As the year comes to a close, we can look back over a year of great progress for OIT and the University as a whole. Over the Winter break, OIT’s work will continue on projects to enhance systems and services geared towards the success of the campus community. In this summary, we would like to present to you some of the major projects that have been achieved this year as well as the initiatives that are still being worked on now and in the coming year.
Recently Completed Projects
ePerformance
OIT implemented an electronic process for performance reviews in my.SMU, replacing the previous paper-based system. SMU employees will use ePerformance to complete the annual review process and the Department of Human Resources will benefit from automated workflows and improved reporting functionality.
Deliver Linux Platform for Lyle Research Applications
This project provisioned four new Virtual Machines (VMs) with installed base applications. This platform is utilized by researchers in the Lyle School of Engineering with research projects in the VM Academic Cluster.
SMU Financials New Org Request e-Form
OIT created an electronic form for use by SMU Financials to facilitate org requests, with the additional benefit of automated workflows.
Projects in Progress
Campus-Wide Lockdown Conversion – Phase 3
In the Campus-wide Lockdown Conversion project, 15 buildings will be retrofitted with new exterior door hardware and card readers to achieve compliance with the Campus Lockdown Standard.
More information regarding emergency procedures, please see Risk Management’s Emergency Notification Procedures.
NetScaler (Redesign and Implementation) in the University Data Center
OIT is redesigning and implementing NetScaler for private addressing to support recent network design updates and new security objectives in the UDC. These implementations will improve content and application distribution across the network, which means quicker performance and increased reliability.
CrashPlan Deployment
OIT will expand CrashPlan deployment for SMU faculty and staff desktop machines. CrashPlan creates a complete automatic backup of your profile or home directory (file folder structure), enabling users to quickly and easily recover their data.
More information regarding CrashPlan Pro please visit the CrashPlan service page.
Next generation departmental template system for Sitecore
OIT is developing a new template system for Sitecore that will improve the user experience to www.smu.edu sites, such as new editing tools for web content creation and an updated look and feel. Page templates will also make creating pages from scratch easier.
