A letter from the Director
Transcript of A letter from the Director
Tech Bytes
A letter from the Director
01I S S U E
D E C E M B E R2 0 1 4
N E W S L E T T E R F O R S B S
T E C H N I C A L S E R V I C E S AT
T H E C O L L E G E O F S O C I A L &
B E H AV I O R A L S C I E N C E S
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F A R I Z O N A
Greetings SBS Faculty, Staff and Students;
my name is Ed Xia and I am the Director of
Information Technologies for the College of
Social and Behavioral Sciences. Over the past
few months our unit has undergone a makeover
to help organize our structure and we have been
feverishly working on fine-tuning our existing
services and creating new ones. The prima-
ry mission of SBSTech is to help the College
achieve its mission of academic innovation in
teaching, learning and research by providing reli-
able, timely and strategic IT solutions for all fac-
ulty and staff. We strive to provide responsive,
cost effective and quality information technology
services and with that in mind we offer expert
support in the following areas: application devel-
opment, web service, research support, desktop
service and server/network support. With all of
these new changes, our staff has consistently
managed to continue working above and beyond
my expectations and I would like to personally
thank them for all of their hard work. As we head
into the New Year I am excited for SBSTech to
continue to flourish and for our team to contin-
ue providing you with the best support. Happy
Holidays from everyone at SBSTech.
TICKETDOG SURVEY In late September SBSTech sent new surveys to people who had submitted service requests through TicketDog. The goal with these surveys was to gain insight into how people feel about our services, our employees and our response time to requests.The Director and supervisors are reviewing your feedback through these surveys on a daily basis. We encourage everyone to continue responding to them.
IN THIS ISSUE
Greet ings f rom Director P.1New Services Launching P.1
What’s New with SBSTech? P.2Welcome New Members P.3
NETID+ P.3Tech Spot l ight and Q&A P.4
Service Center Map P.5
New Services Launching
SBSTech is proud to announce
several new services that have
made their debut or will make their
debut soon.
E x t e n d e d S e r v i c e H o u r s
SBSTech is extending its service
hours and will now be open from
8am to 8pm, Monday through
Friday.
S e r v i c e C a l l C e n t e r
SBSTech has established a new
call center (621-1596) that caters to
the needs of staff and faculty, who
have an emergency and need sup-
port right away.
S u p p o r t T h r o u g h R e m o t e
C o n n e c t i o n
SBSTech will be able to support
your device remotely with the
aid of a new software program
called Bomgar. You will have the
opportunity to choose this service
when you submit a ticket through
TicketDog.
G r a n t p r o p o s a l s
SBSTech can assist PI grant writ-
ers with technology evaluations
and estimates for their proposals.
Please TicketDog us as early as
you can if you plan to apply for a
grant.
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Comments about Our Technicians
“Josh (Albertson) is doing a great
job as our Marshall tech. I’m
hearing nothing but positive com-
ments from everyone, repeatedly.
He’s fast, cordial and very com-
petent. Great hire!”
“Thomas Martin solved my prob-
lem quickly. I was very impressed
with how quickly he diagnosed
the problem and provided a solu-
tion. Great work!”
“Deb (Petrich) was wonderful.
The speed of the response and
the skill of the problem-solving
were both excellent. Thanks for
making sure I had everything I
needed!“
“Drew (Woodard) showed real
initiative and creativity to solve
the issue with getting me a sec-
ond, functioning monitor to work
with the “new” computer recently
installed in my office (one of the
last-generation ones from the
SAL). He is very pleasant to
work with.”
TicketDog Report(June 30, 2013 ~ July 1, 2014)
Total number of tickets: 6,982
Average: 27.7 per work day
Desktop Service: 53%
Other: 16%
Network & Server: 8%
Purchasing: 8%
Website/Application: 7%
Lab equipment: 6%
In an effort to better serve the College, SBSTech has taken a few steps to accommo-date our faculty and staff.
During the month of October, SBS Tech took part in a Disability Resource Center train-ing course that was meant to better inform everyone about the University’s obligation and commitment to ensuring accessibility and what roles our staff could play in fulfilling this commitment. Accessibility issues seen in the electronic environment were highlighted in the training and demonstrations were given. Our staff left the training with skills they could begin using immediately in their daily work.
Along with the Disability Resource Center training course, SBSTech expanded its Desktop Support hours from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, Monday to Friday. The new service hours took effect on Monday, November 3, 2014. The goal of this time expansion is to ensure that all faculty and staff in urgent need of IT assistance receive technical support after regular business hours.
Three new support centers are in the process of being established in order to allow our technicians to work closely with staff and faculty and respond to requests in a timely manner.
The New College Website is scheduled to launch on December 22nd, 2014. Lizeth Mora has been working with Jennifer Yamnitz and John Stobbe on design and develop-ment of the new website structure and theme.
SBSTech Helps PI Develop Grant Proposals Thanks to increased interaction between SBSTech and SBS’s Associate Dean for Research, we are working to support the development of grant proposals in new ways. A prospective PI can request a meeting with SBSTech’s research team, during which the entire project is reviewed. SBSTech’s research team will discuss what it is you are trying to accomplish and once the team understands the broader issues, they can do more than find estimates for computers. They can suggest the best possible choices for any technology and make sure all of your technical bases are covered. The research team can ask detailed questions about the PI’s assumptions, including topics that will
affect the budget and budget justification as well as the data management plan. These efforts respond to the SBS IT Advisory Board’s study of SBSTech and recommendations for there to be a more defined and structured grant support
service.
What’s new with SBSTech?
“The primary mission of SBSTech is to help the College achieve its mission of academic innovation in teaching, learning and research by providing reliable, timely and stra-tegic IT solutions for all faculty and staff in the College”
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Department/UnitsPrimary Support
AIS: Drew Woodard
ANTH & BARA: Dave Thompsen
CMES: Josh Albertson
COMM: Thom Martin
DEAN’S OFFICE: Deb Petrich
ENGLISH: David Rodriguez
FREEDOM CTR: Josh Albertson
GWS/SIROW: Drew Woodard
SGD: Drew Woodard
SGPP: Deb Petrich
HIST: Dave Thompsen
JOUR: Josh Albertson
JUS: Josh Albertson
LAS: Drew Woodard
LING: Thom Martin
LMRS: Thom Martin
MAS: Deb Petrich
MENAS: Josh Albertson
PHIL: Thom Martin
SBSRI: Deb Petrich
SIRLS: David Rodriguez
SOC: Deb Petrich
SWC: David Rodriguez
Off-campus Sites: Mike Geary
Services Support
Call Ctr: Cassidy Martin
Call Ctr: Kaitlyn Colyer
Evening Shift: Mike Geary
GIS Support: Tawny Lochner
Purchasing: Juliana Luft
Event Support: Mike Geary
Research: Vanessa Garrison
New Faculty: Young-Gie Min
Other Projects: David Fletcher
Security: David Fletcher
Servers: Jeremy Smathers
Servers: Juan Godoy
Software: Ashwini Rajashekar
UA Vitae: Vanessa Garrison
Web Service: Lizeth Mora
Juliana Luft is SBSTech’s new
Administrative Associate, who will be
responsible for processing purchase
requests and performing general office
duties. Juliana is a University of Arizona
graduate, who was an assistant manag-
er at a clinic in Chandler before moving
back down to Tucson and joining SBS
Tech. Juliana enjoys working in admin-
istrative environments and likes to make
sure an office is running smoothly. She is
excited to be back at the University and
part of the SBSTech team.
Recently the University has dealt with
increasing issues of outgoing institutional
email being blocked by outside recipients,
such as cox.net, aol.com, gmail.com, etc.
This is primarily due to UA NetIDs and
passwords being continually compromised
and used to send large amounts of spam.
In an attempt to resolve this problem, the
University has decided to implement NetID+,
which is a two-factor authentication service
that enhances the security of UA NetID
accounts. The first uses of NetID+ will be for
Outlook Web App (OWA) and Virtual Private
Network (VPN), with a scheddule as follows:
1. On November 17, NetID+ was imple-
mented for all those who have already
opted in to NetID+.
2. By the end of January 2015, colleges
with defined Virtual Private Network
profiles for specific user groups will
be required to use NetID+ to
access departmental VPN
profiles.
3. By mid-April 2015, NetID+
will be required for all UA faculty and
staff to access OWA.
For more information on NetID+ and to sign
up for service, visit: http://uits.arizona.edu/
services/netidplus. If you would like assis-
tance with installing NetID+, please feel free
to submit a ticket through TicketDog or call
621-1596.
NetID+ (A messge from UITS)
Welcome New SBSTech MembersWith all of the new changes that SBSTech has undergone, three new members were hired in order to help the team provide technical support and service to all departments in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Josh Albertson has joined SBSTech
as an Information Technology Support
Analyst after working for the UITS 24/7
Support Center as a student worker for
the past two years. Josh’s past experi-
ence in IT includes software and hard-
ware troubleshooting, account adminis-
tration, and user support. His favorite
part of working in IT is that no matter how
much experience you have in the field,
there will always be new technology and
new things to learn. Josh will be respon-
sible for servicing the departments locat-
ed in the Marshall building.
Mike Geary also joins SBSTech as an
Information Technology Support Analyst
and has been a technology enthusiast
since he received his first computer at
6 years old. He worked in technical
support for the University of Arizona as
a student employee and since gradu-
ating has worked in technology-related
fields for the University’s Book Stores.
His interests are in privacy, security and
technological education. Mike will be
responsible for providing service to fac-
ulty members and staff during the day,
but also in the evening until 8pm.
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Questions & Answers with SBSTech
» Why does SBSTech primarily purchase products from certain vendors and not others?
At times people have asked us why we only deal with certain vendors and not others. Since our goal at SBS Tech is to provide you with the best knowledge, support and advice, we purchase specific supportable hardware from certain companies because we value the quality of their product. When we seek out hardware like computers, we prefer to look at companies like Dell and Apple because they have enterprise centers that cater specifically to business and educational institutions. This is extremely important because it allows us to speak with representatives, who know how to speak with customers in an educational institution and they also respond in a shorter amount of time. Companies such as Best Buy and Costco are tailored for at-home users and cannot provide
this type of service.
» What if I have an emergency that requires immediate assistance and I don’t have time to sub-
mit a ticket through TicketDog or I don’t have access to my computer?
If you encounter a problem that needs immediate assistance you can call our customer support center at 621-1596 and we will be more than happy to assist you as quickly as possible. If you call between the hours of 5pm-8pm and you are in class experiencing technical issues, our after-hours support technician will be available for assistance.
» Does SBSTech delegate a certain technician to each department?
Each department has a team that provides service, however there is one team member who is appointed as the primary point of contact. Please refer to the third page of the newsletter to familiar-ize yourself with the name of your department’s primary support technician.
» Would SBSTech check my budget justification and data management plans to make sure the details are
right? SBSTech can assist with both of these components in your grant proposal. Ideally, you should work with us in the early stages of your proposal before it has even been drafted. Early discussion will allow us to identify information such as data storage needs or data sharing limitations that could
potentially affect your project’s description.
Tech Spotlight David Fletcher
David has worked in IT for over 16
years and finds great joy in being
able to assist people with their IT
concerns. David has vast experi-
ence in many different facets in
the field of IT including: systems
administration, management and
instructional support.
Below is one of many comments
we received about David:
“I just wanted to say thank
you for assigning Fletch to our
event at 44 East Broadway on
Wednesday, June 18th. He did an
absolutely amazing job in very
challenging circumstances. He
was there to connect electricity
from the hallway to our loft and
run the PA system during the
event program, which involved
making many adjustments to
make sure the sound was right in
that huge, open room with high
ceilings, lots of guests, and loud
fans running. Thanks to his exper-
tise and efficiency, everything
went perfectly....”
Joe Bonito, Professor, COMM Jenn Earl, Professor, SOC (Chair) Bryan Heidorn, Director, SIRLS David Killick, Professor, ANTH Chris Lukinbeal, Assoc Profressor, SGD Cecile Mckee, Assoc Dean
Stephanie Pearmain, Admin AssociateNancy Sharkey, Professor, JOUR Sally Stevens, Executive Director, SIROW (Chair) Ed Wright, Profressor, JUC Ed Xia, Director of SBSTech
Tech Bytes Issue 01 December 2014
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2014-2015 SBS IT Committee Members
University Services Building888 N Euclid Ave. Room 302Tucson, AZ 85721-0158
520.621.1596 ph 520.626.2959 faxsbstech.arizona.edu