This is the eighth 2006 edition of The Hub, a weekly newsletter published by, for and about ITS. The goal of this publication is to provide timely information about the services and activities of our department and to support the ITS community. We welcome your comments and suggestions and encourage you to submit your story ideas and announcements to its_communications@unc.edu by 5 p.m. Friday, March 31, to be included in the next issue.
Exemplar Awards for November and December have been presented to Scott McCall and Doug Brown, respectively. Both were recognized for their efforts in the move to ITS Franklin.
Honorees, who are recognized in a staff meeting with their AVC and Robyn East, receive a $100 gift card to their choice of several local merchants and a framed certificate. Awards are chosen from among the nominations for On the Spot/Star Heel awards by a committee with representatives from all ITS divisions.
The revised mass e-mail application was successfully implemented last Friday, March 24, as planned. Users have already submitted more than 30 messages for distribution.
The Hub asked Josh Tewell in Enterprise Applications how the revision came about.
The revised mass e-mail application was successfully implemented last Friday, March 24, as planned. Users have already submitted more than 30 messages for distribution.
The Hub asked Josh Tewell in Enterprise Applications how the revision came about.
“We run many applications, but our focus isn’t usually application development,” Tewell said of himself and his colleagues in the messaging group. They inherited the application in the reorganization. Many of the programmers previously responsible for the interface moved to Technology Assessment and Planning. At the same time, responsibility for approving employee messages was transferred to ITS Communications. The two groups used the learning curve to reflect on how the system worked and whether it could be updated.
“I liked a lot of the Web interface, so I kept its look,” Tewell recalls. “But the system was using WebFocus to build its address list, and it wasn’t scaling well. Combined with our knowledge that the S3 cluster was going away and that there were some other changes we wanted to make on the back end, it seemed best to just start over with the coding.”
Tewell had experience with PHP from working with the UNC listserver and had taken a class in programming with Perl. “That’s what I like about this job,” he said. “We have lots of interesting projects that let me learn things I have a lot of interest in, but don’t always find much time outside of work to play with.” He also appreciates being able to draw on other employees’ experience. “Stephen Braswell was my Perl consultant,” Tewell said. “Whenever I got stuck, he helped me out.” The revision effort began in earnest about a year ago, but was interwoven with other projects. The big push came with the beginning of 2006.
The Web interface of the new version is constructed using PHP with the Smarty Template Engine, HTML and some Javascript, while the back end is written in Perl. Data for the application is stored in ITS Oracle databases. “We’re using a Perl bulk mailer module to manage sending the messages,” Tewell observed. “It gives us lots of control–we can fine tune the sending process to work with our mail complex, so we can get these messages out efficiently. One nice part about this is being able to easily assign custom headers to each message. It gives us better reporting of actual recipients, not just sending attempts.”
Kathy Bryant, director of communications for UNC–Chapel Hill’s Office of Human Resources, is very pleased with the revisions. “The feature that lets the sender know that the message has gone out successfully is excellent!” she said.
UNC Links, published by The University of North Carolina’s Division of Information Resources, offers a bi-monthly update on IT initiatives from the sixteen constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina. The publication serves as a vehicle for information technology dialogue among IT colleagues, chancellors, and others.
The current issue (January/March 2006) is now available online.
You may send your news for consideration in future issues to Alfred Mays, Director of IR Affairs.
Welcome Kimberly Eke to Teaching & Learning as the manager of the Center for Instructional Technology, effective March 20…. Jason Morningstar, accessibility specialist, transferred from Teaching & Learning to Communications effective March 20…. Karsten Huneycutt joined Enterprise Applications effective March 27. He’ll be responsible for developing and supporting authentication and authorization services in Jan Tax’s Identify Management group…. Mike Jennings will transfer within EA effective April 3. He’s been in Steve Seaton’s HR group and will be joining Mimi Bennett’s Auxiliary Services staff.
Farewell to Juandra Williams, who left the ITRC as of March 18.
This Friday, March 31, is the deadline for filing reimbursement claims on the NCFlex Health Care Flexible Spending Account and the NCFlex Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account for expenses that were incurred on or before December 31, 2005.
Claims must be RECEIVED by Aon Consulting no later than March 31.
After March 31, employees will not be able to claim any of the remaining money in their year 2005 flex account(s). The spending accounts are flexible, but the deadline is not!
Download the claim form or request a copy from Benefit Program Administration.
SPA and EPA payday is Friday, March 31.
For employees paid biweekly, this is the third payday in the month. Some biweekly deductions will not be taken and most employees will enjoy a higher net pay. The next third payday is Sept. 29.
Timesheets, on-call pay and shift premium pay sheets for biweekly #20 (ending Sunday, April 2) will be due to your designated boxes or to ITS–HR no later than 10:00 a.m. on Monday, April 3. Please send all copies of your timesheet to ITS–HR.
Checklist for Completing Timesheets, Stand-By Pay Sheets and Shift Premium Pay Sheets
Did you–
ITS Business Office boxes are located in Giles Horney, the Undergraduate Library, Phillips Hall, Abernethy Hall, Carr Mill Annex and the Administrative Office Building.
Stand-by pay, on-call pay and shift premium pay forms are available from the ITS–HR Forms site.
Send all forms to Melissa Harris at CB #1150. Do not send them directly to UNC–Chapel Hill Payroll.–submitted by Melissa Harris
Seven positions are currently being recruited for ITS. Details are posted at http://its.unc.edu/financial/hr/SPA_EPAjobsearch_index.html.
While candidates must apply through Carolina’s Human Resources Web site, the ITS page is a convenient location to collate all ITS jobs.
