ISS General Office Secretary

Approved minutes

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS STEERING GROUP (ICTG)

13 February 2013 (14:00-16:15)

MINUTES

Chair Bryn Morris, Registrar and Secretary

Present Dr Doug Arnold, Nigel Cochrane, John Fell, Bret Giddings, Timo Jütten, Zain Kukaswadia, Richard Murphy, Tessa Rogowski, Dr Sonia Virdee

Apologies Dr Magda Abou-Seada, Tracey Burge, Robert Butler

Secretary Mrs Crossman

MINUTES

Approved The Minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2012 were signed as a 55/13 correct record.

MATTERS ARISING

Reported Central PC Labs: Booking Information 56/13

Richard Murphy reported on the following:

. Labs C & E are not available for booked classes, used for open access only; . the notable volume of bookings in Labs P and Q, which are located in the Constable Building; . an increase in bookings for classes in the current year, 2013.

Reported It was reported that the amount of recorded faults in PC Labs had dropped 57/13 during the current year, 2013. This is partly due to the most recent model of PC deployed in labs, have significantly greater reliability than its predecessor.

Noted The committee discussed the number, sizes, and locations of the central 58/13 PC labs in the context of the level of utilisation. The variation in use was noted (drop-in, booked classes, exams, and summer schools).

Reported It was accepted that overall the PC Labs are a valuable resource to the 59/13 University.

Noted The Vice-President (Education) of the Students Union raised concern about 60/13 the likely disruption to library study places during the construction of the Library Extension and Student Centre and asked about mitigation. Richard Murphy indicated that one of the measures being considered was extending the opening of more PC labs, noting that this would only be of partial benefit as the noise would be restricted to the building work day. It was noted that other mitigation measure were being considered and that some of these would include IT facilities. Reported Wireless network capacity in the Library/Reading Room 61/13

Richard Murphy reported that the Library currently had 20 wireless access points installed, of which nine had been installed since the last ICT Steering Group meeting in February 2013.

Action Review of University Guidelines for the use of IT facilities 62/13

The slow progress on the review was noted and the worked would be carried forward as an agenda item.

John Fell flagged that we had to consider the external use of our systems.

Reported Update on the University’s use of Sharepoint 63/13

John Fell reported that the Sharepoint infrastructure upgrade (a capital investment funded project) had not been completed. The upgrade had been intentionally delayed because it had been decided to wait for an improved product that was due to become available. The improved product would not incur any additional cost.

IS STRATEGY UPDATE AND PROGRESS (ICTG/13/02)

Reported Richard Murphy reported on three changes to the status of the top ten 64/13 priority strategy actions:

Infrastructure

C. Reviewing and improving data storage . status had changed from red to amber because a business case for investment had been prepared for the University Steering Group

Online Services

E. Renewal of the University’s website . status had changed from red to amber because of a clear view now on priorities. The main priority is on completing the transfer of the balance of departmental websites to the new approach/format and three phases of transfer have been arranged for completion by October 2013. . Catering and Accommodation are now completed. . Law and Essex Business School are on track

F. Introduce portal for staff, new portal for students . status continues to be red due to priority being given to other web- related developments.

Action Bryn Morris advised that the status of action F: Introduce portal for staff, 65/13 new portal for students should be re-categorised from red to grey due to it being de-prioritised by the University.

Noted The committee discussed concern of the priority of work proposed 66/13 elsewhere on the Institutional Repository when it is currently classified as green/ on target.

of 5 Reported Richard Murphy reported that significant progress has been made on a 67/13 number of other IS Strategy actions:

. Review & Replacement of IT & AV equipment in teaching rooms . Maintaining a rich set of software for teaching (and research . Teaching room refurbishment and upgrade . Expansion of the CRM system . Review of the Blackberry service . Improving the Sharepoint infrastructure . Review of ICT training . Automated power reduction for PCs in PC labs . Further deployment of server virtualisation and shared storage.

Action The committee was asked to provide suggestions on priorities to be 68/13 included in the IS Strategy 2014, by the next ICT Steering Group Meeting in May 2013.

Noted Sonia Virdee suggested that the Council Awayday could provide useful 69/13 input and also the Education and Research Strategies.

IS PLAN AND BUDGET 2013/14 (ICTG/13/03)

Noted Paper ICTG/13/03 describing the main items for the 2013-14 ISS plan and 70/13 budget was noted.

The committee discussed a variety of issues relating to budget setting and 71/13 IT facilities and services, noting that:

. The paper was produced early in the budget setting cycle. . Some services costs would reduce as services were retired. . There was a “cone of uncertainty” for project cost where estimates were likely to be less accurate in the early stages. . Not all MIS costs were noted in the document. . The increase in the proportion of laptops for Professional Services staff impacting on the annual costs.

The committee queried the proposed £120k expenditure to improve the 72/13 view from the rear rows in rooms in the Teaching Centre. Tessa Rogowski explained that improvements were proposed because students had noted in surveys the poor visibility of the projected image owing to the height of its projection because of the low ceilings.

STUDENT SURVEY FEEDBACK: IMPROVEMENTS TO SERVICES AND FACILITES (ICTG/13/04)

Reported Paper ICTG/13/04 was noted. 73/13

Tessa Rogowski reported on the first year survey conducted in December 74/13 2012 by ISS where students were asked to identify good and poor aspects of the IT services

Services perceived to be poor by students included wireless, printing, PC 75/13 labs, and scanning.

Noted The Group noted the improvements that ISS were intending to implement 76/13 ranging from the wireless enhancement capital project, standalone scanners for PC labs, and increased coverage for the Listen Again lecture capture service.

of 5 Action ISS to meet with relevant Students Union representatives to discuss IT 77/13 services and their improvements.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH SOFTWARE: ANNUAL REVIEW (ICTG/13/05)

Noted Paper ICTG/13/05 noted. 78/13

Reported Bret Giddings reported that an ISS proposal to upgrade the Matlab 79/13 (mathematical modelling and visualisation) software licence to a full institutional site licence had not been successful as it was not regarded as a priority for funding by the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

UPDATE ON TRANSFER OF EMAIL AND RELATED SERVIECS TO MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 (ICTG/13/06)

Reported Bret Giddings reported that ISS were working towards a pilot service of 80/13 Office 365 this year with the intention of providing the full service for the start of the next session. The following benefits of the transfer to Office 365 were noted:

. Significant increase in mailbox capacity; . No change of email address; . Potential for alumni use of the University addresses.

Noted Committee members commented that postgraduate email accounts expired 81/13 too early after graduation.

UPDATE ON CAPITAL INVESMENT PLAN AND PROJECTS WITH ICT (ICTG/13/07)

Reported Paper ICTG/13/07 was noted. 82/13

Richard Murphy reported that ISS received funding from capital investment 83/13 for major developments with ISS recurrent budgets used for smaller scale developments.

Richard reported that business cases for the following three projects were in 84/13 the process of being submitted to University Steering Group.

1. Telephone system improvements 2. Datacentre environment and infrastructure upgrades 3. Re-engineer and refresh data storage infrastructure

It was noted that the next five year Capital Investment Plan was being 85/13 prepared for the period 2013 to 2018.

Action Bryn Morris encouraged development of ideas for IT projects for funding from 86/13 the Capital Investment Plan before the expiry of the main loan in November 2013.

INFORMATION REGULATIONS REPORT (ICTG/13/08)

Reported Paper ICTG/13/08 noted. 87/13

Gemma Aitchison reported that the Information Commissioner’s Office 88/13 continues to take action where an individual member of staff loses personal data from a laptop or portable storage device where encryption and other safeguards have not been in place.

of 5 Noted The Group noted that University doesn’t currently have an encryption 89/13 service but that the Director of Information Systems and the ISS Systems Manager were working with the Information Manager into encryption mechanisms.

Reported Online courses on Data Protection and Information Security are being 90/13 considered for staff. The training course will cost £2,000 - £3,000 and should take approximately one hour to complete.

PROJECT CO-ORDINATION GROUP: REPORT ON ACTIVIIES (ORAL REPORT)

Reported PCG were working with the Corporate Business Systems and Academic 91/13 Services sub-groups on refining project prioritisation, approval, and monitoring processes.

Noted A number of ISS related projects were supported by the two sub-groups 92/13 and would be recommended to PCG for approval.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Noted Richard Murphy reported that the publication of the University phone book 93/13 had been postponed as important information, including safety advice, was found to be out of date.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

Noted 15 May 2013 at 14:00 in 4SW.5.9 94/13 13 November 2013 at 14:00 in 4SW.5.9 12 February 2014 at 14:00 in 4SW.5.9 14 May 2014 at 14:00 in 4SW.5.9

Mrs Crossman ISS General Office Secretary 14 May 2013 (2013-02-13m)