2019 Annual Report

MOMENTUM FY2019 ITS ANNUAL REPORT Contents A message from the CTO 1 Executive summary 3 ITS Mission 7 ITS Structure 9 ITS FY2025 Goals 11 Master Objectives for Best Practices 13 FY19 Modernization Goals 15 Strategic Highlights 17 Operating Highlights 19 FY19 ITS Financials 21 IT Governance Council 23 Service Catalog 25 The Year in Review 27 Enterprise Modernization 29 Teaching and Research Support 41 Continuous Improvement 53 Achievements 57 Strategic Technology Services 59 Enterprise Architecture 61 Service and Operations 64 Looking Ahead to FY20 67 A message from the CTO a message from the Chief Technology Officer Dear Colleagues, Distinguished Faculty, and Staff, If I could choose one word to describe the past year, it would be “change.” To many it is a well-worn concept, but, from my experience, change is almost always a positive thing - positive for the University, for ITS, and for us as individuals. It gives us a chance to learn fresh skills, work with new people, and learn invaluable lessons about ourselves. I also see change as one of the most valuable aspects and learning tools in the IT field: with it, we are gifted with opportunities to expand our capabilities and build our community based on a dynamic and forward-moving culture. The recent months have been just such a time. A time of extraordinary change where we were introduced to innovative ideas, people, and ways of looking at our IT environment and its utility in advancing the University’s mission. One important result of these changes was the number of advancements made in campus information technology and to the processes through which we deliver IT services to the LSU community. I think most of us understand that technology change is inevitable and yet, to a greater or lesser degree, we all sometimes find it difficult to adjust to the pace at which that change occurs. With this in mind, our continued focus at ITS remains to develop emerging and existing skills and processes and institutionalize them into the full fabric of our services and how those services are delivered. Over the past year, we also adapted to and adopted a tremendous array of changes in process, leadership, and direction throughout ITS. The department embraced ITIL practices and processes in a more formal manner and the Portfolio Management Office provided both ITS and other campus departments with guidance to effectively utilize and implement business process mapping and project and portfolio management methods. With these and other changes, we continue our mission to provide value to the University and to the greater vision of excellence in higher education at LSU. The progress achieved in the past year did not come without hardship. As an organization, we experienced leadership transitions – with adjustments to nearly all leadership positions in less than four months – an unusual event for any organization of our size. But, due to the depth of experience, dedication, and quality of the ITS team, we were able to promptly and efficiently triage each hurdle and provide continued service with few interruptions. Another important change was the implementation of an improved process to manage the pace and timing of strategic IT initiatives for the campus community. This fundamental shift emphasized the importance of monitoring the maturation of the Workday ERP and Higher Ed ERP in general, especially as a precursor to the implementation of a solution to eventually transition the A&M campus away from remaining legacy systems. This change also allowed for more time to investigate new, further developed solution paths for the plethora of application systems and services that remain on the legacy mainframe system. The challenge for the oncoming fiscal year will be to continue the cultivation of a culture of proactive change throughout ITS, while smoothing and minimizing the potential risks of change to the University community. Through the recent adjustments that ITS has experienced, each of our teams has demonstrated a commendable caliber of resiliency and creative adaptability and will continue to do so as we strive to maintain our commitment to contribute to the success of the University. And, in the coming year, we will continue to foster and mature the leadership, cohesiveness, collective knowledge, and duty to service that has brought the central IT organization to this point. With these values, I believe that ITS will be even closer to realizing the vision for the future state of technology at LSU A&M, setting an example for IT within the larger University and further contributing to the academic, research, and operational success of LSU for years to come. John C. Borne Interim CTO and AVP 2 Executive summary Executive Summary The strategic efforts, projects, and ingrained values of ITS strive to, above all else, enable Louisiana State University to thrive, not just survive. Since the University’s inception, our community has repeatedly surpassed expectations: earning top percentile rankings among higher education and research institutions nation and world-wide and maintaining the highest status of distinction within the state. To continue this, we at ITS must obtain and sustain resources that adhere to the standards set forth by the University’s historical and current achievements. Our service to the campus community directly supports the growing reliance upon technology which is at an all-time high. With both visible and behind the scenes efforts, ITS ensures that LSU students, staff, faculty, and researchers are equipped with the tools necessary to maintain a competitive edge alongside institutional and industry peers. In spite of changes in leadership and budgeting challenges, our teams continue to demonstrate our commitment to support. In the future, we will continue to meet the expectations expressed by the LSU community. In anticipation of these goals, ITS has worked closely with the LSU community to plan, develop, and begin the implementation of a technology environment that is aligned with the unique requirements of the multi-institutional system, its students, and partners to create a highly collaborative, cutting-edge, and reliable tool prepared to accompany the University on the path towards the greater vision. The ideal future state of the institution requires a cross-campus, coordinated effort to develop a secure, efficient data environment, prepared to handle the increase of students envisioned by the University and the State; a high internal operations standard, equipped with knowledgeable staff and continuously improving processes; and a visible and active commitment to the enhancement of the University beyond the IT infrastructure. Now more than ever, we understand the requirements of this ideal state and by leveraging new momentum gained in FY18, set the foundation for more progress towards the ITS 2025 vision of a better IT infrastructure for Louisiana State University. Building a secure and efficient IT environment It is impossible for any institution to seamlessly transform including e-mail and file storage from unauthorized a thirty-year-old outdated system into a modernized access. enterprise network overnight. Over the past 24 months, ITS has created and implemented a multi-faceted Implementation of support tools such as the new IT plan to ease the pains of transition while providing a Service Management (ITSM) solution, managed by the secure and efficient enterprise IT infrastructure to the SD, increases ease and breadth of support for and from LSU community. Our leadership, project managers, and all areas of the LSU IT environment. This tool supports our subject matter experts developed relationships with the customer service vision and ties all ITS units together in campus community fine-tuning this plan to bring process a single change management process. The SD has also efficiency, process function, and resource management implemented a new staffing management strategy which into a larger conversation supporting enterprise, has led to enhanced resource allocation and increased application utility, and business operation improvement. support capabilities. These changes have allowed the When developing these projects and creating the SD to field more support calls while also decreasing the roadmap for the future, teams like IT Security and Policy amount of time our customers will need to wait on the (ITSP), the Service Desk (SD), and Enterprise Architecture phone to receive support. (EA) take a variety of approaches to drive progress. The EA team assesses, plans for, and implements Security measures, such as Multi-Factor Authentication projects that affect both campus-wide and department- (MFA), have been implemented by ITSP to prevent cyber- specific components of the enterprise IT system. Related attacks against the larger IT environment. Failure to efforts contribute to the modernization of foundational prevent these incidents could potentially cause massive architecture and data infrastructure, the enhancement system or network failure or data theft. These precautions of organizational practices, and the re-platforming also serve to increase security compliance, which of outdated applications to decrease mainframe improves the odds for grant and research opportunities dependency. In each project, the team strives to increase and funding. MFA, which relies on two or more forms of the interoperability of department-specific resources and authentication including the user’s account and device, potential utility of shared-use applications. protects cloud-based

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