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The CLA Service Desk in 110 Anderson Hall is discontinuing walk-in support effective end of day Friday, May 17.

What's Staying the Same

• Continue to contact the CLA Service Desk by phone at 4-HELP or by email at 4help@umn.edu.

• Continue to pick up and return Loaner Laptop and Equipment Pool items from 110 Anderson Hall.

Questions?

Contact CLA-OIT at 4-help or 4help@umn.edu.

You spoke and Associate CIO Brad Cohen listened. Here are the IT priorities voiced at the CLA NOW Special Session last Thursday:

• Local it support for research
• Admin access to pcs for users
• Support for Innovation
• Contextually sensitive support (rationalized allocation to respond to inequalities in local resource allocation)
• Computer purchasing, application licensing, other desktop support that is responsive to unique needs (e.g., language labs)
• Wireless--more dependable, more broadly available
• Collaboration, communication and coordination across units (esp. to facilitate common solutions to shared problems, e.g., grad student tracking, book purchasing)
• Make innovation more visible across units as it addresses common problems
• Data management that is sensitive to perspectives and unique ad hoc reporting needs (institutional vs. collegiate vs. department...)--see School of Public Health tool
• Better usability generally
• People play many roles on campus, make systems that let them flow easily through those roles
• Institutional nimbleness, sensitivity to local nuance even in implementation of commodity services
• Consistency of response and service level (end the dread of who will answer the phone!)
• Unearth best practices and drive them through institution more effectively, Scale more quickly
• Benchmark against peers to see how IT funding is managed as a strategic part of faculty/grant recruiting (GIS example)
• Research IT has to be strong--grant scoring depends on it
• Better and more visible tech support services for faculty
• Process improvement in service delivery
• Responsive IT
• E-learning support to rapidly expand course offerings to meet enrollment demand
• Improve business model for e-learning, appropriate incentives
• Get rid of phone and voicemail

Unable to attend? Have more to add? Take a moment to fill out the IT Input Survey or view the slides Brad shared.

Take a moment to fill out the IT Input Survey today. An important part of decision-making regarding information technology services at the University of Minnesota is to seek and draw upon broad input from our community. This brief survey is one critical source of input for senior executives at the University to consider as they determine the Information Technology priorities for the University. Results, along with other input, will be made available as part of IT@UMN's commitment to transparent governance.

CLA-OIT welcomed two new employees this week. Gretchen Corey and Michael Hoium, IT Support Specialists for Computer Deployment, will be working out of 110 Anderson Hall.

Interested in learning more about Drupal, the new University web content management system? A consultant will hold a public presentation scheduled for 1:30-3:00 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in STSS 230. Project representatives will talk about their progress in designing an enterprise Drupal environment for the University. The event also will be available online for those unable to attend in person, at https://umconnect.umn.edu/drupal.

CLA Web Team staff will be moving to their new administrative home in Media and Public Relations (and office location in 135-B Johnston Hall) on Monday, March 18.

Designers Anna Fladmark, Leah Honsey, and Natasha Wright will continue to provide excellent collegiate and departmental web support with the assistance of Lisa Miller and Colleen Ware. Please continue to submit requests to 4help@umn.edu.

U of M IT leaders are initiating formal Communities of Practice (fCoPs) that mobilize around FY2013 IT priorities. CLA faculty, staff, and students are invited to join these communities to engage in planning that advances key strategic initiatives. This means YOU!

Why Participate?

There are two communities of practice that may be of particular relevance to CLA department administrators and staff at this time.

CRM fCoP
Have a contacts database? Send enewsletters or mass email? Interested in tracking and measuring the success of your interactions with constituents? Want to learn more about Salesforce? Consider joining the Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) fCoP. The group will kickoff on February 26 so submit your RSVP soon.

IT Governance fCoP
Jamey Hansen, CLA CIO, shared an update on developing changes to IT at the last CLANOW meeting. Interested in shaping governance of IT? Want to help design a process that encourages everybody at the U to be a voice in IT priorities? The IT Governance fCoP may be for you. The kickoff meeting is March 1; event details are located on the RSVP form.

Visit the CoP website for a complete list of formal and informal communities of practice.

Say goodbye to Gopher Conferencing, and hello to the new audio and web conferencing service, provided by InterCall.

Reservationless-Plus

Reservationless-Plus gives you the power to host conference calls whenever you want. Just pick up any phone, dial the dedicated phone number, and initiate a call using your conference ID and Leader PIN (provided via email after you request an account). The cost for Reservationless-Plus is .02/min multiplied by the number of participants, multiplied by the length of conference call. For instance, a meeting with 10 participants that lasts 60 minutes will cost $12 (.02 x 10 x 60 = $12).

Operator Assisted

The Operator Assisted service provides expert operators to manage all the details so you can concentrate on delivering your message. The cost for Operator Assisted calls is .17/min multiplied by the number of participants, multiplied by the length of conference call. For instance, a meeting with 10 participants that lasts 60 minutes will cost $102 (.17 x 10 x 60 = $102).

InterCall Unified Meeting

InterCall Unified Meeting enables you to:

• present PowerPoint slides;
• share applications, documents, spreadsheets;
• quiz and survey participants; and
• show websites to others that are not able to attend a meeting in person.

The cost for Unified Meeting (Web) conferencing is .02/min, multiplied by the number of participants, multiplied by the length of conference call. For instance, a meeting with 10 participants that lasts 60 minutes will cost $12 (.02 x 10 x 60 = $12).

Request an Account

To request an account, go to InterCall's University of Minnesota website and click Sign Up Now. Note that a credit card number is required. You will need to enter the University's InterCall username UnivMinnUser1 and password UnivMinnUser_1. Once the request has been submitted, you'll receive a confirmation email within 48 hours from InterCall with your account information and then you will be ready to make conference calls. Full sign-up instructions are available.

Training

Sign up for one of the free instructor-led or self-paced classes through the InterCall website.

Conferencing Support

InterCall provides support for this service. If you have questions about the service in general, feel free to call the University of Minnesota technology help service desk at (612) 301-4357 (or 1-HELP on campus). For technical and billing questions, please contact InterCall directly. For contact information and to learn more about the service, tools, or available training, etc., visit InterCall's University of Minnesota website.

You already know you can call the CLA-OIT service desk Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. What about when you need technical support outside standard business hours? The central information technology service desk now provides support by telephone 24/7 -- call (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus).

Offering extensive technical knowledge and round-the-clock support, the 24/7 service desk provides the University community with a single, central point of contact for anything and everything IT.

For information on central OIT's full menu of support services, as well as walk-in assistance during business hours, visit www.oit.umn.edu/help.

Friday, January 4, 2013, 10 p.m. to Sunday, January 6, 2013, 12 p.m.

Services Affected (avoid these during the window)

• All CLA-operated servers
• CLA websites
• CLA databases
• Research servers
• Terminal servers
• z.umn.edu URL shortener
• All University-operated servers

Services Not Affected (common services that are often ask about)

• Google Apps (Gmail, Docs, Sites)

Specific Details

• The University data center at the West Bank Office Building will be powered down from 6 a.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday for annual maintenance. For more information, see data center maintenance.
• CLA system administrators will shut down CLA systems before power is cut, beginning at 10 p.m. on Friday, January 4. All affected services are expected to be restored by noon on Sunday, January 6.
• CLA system engineers will also take advantage of this outage by carrying out routine maintenance tasks including security patching and equipment upgrades.

FAQ

What is a "system maintenance window"?

In order to correct a technical issue, install a security patch, or upgrade server hardware, CLA-OIT must occasionally disrupt normal networked services. Whenever possible, we plan such service outages in advance during times that minimize the disruption to our users.

Can I work during the maintenance window?

In general, CLA-OIT recommends that you avoid using the affected services during the maintenance window. Systems may be available during the maintenance window, but they can and will be shut down without warning and may be unavailable for hours at a time. So, use only at your own risk.

Can't this be done without disrupting service?

Certain tasks require server reboots and/or physically unplugging electricity. We do our best to group these tasks together to minimize the number of outages we schedule each year--which is generally less than five.

Can you reschedule this window to a more convenient time?

We strive to select times that minimize disruption. It isn't possible to pick a time that will not affect somebody. We also have to consider the availability of our staff and central OIT staff who run the data centers and networks. We try to soften the impact by announcing maintenance windows well in advance.

How do I find out more?

If you have any questions or concerns contact us at 612-624-4357 (4-help) or 4help@umn.edu.

CLA-OIT System Maintenance Windows Google Calendar

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