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American OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
University YEAR IN REVIEW 2008–2009
CONTENTS
1
CIO’s Message
3
Mission
4
Management Team
5
Organizational Overview
5
Enterprise Systems
6
Information Security
6
Technology Operations
7
Strategic Goals and Accomplishments
7
Epitomize the Scholar-Teacher Ideal
8
Provide an Unsurpassed Undergraduate Education and Experience
11
Engage Alumni in the Life of the University, on and off Campus
12
Encourage Innovation and High Performance
14
Win Recognition and Distinction
17
Employ Technology to Empower Excellence
21
Forge Partnerships by Leveraging Our Capital Location
23
Performance Metrics
23
Project Management Office
24
Service-Oriented Architecture
30
Service Delivery and Support
34
Resources
CIO’S MESSAGE
On behalf of the Office of Information Technology (OIT), I would like to invite you
to review our annual report for academic year 2008–2009. I am excited to share
with you a summary of progress over the last year, as well as our current strategic
initiatives for enterprise systems and technology infrastructure. In the most recent
year, we completed many projects that enhanced the university, several of which
are highlighted here. We are aligning all of our critical initiatives with the new AU
strategic plan.
Because AU’s budget is 95 percent tuition driven, one of the key goals of the
strategic plan is to focus on marketing initiatives that will build the university’s
reputation and enrollment. As part of this goal, the university’s Web presence has
undergone a major redesign, the first phase of which launched this past March.
We were immensely gratified when eduStyle, an organization dedicated to higher education Web sites,
recognized the new AU Web presence with its award for best overall Web site in higher education and best
use of interactive multimedia.
Enhancing and enriching the student experience is also a major objective and key focus area of the strategic
plan. One way AU is trying to reach this goal is through the creation of a virtual one-stop student services
system, which will allow students to complete transactions and access important information through a
connected online structure. This past year we rolled out new online systems to kick off the one-stop initiative,
including the administrative screen, which gives advisors and other key personnel easier access to the
information needed to help students, and an integrated online financial aid system, which can make direct
electronic payments to student bank accounts, thereby cutting weeks from the previous manual process.
OIT has planned much to support this initiative over the next year, including a new portal and a suite of new
applications, such as e-advising, retention alerts, case management, and an online admissions system.
CIO’S MESSAGE
This new Web infrastructure uses a powerful content management system to organize and store university
content and Web templates with input from a large group of university content providers. With this investment
of infrastructure now in place, our future efforts will focus on including all aspects of the university in the new
Web presence, fostering a stronger connection between users and the university and focusing on relationships,
relevance, and exploration. Digital media is a large part of the current and future focus, and we will need to
continue our infrastructure investments to create a library and archive of critical informational objects.
One of our more complex projects this past year was the replacement of Benefactor with Datatel Colleague
Advancement to better serve the alumni and development offices. The new system offers the ability to access
biographical and demographic data for prospects, students, and parents to help build strategic relationships
and track donor and alumni information. It also includes new self-service capabilities that enable better
relationship management and improved reporting.
Another of the more important projects under way is the upgrade of the campus wired and wireless networks,
which were installed approximately 10 years ago. Over the last year, we modernized our core infrastructure,
increased capacity, and worked to eliminate dead zones. For example, the library received a significant
upgrade and can now address current and anticipated demands as well as use a proactive monitoring
capability to ensure high service levels. In addition to improving data communications, we will upgrade our
voicemail system to support an integrated messaging capability, allowing campus phone users to receive
voicemail and even faxes via their e-mail.
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In the original OIT three-year roadmap introduced in 2007, we identified a need to improve university access
to information and ad hoc reporting to support strategic decision making. We completed the Business
Intelligence initiative, a comprehensive planning process. This year we will select and begin to implement a
tool with priority areas, such as executive dashboards and enrollment management.
Safeguarding AU’s protected electronic data continues to be a high priority. We made progress in this area
by implementing regular vulnerability scanning of enterprise Web applications and servers. Additionally,
we provided users with a self-scanning assessment tool to help them discover confidential data on their
local computers. We continue to partner with the risk management and general counsel offices to survey
the regulatory landscape and implement protections to covered data as required. This year we will continue
our deployment of encryption software on all AU-owned workstations to protect against unpredicted data
exposure, which can lead to damage to the university’s reputation and finances.
Our adoption of best practices continues as we mature our use of change management and service
management, including an expanded number of service level agreements covering the array of customer
groups OIT serves across campus.
CIO’S MESSAGE
We have also begun work to better manage university-owned desktops, under a project known as the
NextGen Workstation initiative. An important step forward in this effort is the adoption of LANDesk, a system
to help us maintain an inventory of university assets, improve our support of users, and simplify the push of
protective software updates.
We have also completed the university’s first IT business continuity plan and intend to split the university data
center into two locations separated by a distance of more than 20 miles. This change will better address our
continuity requirements, reduce the likelihood of major system failures, and help improve uptimes. In parallel,
we have kicked off a major initiative to improve the redundancy, reliability, and flexibility of our information
systems through server consolidation and virtualization.
In support of the academic activities of the university, we have many plans to improve our services to faculty
and students. We will upgrade Blackboard 7 to the enhanced Blackboard 9, which also supports new Web 2.0
collaboration tools. OIT will also partner with the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning to introduce a
new synchronous learning tool and launch online computer training courses to improve our ability to deliver
online courses.
We strive to support the university’s core mission and objectives through alignment with the university
strategic plan. This report is our way of inviting you to learn of our progress and the exciting plans on the
horizon. Thank you on behalf of OIT for taking the time to review our report. It is our pleasure to serve you.
Respectfully,
Dave Swartz
Chief Information Officer and Assistant Vice President
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MISSION
The Office of Information Technology’s mission is to align with and
facilitate progress toward the university’s strategic goals, improve
enterprise technology services, protect electronic data, and partner with
distributed campus technology groups.
MISSION
Employ Technology to Empower Excellence
We will build and strengthen a robust, reliable, and secure framework of information
and communication technology to support our activities as a world-class university.
By investing in state-of-the-art technology and planning for the future, the university
will exploit technology to harmonize a diverse and widely distributed campus; leverage
learning, research, and innovation; and empower users in physical and virtual space.
—AU Strategic Plan
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MANAGEMENT TEAM
DON MYERS
VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE
AND TREASURER
DAVE SWARTZ
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
AND ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT
KAMALIKA SANDELL
MANAGEMENT TEAM
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF
ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
MOHAMMAD MIRZABEIGY
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF
APPLICATION MANAGEMENT
PAUL LANGHAN
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS
APPLICATIONS
JOYCE DEROY
DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION
SERVICES
SHARJIL HASAN
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF
PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE
LAURIE AMBACH
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT
APPLICATIONS
MICHELE HANDLIR
DIRECTOR OF WEB DEVELOPMENT
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CATHY HUBBS
CHIEF INFORMATION
SECURITY OFFICER
ERIC WEAKLAND
DIRECTOR OF
INFORMATION SECURITY
ED MARTIN
DEPUTY CIO AND SENIOR DIRECTOR
OF TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS
CHRIS GEHRING
DIRECTOR OF SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING SERVICES
TERRY FERNANDEZ
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER
SERVICES AND SUPPORT
HASSAN MARVI
DIRECTOR OF NETWORK
OPERATIONS
PETER SCHLINE
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
Enterprise Systems
The Enterprise Systems group is responsible for providing a comprehensive,
integrated set of technology solutions that enables American University to
improve the way we conduct business, supporting various staff and academic
functions. Managing the university’s technology portfolio continues to be
a fine balance among modernizing existing solutions, charging ahead with
new solutions, and continuing to operationalize best practices. The group is
organized to provide a single point of contact to the staff and academic units,
with specialized focus on the university’s data infrastructure and Web site.
The Enterprise Systems group includes:
> the application management team—provides application
administration and third-level technical support for all enterprise systems applications,
through the formulation of a well-defined quality assurance function
> the business applications team—shapes and furthers enterprise solutions in support of
university business functions in the areas of finance, accounting, budget, human resources,
payroll, facilities, and risk management
> the emerging technologies program team—defines an enterprise architecture program and
provides innovative solutions by introducing and formalizing new technologies across all
enterprise applications
> the information services team—defines the university’s data infrastructure, thereby
providing reliable, accurate, secure, and accessible data to the campus community through
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
Kamalika Sandell
Senior Director of
Enterprise Systems
management of the university’s data warehouse and analytical reporting functions
> the project office—institutionalizes best practices in several IT management service
areas, building a reusable framework related to technology project and portfolio
management practices
> the student applications team—shapes and furthers enterprise solutions in support of
all schools, departments in the provost division, the Office of Campus Life, and the Office
of Development
> the Web development team—realizes an effective and compelling university Web site and
a high-quality, Web-enabled campus, integrating Web technologies to support learning,
teaching, and communications through the Web
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Information Security
OIT’s Information Security team supports AU’s executive leadership in
protecting and defending the university’s information assets by executing
appropriate and efficient security practices in IT planning, implementation,
management, and operations, while assuring confidentiality, integrity,
authenticity, accountability, and availability.
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
The team works to accomplish this through:
>
ensuring compliance with applicable policies, laws, and regulations
>
enforcing university policies and standards
>
highlighting sources of risk to university management
>
implementing technologies that increase the visibility of potential risks to our data
>
developing repeatable processes that validate security in IT systems and services
>
contributing to awareness, training, and education programs
>
initiating partnerships with departments to evaluate and improve their computer
Cathy Hubbs
Chief Information
Security Officer
security practices
>
safeguarding new technologies and services
Technology Operations
The Technology Operations group is responsible for reliable and effective
information technology services management and delivery to the AU community.
We continually strive for the balance of efficient applications of human resources,
repeatable processes, and technology investment. Our three teams work together to
administer the university information technology infrastructure and provide effective
customer services, such as technical support, technical training, and publications.
The Technology Operations group includes:
> the systems engineering services team—provides directory
architecture management and engineering, systems engineering and
Ed Martin
Deputy Chief Information
Officer and Senior Director
of Technology Operations
operations, and database administration. The team also administers the
e-mail and collaboration software environment and server and storage platforms architecture,
engineering, and operations.
>
the customer services and support team—supplies technical support services, including the
Help Desk, service management, change management, desk-side and on-campus workstation
support, and performance measurement. The team also designs, administers, and delivers
the technical training curriculum and provides communication services for OIT, including the
lifecycle management of our various publications.
>
the network operations team—provides operations management and monitoring,
after-hours Help Desk assistance, information technology facilities management, and
network engineering. The team also furnishes telecommunications services and
workstation lifecycle management.
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STRATEGIC GOALS AND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
OIT has aligned its portfolio closely with the university’s strategic plan and overall goals. We have
projects and initiatives supporting each goal, and we would like to take this opportunity to highlight
some of them.
Accomplishments
Supported iTunes U
An ambitious undertaking, the iTunes U pilot project was launched in early 2008. OIT collaborated with
the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning (CTRL) and University Communications and Marketing
(UCM) to set up the framework and infrastructure, and by December 2008, the AU iTunes U site was
officially listed on the iTunes U main site. This project taught us valuable lessons we will apply toward
future broader multimedia initiatives.
Improved Wireless Coverage
Because use of the wireless network in the University Library has been surging, OIT partnered with the
library’s technology staff to dramatically increase the wireless LAN coverage and capacity. Wireless
usage in the library rose by more than 300 percent over the prior year, and we expect that level to hold
and even gradually increase. The
“As one of the key ‘enabling goals’ for the strategic
plan, enhancing the University Library has been a
top priority for me. Thanks to a strong collaboration
with OIT, the library’s wireless capabilities were
considerably enhanced this year, allowing users
greater connectivity than ever. On a cold Tuesday
night in December, we had more than 500 students
working in the library at 2 a.m., all on the wireless
network! This was a high-water mark for our ability
to provide community, connectivity, and creativity
for our students and faculty. Innovative partnerships
across the campus such as these bring value to our
community every day.”
library continues to evolve into a
real hotspot for information access
and electronic services delivery.
We are positioning ourselves to
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Epitomize the Scholar-Teacher Ideal
meet and exceed our students’
rising expectations for service
readiness and reliability.
—Bill Mayer, University Librarian
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Upcoming Plans
Upgrading Academic Technology Systems
In the 2009–2010 academic year, OIT plans to partner with CTRL to upgrade AU’s Blackboard learning
system from version 7 to version 9. Previews of the new version indicate that it will offer more Web 2.0
and user-customizable features and capabilities. With this upgrade, OIT also will shift the architecture
to improve redundancy and systems availability. In addition, OIT intends to support CTRL’s efforts to
introduce a standard, simple-to-use, lecture capture and access capability.
Introducing Online Training
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Across campus, demand is increasing for effective electronic learning packages and tools, so OIT is
planning to address this in partnership with CTRL and the library. This academic year, we will subscribe
to an online technology education suite from lynda.com, which will allow authenticated AU users to
take hundreds of online courses in common software applications, multimedia, and other technology
topics, through a Web browser. OIT intends to offer this service to all users once they are logged into
the my.american.edu portal.
Provide an Unsurpassed Undergraduate
Education and Experience
Accomplishments
Developed One-Stop Administrative Application
The one-stop focus for student services, both physical and virtual, is a transformational strategic goal
for AU. Earlier this year the university built a conceptual model and a full implementation plan to
accomplish this goal. At the heart of realizing the vision is the ability to provide outcome-oriented
services to students instead of restricting services to a siloed departmental focus. The one-stop model
creates new processes in which front-line individuals are trained and empowered and have access to a
critical set of student data
“In spring 2009 OIT modified an administrative application
that was provided to AU by the One Stop Center at Widener
University (also a Datatel client). This new application enables
staff in financial aid, student accounts, and the registrar’s
office and the advisors in all six schools and colleges to
have an enhanced ability to problem-solve and to provide
better customer service to students. The sending of students
from one office to the other to try to find someone who can
help resolve administrative or advising issues will be greatly
reduced when staff in all these offices have the ability to
determine the source of a student’s problem.”
—Betty Douglass, Executive Director, Student Services Center
so that they can respond to
and resolve student issues.
The first one-stop application
to be implemented was
the administrative screen,
an integrated interface
that consolidates multiple
dimensions and information
about a student onto one
screen: demographic,
financial aid, accounts receivable, registration, and housing and dining. This application increased
access to this data from a handful of people to more than 130 staff members across campus who serve
students in various roles.
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Simplified Online Financial Aid
Last year OIT began rolling out WebAdvisor, a Datatel Colleague product that allows online processing
of key business functions. It gives AU students and applicants a central location to view financial aid
information, review a checklist of needed items for their complete financial aid application, and accept
or decline each component of their offered financial aid package. This project has increased student
service satisfaction by providing students with a single place to review both general and personalized
information regarding their financial aid opportunities.
Implemented Blackboard Community System
One of the biggest holes in Web-based services for students was the inability to have real-time, online
university’s financial system, including new reconciliation procedures. Last spring OIT implemented the
Blackboard Community System, which allows students to manage their EagleBucks accounts online
and parents and students to make deposits to accounts in real time.
Partnered on IT Walk-In Service
OIT continually seeks opportunities to balance the need for improving services to students with the goal
of seeking more efficient operations. In the spring of 2009, we partnered with the library’s technical staff
to pilot an on-campus, walk-in service desk in the Anderson Computing Center (ACC). The desk was
staffed with library employees who had been trained by OIT to perform many tier-one support tasks
for students. OIT dedicated staff members to support this desk during standard hours, assisting with
complex tasks as they arose and providing problem and resolution stewardship. The walk-in service
also served as an escalation
“A joint walk-in service desk with OIT has had a tremendously
positive impact on the overall service that the library provides
in the ACC. We no longer have to tell the students who come
through the door asking for help with their IT problems that they
need to call or e-mail OIT first. Thanks to the training that our
student technology consultants have received from the OIT staff,
they can now identify and solve a lot of common technology
problems and easily escalate to the Help Desk for more
complicated issues.”
—Evgeny Bisk, Director of Discovery Systems
and Computing Services, University Library
path from the OIT Help Desk
for problems that required
closer examination or a
meeting with a student.
Metrics on performance
and satisfaction were kept
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
EagleBucks deposits that could be accessed by parents and students and integrated fully into the
and analyzed, and the
consensus was to continue
to develop and optimize this
service in the new academic year. OIT plans to increase its on-campus presence to minimize the service
delivery and resolution windows and improve students’ perception of the ease of using IT services.
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Increased Speed of Credit Card Transactions
A common frustration of AU’s students, faculty, and staff was the difficulty of using credit cards at
merchant cash registers at campus locations. Whether using a credit card or getting caught in line behind
a credit card user, the wait for credit card approval via modem dial-up services was unsatisfactory. In
the past academic year, OIT partnered with Housing and Dining Programs and our various merchants to
implement a Payment Card Industry (PCI)–compliant network and terminal infrastructure so that approvals
could occur over the Internet and in seconds as opposed to minutes. This type of communication has to
be secure because there are strict laws regarding transmissions of credit card payment information. The
deployed solution achieved a faster service delivery time for purchasing transactions while protecting the
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
buyers’ information and keeping the transmissions reliable.
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Created Online Student Account Services
OIT has maintained a strong focus on making more applications self service and online. These
applications not only are convenient to access but also streamline processing, thereby significantly
reducing end-to-end process time. The Online Student Refund automation is a great example of a
service that has simplified administrative procedures.
Prior to this automation, students could request a refund via an e-mail to the generic Student Accounts
mailbox or through a paper request at the cashier’s office. As there was no formal acknowledgement of
receipt, a student might send repeated e-mails checking on the status, each of which had to be read and
processed by Student Accounts staff. To validate a request, staff had to perform multiple manual checks
of registration and financial aid statuses, working across multiple offices, which required tremendous
time and effort and sometimes created additional confusion.
Now students are able to request refunds from within the portal, they receive immediate e-mail
notification that their request has been received, and they have the option of getting refunds processed
directly to their preferred bank account. Student Accounts staff has easy access to information about
students who have requested a refund for any date range, eliminating the need to read sometimes
many hundreds of e-mail requests each day. All refund requests follow a standardized format and are
automatically logged, which has reduced a phenomenal amount of paperwork in the Student Accounts
office and ensured auditability.
Upcoming Plans
AU will need a redesigned portal to realize the potential of the new one-stop administrative system.
Because AU’s current portal has become outdated and no longer meets the needs of the university, OIT
plans to partner with the campus community to implement a state-of-the-art product that can adapt as
needs change. Datatel’s ActiveCampusPortal, based on an open Microsoft Sharepoint environment, has
been selected as the tool of choice.
Because today’s students are savvy Web users and expect to be able to complete most tasks online, AU
needs to provide a Web platform where many of the needed daily functions can be done simply and
accurately in a self-serve manner. From the administration’s standpoint, the virtual one-stop application
will reduce the demands on the physical one-stop service and allow for integrated processes. OIT
expects about 80 percent of processes will be completed through the virtual application, while the
remaining 20 percent will require face-to-face interaction. The design of the portal is therefore critical to
the success of realizing a student-centered vision. In addition, the portal serves as a gateway for staff,
faculty, alumni, and parents.
Engage Alumni in the Life of the University, on and off Campus
Accomplishments
Implemented Colleague Advancement
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Introducing Virtual One-Stop Service and the Portal
OIT replaced the existing gift-processing, fund-raising, and alumni-management system—Benefactor—
with Colleague Advancement. Benefactor was a separate system from Colleague, which holds academic,
financial, and human resources data, and the two did not work well together. Although delivered
through the same corporation, Datatel, Benefactor had its own database and set of processes,
potentially replicating some Colleague academic and address data. In the old model it was difficult,
if not impossible, to look at a prospect-to-alumni lifecycle. Colleague Advancement’s integrated
system allows a comprehensive view of an individual or corporation by leveraging data collected in
all Colleague applications, reduces data duplication, and removes the need for interfaces to move data
within the Colleague suite.
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Upcoming Plans
Implementing WealthEngine Integration
OIT plans to implement WealthEngine, a wealth-screening tool to find potential major donors to the
institution. WealthEngine will allow development staff to maintain the wealth indicators on prospective
and existing major donors to maximize opportunities to solicit the right people to make major
contributions. Integrating WealthEngine with Colleague has tremendous potential for prospect research
through blended batch screening and processing tools, individual look-ups, and organized search results.
Expanding Social Networking
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
OIT plans to partner with UCM and the Office of Development to facilitate tools that realize an
integrated social networking strategy. Our contribution will include forward planning for blending in
with AU policies and support procedures.
Encourage Innovation and High Performance
Accomplishments
Built Active Directory Infrastructure
OIT has made a strategic decision to align architecture and purchase decisions with the Microsoft
technology stack. Reasons for this are many, but most salient are simplification of operations and
management and ease of integration between applications, network authentication, and most
networked workstations, in keeping with our goal of friendlier user experiences. Other compelling
reasons for this alignment are the corresponding shift to Microsoft by a number of our technology
service partners and the enlarging labor pool with Microsoft specializations.
We began implementation of this alignment strategy by deploying the Microsoft Active Directory
infrastructure and starting to layer new applications on top of it. Active Directory will be kept in sync
with our legacy directory until we gradually reconfigure our legacy applications and services to
authenticate against Active Directory instead of our eDirectory. We are now authenticating to Active
Directory for our Sharepoint, Web Authoring, and SQL Database applications. This list will grow in the
next academic year, moving us closer toward a single integrated technology stack wherever possible.
Developed Business Intelligence Strategy and Roadmap
While AU’s existing analytical platform, EagleData, offers robust data storage and reporting, it is a fully
custom environment that lacks standard tools. Reporting is limited to running canned and prompted
reports, because it does not provide a set up for ad hoc analysis or report creation. Additionally, EagleData
does not easily lend itself to an extension that would support the institution’s growing data needs.
OIT has invested in building a strategy and roadmap that provide a strong foundation and direction
for this invaluable analytical platform. The strategy includes a high-level vision, business intelligence
architecture, and a business intelligence roadmap to help AU maximize return on present and future
investments. The roadmap provides a phased deployment approach, a planned and prioritized way of
maturing and extending our current analytical platform.
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Enhanced Tools for Accounting Staff
OIT invested significant time this past year making technical improvements to increase the efficiency of
Object Codes and Percentages, Fringe Object Codes and Percentages, and Inception-to-Date Display of
Transactions Not Previously Included in an Overhead Calculation. In addition to increasing the visibility of
data, we also flagged all encumbrance transactions so that they are not included in overhead calculation,
developed additional integration so that project accounting data can be viewed from Office of Sponsored
Programs applications, and modified fringe calculation to allow separate processing for bi-weekly and
monthly payrolls.
Improved Performance and Redundancy through Virtual Server Farm and Application Load Balancing
We continued our efforts to refresh aging server assets through server consolidation. Our infrastructure
virtualization efforts are moving forward on all of our server platforms: UNIX or enterprise, Windows,
Novell, and e-mail servers. We started repositioning our technology infrastructure by introducing more
environmentally and financially efficient servers. To date, we have decommissioned more than 20
servers through attrition and consolidation. We expect to continue this effort this year.
This change in model offers AU more flexibility and agility in systems deployment and upgrade and
saves AU more on technology capital replacement. It also offers the ability to extend information
services across multiple platforms and improve availability levels through the introduction of
application load balancing. Specific examples where application load balancing was introduced include
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
the accounting staff. We made available to the accounting staff new data and reports, such as Overhead
our network authentication services, AU Campus Connect, secure remote access services, and the new
AU Web site. We expect to move a majority of our information services to this model over the next
two years and are looking to add an extra layer of services availability through distributing servers and
services in two geographically diverse locations.
Upcoming Plans
Supporting the Increased Focus on Metrics
With the recent investments made to realize AU’s comprehensive strategic plan and in light of the
current economy, it is critically important that AU maintain a focus on financial indicators. To this effect,
OIT is launching a project that implements a set of indicators to essentially act as warning signs to help
guide us through continued investment decisions. The goal is to roll out this set of indicators and focus
the university leadership in managing their investments through the relevant set of indicators. OIT will
also partner with the campus to implement strategic planning progress metrics.
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Selecting and Implementing Business Intelligence Tool
Our newly developed business intelligence strategy and roadmap call for selecting and implementing
an enterprise-ready business intelligence tool that will allow end users across campus to access
planned and ad hoc reports, run analytics, and get the data and metrics they need without relying on
technical resources. Over the next few months, we plan on a careful and thorough evaluation of tools to
select the appropriate one for AU and then roll it out in phases to campus units.
Refreshing and Replacing Campus Network
OIT continued the three-year AU data network modernization project this past year, completing the
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
phase I core network upgrade and beginning the phase II distribution network upgrade. We decided
in the middle of these two upgrades to adapt our architecture and shift our network access control
services to an out-of-band model. Unfortunately, this change and our loss of key personnel pushed
these projects out several months into the future. Phase II is now scheduled for completion in October
2009. The third and final phase of the project will commence this fall and will be implemented in
parallel with the beginning phase of the complete wireless LAN architecture replacement.
Win Recognition and Distinction
Accomplishments
Completed Phase I of Web Redesign
One of our biggest initiatives this past year was a full redesign of the university Web site. This March
the new site was launched, marking the first implementation milestone of a two-year journey that
involved understanding how to conceptualize and design the site, as well as selecting and rolling
out an enterprise-wide
“The redesign, really the total revamping, of our Web
site was a critical first step in our plan to reposition the
university and to communicate more effectively with all
members of our community and constituents. The work
with our OIT partners resulted in a site that is truly the envy
of higher education. It anticipates user needs, allows us
to integrate information from many parts of the university,
presents Web 2.0 and multimedia features that bring us
to state-of-the-art functioning, and displays a compelling
electronic presence for the university in a very competitive
environment. It is no wonder that it is raking in national
awards. It is a model that will be emulated.”
—Terry Flannery, Executive Director,
University Communications and Marketing
content management
system. Incorporating Web
2.0 elements, the new site
features AUpedia, a wikilike tool allowing the AU
community to comment and
collaborate. The effort also
included creating a fully
functional virtual tour with
three-dimensional campus
maps. The site allows content
syndication and reuse and
is fully dynamic with a robust taxonomy. Faculty and staff profiles highlight the depth and breadth of
expertise that is a huge source of strength for AU. The new site attracted media coverage and already
has won several eduStyle awards.
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OIT takes pride when we are recognized for distinctive service and accomplishments. OIT staff
received a number of university and external awards over the past year.
>
American University—eduStyle Best Overall Web Site and Best Use of Interactive Multimedia
>
Kabo Botlhole, Francesco De Leo, Terry Fernandez, Chris Gehring, Debra Gonski, Michael
Grinnell, Michele Handlir, Sharjil Hasan, Marico Hawes, Sergey Korsakov, Michael
Mendelson, Mohammad Mirzabeigy, Thomas Nguyen, Miriam Radakovich, Dale Roberts,
and Eric Weakland—AU Staff Performance Award for Special Recognition for Service to the
AU Community (for Web Redesign, Phase I)
>
Terry Fernandez and Jackie Palumbo—SIGUCCS Communications Award for Printed
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Received Recognition
Classroom Materials (for Introduction to Microsoft Word 2007 Documentation)
>
Terry Fernandez and University Communications and Marketing—SIGUCCS
Communications Award for Printed How-To Guides (for Getting Connected)
>
Letty Fleetwood and Liz McGuinness—AU Staff Performance Award for Teamwork (for
Online Student Refund, Phase I)
>
Cathy Hubbs—Class of 2009 Frye Leadership Institute
>
Albert Luc—Multicultural Affairs and International Student and Scholar Services
Distinguished Staff Award (for recognition of demonstrated commitment and exemplary
service to the American University community)
>
Myle Luong—AU Staff Performance Award for Innovation (for Public Safety Intranet Green
Initiative Group)
15
Engaged in Professional Development
OIT encourages its staff to contribute to their own professional development planning and
execution in ways such as belonging to professional organizations, writing technical papers, and
delivering presentations.
>
Michael Grinnell—Copresenter at the EDUCAUSE Security Professionals Conference 2009
(“Network Monitoring with Argus, NetFlow, and Other Tools”)
>
Michele Handlir—Copresenter at Web 2.0 Expo (“American University’s Ultimate Community
Web Site”)
>
Sharjil Hasan—Speaker and panel member at Sixth Annual Business Intelligence and
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Technology Summit (BITS), Technology Council of Northwest Pennsylvania and Edinboro
16
University (“Collaborative Technologies”)
>
Sharjil Hasan—Presenter at Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference (MARC), EDUCAUSE
(“Prioritizing Top ‘X’ Technology Projects: Are We Focusing on the Right Projects?”)
>
Ed Martin—Copresenter at ISACA North America CACS 2009 (“Risks of Outsourced IT
Applications and Services”)
>
Ed Martin—Presenter at ISACA North America CACS 2009 (“A Risk Environment Comparison:
Private vs. University”)
>
Eric Weakland—Copresenter at the Washington Metropolitan Area Consortium of Universities
Emergency Planning Meeting (“Cyber Security—Protecting the Critical Infrastructure”)
>
Eric Weakland—Presenter at the May DojoSec meeting (“Shining Flashlights in Dark Corners:
The evolving role of information security on campus”)
Earned Certifications
As the central IT provider to AU staff, faculty, students, and guests, we feel it is important to have
objective validation of our knowledge and skill sets. OIT staff attained a number of professional and
technical certifications in the past year. We have a goal of maintaining a 1:1 ratio of relevant, current
technical and professional certifications to personnel at all times. With this past year’s achievements,
we have surpassed this goal by more than 100 percent.
>
Manoj Abeysekera—Certified Wireless Network Professional
>
Nahlah Alsiryani and Thomas Nguyen—Microsoft Certified IT Professional 2008
>
Daryl Anderson, Shawntez Blue, Jon Griffin, Patrick Hung, Rabah Kermoud, Michael Liu, Albert
>
Winston Barker, Vick Bhatia, Ming Cheng, Bill Fleitz, Steve Gamble, Jon Griffin, Seare Habte,
Patrick Hung, CaroLyn Jimenez, Rabah Kermoud, Michael Liu, Albert Luc, Michael Luong,
Saleh Mitchell, Avenash Nanan, Filemon Palero, Naz Reyes, Lushan Silva, Jesse Singh, James
Valentine, Ben Wall, and Kelvin Wilson—Apple Certified Support Professional 10.5
>
Terry Fernandez and Kelvin Wilson—ITIL Foundations Certificate in IT Service Management
>
Isabelle Graham and Michael Grinnell—GIAC Security Essentials Certification
>
Cathy Hubbs and Ed Martin—ISACA Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT
>
Thomas Nguyen—VMWare Certified Professional
>
Joni Snyder—IBM Certified System Administrator for Lotus Notes and Domino 8
Upcoming Plans
Accomplishing Phase II of Web Redesign
Over the next 12 months, OIT plans to extend the reach of the new Web site by converting more
old content and creating fresh content using the new content management system toolkit. We will
also increase our focus on Web 2.0 elements by implementing several new features, such as blogs,
mashups, and enhancements to existing functionality, based on focus groups and other feedback.
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Luc, Michael Luong, Lushan Silva, Tony Tran, and Kenneth Tse—Dell Certified Technician
Employ Technology to Empower Excellence
Accomplishments
Deployed Workstation Management
OIT served with a working group to talk through the challenges of our current lifecycle and support model.
The working group felt unanimously that a central inventory and lifecycle model was critical to intelligent
workstation planning and funding. OIT applied this aligned thinking and continued to actively deploy
endpoint management technologies to installed, networked, AU-owned workstations and servers.
17
We renewed our LANDesk subscription and maintenance services and doubled our license count this
past June. We expect full endpoint management deployment this September. OIT is working to be
involved in the receiving process for all AU campus workstations and continues to emphasize cost and
resource efficiency and effectiveness when planning workstation lifecycles and support. The LANDesk
investment helps AU with an automated point-in-time central inventory, and it also allows centralized
software and patch distribution and the ability to assist with remote desktop support. Over time these
capabilities should decrease our workstation support staffing needs.
Closed the Doors to Outsiders Meaning Harm
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
For years most of AU’s networks have been “open,” meaning any computer on the Internet
(worldwide) could initiate contact with many of the computers on our networks. This made
our resources attractive to malicious people on the Internet and increased the risk of exposing
confidential data to hackers.
To protect our data and resources and fulfill our auditors’ recommendations, we have moved all of
the networks to a “default deny” policy. This policy causes the network to reject connections initiated
from the Internet to a user’s computer, but browsing the Web, transferring files, and accessing e-mail
continue to work as expected. AU’s wireless networks have always been configured in this manner.
Essentially, the connection experience on the AU network will be similar to that on a computer with a
personal DSL or cable connection.
Licensed Self-Scanning Application
In response to the growing threat of confidential data leakage, OIT licensed MyIDProtector, a software
application to help users locate personal information stored on USB drives and computers running
the Windows operating
“With the ever-increasing number of state and federal laws
regulating data security breaches, OIT has been at the
forefront of ensuring that American University maintains an
information security plan to protect the security, confidentiality,
and integrity of our network systems. OIT has taken a proactive
approach of supplying the AU community with self-scanning
tools to minimize the university’s risk of exposure from a data
security breach. Specifically, MyIDProtector is a wonderful
resource that empowers individual users to be able to identify
sensitive data and protect it.”
—Justin Perillo, Assistant General Counsel
systems. Available for
download from the portal,
MyIDProtector scans
individual computers and
displays a report with the
names and locations of
the flagged files so the
user can take protective
measures. This report is
sent only to the user, not
to OIT staff or anyone else. The tool helps our university community manage the risk of exposure of
personal and university data. The university’s Data Classification Policy provides the community with
the definition of confidential data.
18
Continued Change Management
OIT continued to recognize distinct value from the maturation of our cross-functional change
management team. The team meets weekly to review change events that have occurred in the prior
week and to preview and approve change event requests set to occur in the future. This type of
structured discussion brings visibility, analysis, planning, and awareness to our changes. Poor change
management practices are usually the culprit behind noticed trends of unplanned services downtime.
The continued maturity of change management practices within OIT has dramatically limited highimpact unplanned downtime events; our most significant unplanned events over the past year were
caused mainly by external or environmental factors. We expect this function to continue to mature
and will look to integrate these processes with our service desk, asset management, and configuration
Expanded OIT Project Office
OIT continues to mature its adoption of project management processes. We have expanded our
existing guidelines and tailored them to the size and complexity of each project. Large projects follow
a defined model and at the start go through a robust requirements-gathering phase and at the end,
an extensive lessons-learned phase. The lessons learned are shared transparently with all levels to
foster collaboration and learning. The project data repository continues to mature with better standard
definition of the data.
The university continues its adoption of the annual technology portfolio processes. This year, for
the first time, the enterprise systems project team acted as a key group during the budget process,
presenting a more comprehensive view of overall technology budget needs. Working with the project
team, we adopted a managed way of allocating and appropriating overall approved technology
funding. Priorities continue to be evaluated on an ongoing basis using the portfolio as a healthy tool to
manage the process.
Grew Service Level Agreements
OIT continued to grow in the area of aligning with information technology service management best
practices. We added eight service level agreements (SLAs) with partners throughout campus, while
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
management functions and processes over the next year.
working to mature three
“Our partnership with OIT has greatly improved this year
through the development of SLAs. With so many hands in
the mix related to ID card operations, campus dining and
meal plans, and EagleBucks support, the SLAs have enabled
everyone to organize, communicate, implement, problem
solve, and evaluate at a higher level. The SLA process brings
the right people to the table and the product ensures that
services to the campus community are well maintained and
continually improved.“
existing SLAs through
the renewal process with
lessons learned from the
first year of establishment,
service measurement,
and governance.
—Chris Moody, Executive Director,
Housing and Dining Programs
19
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Improved Centralized Event Monitoring and Response
OIT invested in and deployed a comprehensive systems and network monitoring and alerting platform
in the past year, moving gradually to replace the disparate systems management infrastructures
previously in place. This investment makes our monitoring more efficient and reduces response times.
It also contributes to our efforts to seek ways to self-assess and improve. Such efforts have brought
reduced call hold times at our Help Desk, reduced abandoned call rates, and sustained improvement in
our mean times to resolve problem reports at the Help Desk, network operations center, and technical
support dispatch functions.
Upcoming Plans
Partnering with Campus on New Interactive Centers
OIT is assisting CTRL and UCM with plans to introduce a high-tech media center for lecture capture and
audio and video creation, editing, and production, as well as blending of multimedia files to integrate
formats. Part of our contribution will be providing centralized storage services and enhanced network
speeds and reliability. Another will be providing counsel to plan for service needs and forward thinking
for scalable, leveraged investments.
In addition, OIT is involved with the planning and introduction of modern technology selection and
integration in AU’s new Welcome Center. Although this is in the early phases, we look forward to
helping impress AU’s applicants and new students with a high-end visual and audio experience.
Improving Messaging Infrastructure
This fall we will deploy our next-generation voicemail architecture, which will use an integrated
messaging model. This means that most voicemail users across campus will be able to access voice
messages as e-mail messages. We will also work on establishing an e-mail archive for our internally
managed e-mail services. This is something that we had hoped to address last year but were unable
to do so. We have drafted an initial framework for e-mail retention periods and governance processes
and will work to get this approved as part of AU’s overall policy. Then we plan to select and start the
deployment of an e-mail archive solution.
20
Encrypting University-Owned Desktops and Laptops
Protecting personal and university data is the primary driver for encrypting all AU-owned laptops and
desktops. Due to increased regulations and the costs associated with notifying users and recovering
assets in the event of a suspected breach or data exposure, we will encrypt all university-owned laptops
and desktops. This fall, we will begin with OIT’s workstations. Next we will move to the offices identified
by our auditors as handling sensitive data, and we will complete the process with the remaining offices
by summer 2010.
Forge Partnerships by Leveraging Our Capital Location
Accomplishments
We have strengthened our university’s competitive ability to continue business operations during
a cyber security event by sharing information and resources with our peer institutions, George
Washington University and
“The collaborative efforts with GW and Georgetown and
the resulting memorandum of understanding represent a
real accomplishment for the organizations involved. The
work done by the IT security officers from the respective
universities was among the best and most comprehensive
and can be recommended as a model for others. The level
of professional expertise and commitment exhibited in their
final product speaks very highly of everyone involved.”
—Patricia Kelshian, Executive Director, Risk
Management and Safety Services
Georgetown University. This
readiness is a direct result of
our collaborative partnership
and our dedication to designing
an effective cyber response
agreement at no cost.
Through a security emergency
response memorandum
of understanding addendum, we established most of the critical components necessary to ensure
successful implementation. These included:
>
defining the types of events that might exhaust institutional resources
>
sharing our service catalogs
>
discussing trusted communication protocols
>
selecting an implementation methodology
>
defining thresholds and activation levels
>
hammering out rules of engagement
>
crafting an approach for reporting and developing lessons learned
>
reviewing training responsibilities
>
defining the maintenance and review timeframes for our agreement
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Collaborated with Local Universities on Cyber Security Emergency Response
21
Upcoming Plans
Maturing Continuity Processes and Infrastructure
During the past year, OIT made investment recommendations for maturing AU’s business continuity
(BC) architecture through the introduction of a remote data center location and sufficient resources
to bootstrap it. In the process, OIT reserved a funding profile for the budget cycle. This summer we
secured more formal proposals and quotations from access and space providers, and in the fall, we
plan to start the environment and equipment acquisition and deployment. This four-to-six-month
STRATEGIC GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
project will bring us to the next level of maturity.
22
We will engage in continued monitoring, resource investment, and improvements to start down the
path to perpetual optimization and maturity. During the fall semester, we will deploy a new storage area
network (SAN) architecture that will give us a higher-performing, more-scalable, and more-modern
platform. This will involve a SAN investment for each data location, and deployment will be part of the BC
architecture. We will be procuring phase I of a new backup and recovery infrastructure in the fall of 2009.
PERFORMANCE METRICS
Project Management Office
Throughout the past year, OIT’s staff responded to more than 759 project requests generated from
all units across campus. The portfolio is balanced well among maintaining existing infrastructure,
nurturing existing applications, investing in new functionality, and responding to quick service
requests. To manage these projects, portfolio owners across campus prioritize projects in their
respective areas and as a group across all divisions to determine campus-wide priorities. OIT teams
collaborate extensively, both with internal staff and with functional users in staff and academic units
across campus, to manage scope, protect sensitive data, define schedules, determine budgets, and
deliver on commitments.
In 2008 OIT established a Project Management Office that developed and rolled out formal project
large projects. For more information, visit www.american.edu/oit/projects.
OIT Portfolio by University Division
Total Projects Managed = 759
8%
6%
13%
PERFORMANCE METRICS
management practices, referred to as Systems Development Life Cycle guidelines, to help manage our
35%
14%
24%
Academic Affairs
Finance and Treasurer
Technology Infrastructure
Development
President and UCM
Campus Life
This graph indicates the percentage of projects completed
for each of the university divisions during 2008–2009.
23
Service-Oriented Architecture
OIT has adopted an architecture and mindset of providing secure, sustainable technology platforms
and consistent service delivery. The necessary ingredients are having the right platform technologies,
system software updates, and application architecture in place and ready at the appropriate time. Over
the past year, OIT continued to align with several industry-standard best practices: eliminating as many
single points of failure as possible; maturing change management processes to minimize unplanned
service interruptions; practicing adherence to standard maintenance windows to perform preventative
maintenance to make the servers more stable; and continuing to establish and enhance service level
agreements to define the agreed-upon levels of service and support for a given system.
Change Events Recorded and Unplanned Downtime
60
180
140
40
120
100
30
80
20
60
40
Unplanned Downtime in Hours
50
160
# of Changes
PERFORMANCE METRICS
200
10
20
0
0
AU
G
T
US
P
SE
TE
M
R
BE
OC
TO
B
ER
NO
VE
M
R
BE
DE
CE
M
R
BE
JA
NU
Y
AR
Total # of Changes—AY2007–08
Unplanned Downtime—AY2007–08
FE
BR
U
Y
AR
M
AR
CH
AP
L
RI
M
AY
JU
NE
J
Y
UL
Total # of Changes—AY2008–09
Unplanned Downtime—AY2008–09
This graph indicates the number of change events recorded to maintain and support American University’s technology
services and the number of hours of unplanned downtime, from June 2008 through July 2009. OIT adopted a formal change
management process in May of 2008.
24
Did you know?
OIT has negotiated 11 service level agreements with our campus partners to formalize
the service structure and allow for consistent service delivery.
Service Level Agreement Performance Achieved
100
Service Availability Percentage
99.9
SLA Target
99.85
99.8
99.75
99.7
PERFORMANCE METRICS
99.95
99.65
99.6
99.55
99.5
AU CAMPUS
CONNECT
BLACKBOARD
ACADEMIC SUITE
BLACKBOARD
TRANSACTION
SYSTEM
C-CURE ACCESS
SYSTEM
EAGLEBUCKS
PRINTING
This graph indicates the service availability percentage achieved after a service level agreement was implemented.
A 99.9% service availability was set for each of these services.
25
Health Check Results in Reduction of Malware Infections
800
# of Reported Malware Infections
PERFORMANCE METRICS
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
FALL
2004
SPRING
2005
FALL
2005
SPRING
2006
FALL
2006
SPRING
2007
FALL
2007
SPRING
2008
FALL
2008
SPRING
2009
Semester
This graph indicates AU’s historical trend of malware (virus or spyware/adware) infection reports by major semester
for the past five academic years. It is noteworthy that AU experienced an increase of malware infection reports over
the past year, mainly due to social networking and targeted e-mail phishing attacks. The impact on AU was minimal,
which is attributed to controls and monitoring processes in place to detect suspicious behavior and deviations from AU’s
requirements when accessing the network.
Did you know?
OIT employs several techniques to safeguard AU’s data:
>The CCA software checks for current versions of protective software, such as antivirus and antispyware.
>Intrusion detection and prevention procedures block threats at our network border.
>Encryption software protects data on laptops and desktops in case they are lost or stolen.
Did you know?
Malware attacks are on the rise:*
>Roughly 700,000 new malware threats are recognized every month.
>253.4 million systems worldwide were infected by malware in the first half of 2009.
>New unique threats rose from 333,000 in 2005 to 16,495,000 in 2008.
* Based on reports from Trend Micro.
26
Visits to the Web site (www.american.edu)
1,200,000
# of Unique Visits
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
0
AU
GU
ST
S
T
EP
EM
BE
R
T
OC
OB
ER
N
E
OV
M
BE
R
C
DE
EM
BE
R
JA
NU
AY2007–08
AR
Y
B
FE
RU
AR
Y
M
AR
CH
AY2008–09
AP
RI
L
M
AY
JU
NE
JU
LY
This graph indicates the historical trend of the number of unique visits to AU’s Web site, www.american.edu, during the
past two academic years. A visit is defined as a series of actions that begins when a visitor views his or her first AU Web
page and ends when he or she leaves the site. Performance measures for April 2009 are missing, as the site reporting
was being adjusted to accommodate the new Web architecture.
PERFORMANCE METRICS
200,000
Did you know?
More than 125 AU staff members across more than 20 departments and units contributed
in excess of 25,000 hours of work time to launch phase I of the new Web site. More than
5,000 pages were migrated or created.
27
Log-ins to Web Portal (my.american.edu)
450,000
400,000
350,000
# of Log-ins
PERFORMANCE METRICS
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
AU
GU
ST
SE
E
PT
M
BE
R
O
O
CT
BE
R
N
E
OV
M
BE
R
D
E
EC
M
BE
R
N
JA
UA
AY2007–08
RY
F
R
EB
UA
RY
M
AR
CH
AY2008–09
AP
RI
L
M
AY
JU
NE
JU
LY
This graph indicates the historical trend of the number of individual log-ins to AU’s internal Web portal, my.american.edu,
during the past two academic years. Portal usage has dropped significantly with the shift to other parallel Web services,
such as student e-mail hosted by Gmail.
Did you know?
3,690 concurrent users connected to AU’s wireless network in September 2009.
28
Average Concurrent Wireless Network Users
2,500
# of Users
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
GU
ST
SE
E
PT
M
BE
R
T
OC
OB
ER
N
E
OV
M
BE
R
D
E
EC
M
BE
R
N
JA
UA
AY2007–08
RY
B
FE
RU
AR
Y
M
AR
CH
AP
RI
L
AY2008–09
M
AY
JU
NE
JU
LY
This graph indicates the historical trend of the average number of concurrent users taking advantage of AU’s wireless
network infrastructure during the past two academic years. Improvements to the wireless experience in the University
Library, selected lecture halls, and residence halls have brought distinctly higher usage over the last year.
AU Network Users by Operation System
PERFORMANCE METRICS
AU
2,500
# of Users
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
WINDOWS XP
MACINTOSH
AY2007–08
WINDOWS VISTA
OTHER
AY2008–09
This graph indicates the historical trend of the number of users logging in to the AU network with each of the various
operating systems during the past two academic years. There has been rapid growth in the number of Windows Vista
and Macintosh users at AU.
29
Service Delivery and Support
OIT strives to meet and exceed the service delivery and support needs of our customers, namely AU
faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and administrators. The customer services and support and
network operations teams within Technology Operations work around the clock to assist our customers,
and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our service offerings and delivery. The following
metrics showcase the enormous volume and complexity of IT training and service requests.
Attendance at OIT Training Classes
200
160
140
120
# of Attendees
PERFORMANCE METRICS
180
100
80
60
40
20
20
AU
GU
ST
SE
E
PT
M
BE
R
T
OC
OB
ER
N
E
OV
M
BE
R
D
E
EC
M
BE
R
N
JA
UA
AY2007–08
RY
B
FE
RU
AR
Y
M
AR
CH
AP
RI
L
AY2008–09
M
AY
JU
NE
JU
LY
This graph indicates the historical trend of the number of AU employees who attended OIT training classes during the
past two academic years. Note the increase in the last three months of the year, which we attribute to inclusion of OIT
training events in the university-wide calendar.
Did you know?
1,220 AU employees attended OIT training classes during 2008–2009.
30
Help Desk Service Requests by
Submission Method
5%
3%
38%
54%
Telephone
Web
E-Mail
Instant Message
Help Desk Service Requests by
User Group
11%
PERFORMANCE METRICS
This graph indicates the percentage of service requests
submitted to the Help Desk via telephone, e-mail, instant
message, or self-service through the Web during 2008–2009.
51%
38%
Staff
Students
Faculty
This graph indicates the percentage of service requests made
by different user groups during 2008–2009.
31
Help Desk Service Requests
by Category
General
Requests 8%
Service Requests Pertaining to
AU Software Applications
Telecommunications 5%
Hardware 4%
Student Network Installations 4%
Other 2%
Virus 1%
Content Management System 13%
Information
Security 9%
my.american.edu 13%
All Others 23%
Network 10%
Software 31%
Operating System and
Office Applications 11%
E-mail 27%
Password 12%
Datatel 9%
PERFORMANCE METRICS
Accounts 14%
Blackboard 4%
This graph indicates the percentage of the 41,590 total service requests that fell into each major
category during 2008–2009. The smaller graph indicates the percentage of service requests
pertaining to highlighted AU software applications.
Help Desk Customer Satisfaction Levels on Point-of-Service Surveys
% Satisfied with Overall Support
96
95
94
93
92
91
2004–2005
2005–2006
2006–2007
2007–2008
2008–2009
Year
This graph indicates the historical trend over the past five years of customers who stated on point-of-service surveys
that they were satisfied with the overall support provided by the OIT Help Desk. Please note: Point-of-service surveys
are sent at random to every tenth customer at the time of the service request closure.
32
140
6,000
120
5,000
100
4,000
80
3,000
60
2,000
40
1,000
20
0
AU
GU
ST
P
SE
TE
M
B
ER
OC
TO
BE
R
V
NO
EM
B
ER
DE
CE
M
B
ER
JA
NU
A
RY
# of Requests—AY2007–08
Avg. Hours to Resolve—AY2007–08
FE
BR
UA
RY
M
AR
CH
AP
R
IL
M
AY
JU
NE
JU
# of Requests—AY2008–09
Avg. Hours to Resolve—AY2008–09
LY
PERFORMANCE METRICS
7,000
Average Time Until Resolution in Hours
# of Service Requests Resolved
OIT Service Requests Resolved and Average Time to Resolution
This graph indicates the historical trend over the past two years of the number of service requests resolved by OIT
staff or our partners, compared to the average amount of time to identify a resolution to the service request. Despite
an increase in the number of service requests reported and handled by OIT, the average amount of time to identify a
resolution was reduced by more than 30 percent.
Did you know?
41,590 IT service requests were resolved by OIT staff or our partners during 2008–2009.
33
RESOURCES
With more than 14 million dollars in total expenditures last year, OIT accounts for approximately
3.6 percent of the university’s overall budget. Like most organizations, the largest expenditure is for
personnel. The highly trained and dedicated professionals who work in OIT leverage the remaining
funds to manage the infrastructure, hardware and software maintenance, external support, and
supplies necessary to ensure reliable, secure, and effective information technology services
management and delivery.
OIT Expenditures
$10,000,000
9,000,000
7,000,000
6,000,000
Expenditure
RESOURCES
8,000,000
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
0
PERSONNEL
SUPPLIES AND EXPENSES
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT
Category
FY2005
FY2006
FY2007
FY2008
FY2009
This graph indicates the historical trend of OIT expenditures over the past five years. The FY2009 personnel expenditure
represents the salaries and fringe benefits of 94 full-time employees.
34
OIT Expenses by Expense Type
Total Actuals = $14,657,422
RESOURCES
4%
9%
9%
15%
Personnel
Maintenance
63%
Software
Hardware
Communications
This graph indicates the percentage of the OIT total actuals for
FY2009 by expense type.
35
Office of Information Technology
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
202.885.2550
helpdesk@american.edu
help.american.edu
American University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action university and employer. American University does not
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