Survey

Are you satisfied with the ergonomics of your primary workstation?

Yes
No

Results from last issue's survey question: Overall, are you satisfied with the IPP process?

There were 28 responses. 11 said "Yes" and 17 said "No."

Staff Profile

Heather Flanagan

Heather Flanagan started working at Stanford in 2007.




How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

A perfect blend of tactical and strategic planning for server support. My focus is on the UNIX side of the house, of course, but the overall processes should map more broadly so that a customer sees server support; the OS shouldn't dictate the process.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

Working with the people here. This is a very bright, interactive crowd!

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

I got my masters degree in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill, my sweetheart graduated from NC State, and he and I both worked at Duke prior to moving out here.

I worked as Senior Manager in charge of Collaborative Systems, a group that supports Solaris, Linux, and MacOS servers. This included services like AFS, Cyrus, Oracle Calendar, streaming media, web servers, classroom capture, OS images for campus labs, High Performance Computing, and whatever else didn't fit anywhere else.

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

Gardening, at the moment. I'll probably find an Aikido dojo to practice at before too long, and my sweetheart and I hope to take up sea kayaking. I participate in Renaissance Faires during the season.

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

I have to choose a favorite? I have about 1,500+ books in storage right now, so a favorite book is hard to choose.

Favorite movie...it's so rare I sit in front of a big screen long enough to see a movie, I have no idea!

Song? Depends on the day. I'm particularly fond of Tom Lehrer. He's fun to listen to just about any time. The soundtrack from Kissing Jessica Stein is also full of great things (never did see the movie, tho').

Staff Happenings

Comings and Goings

Ernie Phipps has been hired as a Process Consultant in OMR. He will function as a business analyst for our group and work closely with the Application Support team in our use of Remedy, Pinnacle, Pathworks, and other systems. As a Process Consultant, Ernie will be reviewing our processes, systems, and order fulfillment tasks for opportunities to streamline business processes to better serve our clients and internal customers.

Karla Lacy has accepted the position as the Order Management Lead for our team. Her primary responsibilities will be to keep day-to-day operations functional. She will be an escalation point for issues of our group and will work closely with Ernie on process improvements. Her focus in these areas is exciting for all of us involved. Congratulations Karla!

Christina Zuffinetti has accepted the position as the Order Management Project Coordinator for our team. Her primary role is to act as point person for our team on larger volume orders and/or projects. She will work closely with I&M, Facilities Engineering, and the Service Consultants to coordinate order fulfillment, document procedures, and implement processes for project management of these orders. Congratulations Christina!

I am excited to have these three folks as a "triangle of resources" for me and the team. With these changes, we hope to be able to provide some focus in areas that need attention, including data reconciliation between many of our systems (Pinnacle, SL100, CableBridge, etc.).

- Suzanne Schiessler
Shared Communication Services; Order Management

Aamir Chaudry will be leaving Stanford University on March 23rd. He has accepted a new and exciting position with a major storage vendor. A definite loss to Stanford, Aamir has been an anchor point in the storage and backup group for many years. His expertise and contribution will be missed. We would like to wish him the best in his new endeavors.

- Dan Stillmaker
Shared Communication Services; Backup and Storage

It is my pleasure to announce that Gaby Rodriguez from the Tier One Help Desk has joined CRC as the successful candidate for the Computer Resource Associate position. Gaby brings a strong Help Desk Specialist background with many years of experience supporting Stanford University. She has personally assisted many of our CRC clients and understands the service side and some of the technical steps needed to support them. We are thrilled to have her as part of the CRC family!

Welcome Gaby!

- Kim Seidler
Client Support; Computer Resource Consulting

Jim McMahon, I&M Lead Technician, IT Services, is retiring from Stanford University on March 30th 2007. Jim joined Stanford in 1999, after retiring from AT&T. Jim managed wire contractors on campus and the medical center performing TSO installations. Jim also led many special events on campus and assisted Athletics for IT Services, most notably the Bank of the West Tennis Classic.

Please join Jim at his farewell party on the Turing lawn March 29th, 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

- Rocco Petrunti
Shared Communication Services; Operations

Please join me in welcoming Lucrecia Kim-Boswell to our Administrative Services team.

Lucrecia is replacing Valerie Cruz, who has just retired from Stanford. Lucrecia's primary responsibility will be as John Freshwaters' executive assistant. Her other duties will be assisting staff in Polya Hall and she will be located in Polya 251.

Lucrecia comes to us from Stanford Facilities where she managed daily schedules for technicians in the Facilities group to provide support to other departments on campus.

Prior to Stanford, Lucrecia had more than 14 years' experience working for financial institutes as a loan officer and assistant financial center manager at Washington Mutual.

We are very happy to have Lucrecia joining our team. Please stop by to say hello and welcome her to IT Services.

- Cholada Chenhansa
Finance and Administration

The following people recently joined Information Technology Services. Welcome!

  • Allain Malimban (Rick Lowe)

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

  • Larry Ploetz (Heather Flanagan)
  • Andrew Chung (Suzanne Schiessler)

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

Tech Briefings / Tech Express

Tech Briefings

Fridays
2–3:30 p.m.

Turing Auditorium

March 23: Webmail Preview

The Webmail system is going through an upgrade. Tim Torgenrud, IT Services, will discuss the changes. Learn about the performance improvements that have been put in place. Learn about server-side filtering to make it all work more "automagically" with your IMAP folders, learn about the interface changes (e.g., the address book uses the Stanford Directory!) , and learn a little bit about the "mobilemail" feature.


March 30: Stanford Webbishness

Join Tim Torgenrud, IT Services, as he shows us how to use the various web tools in the Stanford Web Services environment, including such tools as Movable Type, WordPress, Wikis, and guestbooks. Tim will provide a brief overview of issues to look for in bringing PHP and other scripting tools, blogs, wikis, PIMs, and such into the Stanford Web Services environment, while providing a forum for participants to ask about the Stanford Web Services environment and its offerings.

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

Tech Express

Thursdays
12–1 p.m.
Turing Auditorium

March 22: Stanford Desktop Tools

IT Services is rolling out a new desktop software offering, designed to replace PC/Leland and MacLeland. Presenters: Jon Pilat, Ammy Hill, and Mark Branom.

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

Technology Training Courses

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff.

  • Thu, Mar 22, Using Technology To Manage the Ever-Increasing Workload at Stanford (ITS-0801), 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., $150
  • Mon, Mar 26, Excel for Finance (ITS-1128), 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., $275
  • Mon, Mar 26, Photoshop Lite (ITS-1460), 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., $150
  • Tue, Mar 27, Excel Level 3 (ITS-1125), 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., $275
  • Tue, Mar 27, Order IT Site Training (formerly IT Services Site Training) (ITS-8301), 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Free
  • Tue, Mar 27, Changes to Ordering and Billing for Department Contacts (ITS-8302), 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 AM, Free
  • Fri, Mar 30, Mastering Dreamweaver Level 3 (ITS-2605), 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., $275
  • Wed, Apr 4, Excel Level 1 (ITS-1121), 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., $275
  • Wed, Apr 4, Tips and Tricks In Sundial (ITS-2301), 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Free
  • Wed, Apr 4, Changes to Ordering and Billing for Department Contacts (ITS-8302), 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., Free
  • Thu, Apr 5, Word Level 2 9ITS-0922), 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., $275

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

IT Employment Opportunities

There were no new job postings for IT Services this week.

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

Quote of the Week

"On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not all the time."

- George Orwell

News

IT Services Web Site Becomes OrderIT

As of Tuesday, March 27th, the itservices.stanford.edu web site will have a new name: orderit.stanford.edu. The name change arose out of confusion surrounding the name of the IT Services department versus the IT Services web site. An automatic redirect will take users from the old "itservices" site to the new "orderit" site for the next few months. The OrderIT web site will continue to be the place for Departmental Contacts (those staff in departments authorized to order such services) to order:

  • Telephone Service; phones, voicemail, & PBNs
  • Cable TV
  • DSL
  • and much more

Data Center orders (for requests like ordering new servers or expanding storage for an existing server) will now be processed through the web site.

Twelve new billing reports will be available starting with the March billing cycle. The new billing reports include several improvements requested by the Stanford business community:

  • Easier to read summary reports
  • Summaries by expenditure type for easy reconciliation with Oracle
  • More descriptive detail reports (with or without usage data) downloadable to Excel
  • Choice of reporting by account code or organization code
  • Only PTAOs with charges for the current billing period will display

IT Services has assigned five staff members to assist clients with ordering services, monitoring order progress, and answering billing questions. These staff joined the existing Stanford IT Help Desk, becoming a new group renamed the IT Service Desk.

The IT Service Desk staff are reachable via HelpSU or through 5-HELP (725-4657). Also, there have been major business process redesigns affecting order processing, the various fulfillment groups, and billing. Members of each of these groups have been involved in extensive testing of changes to Pinnacle, Remedy, and their local business processes.

- Ammy Hill
Campus Readiness

Client Satisfaction Survey

Please help us out by completing the 2007 Client Satisfaction Survey. A draft version of the survey is open to IT Services staff this week (through Friday, March 23).

The survey should take about 10 or so minutes to complete. Your participation matters because:

  • We value your feedback about the quality of our services and your input on future directions
  • We need your help to test the mechanics of the survey
  • We want you to be informed about the questions we will ask our clients

You can send comments and feedback about the survey and its questions to: itss-survey@lists.stanford.edu.

The survey will be released to our clients on April 3-13, 2007.

Thanks very much for helping out. We appreciate your support of this activity.

- The IT Services Client Satisfaction Team
Bill Clebsch, Jan Cicero, Jay Kohn, Chris Lundin, Nan McKenna, Jim Knox, Kathy Lucas, Nancy Ware

Innovation Fund Proposal Selected

Congratulations to Marco Wise. His Web-Based Form Building proposal was selected for funding. Once completed, it will provide a user-friendly, web-based, MySQL-powered replacement for Formage. This will ultimately make it easier for the community to build forms (such as registration forms, surveys, etc.) in support of departmental activities.

The purpose of the Innovation Fund program is to provide funds in support of staff ideas to improve the services, functions, and/or processes provided by IT Services. Priority is given to proposals that improve how we support the research, academic, and/or business priorities of Stanford.

The next round of proposals will be considered in the June time frame.

- Nancy Ware
Planning & Communication

Commute Survey

The Provost recently sent a request to the campus community thanking us for the actions to reduce trips during the peak commute hours of 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. He reminded us of the importance for the University, and the surrounding communities, that we continue to do everything we can to live within the commute traffic limitations of the General Use Permit Stanford has in place with the County of Santa Clara.

If you have not already done so, please complete the three-question Peak Hour Trip Survey. The survey must be completed by Friday, March 30.

- Nancy Ware
Planning & Communication

IPP: Phase Two

Phase two of our annual performance evaluation process is coming to a close on March 30, 2007. As always, the most critical thing to keep in mind is that this process is first and foremost about communication regarding expectations.

Please use this midpoint check-in to note any job description changes, to update individual goals and objectives for the year, to confirm competency expectations, and to modify career development goals. The updated IPP forms should be submitted to your Executive Director no later than March 30, 2007.

Any questions about the process should be directed to your Executive Director or to me.

- Nilda Bonet
IT Services; Human Resources

Webmail Beta: Please Try It Out

The Webmail Beta test is underway.

This beta test precedes the “go live” of the updated Webmail on April 12, 2007. To reach the beta version, log in to Webmail. On the Webmail "splash" page, follow the link to the beta test.

There is a link on the Stanford Webmail Beta signup page for any feedback you'd care to provide (and we'd appreciate it).

- The Editors

The Internet: Extreme Makeover

What would the Internet look like if we could rebuild it today from scratch?

Project Clean Slate at Stanford is attempting to answer that question.

- The Editors

Initiative Status Report

The monthly status update for the IT Services FY07 Initiatives is now available. The status reflected in this report is as of 2/28/2007. You can contact your Director or the listed initiative owner with any questions. The detailed update on each initiative is available.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communication

Commute and Parking Incentives

For those of you who park in the Pine Hall parking lot, the ominous blank signs Parking and Transportation installed a few weeks ago have been explained with the posting of a sign announcing that that lot will be converted to "A" sticker parking in late April (except for a few "C Carpool") slots. That change will result in "C" sticker holders having to consider other alternatives; either for parking spots or alternate commute methods.

Parking and Transportation Services has added a number of incentives and enhancements to its web site. There are cash prizes, rebates on bicycles, bonus refunds for turning in parking permits, the Clean Air Club, iPod drawings, and other programs to encourage alternative forms of getting to campus.

See the Parking and Transportation Services web site for details.

- The Editors

About its in bits

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, April 4, 2007.