Multidivisional and Office of the CIO
Promoted Carolina Key
In July, the Carolina Key project team kicked off a communications campaign to encourage faculty, staff and students to adopt Carolina Key. ITS Communications assisted with the effort by publishing and publicizing an ITS News Article, 3 reasons to go passwordless with Carolina Key and by providing design support to the Carolina Key project team.
Continued RFP process for new customer support tool
On July 31, ITS posted a request for proposal (RFP) for a new customer support tool to potentially replace ServiceNow. The RFP committee prepared and reviewed the proposal and evaluation scorecard, and in September, reviewed 10 qualified proposals and selected four finalists. The committee consists of representatives from ITS, Admissions, Enrollment, Finance and Operations, College of Arts and Sciences, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine.
Continued reimagining a new Secure Research Workspace
Teams across ITS, including Research Computing, Infrastructure & Operations (I&O), Data Reporting Environments & Application Middleware (DREAM) and Project Portfolio & Change Management, continue to make progress on establishing a re-imagined version of the Secure Research Workspace (SRW). The goal for the new SRW is to meet or surpass the evolving NIST 800-171 compliance specifications while being flexible enough to meet the unique needs of research project teams. ITS’ third-party vendor assessed the current on-prem SRW platform. The project team completed a proof of concept (POC) with Microsoft and Island Systems and is testing a production environment based on that POC. A POC with Amazon and CloudHesive is underway.
Consolidated office buildings
ITS completed moving all staffers who were expected to move from the Manning office building to ITS Franklin. The project team continues to work through the scope and approach of the next phase of the building consolidation project. ITS gave up most of its space in Manning and compressed operations into ITS Franklin. This voluntary change avoids immense cost, returns major efficiency benefits to the University, and is a further endorsement of ITS’ effectiveness working in the remote and hybrid model these recent years.
Infrastructure & Operations
Upgraded ServiceNow
On July 13, the ITSM team upgraded ServiceNow to the latest release, Utah.
Boosted Morrison Residence Hall Wi-Fi
ITS Networking staffers worked for a month this summer to significantly boost Wi-Fi capacity and coverage in Morrison Residence Hall. With help from contractors, they added 495 wireless access points so that every dorm room has an access point instead of one per suite. They also upgraded all the switches in Morrison. Now, all networking equipment in the residence hall is now 100% up-to-date.
Enhanced connectivity for soccer match
Teams across Infrastructure & Operations contributed to the success of the July 19 international soccer match between Chelsea and Wrexham at Kenan Stadium by enhancing campus networks. ITS provided additional or stronger connections for video production, stadium lights, coaches’ communications, video production and an X-ray machine.
Enabled ITS Status email notifications
ITS Networking enabled campus members to subscribe to email notifications from ITS Status. Subscribed users will receive emails including published maintenance notifications, notifications when maintenance starts and stops and all related incident information, including updates. Subscriptions are customizable.
Changed minimum VPN agent requirement
On August 3, Infrastructure & Operations changed the minimum VPN agent requirement to Cisco AnyConnect v4.10.6079 or newer.
Enterprise Applications
Helped implement VNDLY software
ITS Enterprise Applications partnered with Finance and ITS Identity & Access Management for the July implementation of VNDLY to include Single Sign-On and integration. VNDLY is a specialized software that the University uses to request, hire, manage and approve time for all third-party staffing supplier needs. It provides automated workflows with extensive reporting and analytics. Enterprise Applications provided interfaces for this implementation.
Assisted with mobile One Card
ITS Enterprise Applications partnered with the One Card Office and Finance and Operations IT to implement mobile credentials. This enables mobile devices to replace the need for a physical One Card. The One Card Office rolled out mobile One Card in mid-August. Also toward this effort, Enterprise Applications partnered with Payroll and Finance and Operations IT to replace all time clocks on campus. The time clocks were going out of support in December 2023.
Improved course waitlist process
As part of its continuing work with Operational Excellence and Enrollment Services on student experience improvements for course registration, ITS Enterprise Applications improved the course waitlist process to include allowing students to wait list multiple courses. The Office of the University Registrar announced course registration waitlist changes within ConnectCarolina on October 2.
Partnered on credit-bearing certificates project
ITS Enterprise Applications contributed to Operational Excellence’s credit-bearing certificates project, for which a pilot launched in September to examine policy, process and IT solutions through practice. One of the project deliverables was a new ConnectCarolina structure to improve tracking and management of all non-degree students and a central model for administering credit-bearing certificates.
Provides Concur travel to UNC System Office
ITS Enterprise Applications updated all Concur interfaces to support the July rollout of Concur travel for the UNC System Office. Concur is the University’s software program for pre-trip approval, travel booking and travel expense reimbursements. Enterprise Applications first helped roll out Concur to the University in 2021 as an end-to-end travel solution.
Built data integrations for budgeting
In September ITS Enterprise Applications completed building data integrations for a third-party solution to enable UNC-Chapel Hill to perform budgeting. The new Budget Tool, called PlanCarolina, replaces a resource-intensive manual process to conduct its budgeting.
Increased form’s functionality
ITS Enterprise Applications and Human Resources Information Management redesigned the Lump Sum ePAR form, increasing functionality for UNC users working with lump sum payments. A lump sum payment is a one-time payment to an employee. The redesign, which launched in September, also moved the form to an updated version of the application software used for eForms.
Removed visibility of racial demographic data
ITS Enterprise Applications partnered with the Provost’s Office to make sure data related to race and ethnicity for applicants were not visible for the admissions process across campus. This was one of several updates the University made in July to admissions standards following a June 29 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Customer Experience & Engagement
Opened new Service Desk location to all Tar Heels
In August, the ITS Service Desk opened its new walk-in location in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, just down the hall from Bojangles, to the entire Carolina community. The new space was used over the summer for a narrower, key purpose — New Student and Family Orientation.
Expanded reach
ITS Communications expanded ITS’ social media presence to Threads and Instagram to increase direct communications with students. ITS Communications published 15 ITS News articles in Q3.
Enhanced ServiceNow user experience
The ITS ServiceNow Engagement Team updated information in ServiceNow assignment groups including the manager, Grouper group membership admin, description and keywords. These changes will make it easier for fulfillers to find and choose appropriate assignment groups.
Upgraded equipment in the Gaming Arena
In July, the Carolina Gaming Arena got its “first big upgrade” since it was opened. The ResNET team replaced the nine-TV casting wall display to make room for an ultra-short-throw projector to provide higher image quality at lower latency. The new projector was a cost-saving option over buying one very large TV screen. The old nine-panel display was repurposed in other areas of the arena and in the Craige podcast studio.
Security & Identity Management
Conducted tabletop exercise
On July 20, the Information Security Office conducted a tabletop exercise for a mock security incident with about 65 members of the Information Security Liaisons (ISL) program. At the ISL meeting via Zoom, participants in five breakout groups worked through the incident. They contemplated such matters as how the incident would affect service availability and sensitive system data, what should be communicated by whom and to whom, and how to recover the impacted systems. Such exercises help reinforce understanding of the incident response process.
Renamed Identity Management to Identity & Access Management
In September, ITS Identity Management (IdM) became ITS Identity & Access Management (IAM). The new name better reflects that IAM is responsible not just for management of credentials, identity proofing and authentication, but also access to services and authorization through groups management. The new name is consistent with broader naming conventions in education and research.
Educational Technologies
Continued the move from Sakai to Canvas
As Sakai’s end date for teaching — Spring 2024 — approaches, Educational Technologies continued to transition instructors to Canvas. ITS staff added resources, such as its summer blog series and synchronous and asynchronous training courses. They also communicated directly with instructors as well as worked with the Carolina Information Technology Liaisons (CITL) group to encourage instructors to move to Canvas over the summer instead of waiting until Sakai is no longer available.
Research Computing
Represented ITS at Data Science Day
On September 29, ITS Research Computing represented ITS at the first annual Data Science Day, organized by the School of Data Science and Society and hosted by Innovate Carolina.