Reports

DoIT Profile 2003

About DoIT
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) provides a wide variety of technology services to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We also provide limited service to UW System and other State entities. Our services span desktop-to-server-to-mainframe computing, networks, telecommunications, Internet connectivity, administrative and academic systems, instructional technology, plus many support services. We work with colleges, departments and individuals to develop and implement new systems. At the same time, we provide quality service on current systems and work with our customers to migrate them from older technologies.

Our customers vary from students in need of a desktop computer to a researcher seeking the speed of Internet2, to administrative and academic directors and deans who need systems and support to carry out their missions.

DoIT is a challenging and enjoyable place to work. Our professional staff work hard in an informal atmosphere. We sharpen our skills with professional training and collaboration with other Big Ten schools and professional societies, as well as our colleagues on campus. We are able to work with the latest computing and networking technologies in support of our University community.

Mission and vision
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a world leader in the creation, transformation, transfer and application of knowledge. Success in this mission requires an integrated environment of information technologies that supports and enhances the academic activities of our students, faculty and staff, as well as the management and operation of the University.

Mission: Lead the development and delivery of information technology services that help students, faculty and staff work effectively as a community. Provide contemporary computing and networking service that support the University community to advance teaching, learning and research.

Vision: to be successful in transforming the ways that our University shares ideas and information; helping build a University that is professionally strong, flexible and competitive in a changing marketplace; and helping faculty, staff and students realize their visions through the use of information technology.

View a 10-minute video about DoIT. WindowsMedia

Our values:

• world class
• collaborative
• a learning organization
• outstanding customer service
• a joyful and respectful place to work.

Background
DoIT delivers complex computing and networking products and services in collaboration with campus system and networking partners. As of May 2002, we employed 500 permanent, 54 limited-term and 180 student workers. The annual budget is approximately $70 million. About 75 percent of our revenue comes from direct charges to customers.

Our primary customers are the larger community of campus faculty (2,213), staff (11,624) and students (more than 41,000). In addition, we provide major support to colleges, schools and departments, as well as to University of Wisconsin System Administration.

Our production computing environment

As of June 2003, the following equipment was on line

Servers:

Mainframe:
IBM 7060-H30; OS/390 operating system

DoIT maintains an Enterprise Storage System with a total of 12.4 terabytes of capacity.

Our customers' computing environment

Fully connected

At the department level, every room (classroom, office, lab, etc.) is served by one or more voice/data outlets. Multicast for streaming media is available at departmental request.

The campus network is comprised of a fully redundant Ethernet backbone. The backbone spans 3 supernodes, 12 nodes and approximately 180 radial buildings. Communication speeds are 10 Gbps between supernodes and a minimum of 1 Gbps between nodes, radials and telecommunication rooms.

UW students, faculty and staff can connect to the Internet in more than 15 public locations with a fast and convenient "wireless" link, called Wireless WiscWorld www.doit.wisc.edu/network/wireless/locations.asp. In areas serviced by Wireless WiscWorld, all you need is a laptop, a wireless network card and a campus account to get on the campus network to check email, seek information on the Web or obtain academic course content.

The University is a WiscNet member. WiscNet is a non-profit organization that provides high-speed Internet connectivity to educational institutions and governments statewide. The University provides WiscNet with many important services, including network engineering and operations. The University maintains a high-speed connection directly to WiscNet's UW-Madison node.

WiscNet obtains its Internet access from multiple sources. Redundant connections to multiple tier-1 ISPs provide both good performance and redundancy. WiscNet and the University also actively peer with other research, education, and commercial ISPs. Peering allows traffic exchange directly between networks, rather than traversing the Internet. The advantages of peering include superior performance, redundancy, and cost savings. WiscNet and the University peer with other networks at the AADS NAP in Chicago and at MadIX, a local Internet exchange hosted by the University. The Starlight research exchange and Equinix exchanges will be added in the near future to further increase peering. The University also participates in direct peering relationships independent of WiscNet. UIW peering relationships with research networks such as ESNET and NASA allows faster, more direct communication with important research partners.

The University actively participates in Internet2. Internet2 is a consortium of more than 200 universities, with the goal of developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies. The University, in partnership with WiscNet and UW-Milwaukee, have established the WiscREN GigaPOP, which connects to Abilene, Internet2's nation-wide research network. The University and WiscNet also connect to MREN, a consortium of Midwestern universities and research labs. This connection provides peering with regional research and education and a redundant connection to Abilene.

Broadband systems
The Academic Television Network is a traditional, two-way, single-cable coaxial TV system used for origination and distribution of television programming.

Network infrastructure
Network Services in DoIT coordinates the design, long-range planning and procurement of a broad range of high-quality feature-rich voice services. It is responsible for the management, operation and support of the campus network, including wireless and dial-in. It provides backbone network management and support to WiscNet and the UW for Internet, Internet2 and other wide-area network access.

Phone services
We provide a full range of telecommunications services including:

• Centrex system with 21,000 administrative lines and 3,870 student lines.
• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) services which routes calls based on customer-defined parameters.
• Cellular system with more than 1,300 cellular lines; analog and digital services are available.
• Voice mail system (premise-based) with 6,000 mailboxes.
• ISDN Network access in scalable service for a fee. Five levels of access available from on-demand to dedicated access.
• DSL and cable modem services that provide high-speed data connectivity to the campus via partnerships with local vendors.

Technologists
Several technology groups support these efforts. They do research and development for multiple operating platforms and systems; database management systems; middleware and security tools; virus protection; personal communication tools such as calendaring, email, word processing and presentation software; and multimedia tools to meet the needs of customers.

Internet services

My UW-Madison Web portal
DoIT continues to expand the audience and add enhancements for the My UW-Madison web portal. Under a single login, My UW-Madison provides personalized delivery of a broad range of campus services, including Web-based email, a personal calendar, access to student and financial records, library resources, course lists and academic schedules.

WiscWorld
WiscWorld is a collection of resources (information, software and documentation) to make it easier and simpler for UW-Madison students, faculty and staff to connect their computers to online resources. The WiscWorld CD contains software packages supported by the DoIT Help Desk plus an installer for easy, convenient installation of that software on your computer. This installer will automatically configure your computer to access the campus network via a modem-phone line (normally from off-campus) or via an Ethernet connection (direct connection, normally on-campus). With the latest versions of the Web browsers included in the WiscWorld package, you can access the My UW-Madison portal. A new version, 4.5 for Windows and Macintosh, will be released the fall of 2003.

Electronic mail
The campus electronic mail service, WiscMail, is available to all current students and all current and retired faculty and staff. Current email usage is:

- 51,279 active student WiscMail email accounts and 17,243 active faculty and staff WiscMail email accounts, as of July 1, 2003.

- 1,676 faculty, staff and student UW-MadMail (hosted domains) email accounts as of July 1, 2003. (This service will be replaced by WiscMail Plus over the next year.)

Dial-in access and accounts
More than 2,600 56K modems are available for authenticated dial-in by the campus.

Last year we handled 1.43 million dial-in sessions; average 22.2 hours per customer; average 23.4 minutes per connection.

World Wide Web server

DoIT Web site: This is a general computing reference site for all UW system faculty, staff and students. Our home page at www.doit.wisc.edu averages 55,000 hits/requests per month.

DoITNet (Intranet): This is an internal information forum to aid in the exchange of information within DoIT. DoITNet contains information such as internal system requirements, an online version of DoIT's weekly newsletter, and human resources applications. Staff have access to project progress and post- project review minutes, operating plans, and division policies and guidelines. DoITNet is linked to group Web sites and other key University and state Web sites and also includes a Web-based interface to access the DoIT Resource Center catalog.

DoIT hosts the WiscINFO/UW-Madison Web site. This Web site contains a collection of online resources both on and off campus. It consists of a browsable structure as well as a number of searchable indexes. The University of Wisconsin-Madison home page is at www.wisc.edu.

Infolabs and kiosks
Fourteen conveniently located computer labs offer high-speed internet access and a variety of hardware, software and peripherals including color printing, slide printing and digital audio/video editing resources. InfoLab services and resources are available to all students, faculty and staff. More than 50 Internet Kiosks, providing instant Internet access, are available at popular campus locations, including several libraries, the Wisconsin Unions, and UW Recreational Sports facilities. There are 7 locations on campus where wireless laptop computers are available for checkout. Visit our website at www.doit.wisc.edu/computerlabs for additional information on these services.

Our major service areas
Help Desk
We offer a 24-hour Help Desk with phone-in, walk-in, email and Web services. For the school year 7/02 - 6/03 the Help Desk logged more than 100,000 cases. The Help Desk uses a state-of-the-art call tracking system.

Professional Technical Education (PTE)
We offer a wide range of services to the university workforce including all University of Wisconsin campuses. These services include:

• Online Staff Development - PTE develops online courses to meet the workforce learning needs on campus and beyond.
• Technical training - PTE offers technical classes on a wide variety of topics.
• Custom application training. When a group desires training that is tailored to their specific use of an application, a PTE instructor will work with that group to create a customized curriculum. In the past, we have delivered custom training in Access, Brio, FileMaker Pro, GIS and numerous other applications.
• Video services - PTE provides cost effective solutions for capturing live presentations and creating custom videos for training.
• Lab Rental - PTE has three Windows labs and one Mac lab, all equipped with the latest software. These labs can be rented for a fee and can be configured to meet your needs.

Professional Technical Education also supports two student training programs.

• Student Technical Training - The Student Technical Training (STT) program provides University students with training in information technology support and Web site development. Upon successful completion of the program, students are assisted in finding part-time employment in IT support roles on campus.
• Software Training for Students Program - The program offers a wide variety of free workshops, taught by students, for students. In 2002, more than 7,500 students attended more than 500 classes. Students also participated in online training courses, provided by an external vendor through STS. The program also accommodated requests by faculty and staff for training in degree credit courses.

Tech Store
The Tech Store provides advice, sales, installation and repair service for the campus. The store is also accessible by Web at techstore.doit.wisc.edu. Monthly: the online catalog receives more than 20,000 hits; there are approximately 180 e-commerce transactions; the average sales in dollars via e-commerce is $70,000.

Software licensing
DoIT coordinates more than 70 academic software licenses, as well as hundreds more shrink-wrap licenses, for UW-Madison. License information is available from the Tech Store and at the Wisconsin Integrated Software Catalog (WISC) site at www.wisc.edu/wisc.

Access to institutional data (InfoAccess)
We manage a large "data warehouse" for the UW. Decision makers access the data with a locally developed service called InfoAccess. More than 900 department customers have active InfoAccess accounts; 30.3 gigabytes of data can be displayed in more than 200 different data views; subject areas include human resources, accounting, benefits, payroll, budget, student records, timetable and admissions. InfoAccess and FASTAR collaborate to deliver the Brio toolset as an even friendlier and more powerful way for InfoAccess users to get the data they need, when they need it. InfoAccess serves the UW-Madison and UW System campuses. InfoAccess provides a rich and growing resource of data to meet the information needs of UW faculty, staff and administrators.

Applications services
DoIT has a professional staff of analysts, designers, programmers, project managers and technical consultants to develop, implement and support a wide array of applications, interfaces, reports and data extracts including:

• Integrated Student Information System (ISIS), based on the PeopleSoft Student Administration package, for admissions, enrollment, fees, financial aid, curriculum, student access to their records (EASI), and alumni records;
• PeopleSoft's Student Administration System for all UW system campuses, including student administration modules plus First Logic address validation software and the UW System electronic application to PeopleSoft interface (EPCS);
• Personnel System, providing personnel information for recruitment and appointments held by employees (IADS);
• Payroll System, providing payroll checks to approximately 98,000 employees in the University of Wisconsin System in a year;
• Shared Financial System (SFS), based on the PeopleSoft Financial package, for financial transactions and accounting functions for campuses in the University of Wisconsin System;
• Public Health Information Network (PHIN), for collecting and disseminating public health information, data, and news;
• E-business, providing credit card transactions, catalogs, ordering, inventory management, billing, customer service, workflow automation and other business and administrative functions.
  

Instructional technology

Academic Technology Solutions
We support teaching and learning with technology according to the needs of instructors and students at UW-Madison. We assist with instructional technology projects including course design, delivery, and evaluation. We help faculty assess needs, plot a course of action, locate funding sources and help submit grant applications. We also design, program, and implement instructional technology applications including online courses, web-based learning, streaming media, and classroom presentations. A growing number of faculty and staff are using Learn@UW - a new web-based tool for creating and managing e-learning environments. We work in close collaboration with the University administration and other campus IT groups to build the UW-Madison learning technologies climate and infrastructure. We co-sponsor an annual Teaching and Learning Symposium which has over 200 faculty and staff in attendance. Our workshops include custom demos, seminars, hands-on group classes, summer camps, and modular series. (In 2002, we hosted these events to over 1000 participants.

The New Media Centers (at College Library and at the BioTechnology Center) are a vital campus resource for faculty, instructional, and research staff in support of creative and innovative instructional technologies. Faculty and staff use the New Media Centers' classrooms free of charge for instruction and research purposes. These classrooms are high-end, multimedia facilities where faculty use projection technology for multimedia-enriched presentations and lectures, and students take advantage of computer workstations for hands-on learning. Multimedia design labs provide faculty and instructional staff with ready access to modern multimedia authoring hardware and software, along with assistance from expert staff. The Biology New Media Center was the first in the nation to focus on a discipline and its specific information, instructional, and research technology needs. The BNMC sponsors an average of 40 technology events per year, and last year hosted 90 classes from a variety of departments. Our program is part of the New Media Centers Consortium, an international organization designed to foster multimedia in higher education.

Faculty and staff can also use the New Media Centers' classrooms free of charge for instruction and research purposes. These classrooms are high-end, multimedia facilities where faculty can use projection technology for multimedia-enriched presentations and lectures and students can take advantage of computer workstations for hands-on learning. Multimedia design labs provide faculty and instructional staff with ready access to modern multimedia authoring hardware and software, along with assistance from expert staff. The Biology New Media Center was the first in the nation to focus on a discipline and its specific information technology needs. Our program is part of the New Media Centers Consortium, an international organization designed to foster multimedia in higher education.

Technology Accessibility Program (TAP)
Accessibility technology support for people with disabilities as well as those designing applications, instruction and Web pages is available through DoIT's Technology Accessibility Program. DoIT is creating and supporting a coordinated University-wide infrastructure that encourages use of the tools and Web pages that are accessible for administration, teaching and learning. TAP works with individuals, colleges, departments and units such as the Campus ADA coordinator, McBurney Disability Resource Center, and Trace Research and Development Center.

Policies
Information on various policies and guidelines regarding the use of campus computing resources can be found at www.wisc.edu/security which includes:

• Guidelines for Appropriate Use of UW-Madison Information Technology Resources
• DoIT USENET news guidelines
• UW-Housing ResNet policy
• ARMS (Archives and Records Management Services) email policy and best practices
• UW-Madison policies governing access to faculty-staff electronic files
• University of Wisconsin System Policy on the use of Information Technology Resources
• Security links
  

UW-Madison Division of Information Technology
1210 W. Dayton St. * Madison, WI 53706 * information@doit.wisc.edu