Survey

Do you get a good sense of satisfaction from your job?

Yes
No

Results from last issue's survey question: Do you feel stress on your job?

There were 46 responses: 23 replied "Constantly," 19 said "Occasionally," three answered "Rarely," and one responded "Never."

Staff Profile


Erik Cummings started with IT Services in 2004. He manages the Production Control Group.

How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

The bottom line? Improve IT Services' Mean Time To Repair for all systems and services. The full deal is to lead the Production Control Group (PCG) in Incident Management for IT Services and our clients, enabling enhanced communications with customers, more effective cross-group, internal communication, and overall faster time to resolution.

I am also the Chair of the ITS/AS SOC (Satellite Operations Center)—our Disaster Response group. It's an interesting combination because owning Incident Management for IT Services, and having the PCG, which is here 24x7x365 and is usually "first response," I have the opportunity (and duty) to tie the functions together...

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

When I first started it was the idea of building something new. I had spent the last three years downsizing my IT department and with this job my first task was to hire nine folks! Now it really is the complexity of all the processes I "own." I have the opportunity to tie so many things together; and make a significant and positive impact on how we (IT Services) do things! That's the toughest and the best part!

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

The same thing I do now that I'm here. Get beat up working in an IT department! No seriously—I was the Director of IT for MediaLive International (it had a few more names, but it was the Company that owned and executed Comdex, Interop, Seybold and a bunch of other technology trade shows). Before that, I was Lead Network Engineer there and going back further, I have a long history of Network Engineering and Operations including some time at Santa Fe Community College (in Gainesville, FL) and in the United States Marine Corps (ooo-rah!).

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

Hmmmm...yell at my kids? They are my life now. I love playing with my two-year-old son Lucas, and holding and tickling my eight-month-old girl Elle. Taking Lucas for bike rides, hikes in the Alpine mountains, and playing at the local parks (we frequent Central Park in San Mateo now). When I have time on my own, I tend to watch movies, read books, or very infrequently play computer or Playstation 2 games (no I do not own an XBox!). If I really have some free time I enjoy having friends over and cooking incredibly edible meals!

(Don't Worry; many of you would be on my invite list—so don't feel left out—I haven't made dinner for friends since well before my daughter was born!)

And as some of you may know—I enjoy running. I ran 21.5 miles of the Big Sur Marathon and was in the middle of training for the SF Marathon when I injured my ankle. Now I'm not allowed to run for another month! I'm considered a Clydesdale runner in a marathon: over 200 pounds and at 250+, I take pride in that distinction!

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

I could really get an interesting conversation going with Russ Allbery by saying Harry Potter for all of the above, but that wouldn't be true. I really like a variety of movies, books, and songs. I'm all over the place. Most recently, I think I'm happy I saw Secondhand Lions and Big Fish—little bits of fantasy and fun. With books, it's all about what takes me away (Calgon?), but also gets me to look at my world in a different way...so there have been too many to pick one.

Songs: by far and away the best song is "Kiss to Build a Dream On" with Louis Armstrong at the mic! Odd, because I still think the best band ever is Pink Floyd. Like I said, I'm all over the spectrum (just don't ask me to play any Opera!).

Staff Happenings

I am very pleased to announce that Kim Seidler has accepted the role of Senior Technologist in CRC. As you are all aware, Kim has a wealth of knowledge and endless passion around the CRC organization. We will continue our interview efforts to fill our second Senior Technologist position. We will be evaluating the contracts in each of the teams and determining the placement of the Senior Technologists.

Please join me in welcoming Kim into this new role and supporting her as she re-establishes herself in the CRC organization in this lead position.

I would like to sincerely thank Kim for the work she has done supporting the process redesign work across IT Services. She made significant contributions to the EHS Redesign, Project Management Office, and the Order Management Redesign. Thank you so much.

- Jan Cicero
Client Support

Comings and Goings

The following people recently joined Information Technology Services. Welcome!

  • Jeremy Fife, CRC; Karen Zack, manager

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

Tech Briefings

Summer Schedule

The summer Tech Briefings schedule is light. The next briefing is scheduled for July 14. But check the Tech Briefings home page for specials and last minute additions.

Technology Training Courses

Seats are still available for the following IT Services Technology Training class the week of July 3:

  • Tips and Tricks in Sundial (ITS-2301), Thursday, July 6, 1:00 – 4:30, free.

Note: You can download a list or calendar view of summer quarter classes on the Tech Training Site. Click on the appropriate link near the top of the page.

If you are interested in signing up for a course, please register by Monday, June 26. Classes with low enrollments may be cancelled one week in advance.

More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Phyllis Olrich
Client Support; Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There were no additions to the IT Services job requisition postings for this edition.

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 open positions from: itss.stanford.edu/staff/itssjobs.html

Quote of the Week

"We are what we think."

- Buddha

News

A Note From Bill...

Commencement 2006 was a great success. This is actually Stanford’s biggest event of the year—every year—and it is critical that all of our systems and services work flawlessly. My thanks to everyone in IT Services who worked to make sure we had no outages or problems over the last week.

This was also a busy time for many of you outside of work who had children and other relatives celebrating commencements. Graduation is a wonderful ceremony because we actually pause to take the time to fully acknowledge all of the effort and accomplishments of education while we usher in a new phase of life. Congratulations to all of you whose families celebrated this time.

On a personal note, I just returned from vacation with family, travel, and great times. It was the first time I had taken time off in several years. Looking back, I can tell you that was a real oversight on my part. Time off is important for many reasons: rest, relaxation, and renewal come at a much deeper level when you take concentrated time away and disconnect from the daily pace of work.

We are now in the midst of completing our commitments for this year and identifying top priorities for next year. A major priority for next year will be to revitalize our services to better meet our clients’ expectations. The recent satisfaction survey confirmed that clients expect not only a stable technical infrastructure, but also new services that are focused on customer service and responsiveness.

To do this, we are going to have to invent new ways of working that allow us to do more with our current resources. We will need to have fresh insights, and be creative about how to meet client expectations through automating and streamlining our current tasks. Only by doing this will we be able to reinvest resources so we can develop the innovative technologies and services that are so important to Stanford’s success.

This challenge extends beyond IT, and faces everyone at Stanford—faculty, staff, and students. To continue to create the breakthroughs, discoveries, and new ideas that fulfill Stanford’s legacy and vision, we need to constantly find new ways to work smarter, not harder, and to realize that innovation is at the core of Stanford’s mission.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

New WebLogin Release

New Look and Feel (and a little bit more...)

WebLogin is changing. On June 22, 2006, the familiar yellow and red Stanford WebLogin page will have a brand new look. The WebLogin pages have been overhauled to use colors and graphic elements that were developed as part of Stanford's identity. The new WebLogin page will give a visual tie-in to Stanford's home page and many departmental web sites.

In addition to the new look and feel, there is a new feature available for Mac and UNIX users. Folks on a supported operating system and browser may be able to avoid typing in their SUNet ID and password in most cases when they use WebLogin. WebLogin can use an existing SUNet ID and password login (either through MacLeland on the Mac or kinit on UNIX).

This restores single-sign-on functionality to WebLogin that was lost when security concerns forced IT Services to remove S/Ident support (the previous implementation of single-sign-on) last summer.

This new feature is available behind the "Advanced Settings" link on the WebLogin confirmation page, and is only intended for early adopters. IT Services is working on providing support for Windows domain users as well, but some technical issues are still being worked out. Some web sites, such as Axess, require users to log in using their SUNet ID and password every time they are accessed, even with single-sign-on enabled.

To try the new WebLogin, point your browser at: http://www-preview.stanford.edu/dept/its/group/allstaff/

If you are not a member of IT Services or Administrative Systems, you may get an "Authorization Denied" page once you authenticate, but you'll at least be able to try out the new WebLogin.

Many thanks to the Kerberos Upgrade project team, as well as DDD, for pulling together the new WebLogin release.

- Jon Pilat
Client Support; Project Management Office

Mentoring Redux

One of the initiatives that folks have been asking about lately is the Mentoring Program. This program has been on hold while I was on leave. Through this article, I will provide a brief update on how we plan to get the program back on track.

You may recall that last year, IT Services piloted a formal Mentoring program in which a dozen mentors and mentees were paired together so that they could work on specific development goals. The program was voluntary: Mentors volunteered their time because they wanted to give back to the organization by helping others grow and develop. Mentees volunteered because they had specific developmental goals they wanted to work on, and they knew that having a mentor would help them attain those goals.

It was always our plan to evaluate the effectiveness of this pilot program. That's where we are now. A survey went to the current pilot participants on June 16 requesting their feedback on the current Mentoring Program. Their feedback will be combined with benchmark and best practice data to inform recommendations for a Phase Two. These recommendations will be presented to the Executive Directors early in July. Our goal is to implement the approved recommendations in the July/August timeframe.

We are also interested in your feedback. If you have any questions and/or would like to provide feedback and/or suggestions about the Mentoring Program (as well as any other career and talent development options), please contact me.

- Dani Aivazian
Planning, Metrics, and Communication

Order Management Focus Group

As part of the IT Services order management redesign project to improve the ordering process for services, a focus group was held on May 15, 2006, to gather client input on the ordering-to-billing process.

Nine participants from a variety of departments and schools attended the focus group and provided valuable input to the following discussion questions:

  • What is the one thing that would make your job easier?
  • What, in your opinion, is working well?
  • Are there things you would like to see changed and what would the change be?

IT Services will use the results, where applicable, to make immediate improvements and combine the input with other feedback from the Order Management Redesign project team’s effort.

The final report (PDF) on the Order Management Redesign is available for viewing.

- Teresa Janeway
Client Support; Promotion and Publicity

Stanford Jazz Festival

The 2006 Stanford Jazz Festival begins June 24 and continues through August 5, featuring more than 100 artists performing more than 30 main stage concerts.

Venues, dates, and ticket information is available at the Stanford Jazz Workshop site.

- The Editors

Qigong and Tai Chi



Leap tall buildings in a single bound! Or, just increase your stamina, boost your immune system, and de-stress with Master Shudong Li, world-class Tai Chi master.


Master Li will teach a special ten-week Qigong & Tai Chi class beginning Wednesday, July 19, from Noon to 1:00 under the oak trees in front of Turing Auditorium. He will lead a free demonstration/workshop on Wed, July 12 from Noon to 1:00.

You can do these Tai Chi and Qigong movements in a small space—like your cubicle! You can register for the class (#QTC-02) and the demonstration (#QTC-01) at the HIP web site.

The class will cost $90, which you can charge to your STAP funds. Master Li, the 20th generation Chen Style Tai Chi Master, is also the current World Chen Tai Chi gold medal winner. Sign up soon. Registration is filling up fast.

- Mary Donoghue
Client Support; Technology Training Services

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 new subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu. People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via majordomo.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, July 5, 2006