Technical Liaison Meeting  3rd February 2010
Chair – Malcolm Bain, Director, IT Services
The minutes were accepted from the previous meeting.
1. Introductions
The chair welcomed everyone and introduced the new Chief Information Officer, Steve Watt.

Steve Watt – welcomed all attendees and provided a brief overview of his employment history.
Steve shared information regarding his responsibilities at St Andrews one of which involves
taking the recommendations listed in the Price WaterhouseCooper report forward. This will
involve building on the existing working relationship between IT Services and the Computing
Officers. The Principal has stated that she wants IT to be seen as a value to the institute and as
‘making a difference’. The backup Data Centre work is well underway in Butts Wynd, and
there are further discussions taking place in regards to the construction of the main Data Centre
at the North Haugh. Others areas of interest include looking at high performance computing,
and investigating the possibility of joining national initiatives. All activities will be geared
towards developing efficient co-ordination amongst the computing community across the
University.

Stephen Harte – eMail Project Manager (staff). Stephen introduced himself to the group and
gave a brief overview of the projects current status. The invitation to tender has been sent out
to 6 suppliers with a return date set for 12 March 2010. The evaluation and scoring will take
place between March and May allowing for the identification of a suitable supplier. The project
will then move into the design, and pilot stage. Stephen emphasised the scale of the project and
stated that its success would depend on the support received throughout the university,
especially from the computing officers. Three evaluation groups are to be set up to conduct the
review of the ITT. These will be small groups with membership representing the University’s
user population.
Stephen also stated that the feedback from the student survey and discussions post Saintmail
migration shows that there is a request from students for more Google Apps to be made
available. If taken forward this must be done in collaboration with schools. Jim Bews stated that
there are raised concerns from supervisors in regards to the intellectual property rights of
emails. Stephen stated that the University is currently looking into this in regards to those post
graduate students who have sponsorship for their research. Malcolm Bain stated that the
University looked closely at the terms and conditions prior to the conversion to Saintmail and
stated that Google are not doing anything that would cause concern. Google can scan email
messages for virus detection only and there are strict controls in place regarding any other type
of scanning.
Ian Taylor asked if moving staff email to the new system was compulsory. Steve Watt
commented that it would be likely to move to a compulsory measure in the future as the
University is working towards encouraging efficiency and using a single system. Steve also
commented that Al Dearle, Head of School for Computing Science, has supported the move to a
centralised email system. Steve emphasized that this is not an IT Services driven task but is
being directed from the Principals Office. IT Services are providing the solution however the
task is an executive decision.
Technical Liaison meeting 3 February 2010 1
2. IT Services

ID Management – The current system used for identity management has grown organically
and we now have a very complex structure. There are three major sources that will feed the ID
Management system with the staff and student data. This will be in place prior to the new email
system and is scheduled to be in production during the summer 2010.

Password Security – There will be a compulsory exercise to change all passwords. This will
address concerns with the misuse of sharing passwords. This is planned as a one off activity for
now but may become a regular process as the auditors recommend that this be an expected and
regular practice.

Data Centre – This is running a few weeks behind schedule as asbestos was found during
the initial building work. The structural building work is due to be completed in March. The
specialist contractor will then be scheduled to commence work. IT Services have been given a soft
agreement to proceed with the development of the main Data Centre on the North Haugh.

Student Portal (Kevin Thomson BI) – This was softly launched in December and to date
there have been around 2000 students who have gained access. The portal will display a view of
information personal to the student only, i.e. exam and library information. This also provides
single sign-on capability where the student can access eVision, WebCT etc. from within the portal.
The portal can take news feeds from Confluence via RSS feeds and there will be training sessions
set up for key personnel. Currently under investigation is the portal linking in with Smart Phones.
A similar set up is also being looked at for staff however this will be done in consultation with
departments.

Service Desk / TopDesk – The new service desk software has been procured and will be
supplied by a Dutch company called TopDesk. This software is widely used amongst the academic
community in Holland and Belgium but we are the first in Scotland to implement this. The
intention is to have the new service desk software available for use by 1 st September 2010. This will
also mean a push to have IT Services staff qualified at ITIL foundation level.
AOB
Jackie McPherson – is there any update on iTunes U? Stephen Magee is currently looking into this
with the Dean of Arts with the intention of taking a proposal to the Principal.
Technical Liaison meeting 3 February 2010 2
Lorraine Brown
ITS
Patricia Heggie
Maths
Andy Eccles
History
Malcolm Bain
ITS (Chairman)
Phil Robertson
ITS
Jim Bews
Chemistry
Mary Woodcock-Kroble Classics/Art History
Jennifer Kerr
Management
Bill Gudgeon
Bute Medical School
Alan Vaughan
Geography
Kevin Donachie
ITS
Mike Arrowsmith
Philosophy
Brian Kirk
Psychology
Raymond Moir
Saltire
Richard Gordon
Development Office
Jackie McPherson
Psychology
Graham Halley
IT Services
Stephen Harte
IT Services
Stuart Reid
SMRU
Hugh Watson
IT Services
Melanie Carnegie
IT Services
Steve Watt
CIO
Aly Gillies
Physics & Astronomy
Neil Tolland
Development Office
Ian Taylor
Physics & Astronomy
Natalia Biletska
Modern Languages
Phil Le Feuvre
CREEM
Bram Boskamp
Economics
Chris Gordon
BI
Roy Thomson
Psychology
Norman Paterson
Computer Science
Technical Liaison meeting 3 February 2010 3