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UCOP Report to JOG/CPG |
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Immediate Office of the Associate Vice President Information Technology Infrastructure Task Force IT Policy Policy Director - IR&C hired Jacqueline Craig as director of policy, effective September 2. Jacqueline will coordinate the review, revision, and development of systemwide IT policy in such areas as electronic information resource security, systems development and management, electronic identity management, effective management of IT resources, electronic communications, and digital rights management. RMP Series Revisions - The Records Management and Privacy (RMP) Business & Finance Bulletin revision and reorganization project continues. The first bulletin (RMP-1, University Records Management Program)was issued by Senior Vice President Mullinix on September 4, 2003. RMP-2, which deals with records disposition, is under discussion by members of the University Records Management Committee, with input from the UC Information Technology Policy and Security group (UCITPS). G-L-B Safeguarding Rule - In collaboration with a UCOP work group and the Office of General Counsel, IR&C has developed a written information security program, as required by the G-L-B Safeguarding Rule, called the UC Information Security Program (http://www.ucop.edu/irc/itsec/welcome.html). Kris Hafner, as the UC Information Security Program Coordinator, will announce the report to the campuses and provide information about current activities in program implementation. Digital Copyright Protection - IR&C collaborated with Student Academic Services at UCOP to coordinate development of letters from UCOP leadership to the campuses about digital copyright protection and procedures within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These letters are on-line at http://www.ucop.edu/irc/policy/copyright.html.
Identity Management Enterprise Information Technology Services
Undergraduate Admissions Undergraduate admissions is being impacted by the current budget situation. The Spring 2004 admissions cycle has been cancelled, and Winter and Spring 2005 admissions cycles are likely to be cancelled as the University looks to reduce enrollment. All-Electronic Admissions Application - An all-electronic undergraduate admissions application, beginning with the Fall 2005 application cycle, was publicly announced on September 15. Preparations for an all-electronic admissions application have long been underway and include redesigning the presentation of the on-line application, incorporation of new prompts for admissions verification purposes, and implementation of the supporting code base in Java. The revamped admissions application will be introduced in the upcoming Fall 2004 application cycle (October 1-November 30, 2003). Dual Admissions Program -The University is implementing a Dual Admissions Program beginning with the Fall 2004 applications. This program targets the top 12.5% of students in each school who are not UC eligible but who wish to attend a UC campus following completion of lower-division work at a California community college. Individuals who are eligible for dual admissions may apply to UC as freshmen and receive a dual admission offer, which stipulates completion of lower division preparation requirements at a community college and transfer to a designated UC campus conditioned on fulfillment of campus- and major-specific requirements for transfer students. IR&C is working with UCOP Student Academic Services to define and pursue implementation of a system that will track Dual Admissions applicants and associated dual admissions agreements, and will facilitate measurement of the satisfaction of dual admissions conditions for transfer into UC. This tracking system must be in place in the March-May 2004 timeframe. Payroll Payroll System Web Entry/Update Enhancements - A prototype Web Entry/Update application is being completed with a few selected functions, and will be presented to functional users for review and suggestions. Payroll System Web-based Merit Subsystem - The second phase of Web based merit (across-the-board increases) was released to the campuses in early September. Payroll System Benefits Changes - Short-term changes to the BELI process were released to the campuses in August. The BELI workgroup continues to work on requirements for the longer-term changes. Work has begun on modifications to the existing "1000 hour" rule for retirement eligibility to become a "750 hour" rule for lecturers. Payroll System HR Initiative - Work continues on the project to expand the available number of appointments and distributions in the payroll system. Concomitant changes to the Payroll Audit Record (PAR) file to support payments for a larger number of distributions are currently being made and will be released as phase I of this project. At the same time, Year-to-date balances will be added to the PAR file to provide support for the UC For Yourself Pay Advice application. Payroll System Special Compute - The special compute process was released to the campuses in late May. CUE Settlement Agreement - Programming necessary to support the CUE/UC agreement on a new labor contract was completed and released to the campuses. The Lump Sum payment programming was released in mid-June, followed by the reporting process in early July. UPTE Settlement Agreement - Implementation of the UPTE agreement for the TX and RX units has been completed. The across-the-board increase programming was released in early August; the reporting process in mid-September. Prorated Leave Usage - Implementation of Payroll System processes to automate the proration of leave usage across all employee pay distributions is underway. The project has high priority per campus request. 2004 Benefits Changes - Planning for Payroll System changes is underway to accommodate changes to the employee benefits package for 2004, with programming work scheduled to begin not later than October 1. Campus Payroll UC San Diego and UCOP have reached an agreement to migrate PPS processing for UCSD to UCOP. Planning is underway for a second-quarter 2004 implementation. UC Retirement System (UCRS) Documentation of Applications - A comprehensive project is underway to document the UCRS mainframe, client-server, Web, and IVR applications. A development tool called Robohelp is being used to produce a Web application that shows data layouts, linkable CICS screen layouts, data definitions, flowcharts of workflow applications, and job descriptions, along with table and stored procedure specifications. Web Designation of Beneficiaries - A project is in the initial design phase to enable employees to designate beneficiaries on the Web and to enable Benefits reps. to look up beneficiary designations on the Web. Web Security/Access Changes - A project to provide additional security features was completed on August 1. Changes included New Investment Plans - Work is underway to create two new investment options and eliminate two others in the UCRS system. The current Money Market and Multi-Asset funds are being eliminated in favor of a new TIPS option and a new "Balanced Growth Fund." Semi-Annual Statements - Semi-annual statements, previously mailed to the UCRS membership, are being replaced by an on-demand Web application. Employee Systems Initiative — UC for Yourself The UCOP Budget Office has withheld previously agreed upon Employee Systems Initiative funds from IR&C for the past two fiscal years. Due to lack of funds and a sizeable deficit, activity associated with Employee Systems Initiative projects has been significantly reduced as IR&C continues to pursue the restoration of this funding. Prior to this reduction in activity, several enhancements were implemented. Pay Stub Inquiry - The pay stub inquiry functionality, deployed in UC For Yourself (UCFY) in October 2002, continues to grow in popularity. During the month of November 2002, there were 7,000 unique sessions in which this feature was accessed. That number exceeded 14,000 in March 2003, and for the past two months has exceeded 25,000 unique sessions a month. The required changes to the payroll system for the additional feature (year-to-date totals) of this function have been specified, and are awaiting scheduling in maintenance. The specifications to add year-to-date totals to the UCFY application are being prepared. Tax Estimator -This feature allows individuals to adjust certain factors in their pay and then review an estimate of the tax that will be withheld from their pay. This feature was deployed August 1, 2003, with approximately 3,000 total uses as of September 19. Other Deployed Features - In coordination with Your Benefits Online, a number of features related to enhancing security were deployed August 1, 2003. These are the ability to personally specify a username (in lieu of using the Social Security number), specifying a personal question and answer for PIN resets, and user confirmation of the ID/PIN as authorization for action. Other ESI Development - Development of other ESI planned features are on hold pending resolution of funding issues. These features are W-2 on the Web, Leave Balances on the Web, Net Pay Modeling, Event Driven Notifications, and Web-based Employee Database (EDB). Effort Reporting System At the request of the Budget and Planning Officers and the Controllers, a multi-campus project has been initiated to define requirements for an effort reporting system to replace the existing A21/PAR system. With seed funding from Berkeley, San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, and UCOP, a project leader has been hired by IR&C to work with the participating campuses and develop a detailed requirements definition. Issues such as reporting methodology, cost sharing, process controls, etc., are currently being investigated by a requirements committee. Overall policy and scope direction is provided by a management oversight group consisting of representatives from each of the participating campuses. The requirements definition is scheduled to be completed in late January 2004, after which the management group will discuss build/buy options. Technology Transfer The UCOP Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) has initiated a project to develop requirements for automation of many of its business processes. OTT and IR&C have put together a team that will look at the technology transfer business processes Universitywide. This project is just getting underway and is expected to be completed in the April-June 2004 timeframe. Inter-Campus Summer Enrollment (ISE) System This system was deployed in March 2003 to support the exchange of summer enrollment information between UC campuses for UC students attending summer classes at another UC campus. Web browser and ftp access by the financial aid offices at each campus is provided by this system. The eight participating campuses are currently providing on-going submissions of data to this system. Systems/Servers and Infrastructure Mainframe Upgrades - IR&C completed a conversion to z/OS, Version 1 Release 4. It is beginning a conversion to CICS/TS, and will follow with both a conversion Enterprise COBOL which now includes XML interpretation capability for input streams and also the installation of Websphere Application Server for z/OS, Version 5. IR&C completed an upgrade from its IBM 2064-101 processor to a 2064-102 including FICON channels, which are expected to enable joining the data center storage area network, based on McData technology. Web Server Environment - IR&C completed the migration to the new Linux/Apache platform in June. Additional hard disk space is being added to accommodate enhanced departmental log analysis reports. Web sites previously hosted outside the IR&C environment are migrating to the new platform (eleven as of August), several are in process or discussion, and eight new sites have been added. Many departments have taken advantage of dynamic Web sites capabilities (using PHP and MySQL databases), and a second programmer/developer was hired in May to meet the demand. A Linux systems operator position was filled in August to support the environment. Information and Communication Services Financial Systems Investment Accounting Systems - Major milestones were achieved during the past quarter as the new application went into production for the closing cycle this year. Endowment pool processing was implemented in June, followed by Total Return and Income Transfer in July. The State Street and ENR interfaces were also implemented for the close, parallel processing for END was terminated. The annual schedules are being produced by the new system this year, and further report development is in process. Specifications for the Accounts Payable module have been approved and implementation is targeted for December/January 2004. Work will begin in October on the specification of the final module: Accounts Receiveable/Advances. GASB Projects - UCOP Financial Management identified enhancements to the system, which were implemented by IR&C for the 2003 financial reporting cycle. The Consolidated Financial Reporting and Financial Journal Entry systems were enhanced to address a variety of changes and improvements in financial reporting and reconciliation for the benefit of both the campuses and UCOP. One significant change for FY2003 was the addition of a new CFS "Worksheet" campus submission cycle, in response to campus requests for an additional cycle in which to review/correct financial reporting data. Reporting changes mandated by GASB rules for foundations, which take effect in 2004, are being addressed by UCOP Financial Management outside of these systems. Master (Corporate) Budget System - A project to develop a new Master Budget System for the Systemwide Budget Office is underway. The Systemwide Budget Office, IR&C, and representatives from the Campus Budget and IT groups met in August to define the needs and draft a preliminary definition of the new budget interface file to be provided by the campuses. The results of this meeting were distributed in September to the invitees. A draft specification of the edit reports is currently being prepared, and will be reviewed by the same group in October/November. After the system specification is finalized, the new interface file definition will be provided via the JOG listserv. A preliminary definition will be provided in the near term. Videoconferencing CalVIP (California Video over IP) has awarded the contract for the design and implementation of an H.323 video conferencing network to Applied Global Technologies (AGT). The contract has been signed and an AGT project manager has been assigned. The first purchase orders have been issued for MCUs and gatekeepers to be installed at three regional CalREN/DC points of presence. The purchase orders also include equipment and software supporting the automated scheduling system. Subsequent purchase orders will be issued for CSU, UC, and community college gatekeepers to be installed at each participating site. UC and CSU will install Cisco 3745 gatekeepers. UC gatekeepers and ongoing operational costs will be funded centrally. CENIC is recruiting for a position to assist in the transition from H.320 to H.323 video technologies CENIC, and first interviews were completed last week, September 12. Project plans and implementation schedules are being formulated and should available soon. CENIC will manage and operate the videoconferencing network and provide initial and ongoing training support.
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