across the College, which will enable us to provide remote services such as software support and installation of upgrades, patches and fixes, without the need to physically come to your office, saving time for both parties.
Audit. The Internal Auditors carried out their annual IT audit and it was pleasing to note that the auditors gave us a full assurance compare to the limited assurance the College received in 2006.

The auditors said,
“We can confirm that there has been significant improvement in the robustness of the IT control environment at the College over the last 12 months and particularly since the appointment of the current Director of IT Services in August 2006. There is now a clearly articulated process for IT strategic planning and governance that align strategic objectives with strategies for achievement, targets and performance measures, timeframes and allocation of clear roles and responsibilities. This is a significant achievement since this time last year.”
This is a fantastic reflection on ITS staff dedication and commitment to the continued improvement of exiting services and the development of new ones that meets the need of the College.

User Services

Open Access area in Rutherford Building (RB). In response to students’ requests for increased access to computer facilities the opening hours of the Rutherford Building were extended till midnight.
Working closely with the Graduate school, ITS extended the opening hours of Hatcham House to 24/7. The facilities are open to PG students only.
New information screens/kiosks have been installed in RB, Student Union and Richard Hoggart building. More are planned for College Cafés.
ITS also replaced old computers (PCs and Macs) in the open access areas and in the Languages Resource Centre with state-of-the-art computers.
Completed the migration of Windows 98 users to XP.
Reduced the cost of printing from 5p/page to 4p/page.
Provided induction for 1st year students across the College.
Assistive Technology and Disabled Support. As part of our ongoing policy of integration rather than exclusion, ITS have installed enabling technology hardware, software and electrically height adjustable desks in the open access areas to enable disabled users to use the facilities in the open access area if they wish to do so.
Developed a new desktop image for the open access area computers and one for the staff computers.

Systems and Networks

Networking of student residences. In collaboration with Residences, Catering and Conference Services (RCCS), ITS cabled Loring, Dean and Chesterman Student Halls of residences with more than 600 network points to allow students access to campus IT resources and the Internet. ITS is also providing on-site support to users of the service via two student IT support assistants as well as through the ITS Help Desk. ITS recorded more than 275 simultaneous connections to the Hall network in the first few days of going live at Loring Hall.
Wireless campus network. There are now more than 30 wireless access points across campus. ITS also offered every academic department the installation of a free wireless access point for their student use. To date, over 1250 active users are registered on our wireless network. ITS continues to expand the wireless network in areas where there is user demand. It is envisaged that we will have over 80% campus coverage by 2008.
The network group have been involved in a number of small networking projects through office refurbishment or need as well as the general maintenance of the network active equipment.
Username Administration. The team continues to deliver high quality service with almost all applications being processed within 24 hours of receiving the signed forms. The team has been working closely with both HR and Student office to rationalise and streamline the process of username creation for staff and students.
Upgraded the VLE’s Moodle server and software to the new version of Moodle.
Purchased and commissioned new server infrastructure that will give us resilience for our critical services such as email, applications and users file store.

Application support and development

General Database consolidation (GDB). This was an important project to consolidate and clean the data held in the central database. The GDB is used by most information systems across the college such as the Library, Security, Username Administration etc.
Research Assessment Exercise 08. ITS has developed an in-house system for the data collection and management for this important forthcoming submission.
Telephone Directory. ITS developed a web-based form for looking up staff email, telephone and location across campus. It also gave nominated staff in departments the ability to correct or add new staff data. This will eventually replace the printed telephone directory.
Mulberry email client: ITS tested and implemented the new version of our email client used by the majority of College staff.
Oracle Calendar ITS has tested the new version of Oracle Calendar (Corporate Time) and will release the new version over the next few weeks.
PCounter. This is a major project that replaces the old Palms print charging system used in the open access areas. ITS invested over £30,000 in the new system which integrates the Copy Centre and the student printing charging systems into one. We also extended the system so that users are able to purchase computer consumables using their PCounter account. This will reduce the need to collect cash. As a result of the new system we reduced the cost of copying from 5 pence to 4 pence to match the printing charges.
Email - Outlook Pilot project. ITS has been investigating the potential use of Outlook as our email and calendar client with out the need to migrate to Micrsooft Exchange, which is relatively expensive. ITS is currently running a pilot with a set of users and on successful conclusion to the pilot we hope to roll out outlook to all staff over the coming months.
Student Record System - Unit-E upgrades. Over the past 12 months, ITS has implemented major changes to the system that included new version of Unit-E and to comply with new HESA and UCAS changes/new systems.
One-off room booking system. ITS developed a new web based room booking system for the one off bookings that will ensure the College’s compliance with new policies.

Web services

Re-branding Project. The web group who led the implementation of the new College re-branding project has recently completed Phase 1 of the re-branding project which involved converting thousands of none standard web pages to the new style and format. At the same time the group has been leading the design and development of the new College web site design and the procurement of a web content management system that will ensure Goldsmiths will have new web design that is underpinned by a state of the art, user friendly web content management system. Once the project is completed, it is envisaged that local departmental editors will be responsible for updating and uploading their departmental pages in the future.
Goldsmiths Wiki: after a successful pilot scheme, ITS has rolled out the Goldsmiths wiki service to all staff and students at: http://wiki.gold.ac.uk. Goldsmiths is one the first UK-HE institutions to provide such a service.
Other projects. The group led a number of small web based projects for a number of departments across the College.

Media Services

Video Conferencing. IT Services has recently installed a Lifesize High-Definition Video Conferencing System in the Prokofiev Room. The facility will be available to both staff and students through an on line booking system. The facility could be used for distance learning, interviews, research meetings etc.