NSCC Weekly Status Report

July 14, 2004

1. Team members from the Digital Imaging team have completed filling out the RFR matrix. We plan to meet next week to finalize a decision between the solutions (Matrix and SCT)

2. Computer Orders:

  • We ordered 160 desktop computers from Dell. The additional discount applied from the originally quoted discounted price was over $120 difference per system. The additional discount brought the price down to $1053 per system and they all have 512MB Ram, 3.2ghz processor, 60 gig hard drives, CD/RW/DVD, 17” flat panel monitors and gigabit nics. These systems will upgrade three labs and be deployed to faculty and staff.
  • Two servers were ordered one high end and one low end. These new servers will be used in combination with a shuffle down of existing servers for the following projects:

1. Order new server to support Banner in a Browser for entire campus (Linux based) / 11,000
a. Integrate Banner in a Browser with Campus Pipeline
b. Migrate all staff to BNB and do away with Banner client
2. Order small blade server for Open LDAP and MySQL database – currently on home page / 4500
3. Migrate home page to existing 2 processor 2 gig server (old pipeline email) / 0
4. Migrate Open LDAP and MySQL database to new blade server from step 2 / 0
5. Implement a test data warehouse system on existing blackboard development server / 0
6. Migrate EUS-Dan to older Banweb server (May require disk upgrade) / 1300
(will be available after migrated to new server ordered in step 1)
7. Implement workflow server with old webreg server (May require memory upgrade) / 1000
8. Migrate FS1 (Danvers Novell Server) to current home page web server (will be freed up after step 3 completed)
9. Current FS1 server will be used for migration of existing FS2 (Novell)Lynn student server
  • IP based KVM switching components and cables were ordered to accommodate 40 servers. This will allow us to have pure console capabilities from any location including from home via our VPN. Secondly it will allow us to consolidate space in the primary Danvers computer room.
  • Another Dell rack was ordered for the new servers and to consolidate existing servers

3. An article has been written for next weeks NSCC online bulletin that explains what spyware is, how to prevent it and how to remove it from your system. This brief article will direct faculty/staff to a newly created channel that has been created within the campus portal to make this type of information readily available to the community. The new section/channel is called Information Systems Notifications. Each notification will be numbered (i.e.; ISN100, ISN101, etc.) so that future information sent via email can be short and simply refer to the appropriate ISN number.

4. A server is being configured for WEBCHECK which will integrate with the portal through an additional Touchnet module. The formal installation and configuration of the e-check module is scheduled for July 26. E-check should be ready as another online payment option by the beginning of the Fall semester.

5. An applications staff meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 15 with the programmers/developers to plan out and develop formal project plans for our very large projects/deliverables list between now and January.

6. BHE reports are complete. A submission for Best in Class (Best Practice) for online recruitment was submitted by the IS department and will be submitted by the college to the BHE. See attachment “BHE Best Practices” for the 2 page summary of this project. An overview of our infrastructure and support mechanisms is also attached that was used for the NEASC mid term report which is being submitted within 1 week.

7. Met with the HR department to further discuss associating pictures collected from the student and employee ID process into the online phone directory – this will be completed by September. During this discussion we also discussed consolidating and automating the library card and ID onto the general employee/student ID. We have a meeting scheduled for next week with NOBLE (library consortium) to determine how and what possibilities we have. We may have a completely redesigned process ready for the fall semester.

8. Wentworth and Wheelock college will be visiting NSCC on Tuesday, July 20 to get an overview of Banner 6.x, online services and Campus Pipeline.

9. Jan Forsstrom (Contract Administrator) and I are confirmed to visit NYIT on August 3rd to present on online services and portal. We will be flying out Monday afternoon and returning Tuesday evening.