Furman University

Information Technology Services

Annual Report – June 4, 2012

Accompl ishing the plan for excel lent technology services.

Greetings,

We appreciate your interest in Furman information technology

services. This report looks at the progress we are making on

the goals of our 2011 information technology strategic plan. It

reviews accomplishments from the past year, and highlights

some of our future technology plans.

Perhaps our biggest change in the past year has been our

move to Microsoft’s Office365 service. We have begun to use

this “cloud” solution for email, calendars, and improved support

for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. We plan to

add more capabilities as Microsoft makes them available. We

appreciate your patience during the transition.

Furman’s Information Technology Services staff (ITS) continue

to be inspired by the University’s academic mission, and our

learning community of students, faculty and staff. We are here

to work with you, and welcome your questions and feedback.

Fred Miller

Chief Information Officer

The ITS Plan Communication Collaboration Innovation Service

Goals of the IT Strategic Plan

• Establish the IT Service Center as the

nexus of technology support

excellence.

• Champion scalable information

technology innovations and best

practices.

• Improve enterprise information

systems functionality and usability.

• Establish a state-of-the art system

and processes for digital media

distribution.

• Provide a robust, consistent, and

reliable campus network

infrastructure.

• Office365 is Microsoft’s cloud computing service for email, calendar, and other

communication services.

• On March 14th, email for Freshmen, Sophomore and Juniors began to be

delivered to their new Office365 accounts.

• Faculty and staff are moving to Office365 at the rate of about 50 accounts per

week.

• The entire campus community will be on Office365 for the start of the Fall

semester.

New Building Plans

• Herring Building – the new home for the Osher Lifelong Learning (OLLI) program

and Continuing Education, this building will include HD video and

videoconference capability.

• University Center – along with enhanced space for student organizations, the

new space will feature a “media wall” of digital signs and HD video.

The ITS Plan Communication Collaboration Innovation Service

New Wireless

In October, ITS

completed the

campus wireless

upgrade and

expansion

project on-time

and on budget.

All campus

buildings now

have fast and

reliable wireless

networking.

Digital Media Projects

• ITS established campus digital signage standards. Initial signs

are located in the Duke Library, the University Center, and the

Townes Science Center. Additional signs are planned for 2012-

2013.

• ITS has selected the first HD videoconferencing solution. The first

HD videoconference location will be in the new Herring building.

Enterprise Systems Projects

• The MyFurman portal now has true Single Sign On access

(MyApps) for OrgSync, Moodle, and more. With Single Sign On,

you no longer need to re-enter your password to use these

services.

• ITS continues to work with Marketing and Public Relations to

improve the University’s web services.

• ITS continues to work with departments to investigate and deploy

appropriate Cloud Computing solutions.

The ITS Plan Communication Collaboration Innovation Service

• Working with the Student Government

Association, and the division of

Student Life, we added OrgSync as a

replacement for FirstClass

conferences for student organizations.

• Includes Single Sign On from the

MyFurman portal using Furman’s

NetID and password.

• There are now over 170 student

organizations and interest groups

using OrgSync.

Furman News

• ITS worked with Marketing and Public

Relations to develop an innovative news

feed system for websites, digital signs,

and mobile apps.

Interactive Whiteboard

Evaluation

• Sharp Business Systems provided a 70”

Aquos Interactive Whiteboard for

evaluation. CTL and ITS explored

potential uses for this innovative

technology including possibilities of

combining with Apple TV to enable

presentations from mobile devices and

installing electronic whiteboard software

so the system would function as a

SMART® or Promethean® system.

Displays of this type would potentially be

projection replacements in some venues.

The ITS Plan Communication Collaboration Innovation Service

Faculty iPad Initiative

• ITS, the Duke Library, and the Center for Teaching and Learning worked

together to propose an iPad initiative to encourage faculty innovation with

tablet computing.

• In April, 25 faculty proposals were selected to participate in the project.

• This year long experiment will help us assess how tablet computers can aid

teaching, learning, and research.

Virtual Desktop

• ITS staff continued investigating running desktop software from servers.

Such “Virtual Desktop” computing will enable faculty experimentation and

innovation, wider access to software for students, and more efficient and

effective use of technology support resources.

• We plan to roll out a pilot project to provide campus access to SPSS

statistical software, and other apps, for Spring 2013.

The Furman Alumni Network

• ITS worked with Admission to enhance our Engage social network to better

support alumni engagement with prospective students.

• ITS also worked with Admission to select a new cloud-based system to

enhance and improve our enrollment processes.

• Furman owns over

2400 computer

systems.

• Campus information

services run on over

100 servers.

• The campus

wireless network has

more than 800

wireless access

points.

• Furman has more

than 150 locations

with multimedia and

projection systems.

• Furman stores more

than 30 terabytes of

data in its

datacenter.

• The IT Service

Center handles over

10,000 support calls

per year.

The ITS Plan Communication Collaboration Innovation Service

Mike Gifford

Director, IT Service Center

Tracy Landrith

Service Center Specialist

Brandon Green

Service Center Specialist

Richard Lange

Technical Support Consultant

Barry Mullinax

Hardware Support Specialist

Derek Stanley

Hardware Support Specialist

IT Service Center Staff:

IT Service Center

H o u r s E x t e n d e d !

Monday – Thursday

8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Friday

8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Saturday

12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sunday

1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The Furman University IT

Service Center:

The Nexus of Technology

Support Excellence.

Thank You…

IT Services

Student Staff

2011 – 2012

Academic

Computing Committee

2011 – 2012

Enterprise Systems

Advisory Group

2011 – 2012

Information Technology

Advisory Committee

2011 – 2012

Amy Boyter

Jordan Brown

Lillian Cleveland

Nathan Cox

Taylor Senseney Crouch

Sarah Hamilton

Jasmine Hwang

Harris Khan

Tom Lewis

Channing McLeod

Sarah Olive

John Stelling

Layla Tumler

Adam Underdown

Emmu Wakai

Jessie Wolfinger

Ken Kolb (chair)

Eiho Baba

Amy Blackwell

Rhett Bryson

Susan Dunnavant

Sarah Frick

Jane Love

Maggie Milat

Fred Miller

Marianne Pierce

Jason Rawlings

Andrea Wright

Randy Dill (chair)

Brett Barclay

Amy Barnhill

Brad Barron

Julie Berillo

Joy Brown

Janie Burton

Jason Cassidy

Chris Goforth

Andrea McMillian

Emily Murphy

Don Pierce

Helen Reynolds

Linda Sarratt

Fred Miller (chair)

Pam Barkett

John Beckford

Janis Bandelin

Amy Blackwell

Scott Derrick

Randy Dill

Susan Dunnavant

Mark Kelly

Ken Kolb

Mary Lou Merkt

Don Pierce

Brad Pochard

Linda Sarratt

Forrest Stuart

“Furman In format ion Technology Services wi l l provide the

campus communi ty wi th a d ig i ta l in format ion envi ronment

that re f lects and advances the h igh qual i t y o f Furman’s

academic program and phys ica l campus . ”

- 2011 IT St rateg ic P lan

O ur Va l ue s :

Te a m S u p p o r t

G o o d C o m m u n i c a t i o n s /

L i s t e n F i r s t

E m p a t h y

E d u c a t e t h e U s e r

Furman

Information

Technology

Services