Annual Report 2002-2003

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Section 1

The following summarizes DoIT’s major activities and accomplishments in support of UW-Madison’s strategic directions.

1. 21st Century Network Upgrade & Services

   In July of 2002, work on the new 21st Century Network began. The 21st Century Network design, in addition to speed, includes redundancy and security features that were not present in the old network. It also includes the capability for end-to-end network management. The 21st Century Network gigabit backbone is now in place, and department networks are being migrated to that backbone. When the migration is complete (January 2004), the program to install new network equipment and capabilities in the main distribution facilities (MDFs) and intermediate distribution facilities (IDFs) will move forward rapidly. The new network will provide high-speed connectivity to all areas of campus. It will assure that we can move data and video (and even voice) around campus competently. It especially will help researchers move massive amounts of data from data collection devices to computers anyplace on campus or between computers in different corners of campus. As the network is developed, it will also provide researchers — and other users of high-bandwidth digital technologies — with the capabilities to move large quantities of data at extraordinary speeds to collaborators (or computers) around the world. Support for implementation of the 21st Century Network was provided by UW alumnus John Morgridge through the TOSA Foundation.

   The equipment that now makes up the new backbone was delivered in August 2002 and was used to model the new network design and test its operation. To date, 17 department LANs, including DoIT, Computer Science and Engineering, have migrated to the higher-speed network.
   

   Wisconsin Advanced Internet Lab (WAIL)

   Concurrent with the 21st Century Network project was the creation of the Wisconsin Advanced Internet Lab (WAIL), operated by the Computer Science Department. DoIT staff provided expertise in network measurement and engineering to support the work of WAIL. The WAIL is an instance of the Internet-in-a-lab concept upon which researchers can run experiments. Analogous to a wind tunnel used in weather research, WAIL experiments will help shape the Internet of the future.

   Virtual Private Network (VPN)

   In late spring 2003, DoIT released a VPN service that allows campus faculty, staff and students to connect to the network remotely as if they were on campus. The VPN also allows campus departments and researchers located in different buildings to have a “virtual” LAN for conveniently sharing files and documents. The VPN also provides remote users with a secure tunnel through the commercial Internet.

   IP-TV

   DoIT is currently exploring one of the many new application technologies made possible by the 21st Century Network. Three cable TV channels (C-SPAN and French and Russian TV) are streamed to select networks on the new backbone. Our long-term goal is to make all channels available this way and replace our cable TV network with ubiquitous network access to cable and other video resources.

   Advanced Network & Services Monitoring

   A partnership with and grant from Hewlett-Packard have enabled the University to install a sophisticated networking and systems monitoring package that alerts the campus to problems before they reach critical failure levels. The product, called HP OpenView, can monitor complex, distributed systems and correlate how minor failures may affect multiple campus services. For the first time, we can monitor all the components of a complex service such as the My UW-Madison web portal. In addition, we will soon be monitoring user experiences such as Web site and mail system performance to be able to detect slowdowns in service. Work on our OpenView implementation has occurred during the past year. We are now using OpenView to monitor WiscNet and all installed components of the 21st Century Network.

   High Throughput Computing (HTC) using InfoLabs

   DoIT’s InfoLab program is working with the Computer Science Department to install Condor on over 600 computers in 14 campus computing labs. The goal of the Condor Project is to develop, implement, deploy, and evaluate mechanisms and policies that support High Throughput Computing (HTC) on large collections of distributively owned computing resources. With InfoLab machines in a “Condor Pool,” the computational resources of InfoLab workstations will be made available to Condor client applications network-wide. At this writing, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Computer Lab has 21 machines in the Condor Pool.

2. Security and Disaster Prevention Planning

   DoIT has made strides to improve the campus’s ability to detect and/or prevent security breaches and to recover from possible disasters and outages.

   Disaster Prevention Planning

   The newly re-written Disaster Recovery and Avoidance plan was praised by the Legislative Audit Bureau in their audit completed in May 2003. The concept of dual live sites (one primary and one alternate) was endorsed, as was the concept of totally mirrored Enterprise Storage capabilities for key campus applications and services. DoIT plans to have the back-up site in the Peterson Building operational by spring, 2004. DoIT is working with Business Services to assure that the site is available.

   DoIT is working in close coordination with University Police concerning alternate site preparations. Our Deputy CIO is also working with the Campus Physical Security Policy Committee to evaluate the design and coordinate the implementation of modern security upgrades and improvements to both of our data centers and for all network equipment closets on campus. This collaborative work will ensure not only that we integrate fully with other Campus Security systems, but also that we adhere to locally mandated and nationally recognized security standards.
   

   Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA)

   DoIT is very active in the Chancellor’s HIPAA Privacy Task Force and its subcommittees. We work with campus staff on the legally required security measures necessary to support HIPAA compliance. Currently, DoIT staff assist with HIPAA training. We are also working with the HIPAA Technical Security subcommittee in defining a risk assessment template and process for determining HIPAA security compliance in campus Health Care Components (HCC) units.

   Bioterrorism Task Force (BTF)

   DoIT participates in the Graduate School’s Bioterrorism Task Force (BTF). The BTF is currently developing training for laboratories that handle biotoxins; we are also preparing the cybersecurity training. DoIT is also working with the BTF and the state’s Health Alert Network to provide computing support for the UW Biocontainment Plan.

   Lockdown Security Conference

   Approximately 125 people from UW-Madison and other area schools, technical colleges and universities attended the third annual Lockdown Information Security Seminar hosted by DoIT in July. There were presentations on legal issues, wireless computing and security, honeypots, and risk assessment. There were also panels on HIPAA, firewalls and “The State of the Hack.” Feedback from attendees was very favorable.

3. Technologies for Learning & Teaching

   UW System has adopted a major initiative to research and select a new course management system for its universities and colleges. A course management system allows instructors to offer their course materials, to quiz and track grades using the Web. In spring 2003, after an exhaustive evaluation and bid process, UW System selected Desire2Learn (D2L) as a replacement for current course management systems: WebCT (provided for System by UW-Madison) and BlackBoard (provided by UW-Milwaukee). UW System asked Madison to implement and run D2L for all universities and colleges in the system.

   Learn@UW

   UW-Madison is hosting Desire2Learn within a service called Learn@UW for all UW institutions except UW-Milwaukee beginning in fall 2003. Learn@UW is based on Desire2Learn software and enables instructors to create course Web sites. The development environment requires little or no Web programming expertise.

   It offers:

   • home pages and Web pages for courses
   • password protection and authentication for enrolled students
   • online quizzes, surveys and tests
   • document storage, sharing and management
   • course event calendars
   • grade books

   For the Madison-specific implementation of Learn@UW, the automatic authorization and authentication of user information and the loading of course rosters will be available in the Fall 03 semester, with grades submission to the Office of the Registrar slated for Spring 04 semester. UW-Madison plans to complete the conversion of WebCT and Blackboard courses to Learn@UW by Fall 2004.

   Demos and workshops for faculty and instructional technology support staff started in the spring of 2003 and will continue throughout the 03-04 academic year. DoIT will orient experienced users to D2L’s functions and features and will provide one-on-one assistance for those new to course management tools. DoIT’s Help Desk and technologists will support this service for Madison faculty and staff.

   The former WebCT service at Madison will end in the summer of 2004. In the future the new service will provide phased-in integration with My UW-Madison.

4. Web-based Services

   DoIT continues to enable more campus services and information to be offered in convenient Web-based format for round-the-clock access from anywhere.

   My UW-Madison Collaboration

   Through collaboration with the Registrar’s Office, the Council on Academic Advising, the Library and DoIT, two unique new views are offered via the My UW-Madison portal:

   • Advisor view
     Starting in March 2003, more than 1,500 UW-Madison faculty and staff who advise students gained the ability to access academic records of designated advisees. This access includes the student’s major, GPA, credits, phone, address, grade report, course grid, fines, and holds. It also includes an advisor Notepad and links to Student Services.

   • Instructor view
     In August 2003, UW-Madison instructors began receiving course rosters, access to library e-reserves, and links to course services through the My UW-Madison portal.

5. Wisconsin Public Health Information Network (WI-PHIN)

   Our state’s public health infrastructure has been greatly revitalized through an aggressive program known as Wisconsin’s Public Health Information Network (WI-PHIN). Key players include the Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), the Division of Public Health (DPH), State Laboratory of Hygiene (SLH), and local public health agencies in partnership with DoIT and WiscNet. Together we’ve met the challenge of the rigorous technology objectives of Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Health Alert Network (HAN) and the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) programs.

   WI-PHIN accomplishments for the past year include:
   

   • Assessed hospital network connectivity needs and provided connectivity resources and routine use of e-mail for notification of alerts and other critical communication. Email groups can be created based on roles. We also enabled the automated exchange of data between public health partners.

   • Purchased a system that can send information to public health response teams using email, fax, text pager, and telephone/voice mail in a call-tree scenario environment. We anticipate full functionality by Fall.

   • Established a comprehensive security system to ensure that sensitive or critical electronic information and systems are not lost, destroyed, misappropriated or corrupted.

   • Implemented the capability to receive, manage, and process electronic data from care systems at clinical care sites and laboratories. This capability now exists for the State Laboratory of Hygiene, and we are working to establish a similar system with the Milwaukee public health laboratory. These activities provide the foundation for accepting hospital and clinic data.

   • Provided a secure Web service that allows for immediate reporting of laboratory results to public health partners. We are refining this system to include reporting and statistical display of information.

   • Provided a database infrastructure to electronically manage, link, and process all the different types of data streams that enter the portal.

   • Worked with a number of campus and state entities to investigate potential uses of the Wisconsin PHIN for research or bio-terrorism-related activities. We are now implementing a system to handle the needs of the UW-Madison Bio-Terrorism Preparedness Task Force.

6. Diversity and Improving Climate

   Information Technology Academy Program

   The Information Technology Academy, DoIT’s contribution to the Chancellor’s Diversity Plan 2008, successfully reached full enrollment in the spring of 2003 and is now entering its fourth year of operation. The program, whose mission is to train students in information technology skills and prepare them for competitive university admissions, serves 60 students from underrepresented demographic groups in the Madison area.
   The ITA program is now more closely linked with the PEOPLE program which will serve as a feeder program. ITA also works closely with the Madison Metropolitan School District, MATC and other UW pre-college programs to provide a wide range of activities, academic support, and financial aid opportunities for its students.

   Gender Equity Report

   DoIT continues to conduct an annual salary equity review throughout the organization with findings that confirm salary equity is based on duties and responsibilities. DoIT has also recently hired two women into management positions in areas that traditionally have had few qualified applicants, regardless of gender. Our management team is now 48% women. We continue recruitment efforts to attract a diverse work force.

   DoIT Staff Professional Development

   We formally analyzed staff skills requirements in our Data Center Operations and developed effective training tools to meet these requirements. This year, seven new “Subject Matter Experts” and eight new online Learning Modules were created, and numerous formal classroom training opportunities were designed and delivered. These benefited not only the staff in that area but also the entire division.

   We established forums and learning opportunities for DoIT’s financial specialists and departmental assistants. These staff participate in monthly forums where they obtain additional skills and professional development. They also work together on improving DoIT’s business processes.

   DoIT New Employee Orientation

   In previous years, new DoIT employees were introduced to the division primarily with an overview of benefits and work regulations. This year, DoIT restructured its new employee orientation with a video and instructional materials so that staff now better understand how their position, group, department and division fit into the larger picture of the University. Staff have praised the new orientation program.

   UW Staff Professional Development Collaboration

   A collaborative effort between OHRD and DoIT will provide all UW-Madison employees with a central site known as “My Professional Development” for professional development opportunities across campus. As of September 2003, staff will be able to profile their individual needs, search by training type, and have more convenient access to the wealth of professional development opportunities offered on campus. Additionally, campus training providers have been encouraged and are continuing to provide more online learning opportunities for staff for just-in-time needs as opposed to the previously predominant event-driven training.

Other areas of interest that involved substantial work this past year included

• Anti-spam
• Anti-Virus
• New Automated Directory Service

These and other efforts are described in Section 3.

Section 2

TECHNOLOGY GOALS AND INITIATIVES FOR 2003-2004

While things change rapidly in Information Technology, we anticipate that we will make progress on all of the initiatives supporting the campus IT Strategic Directions. This overview provides information on some of the key areas where we expect to make progress.

In addition, during '03-'04, we will collaborate with University leaders to develop a comprehensive IT plan for the campus to identify key technology issues. This plan will not be specific to technology issues that are within the DoIT portfolio. Rather, it will address larger issues that affect the entire campus community. It is anticipated that this planning process will identify the significant requirements for technology support of teaching and learning, technology infrastructure needs of the research community, and the technology needs of faculty, students and staff as they go about their lives as members of the campus community.

The plan also will explore and address roles and working relationship for large IT project management and governance as well as distributed versus central support issues. This planning process should help define the working relationship between UW-Madison Colleges and Divisions and DoIT as projects are envisioned, approved and implemented. It will also help define the roles and relationships between UWSA and Madison with respect to the implementation and support of major technology initiatives and services.

We look forward to this planning effort providing a framework for campus leadership and DoIT leadership as they make technology decisions for the next three to five years.
The following overview provides information on some of the key areas of our work.

Enable Easy Access to Web-Based Services

• Increase the My UW-Madison on-line availability rate beyond 99%
• IPTV accessibility—DoIT is evaluating this internally and are trying to figure out how to develop campus-wide discussions that are inclusive and non-threatening - but we don't have a game plan at this stage.
• IP Telephony — Cisco IP Telephony/San Jose, Trace Research and Development Center, UW-Madison College of Engineering, and DoIT are collaborating to make IP telephony an accessible telephone medium.
  

Develop Effective Technologies and Support for Learning and Teaching

• With the advent of Desire2Learn, all courses now using WebCT will be converted to D2L during this academic year. We plan to convert 300 courses in time for the Spring 2004 semester. (WebCT will be shut down July 1, 2004.) In addition to converting existing D2L courses, DoIT expects to collaborate with the College of Engineering to move its E-COW portfolio (Web sites for all courses in the College) to D2L in 2004. DoIT also anticipates beginning a project with the School of Music to assist faculty teaching scheduled classes to bring up D2L Web sites for all courses in the School. We anticipate course Web sites, or the lack thereof, to be a topic of consideration by the Information Technology Committee this academic year.
• DoIT is initiating conversations with colleagues at major universities around the nation about the future of course management systems in an open-source, standards-based development environment.
  

Support Research and Advance Learning by Evolving a Quality Network Infrastructure

• DoIT will continue to implement the 21st Century Network. All campus networks will be on the 21st Century backbone by the end of January 2004. A significant number of department networks will be operating with 21st Century Network equipment and protocols before the end of the 2003-2004 academic year. Network management tools such as OpenView and the Edge Management Tool being developed for use by department network administrators will be deployed. DoIT will continue to work with and provide support to the Wisconsin Advanced Internet Lab (WAIL).

• DoIT will continue to work with WiscNet to ensure that the higher education network for Wisconsin is performing effectively. We also will work with WiscNet and others to assure that Madison has enough bandwidth to support our high-end researchers. One challenge will be to obtain fiber and transport capability to meet research needs from the Wisconsin border to Chicago (a hub for national research network activities). We have adequate connectivity for most of our work today, but special requests or circumstances cannot be met with current resources without interrupting other network activities. We anticipate that future research needs (research that is already in the hopper) will demand the kind of network capabilities that we are trying to put in place. We look for opportunities with the campus research community to submit proposals to NSF that could offset some of the costs of this network build-out.

• Part of the evolution of a quality network infrastructure to support research and advance learning requires efforts beyond Madison, and even beyond the Madison/Chicago connection. The CIC CIO’s have committed to being part of a national initiative to prepare the next generation national research network infrastructure. We are participating in an organization called National Lambda Rail (NLR), which is taking advantage of the distressed state of the telecommunications industry to obtain fiber resources across the country. NLR also has a partnership with Cisco regarding the equipment to light this fiber. NLR is in its nascent stage, and the CIC hopes to be able to inform its future and thus the future of the cyber-infrastructure for the nation (a significant concern of NSF) by participating in the evolution of NLR.

• In addition to participation in NLR, Madison and WiscNet are participating in a regional network initiative called the Northern Tier Network Collaborative. A map of the research network across the country (below) does not include a link in Madison or Minneapolis:

  The intent of the Northern Tier initiative is to ensure another research network route from Chicago through Wisconsin and Minnesota on to Seattle (or possibly Denver). This would provide: 1) back-up alternate routing capabilities for much of the national research network infrastructure; 2) the connectivity we need for our researchers in Madison; and 3) help for our colleagues in Minnesota and in the Dakotas and Montana who have access to research networking capabilities. We also hope this will offset some of our costs in getting from the Wisconsin border to Chicago. Internet2 has agreed to establish the Northern Tier Network Collaborative as a project under their umbrella, which will provide administrative support and leverage with vendors as we move forward. Working with the Dakotas and Montana provides interesting opportunities in terms of federal attention, because these states have been identified as EPSCoR states (EPSCoR, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, is a joint program of the National Science Foundation and several states and territories). We are not sure how far we can move this initiative this year.

• Another network project for the coming year is an effort to understand the potential uses of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV, or TV over the campus network and the Internet). We will examine IPTV’s uses for teaching and learning on campus as well as determine the most effective means to deploy IPTV. We intend that the new network infrastructure will replace the old campus cable TV infrastructure. We need to explore this with the campus community and determine how best to deploy it philosophically as well as technically.

• We have joined The Research Channel, after discussions with the Graduate School and Wisconsin Public TV. The Research Channel offers UW-Madison the opportunity to submit videos of our researchers at work (lecturing, grand rounds, class demonstrations, dance programs, etc.) and share our programs with other Research Channel university members nationwide, with our campus community, and potentially with the citizens of Wisconsin. We also have access to the programs submitted by the other Research Channel members. The Graduate School is interested in identifying and supporting programs to appear on the Channel. Wisconsin Public TV has agreed to work with us to produce a limited number of very high quality (in terms of production) programs during the year. As with IPTV, we will explore with the campus community how to best take advantage of this capability during the coming academic year.

Provide Outstanding Applications that Support the Academic and Administrative Functions of the University in Partnership with University Departments

• Appointment Payroll and Benefits System (APBS) — We will continue development of integration and interface functions and assist with the testing of the APBS system.

• Shared Financials System (SFS) — Upgrading SFS to release 8.4. Implement the Payroll Interface and the new Web-based Salary Encumbrance and Salary Cash Transfer applications. Begin the Chartfield Funding Engine project. Build interfaces from SFS to other mission-critical systems such as Personnel Activity Reporting (PAR) and General Accounts Receivable (GAR).

• Grant Administration Software — We continue working with Research and Sponsored Programs to implement a new and enhanced system for managing project and grant information.

• Implement the PeopleSoft Student Administration (SA) system for UW-Parkside and complete the implementation for UW Colleges and UW-River Falls. We will complete upgrades to SA version 8 for UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater.

• Collaborating with Learn@UW to enhance the interoperability of the Desire2Learn (D2L) course management system and the PeopleSoft Student Administration System. We will work with other campuses on PeopleSoft Portal, Gradebook, and integration with D2L and the System-wide Identification, Authentication and Authorization (IAA) project.

Provide a Robust Infrastructure Layer to Facilitate Outstanding Applications

• DoIT is planning to improve and simplify access to the campus directory for department-specific applications.

Provide Outstanding Delivery of Technology Services

• New System and Network Monitoring tool — This year, DoIT acquired HP OpenView, an industry-leading enterprise-level tool for system monitoring. The major effort to install and implement this significant upgrade to our monitoring and management capabilities is tied closely with the upgrade to the 21st Century Network. When implementation is complete near the end of the 2004, the level of service available to campus clients and system managers will be dramatically improved.

Integrated Front-End Services: the Unified Customer Center Initiative

DoIT’s User Services department will undertake two projects this year to improve customer service. The goals of these projects are: 1) simplify our customer interface to make it easier for faculty, staff, and students to obtain assistance, and 2) improve internal processes to make more efficient use of staff and shorten response times to customer inquiries.

• Single Point Customer Interface — DoIT now staffs four high-demand, front-line, walk-up customer service counters. We hope to take advantage of our Oracle and Clarify business systems to consolidate many of these front-line services into a unified service counter. Our second-level staff would be removed from staffing the front-line counters and better utilized by serving only those customers needing expert-level assistance. This is a complex project and would likely require a redesign of our current customer service area. We will examine our phone and Web-based customer services to simplify and improve those interfaces. This project is scheduled to begin in January 2004.

• Post-Sales Support Process Improvement — In the fall of 2002, DoIT made organizational changes that placed our primary post-sales support providers — the Help Desk, Computer Repair, and Desktop Support — into a single department. We are forming a team, with representatives from each of these groups, to study how these groups can move toward functioning as a single unit, optimizing processes to serve customer needs, and taking full advantage of our Clarify call management system. We expect to reduce the number of steps taken when a call is escalated from our front desk agent to second-level experts, utilize our front desk agents in an expanded capacity so that they can handle a wider range of customer support issues, and reduce redundancy in our second-level staffing assignments. This project was initiated in August 2003.
  

Develop and Implement a Disaster Prevention and Recovery Plan

DoIT completed its written Disaster Recovery and Avoidance Plan this year. Key to this plan is the concept of an alternate Data Center in which key campus applications run in parallel in both the primary and alternate location. This in turn has driven system design and acquisition decisions to ensure those key applications can be correctly configured. Current plan calls for the alternate center (in the basement of A.W. Peterson) to be operational by spring, 2004, but that date is dependent upon key environmental and physical upgrades, which are now under review. The new plan was praised by the Legislative Audit Bureau in their audit, completed May 2003.

Key to the new disaster avoidance strategy was the acquisition of a brand new state-of-the-art Enterprise Storage system that will greatly enhance our ability to mirror all key campus data at both the primary and alternate data center.

Security & Privacy

• Over the past few years, the University’s responsibility to protect privacy and confidentiality of our information has greatly increased. With legislation such as Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and Heath Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), our responsibilities to educate and build awareness of good security and privacy practices have intensified. We will increase our communication programs concerning appropriate use of information technology resources and copyright. We will also continue efforts to share security information through such efforts as our annual Lockdown Conference.

• DoIT’s security, privacy, and policy efforts are based in large part on partnerships with Internal Audit, Legal Services, Police and Security, Residence Halls, the Dean of Student’s Office, and IT support staff from the schools, colleges, and departments.

• DoIT is responsible for the information security program required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999 for UW-Madison. This will include identifying “reasonably foreseeable” security risks, both internal and external; teaching employees how to maintain data security; requiring service providers to maintain appropriate data safeguards through appropriate contractual provisions; and monitoring network security, including the effectiveness of established security procedures.

• In collaboration with campus IT staff, DoIT designs and implements network security policies and systems for UW-Madison. With campus stakeholders, we will review and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various firewall strategies. Firewall, VPN, and other technologies will be deployed across campus, as appropriate.

• DoIT recently introduced new anti-virus and anti-spam tools for WiscMail users. We will continue to fine-tune and promote these services so everyone who has access to WiscMail is aware of them.

• DoIT will continue to work with UW-Madison’s volunteer incident response team, BadgIRT, for incident response and tracking. This year, we will develop an emergency process. More proactive incident-prevention activities are planned, including vulnerability scanning for known security exposures, ensuring that anti-virus software is installed on campus computers, and conducting risk assessments and security audits.

• We are also improving security practices within DoIT and across campus. Efforts will include developing best practices for computer systems administrators and applications development. DoIT security staff will participate in the system design phase of new applications as well as in the implementation, thereby ensuring that security is built into the systems. Major initiatives include the Appointment, Payroll and Benefit System (APBS), Learn@UW, Public Health Information Network (PHIN), Shared Financials System (SFS) upgrade, the 21st Century Network, My UW-Madison, and Kronos. We will also review network access points, enterprise systems, the wireless network, and vulnerability detection.

• We will continue to participate in campus committee efforts including the Physical Access Security Committee, HIPAA Privacy and Security committees, and the Bioterrorism Task Force.

• Working with campus system owners, DoIT is looking at ways to improve security with improved authentication and authorization services. Efforts include migrating to single sign-on whenever feasible, using role-based authorization, looking at Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and automating authorization processes.

Section 3

DoIT’s Support of University Functions

In addition to initiatives in support of the University’s strategic directions, DoIT operates a wide variety of services that help running the overall business of the University. This section highlights some of our activities in these areas.

Provide Outstanding Applications that Support the Academic and Administrative Functions of the University in Partnership with University Departments

• Integrated Student Information Systems (ISIS)
  The Touchtone Registration system was replaced by a Web-based enrollment application, available through the My UW-Madison portal for all students in the Fall 2002 semester. See http://www.doit.wisc.edu/news/story.asp?filename=10

• E-Mail
  The WiscMail system currently provides mail services to 62,000 faculty, staff, and students, with mail delivery often exceeding one million messages per day. WiscMail’s interface affords customers the convenience of storing their messages on WiscMail servers while accessing their mail from anyplace in the world. This popular feature has increased message storage from 30 gigabytes in early 2001 to nearly one terabyte by summer, 2003. In addition, WiscMail servers proactively scan all messages to detect and remove harmful viruses before they reach our customers.

• Calendaring
  DoIT concluded the deployment of the WiscCal calendaring and scheduling system in the past year. The WiscCal Plus service was released to UW faculty and staff in the spring 2003. This service provides added features and administrative options for those departments that wish to connect to WiscCal with native clients and use WiscCal to manage resources. We continue to support and enhance WiscCal’s offerings.

• Appointments Payroll and Benefits System (APBS)
  DoIT is assisting UW System with the implementation of Lawson Software’s Human Resources system, providing a full-time technical project manager and additional staff. Accomplishments include:

  • Continued installation and upgrading of Lawson software.
  • Planned for the production technical environment.
  • Continued conversion of data from the mainframe systems into the Lawson database.
  • Developed a plan for integrating Lawson with the current budget system.
  • Continued development of interfaces between Lawson and other applications.
  • Planned Lawson’s interoperability with key infrastructure components such as the System-wide Identification, Authentication and Authorization (IAA) project.

• Kronos
  DoIT worked with UW-Madison Business Services to develop online training for the Kronos My Time system. The online tutorial includes training for the supervisor, who will be approving timecards, and for the student, who will be entering timecard information. A video is also available for students entering time through the time stamp method of entry.

• Shared Financials System (SFS)
  SFS tracks the financial activity of the University of Wisconsin. The PeopleSoft Financials implementation includes the General Ledger, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing and Asset Management modules. Eleven campuses work together in the same installation; four others submit data into SFS. Significant progress was made on presenting data from the payroll system directly into SFS. A new Web-based Salary Encumbrance Application is ready to roll into production and the Salary Cash Transfer Web application will follow shortly. Work on migrating UW-Madison from the legacy accounting system to SFS continued. Madison financial data users now use SFS instead of control ledger sheets, and three new data access views have expanded the use of SFS data.

• Retroactive Payroll Adjustments
  DoIT partnered with Employee Compensation and Benefits Services to implement complex calculations to update salaries and vacation balances for all UW System’s represented classified employees. On May 7, 2003, the Legislature approved 17 contracts to be effective on May 18, 2003. Upon approval, non-represented classified employees were also awarded additional pay increases. Unlike the back-pay adjustments of the past, this year’s back pay involved wage adjustments for calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003. This extended period required calculating the pay adjustments for each year separately, due to income tax implications. On June 26, 2003, employees finally received their long-awaited back pay.

• Library Information System
  DoIT continued working with the General Library System to modernize the Electronic Library’s computing infrastructure, such as the Library Web Servers, a new digital image server, enhanced digital library services, new interlibrary loan support, and support for emailing patron notices from the Voyager library system. Work began on delivering the full contents of electronic course reserves through the My UW-Madison portal for students and faculty and on assessing new software for an institutional digital repository (the latter project in partnership with UW-System). An RFP was issued for a new Electronic Resource Management system to handle the increasingly digital collections of the UW System libraries.

• Grant Administration Software
  DoIT worked with Research and Sponsored Programs to identify requirements, solutions, and potential vendors for a replacement for the legacy Extramural Support Information System (ESIS). The initial planning efforts have begun. They will lead to a new and enhanced system for managing project and grant information.

• E-Business Applications
  A variety of E-Business applications have been implemented in the past year, including a Web-based reservation system for campus tours, an electronic repository of campus-provided professional development opportunities (My Professional Development), an application and management system for students studying abroad, and a Web-based voting application for the Secretary of the Faculty. E-Business applications are increasingly being tied to the campus directory service, and many of the new E-Business applications are also available through the campus portal. Several new Web-based credit card transaction storefronts were developed. DoIT’s centralized e-commerce service (WiscCharge) successfully processed 117,000 credit card transactions worth $11.3 million in the past year.

• Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)
  DoIT implemented the UW-Madison system that connects with the Federal Government’s Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) to support international students. ISIS and visa tracking software feed and receive data from SEVIS.

• MILER (Method for Implementing with Lowest Effort and Resources)
  The MILER team continued to assist State efforts with the successful start of the PeopleSoft Student Administration (SA) systems at UW Colleges and UW-River Falls, and a successful upgrade at UW-Platteville, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Green Bay.

• Wisconsin Data Mart (WISDM) & Data Warehouse/Query Library
  The WISDM high-performance data mart continued to be a popular and easy-to-use resource for retrieving the financial information necessary to make sound fiscal decisions. Used by administrative staff on all UW campuses, it continues to be enhanced and expanded. The number of users increased by more than 25% during the year. Enhancements were added to dynamically present cash balances based on user preferences, to easily retrieve project information when the fiscal year changes, and to include flex columns on many displays.

Provide Outstanding Delivery of Technology Services

• Campus Licensing Efforts
  DoIT signed a license for Macromedia products in May 2002 and then promoted its lower prices to the campus. Macromedia products are widely used for Web and courseware development.

  We continued to promote the adoption of Norton AntiVirus (NAV) to departments and students, including making it available for free download. As a result of these efforts, NAV was installed on thousands of additional desktop systems, protecting them from infection and lowering demand for campus virus support.

  We spent considerable time in negotiations with Microsoft, running cost/benefit analyses on the various proposals. After UW-Madison decided to not extend the Microsoft campus-wide contract, we worked on contract exit strategies, held informational briefings with campus departments, created Web pages to help departments understand their options, and studied the impact on the campus’s Microsoft server licenses. To do this, we conducted a survey of campus use of Microsoft servers. We also signed a license agreement to distribute Microsoft Select licenses to campus, so departments and students could continue to have access to academic discounts.

  We signed a campus-wide license with Sun for StarOffice and successfully negotiated extending the license to include faculty/staff home rights.

• My UW-Madison Portal Operational Service
  My UW-Madison experienced significant growth this last year. A record number of people logged into the portal at the start of each semester, as well as when grades were released. Over 10,000 people typically use the portal each day. Close to 70,000 students, faculty and staff have logged into the portal at least once. Numerous improvements to the existing modules were made, and the following new functions were added: Web Enrollment, advisor view, WebCT sign-on, campus map, WISC software site, Lost and Found, DoIT Tech Store, Data Digest, WiscCard, PIN Change, WiscMail folder counts, Salary Equity Data, Restrict Third-Party Mail, Enrollment Verification, DoIT Consolidated Billing Invoices, and a new navigation bar. While a number of groups helped develop content, the day-to-day operations of My UW-Madison were moved to a new portal infrastructure team last summer. This team improved My UW-Madison testing, monitoring, and documentation, helping to increase the portal availability rate to 99%.

  A formal “WORK” tab team was created in the My UW-Madison Administrative structure. The WORK tab is aimed directly at providing additional functions for faculty and staff. At fiscal year’s end, the tab was nearing production readiness. This year it is expected that a myriad of administrative tasks and reports will be delivered to faculty and staff via My UW-Madison’s WORK tab. Among them will be leave and earnings statements, benefits statements, KRONOS timekeeping system, parking application and selection, various campus billing statements, and many others.

• Transforming Teaching through Technology -T⁴
  Through the T⁴ Initiative, we are developing a toolkit of integrated applications that enable faculty with little Web authoring experience to create sophisticated, media-rich and pedagogically well-designed learning materials for students in their courses. These include:

  • LessonBuilder: This easy-to-use application enables faculty and instructional staff to create Web-based lessons consisting of a variety of types of learning activities and to easily include various kinds of multimedia (video, audio, image, text).
  • Multimedia Learning Assistant: This software enables instructors to provide students with a variety of multimedia content types as they view a video clip and associate that content with time-based sections of the clip.
  • Tracking and Reporting System: This application records student responses and progress through standards-compliant learning activities and displays reports organized by-students or by-activities.

• Automated Phone Directory Service
  A new speech-enabled automated directory assistance system went live on July 1, 2003. The new system enables easier searches for faculty, staff, students, and departments. In addition, callers can connect to the Campus Information and Visitor Center or listen to recorded messages about campus events. The system is phonetically based and does intelligent searching based on caller responses. Listings in the system can be recorded in the correct pronunciation by request.

  A reduced live-operator service answers only during campus business hours, Monday through Friday. Almost 70% of callers are connecting without requiring operator assistance. The new system should reduce the operating costs by over 50%.

• DoIT Help Desk Enhancements
  DoIT set a goal to improve response times on complex, yet common, questions. These questions were too difficult to resolve for our Help Desk front-line agents in the few minutes they could allocate to a call. So the calls were being escalated to our technologist staff, who were preoccupied with major projects. The average time for resolution of an escalated question was two to three days, with many taking five days. Using data from our customer call logs, we identified approximately 25 topics that generated nearly 80% of all the calls that were being escalated.

  We used this data to form a second-level support team, made up of Help Desk and technologists, that operated within the Help Desk and whose primary responsibility was to provide user support. Instead of calls being escalated to more than 30 different subject experts, they now go into a single queue. The result has been that nearly 100% of these calls are now addressed within two days, and 60% within one day. Our Help Desk staff has improved their skills on the high-volume subject areas to the point where no technologist staff remain on the support team. This has created a career path for our customer-service-oriented technical staff and freed our technologists to focus on projects. All of this was accomplished at no increase in cost to the organization.

• Computer Lab and Kiosk Enhancements
  DoIT’s InfoLab program offers a wide-range of computing resources for students, faculty and staff. During the past year, we replaced nearly a third of more than 1,000 desktop computers with new machines. We also purchased 60 new laptops, bringing to more than 150 the number of portable computers available for short-term loan. In addition, we increased the number of campus computer Kiosks, used for quick access to the Internet, to more than 50 in 18 convenient locations throughout campus. Most Lab network connections were upgraded to 100mb.

• Technical Training Macintosh Lab
  Through a successful partnership with UW System’s ISIS team, DoIT is now able to offer a wide variety of Macintosh-based technical training classes to campus staff. This fills a void, as Mac-based training is not available elsewhere in Madison.

• Customized Training
  DoIT collaborated with many UW units over the year to provide customized training. One example was an effort with UW Administration to provide online training on HIPAA regulations to more than a dozen Health Care Components staff on campus. The resulting online courses were able to screen participants for their HIPAA needs and provide them with just-in-time training on topics relevant to their job duties. Additionally, UW Administration is able to review the participant compliance easily and continually with minimum of paperwork.

• Printing Service Enhancements
  This year, Digital Publishing and Printing completed a three-year plan for plant modernization. The operation now has six state-of-the-art, high-end printers (a mix of electronic and offset), down from a high of 15. This has cut capital overhead costs by nearly 20% and improved service levels and the range of offerings while maintaining overall capacity.

• Change Information System
  DoIT’s internally designed Change Information System (CIS) underwent great change itself this year. Available as a planning and tracking tool to all DoIT customers (both internal and external), CIS can now communicate automatically with all persons affected by any planned system change. It also integrates automatically with both major technical inventory systems.

• Annual IT Surveys
  DoIT obtained high marks and helpful feedback from its annual surveys of faculty, staff and students. Staff and faculty rated most DoIT-provided services 3.9 or higher on a five-point scale. When asked which services they wanted to see improved, respondents said email, calendaring, and library resources. A targeted survey showed students preferred that the 24-hour computing lab be located on the east side of campus. That change was implemented within a month.

  More than 85% of students said they were “satisfied” to “very satisfied” with UW computing services. Email access, faster connections and online registration were among the top reasons given for their satisfaction. The recent student computing survey revealed that students’ top concerns were for more computers in the labs and more bandwidth. We will be seeking feasible solutions for these issues within our space and resource limitations.

Provide a Robust Infrastructure and Middleware Layer

• University Directory Services (UDS)
  DoIT continues to enhance University Directory Services to support instructional, research and administrative applications. We’ve implemented Advisor and Instructor roles in the directory to enable both groups to access information, such as e-class rosters and e-reserves, through the My UW-Madison portal. We have initiated the Populations, Affiliations, Services and Entitlements (PASE) project which will enable source system (IADS and ISIS) administrators to define and create affiliation groupings as needed and enable service providers to express to what services those affiliations are entitled. PASE represents a very significant step forward for role management in the UDS and for data custodians.

• Identification, Authentication and Authorization (IAA)
  DoIT has also completed the pilot phase of the Identification, Authentication and Authorization (IAA) project for the UW System Administration. This is UW-Madison’s Kronos implementation. IAA will enable seamless identity management across UW institutions and support secure implementation of common system applications such as APBS, Kronos and Learn@UW. DoIT has worked with the Department of Health & Family Services and the Department of Electronic Government to integrate authentication and user management of the Wisconsin Public Health Information Network (WI-PHIN) with the state’s Web-based access management system. This allows state employees and health professionals to use a single account to access WI-PHIN information in addition to other state applications.

• Junk eMail Filters (SPAM Detection)
  The volume of junk email has risen sharply over the last year and now accounts for roughly 40% of total mail received by the campus. A new WiscMail filtering service was introduced in the summer of 2003, enabling email users to detect and remove unwanted junk email from their inboxes. The new filters allow each individual to determine his or her own tolerance to junk mail and automatically route it away from the inbox.

Provide Technical Support to Instructional Staff

Academic Technology Solutions at DoIT supports the teaching and learning with technology needs of faculty, instructional staff, and students at UW-Madison. We consult with faculty to assess their needs, locate funding sources, and help faculty submit grant applications. We also design, program, and implement instructional technology applications including online courses, Web-based learning, streaming media, and classroom presentations. We provide assistance to a growing number of faculty and staff who are using Learn@UW, a new Web-based tool for creating and managing e-learning environments. The New Media Centers (at College Library and at the BioTechnology Center) are a vital campus resource for faculty support. We work in close collaboration with University administration and other campus instructional technology staff and groups at UW-Madison’s schools and colleges to build the UW-Madison learning technologies climate and infrastructure.

• Transforming Teaching Through Technology (T⁴)
  The T⁴ Initiative promotes and supports the development, implementation and dissemination of technology to model the transformation of teaching and learning at our institution. This year, we are completing the initial phase of a collaborative effort among three campus-wide technology pilot projects (Biology 151/152, Geographic Information Systems, and Foreign Languages). The effort has led to identification and development of tools, modules, and templates supporting transformative teaching and learning strategies. It also helps develop technology and staff infrastructure to support further transformative change in higher education. T4 is currently working with faculty, staff and students on campus to define ways to leverage important University technology infrastructure initiatives such as the 21st Century Network, Internet 2, and Learn@UW to discover, synthesize, implement, assess, and disseminate exemplary learning solutions.

• Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT)
  Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) is a $100,000 grant program to support faculty and instructional staff working to enhance teaching and learning through the innovative use of technology. This year, these grants are supporting a range of innovations including online confidential peer review of writing, online pre-class study units, a 3-D environment for Introduction to Buddhism, an online tool to support collaboration in the new masters degree in Biotechnology, and a weed growth simulation for Agronomy.

• WebGrants Program
  The WebGrant Program provides small grants to faculty for use in addressing current issues in information technology. In the last fiscal year, 36 faculty and instructional staff members (representing 31 departments and nine schools or colleges) worked with technology support staff in 10 different campus support units to create and include streaming media in their instruction.

• Online Web Resources
  The Teaching and Learning Excellence (TLE) Web site is an online resource for faculty and instructional staff. TLE is being developed by the Office of the Provost and DoIT as a virtual place where faculty and instructional staff can go when they have questions or need information about teaching and learning.

• Training assistance
  More than 1,000 people attended DoIT’s workshops, demos, and symposia in fiscal 2003. Topics ranged from WebCT, Web site development, animation and interactivity, a TA course for teaching with technology, and a campus-wide teaching and learning symposium.

  DoIT provides assistance in a variety of ways to help faculty begin to use technology in their instruction. Projects range from time-saving electronic grades submission to putting course materials online. Barriers to overcome include lack of faculty time and lack of faculty awareness that DoIT and other campus resources are available to help them get started using instructional technology appropriately.

  We must find new strategies for reaching faculty who do not have internal support in their department, school or college. DoIT consultants are on location within several departments for a period of time, but our challenge is to figure out how to provide this same service for all who need it.

  DoIT conducted an e-Portfolio Feasibility Study in 2002. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of electronic portfolios (e-Portfolios) in higher education and to assess the interest in and possible use for e-Portfolios on this campus. We must, however, find key players on campus who are ready to move forward in e-Portfolio.

Other

• WiscNet
  Wisconsin educational network redesign — WiscNet continues to participate in the strategy, planning, and redesign for the State of Wisconsin’s next generation educational network.

  Video project — A collaborative project of the Wisconsin Technical Colleges, WiscNet, and UW Extension is focusing on testing IP Video options, including high-definition H.264 technologies and developing a separate video service on the existing WiscNet data network, which currently serves its more than 500 members State-wide. The project yielded a series of technology demonstrations and a detailed whitepaper on the findings, which are attracting national attention.

  WiscMail implementation on WiscNet — This collaborative project provided a fully supported email service, for a minimal fee, to interested members of the WiscNet community.

• Web Accessibility Efforts
  DoIT has developed new resources to help faculty and staff understand and comply with the campus Web accessibility policy. The goal is to make information and communications technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities. These resources include a new educational video, an online Web accessibility checklist, and an online course called “Web Accessibility 101: Policy, Standards, and Design Techniques.” It replaces a former instructor-led course.