Department Team Planning

6/12/97

Our 1996-97 Accomplishments:

Leadership

• Planning
• Development
• Management

Service

• Telephone
• Data
• Network Infrastructure
• Media
• Helpdesk
  

Our 1997-98 Challenges:

Our Accomplishments:

Leadership - Planning:

• Conducted annual technology interview with departments (all academic departments and division heads; some administrative offices)
  
• Developed 1997-98 SCAP plan with Academic Computing Advisory Committee by 5/97
  
• Developed a $1.5 million, 3-year life-cycle plan for upgrading employee computers

Leadership - Development:

• Supported the College's technological competitiveness:
  
  • Presentations at SUNY Technology Conference (RE: our departmental Helpdesk and our ResNet project)
    
  • Rated as one of the Top 100 American Wired Colleges by Internet Life
    
• Completed major development projects that support and enhance our services:
  
  • Residential Hall cabling for 3000 faceplates
    
  • Campus network electronics upgrade for backbone and residential buildings
    
  • Shared T1-Internet access with Potsdam Central Schools w/ NSF funding
    
  • Residential Computing (ResNet) support established (new support position; hooking up student computers)
    
• Smart classrooms developed and/or enhanced in Flagg, Carson, Kellas and Crane
  
• Helpdesk with Customer Service Manager established and operating successfully
  
• Service-Request Tracking System developed and implemented
  
• Upgraded and expanded dial-in services to 32 ports with 28.8 connectivity
  
• Established an interactive Unix system for student access
  
• Collaborated with staff from the Library, College Relations, Central Computing and Institutional Research to develop and establish the the direction for BearFacts (campus Web service)
  

Leadership - Management:

• Met as Department Team bi-weekly

Services - Telephone

• Provided high-quality, full-featured telephone services (voice-mail, digital sets, billing for personal LD calls, etc.) to students and employees
  
• Planning for year 2000 contract expiration with AT&T

Services - Data

• Provided computing support for Mac/Wintel desktop computers
  
• Implemented 1996-97 SCAP plan
  
• Improved the management and operation of all public student computing facilities
  
• Improved the control of student printing using the campus SUNYCard
  
• Provided high-quality, full-featured email, Web, Novell, AppleShare, NetNews, TCP/IP services
  
• Established a new residence hall computing support program with student RTCs
  
• Provided dial-in access to the campus network

Services - Network Infrastructure

• Completed all adds/moves/changes to telephone/data cabling in a timely fashion
  
• Physical network maintained and repaired in a timely fashion

Services - Media

• Supported Telenursing video-conferencing
  
• Supported smart classrooms
  
• Provided low-cost, high-quality broadcast of campus-customized TV programming (except NBC)
  
• Provided teleconferencing services as requested
  
• Provided Commencement sound system

Helpdesk (Customer Services)

• Handled all tier 1 technical support problems reported to the Helpdesk
  
• Completed and/or followed-up on all service requests entered into the Tracking System
  
• Published 96-97 Telephone Directory, numerous At-A-Glance directores, Email directory and maintained an employee database
  
• Provided programming for the campus "InfoChannel"
  
• Provided responsive switchboard services.

Our 1997-98 Challenges: [go to 1997-98 Departmental Plan]

We have established our campus resources, improved the quality of our services and we now need to focus on developing our skills, new services based upon new demands

• partnerships- internally and externally
  
• improve our interpersonal skills
  
• develop, promote and support information technology education (particularly the web, the web, the web) for our students and employees (workshops, tutoring, skill-building)
  
• work with faculty and admininstrative areas to build IT-based projects, web-designing/developing

To improve departmental management in order to:

• improve strategic planning
  
• take better advantage of opportunities
  
• improve the development of our "human resources" and to make this department a challenging, exciting and rewarding place to work.
  
• obtain better feedback from students regarding the type and quality of services we provide to them (S.T.A.B. was not effective this past year)
  
• improve team leadership:
  • When people are rewarded for making their peers successful, they are learning to become leaders.
    
  • A team leader does everything for the team that it can't do for itself.
    

To keep our college technologically competitive:

• Articulate our campus desktop computing strategy in a manner that is understandable and explains how it will keep the college technologically competitive.
  
• To be cited again in the Internet Life's (and other publications that rate technological quality) Top 100 Wired American Colleges and perhaps even move up the list
  
  • Internet training for all students (and all computer-using employees)
    
  • Bulletin Board, rides-to-destinations service, online chat and other technologically-based person-to-person services (student run?)
    
  • our own local newsgroup hierarchy (e.g., potsdam.bears-fans)
    
  • popular local hangouts on the web
    
  • register for lcasses, add/drop, grade reports, course syllabli/listings via the net
    
  • more course-based materials available via the net
    

To improve our operations and services in ways that make them outstanding:

• Getting Human Resources directly invovled in maintaining the accuracy of our employee directory in a timely manner.
  
• Channel 5 (or NBC station) available over campus cable TV that is comparable in broadcast quality to other TV programming provided by our college.

Telco Services - Supports all telco-related services that accomplishes the following:

• provides high-quality, full-featured telephone services that support the college's operations and services;
  
• generate revenue that supports all telco costs, regardless of type of service (i.e.., ISDN T's that do voice, video andInternet
  

Data Services - Supports all of our computer-related services (hosts, servers, clients, systems) that accomplishes the following:

• eliminate technical barriers and hassles that impede teaching, learning and effective administrative operations;
  
• partnering with faculty, staff and administration to foster creativity and to improve teaching, learning and administrative operations.

References:

  * Our Department mission
 
  * Departmental priorities
 
  * Departmental policies
 
  * 97-98 Planning (interview reports, etc)
  * Our 96-97 department plan 
 
  * Staying informed and communicating w/ our departmental newsgroup
    ("dctm")
 
  * Information Services Division's  plan for 1996 - 2000