2017 Annual Report
Letter from Chief Information Officer,
Michael Barrett
Information Technology Services (ITS) is just one player in the expansive operations of Florida State University. Nonetheless, as the go-to consultant for the university’s technology needs, our reach is wide.
Every day, ITS consults with departments across the university to find ways to create new efficiencies and reach for continuous innovation. From developing custom applications that maximize productivity to outfitting the classrooms of future scientists, doctors, inventors and doers, ITS exemplifies how we are working together to build the future of Florida State University.
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.
- Bill Gates
This past year, our work demonstrated time and again how ITS helps advance the goals of FSU departments and the university as one. We worked with the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement to create a custom, digital workflow for faculty promotion and tenure, and a major upgrade to university phone lines marked a noteworthy efficiency win for the university, saving departments $125K annually. We supported the Human Resources and Financial Aid offices in developing an online portal for Federal Work-Study jobs, thus helping prepare graduates for 21st century careers, and we worked hand-in-hand with departments across campus allocating Student Technology Fee funds to enhance student learning through instructional technology.
At an expansive public university with 16 colleges and over 40,000 students, our work is never complete. In fact, it grows more and more every year.
So in 2018, we will continue to develop new relationships with academic and business units. We will find more ways to engage the university community in support of the FSU strategic plan, and together we will build on the university’s positive momentum to deliver an ever-improving technology infrastructure.
Michael Barrett
Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Information Technology Services
Student Success
Student Technology Fee funds STEM advancements
The Department of Chemistry received Student Technology Fee funding in 2017 to purchase new, state-of-the-art equipment for the undergraduate laboratories required for many STEM majors across campus. These labs serve more than 4,200 students each year, and the purchase of 10 spectrometers and 120 pH meters greatly reduced the ratio of students to lab equipment. This new equipment ensures that students have hands-on experience and familiarity with equipment used widely in the industry, thereby improving the job-readiness of our students and making them more employable when they enter the job market. Every year, the Student Technology Fee funds millions of dollars of instructional technology projects at FSU, such as the Department of Chemistry’s modernization of undergraduate labs. ITS spearheads the annual process for strategically distributing the funds among university colleges, central IT organizations and progressive instructional technology proposals.
In the 2016-2017 award cycle, approximately $4.185 million was distributed as part of the Student Technology Fee.
Technology renovations energize classroom learning
It takes more than a few desks and a flashy computer to make a classroom operable. Every year, FSU classrooms and lecture halls undergo a massive renovation to keep classroom technology, such as projectors, document cameras and audio visual control systems, up-to-date. And every year, the ITS Technology Enhanced Classrooms team works with the Classroom Renovation Oversight Committee to secure funding and oversee the renovations through to completion. In 2017, $1.7 million was spent on classroom modernizations—the highest annual allocation in more than 10 years. The renovations standardized video capture, upgraded audio visual equipment and even updated classroom finishes such as flooring and paint—all contributing to a more inspiring and versatile learning environment.
Online learning tool available to graduates
Want to learn how to use Excel? Build a website in WordPress? Improve public speaking skills? Lynda.com is an online learning resource that provides detailed training on a wide range of personal and professional development topics. The training videos are heavily used by students and employees, with users viewing more than 14,800 hours of online courses in 2017. Recently, ITS negotiated an arrangement to grant students access to the training videos for one year after graduation, thus offering further career development training to graduates during their first year on the job market. Just one more way of enabling our students to learn something new and develop skills necessary for the workplace while doing so.
$1,273
IT spending per student
2,018
recordings using lecture capture
422,025
course registrations processed by Student Central system
Research
RCC workshops expand capabilities of big data research
GPUs without CUDA … Intro to GNU/Linux … Globus … PGI and NVIDIA … No, these are not code names for top secret government missions; they are the titles of (quite popular) training workshops offered by the Research Computing Center (RCC). In 2017, the RCC presented six workshops to more than 200 students, research assistants and faculty members, covering specialized topics such as parallel computing and machine learning. The interactive workshops not only familiarize researchers with the tools needed to work with the RCC’s complex environments, they also introduce new systems and skills that big data fanatics can employ to expand their research. "Education is part of the core mission of the RCC. These workshops provide an opportunity to collect feedback from students and faculty and ensure we are serving the FSU research community effectively," explains RCC Support Coordinator Casey McLaughlin.
Network upgrade moves more research data, faster
Big data research at FSU relies on lighting fast speeds on the university’s network. To keep up with the increased demand of this data-intensive research, ITS recently completed the first phase of a 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) upgrade connecting the campus network to the Florida LambdaRail network. This upgrade is the foundation for linking FSU to the Florida LambdaRail and National LambdaRail, two networks that connect researchers and enable collaboration nationwide. The 100Gbps connection is the crucial bridge between FSU and outside networks that gives researchers the ability to transfer data faster. The upgrade immediately resulted in faster internet access and a 10x increase in network performance—providing the bandwidth needed to support big data research at FSU.
Scientific equipment inventory improves access to research assets
As a preeminent research university, Florida State University has multiple research labs all over campus conducting independent research and maintaining independent budgets—making it easy to unintentionally purchase duplicate research equipment. To solve the issue, the Office of the Provost, Facilities and FSU scientists worked with ITS to create a tool to inventory scientific equipment and put current research resources to maximum use. The result was a custom app that allows researchers to search and browse a database of scientific assets available at FSU—everything from argon ion lasers to mass spectrometers—then contact the owner of the equipment to reserve it. “Before, I would do laborious searches … and rely on word of mouth,” recalls Dr. Brian Miller of the Department of Chemistry. “The new tool is incredibly helpful and easy to use.” The tool—which received a state Prudential Productivity Award—increases access to research assets and cuts down on the costs associated with duplicate science equipment purchases and service contracts. “Through improving access and sharing, we can realize significant savings in equipment repairs,” affirms Claudius Mundoma, Director of the Physical Biochemistry Laboratory.
$23,771,201
research grants supported
424 teraflops
of peak performance
(that’s 424 trillion calculations per second!)
516
high performance computing users
Infrastructure
Database platform speeds up university processes
In 2017, ITS invested $2M to replace the university’s aging database infrastructure with an ultrafast and highly reliable database platform called Exadata. The new platform, which serves as the foundation of important university applications such as Student Central and OMNI Human Resources, has already eliminated performance issues during peak system traffic times, significantly reduced the university’s data center footprint and improved the performance and stability of business process cycle times within several core university offices. Human Resources processes, such as payroll, now run up to 13 times faster than before, and grade and degree postings in the Office of the University Registrar run five times faster. “The biggest change we saw was in the speed with which grades and degrees were posted,” notes Kim Barber, University Registrar. “Due to this platform change, information is available to students quicker, and the reduced time for processing help[s] staff be more productive.”
VoIP phone lines save university $125K
When Smith Hall was demolished last June, campus waved goodbye to more than just the building. As the central telecommunications node for 1/6 of campus, also gone are all the old analog telephone lines the building fed. ITS worked with 21 buildings affected by the demolition to convert 1,224 telephone lines to internet phone service, also known as VoIP. In addition to offering convenient features such as conference calling and voicemail delivery via email, VoIP costs less than traditional phone service. The phone lines converted in 2017 will save university units $125K—annually. To date, more than 60% of the university’s 10,000 phone lines have been converted to VoIP, and ITS plans to convert phones in Landis, Diffenbaugh, Dirac and Doak Campbell Stadium over the next two years, contingent on the adoption of a sustainable funding model.
Additional access points improve campus Wi-Fi
Nothing casts a cloud like slow Wi-Fi and spotty coverage. To stave off this issue, new access points were added to the Tallahassee campus in 2017. However, with up to 67,000 unique devices connected to the university network during peak usage times, keeping up with the demand can be challenging due to limited funding. Over the last eight years, network utilization has continually increased by more than 30% annually and funding has remained flat. To resolve this inefficiency, ITS continues to pursue a sustainable funding model to cover the installation of an additional 500-800 access points, which would provide reasonable coverage everywhere on campus.
36,990
record number of unique wireless users in 24 hours
14.5M
files stored on OneDrive
(occupying 75 terabytes of storage space!)
117
live websites on central WCMS
Average # Unique Wifi Users by Year
Security & Privacy
Proofpoint helps protect employees from phishing emails
Everyone makes mistakes, but thanks to a new email filtering service, university employees have added protection against phishing emails—even if they accidentally click a malicious link. The new service, provided by Proofpoint, uses robust scanning technology to inspect all links and attachments in nearly two million inbound emails every day. If an employee clicks an unsafe link, a notice appears letting them know the website has been blocked. Since it launched in August 2017, Proofpoint has significantly curbed email threats and compromised accounts, blocking 99% of attachment threats and 80% of link threats. And that is just one more way ITS is protecting employee accounts and university data.
Extra layer of security added to student accounts
From banking websites to social media accounts, the words “verify your identity” have become commonplace. Individuals are quite familiar with multi-factor authentication and the practice of verifying their identity before being granted access to their account. To align with best practices, FSU underwent a massive effort to launch multi-step verification for students in Fall 2017. During the four-week registration window, 31,908 students (76%) pre-registered for the service, making the initiative well received. Multi-step verification, which has been available to employees since June 2016, acts as an extra-layer of security for sensitive university data. Over time, more and more information at FSU will require multi-step verification.
On average, 89% of FSU’s incoming email is blocked, protecting students and employees from an onslaught of phishing and other spam messages.
New system serves as hub for university identity data
Every time someone signs in to an FSU system or application, dozens of attributes are evaluated behind the scenes to identify the individual and authorize them for the appropriate level of access. This phenomenon is handled by the university’s identity management system, which underwent a major upgrade in 2017 to consolidate data into a single storage system. The new system, Oracle Identity Manager, serves as a hub for any university system that needs identity data. As part of the colossal effort, ITS consolidated individual records in the new system and removed duplicate identities. And the efforts are paying dividends. In addition to streamlining employee on-boarding and off-boarding, the new system provides a secure technology foundation for identity management and delivers several security upgrades: a new password reset policy requires all individuals to routinely change their password, and users soon will be able to set security questions to assist with resetting their password.
53,800
individuals registered
for multi-step verification
4,910
times people played ITS’s
laptop scavenger hunt
Services
Adobe Creative Cloud brings out campus’s creative side
Feeling artsy? Employee subscriptions to Adobe Creative Cloud make it easier than ever to design posters, animations, videos and more. Creative Cloud—which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and many more creative apps—gives employees access to an entire suite of industry-leading tools for photography, design, web and video. Since the launch of employee enterprise subscriptions for Creative Cloud in March 2017, ITS has seen an 836% increase in the number of users. “University-wide access to Adobe’s Creative Cloud is another example of FSU’s continued commitment to providing our faculty, staff and students the latest and greatest technology,” credits Tony Archer, Director of Creative Services.
New web content management system unifies university websites
In 2017, ITS completed the monumental transition to a new web content management system (WCMS), moving university websites from the former eZ Publish system to up-and-coming Drupal 8. During the transition, ITS worked hand-in-hand with units across the university to migrate 97 websites and nearly 10,000 webpages to the new system. Drupal brought loads of increased functionality, including mobile-first design, greater social media integration and improved alignment with university branding, giving FSU a polished and immediately recognizable look across the web. Since the migration, the new system has served as a carrot to lure more FSU departments to the university’s central WCMS, adding 20 new websites and further reducing stand-alone, departmental web servers and outsourcing costs.
ITS discounts on software licenses contributed to significant savings across the university, saving departments $9.4 million and students and employees $240 thousand.
Virtual computer lab provides anytime access to university software
Visit a university computer lab without ever stepping foot on campus? Sign me up! In Fall 2017, FSU’s virtual computer lab, myFSUVLab, was accessed 30,630 times. The virtual lab—which gives students 24/7 access to specialty software from anywhere—is an essential resource to support student success. The lab is used by thousands of students every semester to access course-specific software that would be cost-prohibitive to purchase. Last year, Student Technology Fee funding was used to expand the number of applications available in the lab and enable web access, resulting in a sizable increase in usage over the previous year. The lab also creates the potential for further efficiencies in coming years as university departments offer additional software through myFSUVLab and phase out traditional computer labs.
1,049,002
myFSU Mobile app sessions
>75,000
Office 365 activations
>100,000
active FSU email accounts
Efficiencies
Mobile access personalizes FSU experience
With today's technology, nearly anything you could ever want to know is available at your fingertips. So why should a college experience be any different? To this end, ITS worked with campus partners including the Registrar’s Office, Student Business Services, Financial Aid and Student Affairs in 2017 to introduce mobile access to personalized data. Using the myFSU Mobile app, students are now able to enroll in classes, check grades, view financial aid and more. Additional mobile releases gave faculty and advisors access to essential teaching and advising tools, connected parents and incoming freshmen with move-in tips and introduced the ability to send intelligent push notifications. This initiative has created opportunities to partner with a host of departments across FSU to bring the best and most useful information to users, further transforming how students learn, how faculty teach and how staff work.
E-binders streamline faculty promotion and tenure process
As one of the nation’s most efficient universities, FSU often relies upon ITS to dispatch and support the systems that enable increased productivities. On one such project, ITS partnered with the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement to develop a custom solution to automate the faculty promotion and tenure process. The outcome was a new process that stores all promotion and tenure documentation electronically in an e-binder, streamlining the process from start to finish and supplanting years (and piles) of paper binders. “I am so pleased to see this more efficient, user-friendly system go online,” said Provost Sally McRorie. “This digital approach is able to present a thorough compendium of faculty accomplishments and innovation—including journal articles, YouTube videos and even film projects.” The new process, which went in effect for the 2017-2018 promotion and tenure cycle, will be a valuable tool for strengthening the retention and recognition of valued faculty.
Online portal enhances work-study hiring process
ITS is always looking for ways to make business as usual better. So when the Human Resources and Financial Aid offices came to us looking for a way to streamline the Federal Work-Study hiring process at FSU, we put our heads together to come up with a solution. Over the course of six months, we worked together to develop a single online portal for posting, searching and applying for Federal Work-Study jobs. Using the portal, students can search for relevant postings, and recruiters can review and select candidates, making the entire process a seamless experience and giving FSU students valuable work experience that helps prepare them for future employment opportunities.
DocuSign, the university’s digital signature service, saves thousands of sheets of paper each year. In 2017, 336 unique users routed 14,760 documents (consisting of 36,470 pages) through the system, 37% of which were signed in less than one hour.
New IT platform brings more visibility and less service downtime
Over the last few years, ITS has undertaken an internal effort to improve service performance, provide project transparency and highlight the value of our contributions to the university community. In June 2017, ITS launched ServiceNow, a cloud platform that provides tools to enhance formal IT service management (ITSM) and project portfolio management (PPM) practices. Change management was the first process launched in the platform. Ninety-two percent of scheduled changes were completed without causing customer-facing service disruptions—a 9.6% improvement over the previous year. Specific to project management, 115 ITS projects were recorded in the platform and portfolios were established to track each project's alignment to the FSU Strategic Plan. Looking ahead, plans are underway to implement additional ITSM processes within the ServiceNow platform and to publish a roadmap of more than 70 projects scheduled for completion within the next year—further enhancing service delivery and strengthening our strategic partnerships across campus.
571,377
business intelligence reports run
(returning 514 MILLION rows of data!)
$12,721,616
money saved in ITS efficiency projects
The ITS Service Desk fields and routes a mishmash of calls, emails and online chats throughout the year. In 2017, 56,503 support requests flooded in, mostly concerning password resets or email issues. One customer, however, wanted to know where in town they could find a “collegiate, ornamental, FSU windmill.”
Financials
ITS manages an annual budget of more than $50 million to provide critical technology support to Florida State University*. To keep up with the skyrocketing demand for information technology services, ITS continues to explore innovative ways to fund the university’s core technology needs while delivering a robust and adaptable technology environment that supports our status as a preeminent research university.
2016-17 Expenses
$26,464,740
Salaries & Benefits
$7,059,031
Software Expendable & Maintenance
$5,826,743
Telecommunications & Network
$4,702,407
Consulting & Professional Services
$4,268,423
Hardware Maintenance & Supplies
$982,676
General Operating
$832,685
Facilities & Fleet R&M
$608,094
Other Capital Outlay
$241,614
Travel & Training
$50,986,413
Grand Total
* The ITS budget has remained relatively flat for more than five years. Due to the timing of non-recurring funding allocations and expenses that cross fiscal years, year-over-year expenses may fluctuate by up to 10%.
Year Ahead
Support academic enrichment activities
The heart and soul of Florida State University is our students. Every year, ITS undertakes new initiatives to enrich academics and ensure that students, plus all the university departments that support them, have the tools necessary to succeed and carry FSU closer to our goal of becoming a top 25 public university. In the coming year, ITS will undertake a key initiative to expand analytics capabilities to support informed decision making regarding student success and develop dashboards that provide insight on key preeminence metrics. ITS will also partner with the Division of Student Affairs to overhaul the Garnet and Gold Scholar application, making the application easier to use and saving time for student submissions and processing. Other initiatives include upgrades to the university network and outfitting the university’s technology enhanced classrooms with new, state-of-the-art IT equipment.
Promote collaboration and enhanced communications
Technology that fosters a more collaborative culture will be a theme in the coming year. ITS will pursue continuous innovation in technologies that provide opportunities for more collaboration, enhanced communications and increased productivity. A joint effort with Human Resources will introduce SmartERP, a hosted solution that streamlines the employee onboarding process. We will also partner with University Communications to introduce weekly news and events digests for FSU students and employees. In addition, new cloud-based services, such as SharePoint Online, will augment employee-to-employee collaboration while reducing infrastructure costs.
Safeguard university information
In the world of technology, cybercrime has taken a permanent and commanding seat at the table. In 2018, as a response to this unwelcome guest, ITS will take extra strides to increase our security posture to protect the university by offering vulnerability scanning and increased security awareness training. A high-profile effort conducted in partnership with the Office of Research will help university researchers ensure they are compliant with security controls outlined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), giving FSU a competitive advantage in the race for new research contracts. ITS will also continue its risk management programs, helping FSU improve protections for the university’s IT infrastructure and developing a process to document and asses all enterprise information risks. Lastly, as part of the university’s ongoing disaster recovery preparedness, ITS will work with other mission-critical university departments to complete a business impact analysis, predicting and preparing for the potential effects of a cyber or natural disaster.
Provide flexible IT infrastructure
In today’s lightning-paced world, technology must be adaptable and ready to change at a moment’s notice. In 2018, ITS will strive to extend a robust and flexible IT infrastructure to all corners of campus, exploring more cloud-based services and improving service to off-campus sites. Significant updates to Campus Solutions, OMNI HR and OMNI Financials will give each application a fluid user interface, making the systems fully responsive on mobile devices. Behind the scenes, ITS will transfer 1,500 phones to internet phone service, further reducing university telecommunication costs. These projects—and more—will strengthen the university’s technology platform and position us to become a top twenty-five public university.
