A Note from Bill...
Daylight Saving Time
Customer Response Time
Ivy Plus Collaboration on Vista
Employee Survey
iPass Trial
Town Hall
Survey
Staff Profile
Staff Happenings
Tech Sessions
Tech Training Classes
IT Employment Opportunities at Stanford
Quote of the Week

Past Issues

Is it easy to find information online using "search" at Stanford?

Yes
No

Results from last issue's survey question: Do you plan on taking the Employee Survey?

There were 54 responses. 52 said "Yes" and 2 said "No."

Steve Tingley joined Stanford in 1995.

How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

Currently, my job is split between three different groups within Networking Systems: the SUNet Backbone group, the Network Security group, and the ResComp LNA group. The Backbone group takes care of delivering network service to all of the buildings on campus, network connections to the internet, Stanford DSL, PacketShapers, VPN, and the core network for VoIP.

The Network Security group manages about 40 firewalls on campus and is in the process of rolling out firewall service to all departments at Stanford.

The ResComp LNA group takes care of all of the non-backbone networking for the student residences. I supervise a small group of students who provide off-hours support for equipment failures and Information Security issues.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

My work with the dorm network is a lot of fun; the students really push the envelope when it comes to using the network.

My first job at Stanford was in 1989 and a lot of those people are still here. It's fun to see friendly faces when I'm out fixing something on the other side of campus. My group is also great to work with.

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

I was a bank teller. Long pants, button-down shirts, ties, socks, and real shoes. Yes there are pictures and no, you can't see them.

What do you like to do when you're not at work?

Spend time with my wonderful wife, watch cartoons, and collect and build LEGOs. There's a big part of me that doesn't want to grow up and now that I can afford some of the toys I couldn't on my allowance when I was a kid, I'm taking advantage of that.

My 1980's full-sized arcade game collection will hopefully grow to three by the end of the month. It's a lot easier to play for a few hours when you don't have to keep asking for quarters.

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

Movie: Spaceballs (and most other dumb comedies).
Book: Kick Me and Superstud by Paul Feig.
Song: Machinehead or Forever Young (the slow version). Favorites right now are Cake, Weezer, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

John Klemm has decided to retire. John has shared more than 28 years of fun, games, paychecks, videos and...(oh, John said I should mention he actually did manage to mingle in some work in his hectic schedule).

We will miss John's mischievous mind and his one-of-a-kind spirit. He has made many contributions to computing at Stanford and especially to the lives of us who worked with him. After many years of John mocking us in holiday videos and Out of Touch newsletters, many of us plan to return the favor and roast (I meant, "toast") him at a going away party next week.

We wish John the best in all of his new adventures and thank him for making our time here more joyous.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Please join me in thanking Lynne Myers for the past 20 years of supporting, managing, and directing different workgroups and projects for IT Services. Lynne plans to retire at the end of the month.

I want to extend our thanks to Lynne for all of her many contributions to Stanford and IT Services. Lynne never does things partially; she always puts her entire heart and soul into any task or project. Lynne has passionately supported and championed many initiatives since 1986 including the Client Satisfaction Survey for the past five years, our Benchmarking collaboration effort with MIT, Zero Based Budgeting, Metrics across all of IT Services, the Technology Fee project, and many other efforts. She has actively contributed to the success and growth of our organization, and has always been willing to share observations, opinions, and ideas for making things better.

Thank you Lynne, for your dedication and contributions internally and externally and the friendship you have brought to so many of us across Stanford. On behalf of IT Services, I wish you the very best in your new endeavors, especially booking all those vacation trips and shopping excursions across the world.

- Jan Cicero
Client Support

I am pleased to announce that Tracy Neil has joined the Application Support team. Tracy joins us from BMC Remedy where she spent the last six years supporting AR System workflow and ITSM applications. Tracy graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Environmental Biology and Management and a minor in Political Science. In the winter, you'll find Tracy on the slopes as she is an avid snow skier and in the summer you may bump into her at a local music festival.

If you have a moment and are walking past Polya 264, feel free to pop in and introduce yourself to Tracy.

- Anne Pinkowski
Shared Communication Services; Application Support

Please join me in welcoming Lien Duong to Stanford University in her role as a Help Desk Specialist working at the Level One Help Desk in Acacia. Lien comes to us from AT&T where she worked at the Tier 2 Help Desk supporting DSL and Desktop client issues. We look forward to her bringing this additional expertise to the Help Desk.

- Steve McLenegan
Client Support; Help Desk Services

I am very pleased to announce that we have found a new member for our Administrative Services team. Her name is Karla Koch.

Karla joined us on February 16. She is located in Laurel 113 and will provide support to the staff in the Forest area. Her information is available via StanfordWho.

Karla came to Stanford from Peru in 2002 and started working in the Payroll Department, where she worked for almost two years. She was promoted to PCard Administrator for the Disbursement Department in the Controller's Office. She was known as an outstanding employee in both positions. Those who have worked with her in the past hold her in high regard for her talent, cheerful and willing-to-help attitude, and her great contributions to their departments.

Feel free to drop by her office to welcome her to the IT Services family!

- Cholada Chenhansa
Finance and Administration

Comings and Goings

The following people recently joined Information Technology Services. Welcome!

• Mason Rove (Maria Maravilla)
• Alexander Tayts (Karen Zack)
• Ty Baler (Shirley Hodges)

The following people have left Information Technology Services. Please contact their manager if you need to follow up on any open items.

• Evan Taylor (Joyce Dickerson)
• Sylvie Firestone (Carolyn Kane)

its in bits welcomes more detailed employee news submissions from all staff. Please submit to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu

Tech Briefings

Fridays
2–3:30 p.m.

Turing Auditorium

February 23: Stanford Desktop Tools

IT Services is rolling out a new desktop software offering called Stanford Desktop Tools. Jon Pilat and Ammy Hill, presenters.

Check the Tech Briefings home page for upcoming talks, specials, and last-minute additions.

Tech Express

Thursdays
12–1 p.m.
Turing Auditorium

February 22: Daylight Saving Time

Mark Branom and Ammy Hill (IT Services) will talk about Daylight Saving Time and campus computing issues and answer any questions you might have.

Check the Tech Express home page for future sessions and to subscribe to the mailing list.

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff.

• 2/22, Using Email and Mailman at Stanford 1:30–4:30, $150
• 2/26, Access Level 2, 9–4, $275
• 2/27, Word Level 2, 9–4, $275
• 2/27, Photos, Graphics, and the Web: The Basics, 1–4:30, $150
• 2/28, Excel Level 2 , 9–4, $275
• 3/1, Podcasting, Video, and Sound in Web Pages, 1:30–4:30, $150
• 3/6, Tips and Tricks In Sundial, 1–4:30. Free
• 3/6, MySQL Workshop, 9–4, $275
• 3/7, Excel Level 1, 9–4, $275
• 3/8, Access Level 3, 9–4, $275
• 3/9, Web Design: Forms and Basic CGI Scripting, 1–4:30, $150

Sign up at http://axess.stanford.edu.

Classes with low enrollment may be cancelled one week in advance. More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Leni Silberman
Technology Training Services

There were five new job postings for IT Services this week.

Req #24217: Computer Information Systems Analyst, 100% FTE, Continuing position, Range 4P2, Kim Seidler, hiring manager.

This position provides computer support primarily to the School of Humanities and Sciences. This includes desktop and local server consulting with expertise in Mac and Windows desktop computers, as well as Windows and Mac-based servers.

Req #23821: Order Processor, 100% FTE, Continuing position, Range 4P1, Suzanne Schiessler, hiring manager.

Responsible for receiving, reviewing, processing, and closing web orders generated through the IT Services (Department) and My IT Services (Student) sites, Customer Service Orders (CSOs), and Remedy tickets that support network and telecommunication needs.

Req #24126: Sr. Backbone Network Specialist, 100% FTE, Continuing position, Range 4P3, David Macia, hiring manager.

This position will be responsible for the planning, engineering, deployment, and technical operations of firewalls, VPNs, and other network security devices. Staff is expected to participate in the on call rotation.

Req #24140: Admin. Associate, 100% FTE, Continuing position, Range 1A4, Cholada Chenhansa, hiring manager.

The Administrative Associate is responsible for independently applying department and university policies and procedures in performing a wide range of procurement, record-keeping, and administrative support tasks for the 300 staff members of IT Services.

Req #24147: IT Services Account Manager, 100% FTE, Continuing position, Range 4P4, Nan Mckenna, hiring manager.

The Account Manager works closely with clients to understand their business and identify and respond to their IT needs. The Account Manager effectively engages resources from all levels of IT Services at the strategic and operational level as necessary to achieve quality service delivery.

To view the complete listings or to apply for a position, visit the StanfordJobs web site at: jobs.stanford.edu.

There are other open Information Technology positions at Stanford. To see what other opportunities exist on campus, link to the full list of all open IT positions at Stanford

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

-Michelangelo

A Note from Bill...

Halfway through the fiscal year is a great time to pause and reflect on our individual and organizational goals and performance. This is the time to meet with your manager and make the necessary course corrections that seem inherent as part of working in the information technology field. We are each accountable for our own career success and for the success of IT Services.

IT is a continually changing landscape, and we all work in a field that embraces change as the only constant. I know that is a key reason why I enjoy IT so much. When I first came to Stanford, much of IT focused on large expensive pieces of equipment and the fairly small number of staff who ran it. As the industry matures, we are becoming more of a service organization, and we now spend far more on people than we do on hardware and software.

People were always our most important asset, and now people are our largest asset too. As a result, we need to be sure to invest the appropriate time to develop and nurture each other. In a constantly changing IT world, it is critical that we all have the time, tools, and focus on the right priorities. That’s why this time of year is so important. We need to take time to see which goals should change, which are under control, and which need renewed attention.

The IPPs were specifically designed to facilitate these discussions and to make our goals and performance both crystal clear and easy to adjust. We all need to make sure that we have a common understanding of our focus for the second half of the year to make us individually and organizationally successful.

The University’s administration has a new trust and confidence in central IT that has been apparent during my interactions across campus. We need to continue building on our solid accomplishments to grow that trust. The surest way to get there is to be one hundred percent accountable and honest in discussions about how we are performing and what we need to do differently to continue to improve. I urge all of us to both give and take that feedback as we meet with our managers. Together we can continue our journey to building the premiere IT service organization at Stanford.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Daylight Saving Time

On Sunday, March 11, 2007, Stanford and the rest of the country will "spring forward" for Daylight Saving Time (DST) three weeks earlier than in previous years. On Sunday, November 4, 2007, we'll "fall back" a week later. This change is a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and it creates a significant change for the systems and services we provide.

Teams throughout IT Services are working with colleagues across Stanford, with peers at other institutions, and with our vendor partners to insure we complete any necessary changes to our systems and services to accommodate these rescheduled annual time changes. To every extent possible, we are attempting to manage these changes in the background to minimize any impact to our clients.

In the case of our Sundial Calendar offering, minimizing the client impact is quite a challenge. Oracle, the vendor providing the application, has provided an update to the software that does prepare the application server to recognize the time change, but does not actually move meetings during the affected periods to the correct time. In consulting with many IT units at other institutions, we discovered that most have elected to have their users manually move such meetings to the correct time.

Rather than simply adopt that approach, our Application Support group stepped forward, particularly Yue Lu, and began creating a script that would identify most meetings during the affected time periods (March 11 to April 1 and October 28 to November 4) and automatically move them to the correct time. This script significantly reduced the number of meetings for which our users had to manually adjust the time. As you look at your calendar, you'll see that meetings during the periods listed above were prefixed with "DST – " to indicate that the script adjusted the time for that meeting to accommodate the change in Daylight Savings Time.

The Oracle patch and the Application Support script were installed over the past weekend and we have notified all Sundial users instructing them how to verify that their meetings were successfully moved and how to easily correct those few that the script may have missed. 

Further details about the changes to Sundial and other related systems issues can be found on the Daylight Saving Time site.

Our thanks to all IT Services staff who are working hard to create, test, and implement these solutions that help reduce inconveniences to our clients. If any of your clients have questions about these changes, please direct them to the DST web site or have them submit a HelpSU request or call 5-HELP (650-725-4357).

- Jay Kohn
Shared Communication Services

Customer Response Time

Since December 2006, we have been tracking "customer response time" in HelpSU. By "customer response," we mean personal contact with the customer, via either phone or email, to acknowledge receipt of their issue. This is not to be confused with "resolution time," i.e., that we've fixed the problem or addressed the issue.

Our service target is that 85% of all non-urgent requests will be acknowledged within four business hours. For urgent requests, we have set a target of 75% acknowledgment within one business hour.

You can check the metrics site to see how we've been doing.

We are measuring response time out of HelpSU based on the ticket status. The response time clock starts running when a case is submitted by the customer online or is created by the Help Desk staff. The clock stops when the ticket changes to "Work in Progress" status.

Our customers have told us (through our annual Customer Satisfaction survey and the weekly spot surveys) that a key satisfaction driver is getting their issues promptly acknowledged, and then promptly resolved. Our resolution rate (the problem is actually resolved) is also available.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support; Help Desk Services

Ivy Plus Collaboration on Vista

The Ivy Plus group is an informal collaboration effort that goes back many years, organized around a wide range of IT issues. As the name implies, it includes the the Ivy League universities such as Yale, Harvard, MIT, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania along with the University of Chicago, Duke, and Stanford. At the group's meeting in Chicago in November 2006, a decision was made to mount a project focused on Vista and the issues that all of our campuses will have to deal with as this new version of Windows rolls out.

The Vista collaboration group set out a number of goals including:

• Reduce each institution's effort and work in evaluating Vista/Office 2007.
• Enable institutions to establish and become proficient with the Vista tools which perform more efficiently and with the least amount of administrative overhead.
• Create processes and procedures for migrating and supporting client systems in a more managed environment.
• Identify common problems that institutions confront as they implement Vista/Office 2007.

In January, the group met at Yale and reviewed progress toward these goals. Stanford's role was to examine some of the key event monitoring and task scheduling tools that are incorporated in Vista. Ross Wilper and Tony Silveira presented the results of their investigations, and proposed ways that the group could collaborate on performance monitoring and management. This effort promises to help each of the institutions avoid "reinventing the wheel" when it comes to managing the transition of the campus to Vista.

- Tom Goodrich
Client Support; Help Desk Services

Employee Survey

Thank you for participating in the 2007 Employee Survey, which opened Thursday, February 1, and closed on Friday, February 9. The overall response rate for Business Affairs was 688 responses out of a possible 821, or 84%.

The annual Employee Survey gives us the opportunity to provide feedback about the quality of the community we are building in IT Services. Your survey responses will highlight our strengths and our areas for improvement. In other words, your survey responses inform which strategies and actions we need to take to make IT Services a better place to work.

We will be sharing the survey responses in March. Stay tuned to hear more then.

- Nilda Bonet
IT Services; Human Resources

iPass Trial

Go ahead and get connected; there's no charge.

IT Services has announced that faculty and staff can use the iPass remote connectivity service with access to wireless hotspots, wired broadband, and dial-up at no charge. This free trial period will last until August 2007.

Starting in September, we anticipate that the charge for registered users will be approximately $20 per month (unlimited use). iPass is available at more than 78,000 hot spots around the world in 161 countries.

So go ahead, connect, free, whether at a local coffee shop or halfway around the world.

Details are available on the iPass site.

- Carlos Zertuche
Client Support; Client Relations

Town Hall

The next IT Services Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6, from 10:00 to 12:00 in the Oak Lounges at Tresidder Union. The meeting should already be noted on your Sundial calendar.

The March meeting will feature David Lenox from the University Planning Office. He will discuss the long-range building plans for the University with insights regarding what it means for us.

Please make plans to attend. Additional details will follow as we get closer to the event.

- Nancy Ware
Planning & Communications

A regular summary of IT business, news about personnel, and pointers to other information of interest to IT Services staff. Coordinated, compiled, and published by the Communication Strategy and Standards Team. its in bits is published on the first and third Wednesday of the month.

Submissions are due by Noon on the Friday before the scheduled issue, to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu for consideration. its in bits is distributed via email to its-all-staff@lists.stanford.edu and the subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu. People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via mailman.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, March 7, 2007.