2009 ICT Development Program – Financial Status
2009 ICT Development Program
Budget Allocation (000's)
Actuals ('000's)
Commitments (000's)
Actual + Commit (000's)
% of Actual vs Budget
% of (Act + Commit) vs Budget
Research Projects
Research Administration Systems eResearch Program (MeRP, MCG, HPC, IMR)
450 1,376 1,826
103 253 356
212 308 520
315 561 876
23% 23% 19%
70% 52% 48%
Total Research Projects Education Projects
myLearningSpace (tablets) Refurbish Centrally Supported Teaching Spaces LMS Futures Audio lectures refurbishment Core Business Evaluation Systems
1,100 620 250 300 219 2,489
196 111 0 361 29 697
70 47 0 0 62 179
265 158 0 361 92 876
18% 18% 0% 120% 13% 28%
24% 25% 0% 120% 42% 35%
Total Education Projects Advancement Projects
Advancement Systems Support
400 400
30 30
53 53
83 83
7% 7%
21% 21%
Total Advancement Projects Administration Projects
Callista Business Improvements Online Performance Management eRecords Management System eAdmissions SAP Travel Management SAP Treasury and Risk Management SAP Supplier Relationship
376 175 243 919 170 132 0 2,015
140 0 14 370 22 36 0 581
104 0 0 613 9 74 0 800
243 0 14 983 32 109 0 1,381
37% 0% 6% 40% 13% 27% 0% 29%
65% 0% 6% 107% 19% 83% 0% 69%
Total Administration Projects ICT Infrastructure
Application Integration Business Intelligence Implementation Victorian Education Research Network Work Group Collaboration Business Change Program Data Centre Power & Air Conditioning Centralised Disk Storage Infrastructure Server Refresh Program Telephony Voice over IP (VoIP) Security Program Wireless Everywhere Student Messaging Service Renewal
467 828 1,000 1,797 1,508 620 650 2,100 2,300 540 300 200 12,310 19,040
130 254 396 565 213 14 205 3 1,617 62 0 3 3,463 5,126
238 534 6 617 321 11 0 2 284 21 0 0 2,033 3,585
367 787 403 1,182 534 25 205 4 1,901 83 0 3 5,496 8,711
28% 31% 40% 31% 14% 2% 32% 0% 70% 12% 0% 2% 28% 27%
79% 95% 40% 66% 35% 4% 32% 0% 83% 15% 0% 2% 45% 46%
Total ICT Infrastructure Projects Total Budget
ITS Project Office
Table of Contents 1 Research .............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 1.2 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 3 4 3.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 5 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 Research Administration Systems ....................................................................................................1 eResearch Program (MeRP, MCG, HPC, IMR)...............................................................................1 myLearningSpaces (tablets) .............................................................................................................2 Refurbish Centrally Supported Teaching Spaces .............................................................................2 LMS Futures.....................................................................................................................................3 Audio Lectures Refurbishment ........................................................................................................3 Core Business Evaluation Systems ..................................................................................................3 Advancement Systems Support ........................................................................................................5 Callista Business Improvements ......................................................................................................6 Online Performance Management ....................................................................................................6 eRecords Management System ........................................................................................................7 eAdmissions .....................................................................................................................................7 SAP Travel Management .................................................................................................................8 SAP Treasury and Risk Management ..............................................................................................8 SAP Supplier Relationship ...............................................................................................................8 Application Integration ....................................................................................................................9 Business Intelligence Implementation..............................................................................................9 Victorian Education Research Network .........................................................................................10 Work Group Collaboration.............................................................................................................10 Business Change Program ..............................................................................................................10 Data Centre Power & Air Conditioning .........................................................................................10 Centralised Disk Storage Infrastructure .........................................................................................11 Server Refresh Program .................................................................................................................11 Telephony Voice over IP (VoIP)....................................................................................................11 Security Program ............................................................................................................................11 Wireless Everywhere......................................................................................................................12 Student Messaging Service Renewal .............................................................................................12
Education............................................................................................................................................. 2
Advancement....................................................................................................................................... 5 Administration .................................................................................................................................... 6
ICT Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................. 9
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1 Research
1.1 Research Administration Systems Project Manager: David Saint Project Description: This project is further refining and adding functionality to the core functions of ResearchMaster and Callista HDR. This includes developments to support the next version of the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), and the provision of administrative tools that will ease the administrative burden on researchers. The details and priority of these enhancements is fluid depending on the business situation. Project Sponsors readjust these priorities often so the project is structured to be flexible and responsive to the business need. Project Progress: In March the ResearchMaster5 upgrade was completed on all environments and rollout of new functionality has commenced, including: Contracts cover Sheet, Human Ethics web based form, .Net version of publications collection software and ERA Support. Version 1.0 of the ERA submission system (ERAMIS) went live during April with several demonstrations to participating researchers. The application system for IITB (India Institute of Technology in Bombay) - Monash Research Academy, went live in April and students are now submitting applications and supervisors assessing those applications online. The Academy is also using the software to determine its interview schedule. 1.2 eResearch Program (MeRP, MCG, HPC, IMR) Program Manager: Neil Clarke Program Description: The e-Research Infrastructure Development Program encompassed the following projects in 2008: MeRP: Researchers‟ Desktop Environment (Monash e-Research Portal) Project – Provide an easy to use and integrated web workspace for researchers to access IT tools and information. MCG: Monash Campus Grid Enhancement Project – Continue to expand and enhance the network of computers that form the Monash Campus Grid. HPC: Clayton Precinct High Performance Computing Replacement Planning Project – Planning for establishment of a major Clayton Precinct high performance computing facility (planning for 2009 implementation project). IMR: Identify ways of improving support of Higher Degree by Research (ADR) such that they are treated as “early career Academic staff”, implement AAF services at Monash and Shibbolize various eResearch applications.
Program progress: The program continues to deliver against 2009 plans. Recent achievements include; the formation of the eResearch@Monash Steering Committee and the production go live for the National Human Rights Consultation Collaborative Submission Site (Faculty of Law). Further information is available at: http://www.monash.edu.au/eresearch/activities/merp.html http://www.monash.edu.au/eresearch/activities/mcg.html http://www.monash.edu.au/eresearch/activities/cphpc.html http://www.monash.edu.au/eresearch/activities/imr.html
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2 Education
2.1 myLearningSpaces (tablets) (formerly named the Flexible Learning, Teaching and Collaboration Spaces project.) Project Manager: Nathan Bailey Project Description: myLearningSpace provides a ubiquitous platform for a variety of highly engaging learning and teaching experiences that incorporate general services and discipline-specific tasks and activities. The environment uses a range of popular emerging technologies including touchscreens, software based “clicker” voting and other interactive in-class tools. Lectures are recorded and available for playback by students. After the successful trials in 2008, a larger scale deployment in 2009 is exploring scaling, support, training and induction issues. A major part of this year‟s project is to determine an appropriate approach for a University-wide laptop program at Monash, which will need to draw on a broad range of information, analysis and expertise. It also seeks to validate the positive educational impact on a broader range of disciplines including science, medicine and the humanities. Project Progress: The tablets are being successfully used for teaching in Arts (History and Philosophy), Medicine (multiple units across Bachelor of Radiography and Medical Imaging) and Science (Biological Sciences). In addition, myLearningSpace is collaborating with Engineering to learn from their experiences in teaching with tablets. Major outcomes from 2009 include determining the level of support required for students and teaching staff, determining the preferred “form factor” (size, shape and function of the laptop) and conducting further analysis into enhanced interactive classroom teaching. 2.2 Refurbish Centrally Supported Teaching Spaces Project Manager: Patrick Lee Project Description: The majority of the University‟s teaching occurs in 270 centrally managed teaching spaces. A variety of educational technologies (ICT, audio-visual, video) have been progressively deployed into 180 of these centrally managed spaces over the past 5-8 years, representing an estimated investment of $4-5 million. Regular refurbishment of the existing technology is required to maintain operational effectiveness of the centrally supported teaching spaces. The University has a rolling reinvestment schedule to ensure operational continuity of this equipment. This has resulted in significant improvements to the teaching experience, with teaching staff being far more confident in teaching space reliability. However, spaces are increasingly equipped with a rich variety of technologies – controlling these technologies can be challenging. In addition to ensuring ongoing reliability of equipment, this project is also developing a governance structure for learning spaces, to consult with teaching staff and ensure that: the right technologies are provided in the right spaces; the control systems in teaching spaces are selected and implemented for maximum usability; and the software images and other configurations in teaching spaces continue to meet expectations.
Project Progress: A proposed 2009 refurbishment schedule has been developed, with Semester one activities being endorsed for implementation. Draft guidelines for rolling reinvestment schedule of equipment have been developed. An approach for governance has been endorsed by the Education Technology Committee and will be raised with Education Committee in a future meeting. The governance group will help to determine the appropriate standards and consultation processes to ensure the above objectives are met.
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2.3 LMS Futures Project Manager: TBA Project Description: Over 90% of units have a presence on the University‟s centrally learning management system (LMS). The current product will be end-of-lifed sometime in 2013. Significant LMS upgrades typically take three years from commencement to completion. Since the University needs to plan a major upgrade to be complete by 2013, now is an appropriate time to determine whether that should be the next version of the current product, or an alternative product. The LMS market has changed significantly since the University adopted its current product, and a range of viable alternatives exist. Some of these are currently in use at Monash (eg. Sakai and Moodle). Changing to a new LMS will require significant work from teaching staff and teaching support staff. They need to understand the benefits of this change, beyond simply “the current technology is being retired.” The 2009 component of this project will determine the most compelling solution for the University, that: makes it easier for teachers and students to engage with and use; makes it easier for the University to operate and integrate with key systems and; makes it easy for the University community to customise and extend to meet their future needs.
Project Progress: A project approach has been developed in consultation with a range of key stakeholders, along with a proposed steering committee. This has been endorsed by the MUSO steering committee and is awaiting endorsement by Education Committee. Once this is endorsed, the steering committee will be constituted, the approach revised and the project execution will commence. 2.4 Audio Lectures Refurbishment Project Manager: Janette Burke Project Description: Monash University Lectures Online currently records and publishes lectures in a variety of formats (streaming, download MP3, or subscribe to podcast). New technologies in this area provide a range of enhancements, including visuals, search, annotation and transcription. Project Progress: The Educational Technology Committee developed a list of requirements in early 2008. These requirements informed a selection process that resulted in a recommendation for Lectopia as the next generation environment, which was endorsed by the Educational Technology Committee in late 2008. A three-year licence has been purchased along with a number of „capture appliances‟. The appliances allow the synchronous recording of audio and visual (ie. whatever is screened on the data projector) content to be captured, encoded and subsequently downloaded (MP3 or Quicktime) or streamed for playback. A production level server environment is being prepared in 2009 to support the rollout of 50 appliances in lecture theatres, with the remaining 50 appliances being installed in 2010. The new environment also supports portable capture devices, so lecturers can record on their laptop and upload the recording. 2.5 Core Business Evaluation Systems Project Manager: Mark Whitty Project Description: A number of enhancements to current evaluation facilities are required as determined by the Evaluation Project Steering Committee, a representative group of faculty and central services staff. The Core Evaluations project will integrate the processes and infrastructure created over the last four years by: automating the evaluation lifecycle to remove manual tasks in the ordering and processing of Unit Evaluation orders and the loading of that information into the appropriate databases;
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enhancing the reporting available for Unit Evaluation, MEQ and MSEQ, teaching evaluations and other surveys;
Project Progress: MEQ processing is now being handled in the Monash Online Survey Tool (MOST). The latest Faculty and University profile results are included in the MonQueST graphs and Gippsland has been added to campus reports. Multi-campus top/bottom 10% and top/bottom 25 reporting is being developed. CHEQ currently reviewing requirements for Unit Evaluation(UE) reporting template and preparing requirements for the MOST Administration Console which will be developed this year. The Education Committee has approved changes to UE reporting. This allows UE median development to begin.
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3 Advancement
3.1 Advancement Systems Support Project Manager: Stephen McCoy Project Description: The Advancement Division needs the capacity to actively connect with graduates, donors, current and exstaff, industry and vendors and to deliver benefits to these individuals and organisations so that they continue to engage with Monash. This is a multi-year program to rectify, complete and further develop applications supporting alumni and donor relations. Monash has contracted with Blackbaud Pacific to implement The Raiser‟s Edge donor and alumni system to replace the legacy system Advance. Blackbaud will be hosting The Raiser's Edge via their OnDemand hosting service with access to the system available from within the my.Monash portal. The Raiser‟s Edge is used by nineteen other Australian universities and now six of the Go8 universities. Project Progress: Raiser's Edge has now been fully implemented within the Donor, Alumni and Community Relations Division and is being piloted with other selected users, including Monash South Africa. High Priority post implementation data correction activities are now being undertaken. Work has commenced on integration with other applications with an interim plan for Callista integration produced. The next modules to be rolled out to the wider group of users include prospects and call management.
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4 Administration
4.1 Callista Business Improvements Project Manager: Margaret Cato-Smith Project Description: The project has three objectives: To provide staff in Health, Wellbeing and Development and Employment and Career Development with functionality to log client contacts and clinical notes and to provide management reporting. To streamline current graduation processes through automation and process improvement. To prepare a plan for the implementation of course advisement functionality currently being developed by Callista.
Project Progress: The Health, Wellbeing and Development functionality has gone live and has been handed over to the support team. This aspect of the project is now complete. Implementation planning for course advisement is in progress. 4.2 Online Performance Management Project Manager: Anne Sanger Project Description: The Review of Academic Performance, Probation and Promotion and determined that an online performance development system should be implemented to: support academic staff (in the first instance) to manage the performance development process in a consistent and timely fashion enable Human Resources Division to report more easily on some aspects of staff development and performance across the organisation
This project will define and implement an online performance development system (PDO) for academic performance development to assist staff, their supervisors and the University to manage the performance development process in a timely way following consistent principles and practices. The target for a trial implementation was late 2008 to enable staff in the trial group to develop their plans in the system for the 2009 performance cycle. The intention is to complete the rollout to academic staff by the end of March 2009. In 2009 the following activities will occur: Evaluation of the pilot, including analysis of suggested enhancements for Phase 2 of the project. Specification, development, testing agreed changes prior to commencement of University wide rollout. Development and implementation to rollout schedule and change management plan for the remaining faculties, with the aim of being ready to commence rollout for the start of the 2010 performance cycle. Finalisation of training tools and resources. Implementation of ongoing systems administration and user support models for the Performance Development Office.
Project Progress: The project kicked off in 2008 with a pilot in the Departments of Marketing and Management and the Gippsland School of Economics. The design and development of SAP and ResearchMaster interfaces has been finalised. Other activities include: training and information resources published on website,
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information sessions conducted for Department of Marketing, Campus visits undertaken to Gippsland School of Business and Economics and Heads of Departments one-on-one training. 4.3 eRecords Management System Project Manager: Russell Thomas Project Description: The vision of this program is to introduce electronic recordkeeping to Monash University. The record keeping system supports: capturing authentic and fixed evidence of university business applying security and access conditions at a record level managed retention and destruction of records according to legislative requirements
Phase 4 of the project, in 2009, will include: Implementation of the TRIM e-Student file within Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Art & Design and Student Administration. Implementation of the Faculty of Educations Faculty Folder and Document record. Implementation of electronic Facilities and Services Folder, Document and Plan records. Implementation with Office of the Director, Student and Community Services, Office of the VP Administration and Audit & Risk management. Integration with Research Master for registration of ethics records. Implementation of TRIM Web Client (ICE) End user interface.
Project Progress: The consolidation of TRIM e-Student file within Faculty of Education, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Art & Design and Student Administration has been completed. Faculty and central student administration have now created over 20,000 electronic student records in TRIM. 4.4 eAdmissions Project Manager: Kate Thorpe Project Description: This project continued from 2008 with a specific objective; to implement Callista Connect Applicant Portal, enhanced In2Monash functionality and custom developments to: Provide the University with online admissions functionality that supports the admissions processes or any other process that calls on admissions data. In particular future students will be able to self-assess their likely acceptance at the University and their likelihood of being granted credit. Ensure a smooth transition to the new processes such that ≥ 80% users are „ready, willing and able‟ to use the system from the first day of implementation.
Project Progress: The project had previously delivered the Applicant Portal and associated workflow for international, domestic, off-campus and Malaysian applicants. In April the Applicant Portal went live for Monash South Africa and in March the Agent Communication Portal also went live with agent access being granted at the discretion of Advancement. Through the Applicant Communication Portal applicants are now able to upload documents after submission of the application generating a workflow e-mail to the current assessor. Three demonstrations of the Course Enquiry Portal have now been held and while most faculties were happy with the development for staff usage concerns were expressed about the complexity experienced by international applicants. These are currently being investigated and a recommendation will be made to the next
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Steering Committee meeting at the end of May. Collaboration with the Higher DREAMS project is continuing with a combined investigation and development being undertaken on a standard letter utility. 4.5 SAP Travel Management Project Manager: Cheryl Calvert Project Description: This project will implement an SAP Travel Management system in three phases: travel request, travel planning and travel expenses. The scope of the travel request phase involves the workflow of a travel request for supervisor approval, the generation of a travel diary and travel insurance confirmation certificate, the processing of travel cash advances, and a tailored workflow if the DFAT (travel advisory) level is high. The scope of the travel planning phase is to implement a travel booking system for airfares, accommodation and car hire; while the scope of the travel expense phase is to implement the SAP expenses solution for the processing of corporate credit card data and out-of-pocket travel expenses. Project Progress: A prototype of the travel request system has been built and a demonstration is available on the project website. The workflow is now complete and the system is ready for performance testing in the second week of May. The communications for the project have now ramped up and we are preparing to go-live in the Faculty of Business and Economics. The travel request phase of the project has had a small delay due to the support pack implementation cycle and the consequent development freeze. 4.6 SAP Treasury and Risk Management Project Manager: Liz West Project Description: This project‟s objective is to provide the Treasury Group with tools to better manage and report the University's cash flow position, allowing optimal investment and loan strategies to be engaged. Components of the business solution are:Loans & Investments SAP has appropriate functionality in the Treasury module to generate cash-flows for standard financial instruments. SAP TR-MM will be activated to manage investments with a view to automating most general ledger postings where possible. Generated cash flows will be incorporated into cash management reporting where appropriate. Extend cash management reporting Through the use of the memo facility it is possible to capture non-SAP information such as cash-flow projections from Facilities & Services or Callista payments due. Breakdown of Facilities & Services Spend To develop the use of work-breakdown structures within a Facilities and Services major project to automatically group data into appropriate reporting categories. SAP project system will be activated to enable use of work-breakdown structures for major capital projects. Project Progress: Project Steering Committee has been formed and is chaired by Geoff Murray Director, Treasury. Configuration workshops with consultants have been completed and a Design Blueprint document has been prepared ready for presentation to the Steering Committee. 4.7 SAP Supplier Relationship Project Manager: TBA Project Progress: This project has not yet commenced.
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5 ICT Infrastructure
5.1 Application Integration Project Manager: Mark Kasprzyk Project Description: This is a multi year project to enable tighter integration between critical applications resolving issues such as handshaking, file control, duplication of data and ensuring that development of integration points is dramatically faster. Existing interfaces and their transport mechanisms will be replaced where applicable and infrastructure and standards for future interfaces will be provided. Project Progress: This project continues to provide the efficient delivery of integration for new services for example, integration between the outsourced Online Performance Management solution, SAP and Research Master has been provided by the application integration project. A set of web services have been created for the TRIM records management system which will allow any system to create TRIM records, for example SAP can create an electronic TRIM file automatically upon commencement, or creation of a student file could be automatically triggered by Callista using the information gather in the admissions process. 5.2 Business Intelligence Implementation Project Manager: Greg Roughsedge Project Description: The development of a management information and reporting strategy was a recommendation of the Information Management Strategy of 2005. The Business Intelligence (BI) Strategy was completed in September 2006 and addressed the need to improve the availability of management information through a series of „information releases‟ aligned to portfolio areas over the next few years. Each portfolio BI system establishes the business intelligence responsibility for that area and includes stages such as analysis of requirements, data quality validation and rules, design and build, implementation and user review. The project will enhance the decision making capability of the university by providing accurate and timely information to senior staff. The Business Intelligence solution will provide an integrated view of all the information assets across the University including, research, finance, HR, education, international and industry interactions. Project Progress: The first part of the Research BI system went live in the second half of 2008. Reporting for Grants and Projects, Research Revenue, Publications and HDR Students has been completed and the remaining module, Researcher Profiles, is scheduled for late May. Some additional reporting has been developed to support internal analysis of ERA measures (fields of research). The Education BI high level requirements have been documented and the development schedule priorities established by the Education BI Working Group. The sequence is: unit information course information student information; and staff information.
The first report, unit average marks and grade distribution, has been released and work is proceeding to incorporate unit evaluation measures to demonstrate to the Education Committee in May.
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5.3 Victorian Education Research Network Project Manager: Tom Maher and Neil Robertson Project Description: The Victorian Educational Research Network (VERN) is an advanced optic fibre infrastructure deployed across metropolitan and regional Victoria to help meet the accelerating bandwidth needs of the Victorian tertiary education and research sectors for the next two decades and beyond. In 2009, the majority of allocated funds will be used to pay the VERN Net operating subscriptions with the remainder used to connect sites to the new network. Project Progress: The majority of connections were completed in 2008, although in some cases there is provision of managed services rather than dark fibre, and the network resiliency is less than requested. A small number of locations require additional effort to connect Monash supported staff. 5.4 Work Group Collaboration Project Manager: Raymond Lau Project Description: This project will replace existing, non supported collaboration services with the IBM Domino suite of products including Lotus Notes. Some of the services defined as workgroup collaboration are: e-mail, calendar, contacts, instant messaging, document sharing, collaboration groups, online discussion forums, mailing lists and video conferencing. Project Progress: For a detailed description of project progress please refer to the Agenda Item, Status of the Lotus Notes Deployment. 5.5 Business Change Program Project Manager: Liz Martin Project Description: The Change team is working under the ICE program delivering an integrated change program to optimise and coordinate the engagement of these projects with the university. The change program includes change management, business solution development, stakeholder relationship management, communication, user rollout, and user learning and support activities. Project Progress: The Business Change Team has taken advantage of the slowdown in the Lotus Notes Rollout to consult with users already migrated to Lotus Notes; to raise awareness of the big picture with regards to collaboration, improve public perception of Lotus Notes, provide 1-1 coaching to Notes users, and conduct master classes to help users work smarter with Mail & Calendar. The time was also used to progress implementation of rooms & resource bookings through Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime, Lotus Quickr and the development of improved work practices for particular cohorts. When the rollout recommences it is planned this new functionality will be included. 5.6 Data Centre Power & Air Conditioning Project Manager: Steve White Project Description: The air conditioning and power at the Clayton Data Centre became inadequate to deal with expanding IT requirements requiring a program to expand data centre cooling and power capacity.
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Project Progress: The air conditioning infrastructure has been upgraded to a modern, modular system that can expand and be reconfigured as required allowing extra cooling to be added for specific groups of services as needed. The final stage of this project is to finish the upgrade of the power supply infrastructure and the associated generator backup facility. 5.7 Centralised Disk Storage Infrastructure Project Manager: Steve White Project Description: Centralised disk storage was first implemented in 2004. In the past 3 years the use has grown and the disk arrays purchased in 2004 are reaching capacity. For the continued deployment of centralised storage ITS needs to purchase the next generation of disk arrays. Project Progress: An amount of new hardware has been purchased and is in production, the project is on track to utilise the remainder of 2009 funds in support of growth for Monash‟s enterprise level applications. 5.8 Server Refresh Program Project Manager: Alfred Tan Project Description: Each year a portion of Monash‟s server fleet requires refreshing for a variety of reasons. Where the hardware reaches end of life or where service growth means a more powerful machine is required, ITS analyses options and strives to implement the most efficient solution. Increasingly, the solutions are utilising virtual and consolidated servers that bring benefits such as reduced footprint and power usage and reduced costs of ownership. Project Progress: The Steering Committee has recently directed the project to purchase a pair of Sun M5000 servers to address critical performance issues with the Callista and SAP environments. This frees up hardware capacity which can then be re-allocated to other high priority areas. The remainder of the 2009 funds are likely to be required to refresh the web servers and the staff Novell environment. 5.9 Telephony Voice over IP (VoIP) Project Manager: Robert Jamieson Project Description: To replace the existing, aging network of 14 iSDX Siemens PABX telephony switches installed in Victorian Campuses with VoIP based telephony switches and associated infrastructure. Project Progress: Core infrastructure was installed into Caulfield and Clayton during 2008. New IP phones have been installed at both Berwick and Parkville and the rollout will continue during 2009. The first of the legacy PABXs has now been turned off with others to follow. Monash Fax continues to be implemented in a variety of locations. 5.10 Security Program Project Manager: Bradley Ellis Project Description: Intrusion Protection Systems provide automated defences against malicious attacks from outside the university network. This project will acquire and implement equipment that will provide this service to Monash‟s network.
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Project Progress: The project continues to negotiate with vendors to produce an outcome acceptable to Monash. Negotiations are proving both complex and difficult but the team remain hopeful a solution will be found soon. 5.11 Wireless Everywhere Project Manager: Nathan Bailey Project Description: The Wireless Everywhere project is intended to achieve comprehensive wireless coverage on all Australian campuses by March 2010. A campus-by-campus approach is being taken to ensure effective coverage of all trafficked areas, and higher density coverage where necessary. To achieve approximately 90%+ coverage of all trafficked areas of Australian campus grounds, the estimated costs are $300k for 2008, $300k for 2009 and $200K for 2010. Prioritisation and scheduling is occurring in liaison with campus, academic and student representatives. Project Progress: 2008: Parkville, Gippsland, Peninsula, Caulfield and Berwick largely completed 2009: Original allocation for 2009 was $500K. This would have completed remaining gaps (largely exterior) on all campuses and remaining provisioning for Clayton. Revised allocation is for $300K. This has provided for the completion of works initiated in 2008 and some parts of Clayton in 2009. Matching funds from campuses and MRS are being sought for external WAP deployments, to maximise the impact of remaining 2009 funds. 2010: Further funds will be required to complete the remaining areas on Clayton campus. Consideration may also need to be given to a higher quality service for student connectivity in lecture theatres.
Near ubiquitous provision of wireless connectivity is resulting in increasing pressure for broader power supply provision and associated wireless services such as wireless printing. Discussions are in progress with Facilities and Services and Information Technology Services to meet these expectations. 5.12 Student Messaging Service Renewal Project Manager: Emily Feher Project Description: The objective of this project is to review available options for outsourcing the student messaging suite and to select and implement the option best suited to the needs of Monash University. The priority task for this project is to replace the existing student email system. However, one of the benefits of outsourcing the student messaging solution is that Monash will be in a position to readily release functionality that is currently not centrally available to the student population (for instance, an online calendar, instant messaging and collaborative online document and information creation and sharing). Project Progress: An RFI has been issued and the technical evaluation, accessibility review and heuristic usability review of the responses is in progress. Identifying existing policy, procedure and practices likely to be impacted by a decision to outsource the provision of student messaging is underway. A survey of current student mail and messaging preferences has been completed. At a Steering Committee meeting on 30 April, 2009 the project was “paused” while information to answer the question “should Monash be in the business of providing a student messaging suite?” is gathered. This information will be considered at the next SMSR Steering Committee (end of April) at which a decision about the project will be made.
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