Multidivisional and Office of the CIO
Expanded access to generative AI chat tool
On February 20, ITS expanded access to Copilot with Data Protection, Microsoft’s enterprise generative AI chat tool. Now all students, faculty and staff at UNC can use the institutionally scoped chatbot and assistant. ITS enabled Copilot, then called Bing Chat Enterprise, for faculty and staff on November 8.
Kicked off Customer Support Tool project
The Customer Support Tool RFP process, which began in March 2023, entered a new phase in Q1. During the quarter, the team primarily focused on project planning and project team configuration training for the move to TeamDynamix (TDX) from ServiceNow before moving onto system configurations and TDX foundations. The team is targeting July 10 for the first phase of the TDX launch.
Refreshed ConnectCarolina landing page
Teams in ITS partnered to refresh the ConnectCarolina landing page at connectcarolina.unc.edu. The new landing page aligns with the ITS brand and the refreshed Help Portal landing page, which launched in March 2023.
Continued revising policies
ITS continued working on a major revision of the Security Controls Standard and Vulnerability Management Standard, which are backbone Information Security program policies. ITS staff held office hours and solicited comments on the policies from ITS and the IT community.
Updated the Duo interface on some UNC systems
This quarter, ITS began migrating a few services from the traditional Duo prompt experience to Duo Universal Prompt or alternate solution. ITS teams updated the Duo registration and device management portal experience and Self Service (selfservice.unc.edu) in February and ConnectCarolina (Human Resources and Student Administration) in March.
Acted to protect UNC’s email reputation
ITS rolled out changes to UNC’s email systems to comply with additional identity controls from Google and Yahoo that took effect on February 1. Complying with the new requirements requires a mix of technical solutions and sender behaviors. ITS addressed both by sharing bulk sender best practices and enacting changes to systems including listserv, Qualtrics, Relay and Microsoft 365.
Completed phone services project
This quarter, ITS completed the remaining work in the three-year phone services project to migrate 36,331 phone lines across 265 University buildings from Verizon to AT&T. Teams across ITS, including ITS Voice Services, ITS Networking, ITS Project Portfolio & Change Management, ITS Transport Operations and ITS Warehouse contributed to the project.
Tested ConnectCarolina disaster preparedness
Teams in ITS, including Enterprise Applications and Data & Reporting & Application Middleware, performed disaster recovery testing for ConnectCarolina in February. Teams tested ConnectCarolina database switchover and switchback capabilities and examined the viability of using standby database instances for ConnectCarolina. The PeopleSoft Administration team also took advantage of the testing window to apply system patches.
People
Project Portfolio & Change Management hired a third project manager, Noelle Chaltry.
Customer Experience & Engagement
Launched new Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) website
Teams in ITS collaborated to launch a refreshed website for the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI). The new CCI site is not only the first ITS website designed with the ITS brand in mind, it was also an opportunity for ITS Digital Services to beta test its in-development WordPress theme, Wilson.
Extended HighEdWeb institutional membership to campus
ITS Digital Services is covering the cost of an institutional membership to the Higher Education Web Professionals Association (HighEdWeb) for 2024. The institutional membership provides Tar Heels with free access to HighEdWeb resources and reduced registration fees for conferences and online events. Next quarter, UNC will host the first-ever HighEdWeb North Carolina Regional Conference.
Refreshed equipment in the Carolina Gaming Arena
Over winter break, ResNET and Carolina Gaming Arena staff installed new equipment donated by key partner Lenovo. Arena staff called the 36 new Lenovo Legion T7 gaming desktops “game changing.” Lenovo republished the ITS News article about the donation to its 40,000-recipient internal newsletter and Carolina Housing used ITS photographs in its blog coverage.
Communicated broadly
ITS Communications published 28 ITS News articles in Q1 and many ITS News pieces were amplified by campus partners. The Well republished several articles, including tips to improve digital wellness and collaboration between ITS Educational Technologies and the Center for Faculty Excellence. HR newsletter WorkWell republished eight ITS News pieces this quarter, with a majority landing in the top 10 most clicked links for the mailing. The highest placing for this quarter, at the second most clicked link in its issue, was New year, fresh start with these 3 tech tips.
Celebrated Women’s History Month
In March, ITS Communications produced a nine-part series of Q&As from women in IT on campus. The profiles were amplified by campus partners, including The Well and were reshared on social media by UNC central communications, RENCI, Student Affairs and the School of Data Science & Society.
Championed data privacy
For Data Privacy Week January 21–27, ITS Communications published two ITS News articles, Take charge of your data with these 3 tips and AI, data privacy and you, and shared privacy tips on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
Created hub for AI tools at UNC
ITS created a new AI hub on the ITS website. The hub provides resources for the campus community, highlights ITS’ expertise in the rapidly evolving AI space, spotlights centrally supported tools provided by ITS and includes a space to share upcoming projects.
People
Michael Triplett was has been selected as Manager of ITS Digital Services after serving as the interim manager since last April.
Calvin Groves, Director of Customer Support & Outreach, is now co-lead of the EDUCAUSE Young Professionals Community Group. As co-lead, he also holds an ex-officio role on the EDUCAUSE Young Professionals Advisory Committee.
Dave Scott, ITS Managed Desktop (MDS) Manager, retired on February 29.
Enterprise Applications
Completed tax updates
Enterprise Applications completed tax updates to comply with 1099, 1098T and W2 tax reporting.
Updated interfaces in Ramses
Enterprise Applications partnered with the Office of Sponsored Projects and the Office of Research Information Systems to update new award and new project interfaces in Ramses to include validation for the prime sponsor field.
Implemented new BuyCarolina vendors
Enterprise Applications worked with Procurement Services to implement two new BuyCarolina vendors.
Applied changes for FAFSA
Enterprise Applications applied changes and updates to accommodate federal changes to the student FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form. Ongoing changes necessitated many revisions.
Updated interface for classroom data
Enterprise Applications made changes to the SPOTS interface (Space Planning & Occupancy Tracking Systems), maintained by UNC Facilities, which provides ConnectCarolina with current data about classrooms across campus. New data fields help ensure ConnectCarolina and 25Live systems are synced with the SPOTS database of record. This helped address a recent internal audit finding.
Completed check signature changes
Enterprise Applications completed check signature changes for payroll and finance bank accounts.
Made HR system enhancements
This quarter, Enterprise applications partnered with Human Resources to complete the following:
- Enabled human resources representatives to update the TIM approver on an employee job record. This more efficient process replaces a manual ticket-based system.
- Attaching a salary adjustment form to route through workflow. This eliminates the need to email the form and manually follow it through the approvals.
- Enterprise Applications completed the systemwide move to a single recordkeeper for supplemental retirement.
- Enterprise Applications updated ConnectCarolina to include pronoun and gender identity fields for employees. These fields were previously available only to student roles.
Educational Technologies
Migrated Zoom accounts
In March, Educational Technologies migrated some individual Zoom accounts for employees in HIPAA-covered components from the general UNC Zoom account to a HIPAA subaccount. UNC employees who discuss or share protected health information (PHI) in Zoom meetings must use the HIPAA subaccount to protect PHI.
Continued moving instructors to Canvas
Spring 2024 is the last semester instructors can teach using Sakai at UNC. To facilitate the move to the new learning management system, Canvas, Educational Technologies continues to offer instructor trainings, including partnering with the Center for Faculty Excellence on the Canvas Snapshot series.
Integrated OneDrive and Canvas
After months of testing, Educational Technologies launched a Microsoft OneDrive integration for the Canvas learning management system. Integrating Microsoft OneDrive and Collaborations with Canvas provides a seamless experience for users, enabling them to access, share and collaborate on files stored in OneDrive directly within the Canvas platform.
Infrastructure & Operations
Released networking annual report
ITS Networking released an annual report covering key campus metrics and projects for 2023 and highlighting upcoming work in 2024.
Security & Identity Management
Upgraded Grouper
ITS Identity & Access Management upgraded Grouper, the University’s groups management utility. This upgrade eliminates some custom code.
Data & Reporting Environments & Application Middleware
Updated database operating systems
ITS Database Administration upgraded several internal database operating systems, including Informatica and ITS Educational Technologies’ database, to more current versions.