September 2024 Agenda

Meeting Date: September 30, 2024

Time: 1:00 pm

Location: 206/207 Frey; Teams

Present: Tommy Smith, Jacqueline Bach, Craig Woolley, Parampreet Singh, Lori Martin, Chris Barrett, Stephanie Rhodes, Emmett Brown, Wen-Chieh Fan

Remote Attendance: Michele Montero, Loree Ramezan, Mo Carney

Absent: Angie Mann, Calvin Feldt, Kilbert Spland

Presenters: Katie Bouey, Eric Pergola, Allie Prest

Others: Stephen Heyward, Ric Simmons, Jason Normand, Brian Davis, Todd Woodward, Lesa Jeansonne, Sumit Jain, Susan Crochet

Opening

1. Administrative Announcements

2. Executive ITGC Updates [Craig Woolley]

Action

3. Approval of the Minutes from the Meeting held on February 27, 2024

Information/Discussion

4. Software Standardization Process [Craig Woolley]

Proposal of Standardization of Project Management Tools and Email Campaign Manager [Katie Bouey]
Initiative for LSU Related to Communication [Todd Woodward]

5. Workday Student Update [Robin Ethridge]

6. What’s New in Support & Services [Eric Pergola]

7. ITS ITGC Project List [Katie Bouey]

Updates: Sub-Committees & Working Groups

8. Education Technology Subcommittee Update [Jackie Bach]

Wrap-Up

9. Information sharing/Announcements [All]

10. Suggested agenda items for future meetings, including ITS topics of interest [All]

11. Next steps/Follow-up items [Chair]

September 2024 Minutes

1. Administrative Announcements

Craig Woolley announced that the Department IT Subcommittee, the Research Technology Subcommittee, and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee spent a year working on revising the LSU A&M IT Security Policies and Standards. He shared that a previous resolution stated that all three groups have to give input on any changes to the policies and standards. He added that the Research Technology Subcommittee is in a state of transition and has not met for a long while. Craig proposed bypassing input from the inactive Research Technology Subcommittee for the current cycle.

3. Meeting Minutes Approval

February meeting minutes were approved with no revisions. Motion to approve by Emmett Brown; seconded by Chris Barrett.

4. Software Standardization Process

Katie Bouey presented a proposal on standardizing project management (PM) software. She discussed key features including scheduling, tracking, and reporting and analysis. She stated that several departments including ITS, Institutional Research, and Academic Affairs are currently using TeamDynamix, which is offered for free to departments unless they are self-funded. She added that other departments are requesting PM software such as Microsoft Project, JIRA, Basecamp, and Monday.com. Katie shared the number of requests as well as the dollar total for those requests. Katie discussed the benefits of standardization including central support and endorsement from ITS, cost savings, time savings, data retention, and regulatory compliance with access controls through Single Sign On (SSO).

Katie presented two PM software standardization options. Option 1 would standardize two tools (TeamDynamix and one other endorsed tool). She shared that TeamDynamix would be ideal for users needing advanced features while users needing a tool for simpler tasks would benefit from a tool like Monday.com. Any software requests for non-endorsed PM tools would be redirected to the endorsed tools. Option 2 would allow any PM software that meets data and security requirements, but ITS will only provide support for TeamDynamix and the other endorsed PM tool.

Craig stated that departments requesting other PM software can make a case for why that software would fit their needs better than the two endorsed tools. There were concerns raised including potential resistance due to user preferences, cost of transition and tool adoption, and balancing simplicity for new users versus complexity for advanced users.

Tommy Smith added that there is an imperative from the Governor’s office for cost saving measures and efficiencies.

Todd Woodward commended the Council for their work and reiterated the need for cost-saving measures.

Katie presented a proposal on standardizing email campaign management software. She discussed key features including mailing list management, social media integration, real-time monitoring, and reporting and analysis. She stated that LSU currently uses Modern Campus as its email management tool. She shared that other email management tools being purchased on campus include Constant Contact, Mailchimp, My Emma, and SendGrid and added that the University is spending approximately the same amount for Modern Campus as the other requested tools. Katie discussed the benefits of standardization including central support, cost savings, and time savings. She also discussed that from a regulatory compliance perspective, it would allow for email security, enhanced controls to prevent phishing and the impersonation of the lsu.edu domain, and it would ensure email delivery to third party platforms such as Gmail and Yahoo.

Sumit Jain stated that most platforms wouldn’t be able to deliver emails to lsu.edu recipients without reduced security controls. Due to changes being made by Yahoo and Google as well as planned changes by Microsoft, Sumit stressed the need for an environment with controls that ensure email delivery to recipients on those platforms.

Katie presented two email campaign software standardization options. Option 1 would standardize two tools (Modern Campus and one other endorsed tool) with software acquisition requests for non-endorsed tools being redirected to the endorsed tools unless the user has a business need or case for using that tool. Option 2 would allow stakeholders to purchase any email campaign management tool suitable for their needs, but support would only be provided for the two endorsed products. There was a brief discussion concerning the ability to export data from one platform to another. There was also a brief discussion on how the software standardization options would affect entities such as the Law Center and the Vet School. There was also a discussion on how the second endorsed software product would be selected including the use of a survey and reports on the number of software acquisition requests for PM tools and email campaign management tools.

5. Workday Student Update

Allie Prest gave an update on the Workday Student Project. She shared that Workday will become the student information system of record for Summer 2025 and beyond. Legacy data will be archived in a data warehouse and 5 years of legacy student records will be migrated as active and the rest are historical. She added that Workday will not replace Moodle, Slate, Navigate, or 25Live. She also stated a college-wide awareness will begin in October via an introductory broadcast email. Allie shared the Workday Student timeline with the Council with Move To Production (MTP) 1.5 having just occurred with Financial Aid functionality included. She stated that MTP2 will take place in February, which will include student-facing functionality including registration. Allie shared that all current efforts are focused on end-to-end testing. Allie also shared the student program summary, which included health and status information on Public Course Offerings, Form 1042-S Reporting, Cashiering, and other projects related to Workday Student. There was a brief discussion on the Tiger Transfer Tables projects. Allie discussed efforts being put forth with regards to organizational change management including communications, training materials, and training communications.

6. What’s New in Support & Services
Eric Pergola shared with the Council what’s new in Services and Support. He informed the council that a new team was created in ITS that would handle Audio Visual (AV) operations across the campus. He added that the team would be working on renovating Registrar-controlled classrooms as well as various conference rooms over the next five years. Eric shared that one-on-one training would be provided in the upgraded classrooms for faculty that request it, with real-time assistance available via classroom telephones. He recommended the use of Logitech Teams room system, which assigns each room its own identity and phone number. Eric briefly discussed products available for purchase by departments in the ITS Computer Store. He also discussed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) that are available to departments for services that are outside of basic needs. These MOUs provide a faster response to resolving IT-related issues and, when requested, allows ITS to take over as the TSP for the college or department. Eric also discussed other services available including desktop support, student lab support, high performance computing, and telephony. There was a brief discussion concerning the length of computer lifecycle replacement. There was also a brief discussion concerning the support of live event streaming.

7. ITS ITGC Project List
Katie Bouey gave a brief update on the Tier 4 projects at ITS, including Identity Access Management (IAM) which expects to go live in March 2025. There was a brief discussion concerning the Tiger Card Mobile Credential project.

9. Information sharing/Announcements
Craig Woolley asked the Council to vote on the updated IT Security Policies and Standards at the next meeting with input from only the Department IT Subcommittee and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, temporarily removing the non-active Research Technology Subcommittee. Motion to approve by Param Singh; seconded by Chris Barrett.