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INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
David Ernst, Assistant Vice Chancellor
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Board of Trustees
endorsement of the Integrated Technology Strategy-CSU's strategic
plan for the use of technology. The "ITS Plan" provides the policy
and project direction for such initiatives as the CMS, inter and
intra campus telecommunications build out, and the MERLOT academic
technology support project.
At its March 2001 meeting, the Board will be briefed on the accomplishments
of the first five years of the ITS as well as on the challenges
that face the CSU as it endeavors to utilize effectively the technology
being put into place. The objective of the Board session on technology
will be to have each member leave the meeting with the ability
to explain the core elements of the University's technology approach
Common Management System
The CMS project has seen its first campus "go live" with
the Human Resources module! California Maritime Academy went "live"
with several business processes of the HRMS application on February
1st, 2001. Members of the CMS Hardware Operations Support (HOSS)
and Software Operations Support (SOSS) teams and the Maritime
Academy's HR implementation consultant, The Hunter Group, were
on hand to celebrate the event.
Student Administration
Pilot
We have signed a contract with The Hunter Group as the implementation
partner for the Student Administration (SA) pilot project. The
project was "kicked off" at both the Sonoma and Fresno campuses
in February and planning meetings have occurred throughout the
month. The Interactive Design and Prototyping (IDP) sessions will
begin on both campuses the first week in March. The SA pilot project
will last 20 months and will be completed by September 2002.
The SA pilot project will begin development and implementation
on SA version 7.6 but will transition to SA version 8.0 as soon
as possible. We will implement using a combined HR/SA database
which will require upgrading the CMS HR baseline by February 2002
to meet the SA pilot schedule.
HOSS
The CSU has negotiated a contract for HOSS data center services
with Unisys to provide HOSS support from its new data center in
Salt Lake City. The data center will be operationally ready for
CMS testing on May 1 and production ready beginning June 1. Temporary
HOSS support is being provided from the CSU's West Ed facility
in Los Alamitos.
Second Wave Campuses
Several 2nd wave campuses have recently hired their CMS
project directors and are beginning to plan for their HR and Finance
implementations. As 2nd wave campuses successfully complete their
readiness assessments, the CMS Finance software (version 7.5)
will be available in September 2001 and the HR software (version
8.0) will be available in February 2002.
HR and Finance
Work is progressing at San Bernardino for their go live date
of April 2, 2001. Positive pay and workstudy fixes will be included
in the March 26 maintenance release to the campuses. Fresno and
Long Beach are currently testing the positive pay and San Jose
is testing workstudy.
Finance has completed SAMS/FIRMS and the 1099 fixes. Both are
included in the March 5 maintenance release to the campuses. Claims
system testing is in progress with four campuses working with
SOSS. We plan to conclude the testing by mid March and a claims
workshop will be held for all 1st wave campuses in April.
New CMS Positions
Available
Several new student administration and technical positions
are now available. For more information, please visit the web
site at: http://cms.calstate.edu/Homepage/CMSPositionsAvailable/CMSPositionsAvailable.htm
Hilary Baker, Senior Director
ACADEMIC
TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
MERLOT, which stands for Multimedia Educational Resource for
Learning and Online Teaching (www.merlot.org)
is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and
students in higher education. With a continually growing collection
of online learning materials, assignments and reviews, MERLOT
helps faculty enhance instruction. In one year, MERLOT's collection
has grown from 2,300 to over 4,700 learning materials in all different
disciplines. MERLOT is also a community of people who strive to
enrich teaching and learning experiences. Twenty-three systems
and institutions of higher education in the US and Canada support
the MERLOT community, with the CSU leading the effort. The CSU
was also awarded an NSF (National Science Foundation) National
Science Digital Library grant to support the quality assurance
of the MERLOT collection. To learn more about MERLOT, visit our
MERLOT Tasting room at http://taste.merlot.org.
Gerry Hanley, Senior Director
TECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE
4CNet
The CSU inter-campus network, 4CNet, is slated for significant
growth this year in support of initiatives such as the CMS and
the Digital California Project, and in support of growth within
both the CSU and the California Community College system.
Connection
to Teale Data Center
As also noted in the Financial Services section, 4CNet
is connecting this month to the Teale Data Center. This will facilitate
the exchange of payroll and other accounting information with
the State Controller's Office.
Connection
to HOSS Data Center
4CNet is establishing backup connectivity to the planned
HOSS Data Center at the Unisys facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This consists of a 45 Mb/s connection from Southern California
and a second 45 Mb/s connection from Northern California.
Backbone Expansion
The 4CNet backbone is being expanded from 155 Mb/s to 622
Mb/s throughout the state, beginning in April. 4CNet is also adding
a fourth Internet connection, bringing the total Internet capacity
available to 600MB-s.
Digital California
Project
The State of California has funded the Digital California
Project (DCP) that will augment the existing CalREN-2 and 4CNet
advanced services networks statewide and extend the reach of these
networks into the K-12 education community.
Funding for DCP is provided through the budget of the University
of California and through a Memorandum of Agreement. The Corporation
for Education Network Initiatives In California (CENIC) is responsible
for planning, implementing and managing the DCP network. 4CNet
has been providing the Network Architect services to CENIC for
the DCP and is anticipating providing the Network Operations services
as well. For more information about DCP, please visit the DCP
web site at: http://www.cenic.org/DCP.html.
Infrastructure
Build-Out
The CSU has entered the first year of a three-year construction
process that will provide each campus with vastly improved telecommunications
infrastructure. The process on each campus has been broken down
into two stages, Stage 1 will provide the physical infrastructure
- spaces, conduit and cable/fiber - and Stage 2 will provide the
related network electronics. Progress to date includes:
- Phase 1 campuses - Northridge, Sonoma, Chico, Los Angeles,
San Bernardino, Pomona, Dominguez Hills and Long Beach - have
completed preliminary designs and are in the final stages of
developing Stage 1 construction bid documents.
- Pacific Bell has been selected as the systems integrator responsible
for implementing Stage 2.
- The Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) has recommended
Cisco Systems the "vendor of choice" for Stage 2 electronics.
- Composed of campus technology specialists, the Network &
Technology Alliance (NTA) Working Group has been established
to craft Campus Network Technology Standards.
- The first iteration of the Campus Network Technology Standards
has been completed and will guide implementation through Phase
1.
Mark Crase, Senior Director
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