Much of the technology on Auburn University's campus operates due to behind-the-scenes work. A great deal of time and effort goes into making sure business and administrative operations run as smoothly as possible. Several groups fall into this category, including the executive leadership, the administration team, all of the enterprise application teams, the web support team, and the identity and access management team. They provide a wide variety of services, but together they help keep Auburn University running the way that it should.
In 2019, the Office of Information Technology formalized its first official Strategic Plan designed to cover plans for the 2020-2024 timeframe. It outlines 5 primary goals and 27 subgoals, all of which are designed to align with Auburn University's Strategic Plan. The primary goals are:
Even amidst the unique situations created by the COVID-19 pandemic, OIT spent the year taking steps toward achieving these goals. One major step in that direction was facilitated by a small technology reorganization which brought our unit a new Director of Strategic Initiatives. Some of the 2020 initiatives include a transition in the employee timekeeping system, a cost-saving measure regarding employee tax paperwork, and the implementation of new applicant tracking, onboarding, training, and performance management system.
Click here to read the 2020-2024 Information Technology Strategic Plan for Auburn University.
Several OIT teams are dedicated specifically to managing the campus enterprise system, Banner, and all the data management that surrounds it. In addition to regular maintenance and updates, all of the teams devoted good portions of 2020 to certain trainings and upgrades.
Some of the updates were critical to student success, like DegreeWorks, while others helped improve the overall student experience, such as the new housing application, the preferred name and pronoun selection, and the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting for SGA.
Other upgrades paved the way for projects coming down the pipeline. Some examples include the data governance and data warehousing efforts that will feed into Salesforce as well as various efforts that prepared the University to schedule, administer, and track COVID vaccinations. These efforts were all taken in conjunction with the ongoing need to keep all campus systems up-to-date for security and support reasons, ultimately allowing campus technologies to run smoothly.
Providing direct support to end users is a major element of any IT organization. In addition to the IT Service Desk mentioned on the Student Education page, OIT also offers endpoint support and web support.
The endpoint support team employs full-time and student staff to go throughout campus and assist end users with university-provided computers, printers, etc. This group faced the challenge of alternate operations by continuing to work on campus and expanding their services to new users groups as well as providing additional equipment to assist those working from home. They managed this in the midst of still working with existing clients and overseeing the process of securing devices for the Research Enclave which brought them up to Federal Standards required for controlled research.
The web support team was heavily involved in a few major projects throughout the course of 2020, especially regarding website accessibility and web-based projects for COVID-19 support. They also oversaw the design and delivery of automation services for both OIT and Distributed IT units to increase tracking, reduce expenses, and automate services. They also had an integral role in the redesign of the OIT Website to foster better communication and a more user-friendly site for both technical and non-technical users.
The Identity & Access Management (IAM) team oversees all the user IDs across campus and what systems they have access to. In 2020, this group tackled several large projects, including the research and vetting and selection process of finding a vendor to provide more streamlined access management services. In the meantime, they took strides to improve campus security by designing and implementing a password aging project which requires that passwords be changed every 12 months.
The IAM team worked closely with the cybersecurity team both to build out CMMC documentation and to make sure that employees received the proper role-based training. They also worked with the Telecommunications and Media groups to ensure a smooth transition in moving from Cable TV to Dish service across campus.
As mentioned above, the business and administrative operations are crucial to keeping Auburn University running smoothly in regards to technology, and that was especially true during remote operations. Here are some of the major efforts these groups took during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
| Administration Numbers At A Glance |
|---|
| 84% of users immediately responded to new password aging notifications |
| 7,268 configuration changes implemented to improve our ticketing system |
| 433 web support incident or service request tickets resolved or fulfilled |
| 2,302 sets of duplicated user data removed from the Banner system |
| 1,200 new computer, tablets, and peripherals purchased for campus units |
| 200 laptops moved to Intune Management |
| 687 knowledge base articles available on the OIT Website |
Last Updated: March 04, 2021
