About DoIT
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- Annual Report 2006-2007
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Profile Contents
DoIT Profile 2006
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) provides a wide variety of technology services to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as 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, security, instructional technology, plus many support services.
DoIT works 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 primary customers are the larger community of campus 2,064 faculty, 16,287 employees and more than 41,000 students.
We employ over 700 permanent, limited-term and student staff. Our annual budget is approximately $70 million, and about 75 percent of our revenue comes from direct charges to customers.
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: To provide a contemporary computing and networking environment and a set of services that technologically help the University of Wisconsin-Madison community to achieve its goals.
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.
Our values:
- world class
- outstanding in customer service
- a learning organization
- collaborative
- joyful
Back to ContentsOur 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 built on a fully redundant Ethernet backbone. The backbone spans three supernodes, 14 nodes and approximately 180 radial buildings. Communication speeds are 10 Gbps between supernodes and a minimum of 10 Gbps between nodes, 1 Gbps from nodes to radials and telecommunication rooms.
Wireless was available in 60% of campus buildings by the end of the year.
The University is a member of WiscNet, 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, including AADS NAP in Chicago, ESNET and NASA.
The University actively participates in Internet2, 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, has established the WiscREN GigaPOP, which connects to the Internet2 nationwide 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 Digital Academic Television Network (DATN) is able to deliver live content via the network, in addition to on-demand content, via 16 channels. The high-speed 21st Century Network provides the performance and capabilities necessary to accommodate the needs of this type of high-bandwidth content delivery.
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.
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.
Phone services
DoIT provides a full range of telecommunications services including:
- Centrex system with 21,000 administrative lines and 3,950 student (UW Housing) lines.
- Voice enabled directory assistance system with telephone numbers and other information 24/7 for UW-Madison and Madison State of WI agencies.
- Cellular system with more than 1,000 accounts; analog and digital services are available.
- Voice mail system (premise-based) with over 8,300 mailboxes.
- Enabled Voice Mail (EVM), with over 1,000 subscribers, which sends notifications of new voice mail messages to a user’s email account or copies and delivers messages as attached audio files.
- ISDN Network access in scalable service for a fee. Five levels of access are 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.
Internet services
My UW-Madison Web portal
DoIT and UW developers introduced a totally new infrastructure and look to My UW-Madison in 2006. The underlying software changed to an open source product called uPortal. My UW-Madison provides personalized delivery of services such as Web-based email, a personal calendar, personal web space, access to student and financial records, and much more, via single sign-on. There are 55,000 unique users each month. They log in more than 1.5 million times per month.
Security resources
Our Security CD (and downloads) includes antivirus, spyware, firewall software and VPN instructions to enable more secure connections for UW-Madison students, faculty and staff.
The campus email service, WiscMail, is available to all current students and all current and retired faculty and staff. WiscMail processes about 3 million messages per day. There were 67,058 active WiscMail email accounts as of August. The new WiscMail Plus departmental mail system hosts 245 domains containing 16,000 faculty and staff accounts. WiscMail Plus is the department-administrated version of WiscMail.
My WebSpace
This service continued to provide 100 MB of web-based storage per student as well as other features (document sharing and collaboration tools). In this past year, the number of My WebSpace users increased from 20,000 to 35,000. Eighty-five percent of these users are students.
Dial-in Access and Accounts
Despite a steep decline in use, 2,000 56K modems are available for authenticated dial-in by the campus. By the end of the 2006 fiscal year, there were about 8,000 unique users.
Web server
DoIT Web site: This is a general computing reference site for all UW System faculty, staff and students. The home page at www.doit.wisc.edu averages 68,000 hits/requests per month. DoIT also hosts the University of Wisconsin-Madison home page at www.wisc.edu.
DoITNet (Intranet): This is an internal forum to aid in the exchange of information within DoIT, such as news, internal system requirements, human resources info, project plans and minutes, and division policies and guidelines. DoITNet offers a Web-based interface to the DoIT Resource Center catalog, business and financial information and staff directories.
InfoLabs, kiosks and laptops
Thirteen conveniently located computer labs offer faculty, students and staff high-speed Internet access and a variety of hardware, software and peripherals including color printing, slide scanning and digital audio/video editing resources. Dozens of Internet kiosks, providing instant Internet access, are available at popular campus locations. Four hundred wireless laptop computers are available for checkout at ten campus locations.
Our major service areas
Help Desk
DoIT offers a Help Desk available 19 hr. x 7 day via phone and email, 8x5 via walk-in, and 24-hour Web knowledgebase. Over 3,000 online documents were accessed more than 3,000,000 times during the year.
Professional Technical Education
PTE provides a full continuum of workforce training services. Approximately 3,000 people attend one of PTE’s 250 public classes each year. PTE also creates online training courses and customizes classes to meet specific organizational needs. In addition, PTE produces digital media training solutions and provides lab rentals.
PTE also supports two student training programs: Software Training for Student (STS) and Student Technical Training (STT). STS offers a wide variety of free software training workshops for students. Last year, more than 7,100 students attended one of STS’s 800 classes. 1,344 students also participated in online training courses. In addition, the program accommodated requests by faculty and staff for training in degree credit courses.
STT provides University students with training in information technology support and Web site development. Upon successful completion of the program, students receive help in finding part-time employment in IT support roles on campus. Last year, 164 students completed STT training and were hired by more than 25 different campus employers.
Tech Store
The Tech Store provides advice, sales, installation and repair service for the campus, both through the Web at techstore.doit.wisc.edu and at the 1210 W. Dayton Street location. The store has more than 1,000 customers and sold approximately $1,623,290 in products last year.
Each month, the Tech Store's online catalog receives more than 20,000 hits and handles approximately 180 e-commerce transactions.
Software Licensing/WISC
DoIT coordinates more than 70 academic software licenses, as well as hundreds more shrink-wrap licenses, for UW-Madison. The Wisconsin Integrated Software Catalog (WISC) is an e-commerce site that offers students and departments in 42 UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System campuses the opportunity to purchase software at a discount because of volume licensing programs in place. In FY06 there were 1,106 departmental orders and 12,483 student orders placed online. An additional 2,666 student orders and 121 faculty/staff orders were handled at the DoIT Tech Store counter. See www.wisc.edu/wisc.
Access to Institutional Data (InfoAccess)
DoIT manages a large "data warehouse" for the UW. Decision makers access the data with a locally developed service called InfoAccess. More than 1,300 department customers have active InfoAccess accounts. InfoAccess can display 30.3 gigabytes of data 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 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.
Application Services
DoIT has a professional staff of analysts, designers, programmers, project managers and technical consultants who develop and support a wide array of applications, interfaces, reports and data extracts including:
- Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) for admissions, enrollment, fees, financial aid, curriculum, student access to records 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, each year providing payroll checks to approximately 60,000 employees in the UW System;
- Shared Financial System (SFS), based on the PeopleSoft Financial package, for financial transactions and accounting functions for campuses in the UW 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.
Digital Publishing & Printing Services
This is UW-Madison's main printing resource. DP&PS can serve all campus printing needs, either using in-house equipment or by contracting with external vendors.
DP&PS produces a wide variety of booklets, brochures, forms, envelopes, cards, flyers, posters, tickets, letterheads, newsletters, business cards, custom textbooks, and course packets. The flexibility of their on-demand printing services can save you money and make your printed materials more timely and effective.
File handling is completely digital at DP&PS, and their modern equipment and knowledgeable staff ensure top-quality printing and rapid turnaround. With variable data addressing, DP&PS can help you produce successful direct mail campaigns. DP&PS also offers complete graphic design and Web page design services.
DP&PS has three locations on campus.
Instructional technology
Academic Technology Solutions
DoIT supports teaching and learning with technology among instructors and students through a wide-range of services. We offer online course design through Learn@UW-- Madison’s course management system, Web-based learning, streaming media and classroom presentations. AT also sponsors dozens of workshops, custom demonstrations, seminars, camps and modular series throughout the year at no cost to faculty and staff.
Through our Engage program, we assist faculty and instructional staff who are looking to build, integrate new or expand upon instructional technology tools into their e-teaching efforts. Last year, we developed five custom applications and gave out Engage awards for four authorizing tools. Hundreds of tools were downloaded from our Web site, and 50 faculty were given awards to create Web-based learning materials.
The Biology New Media Center is a high-end, multimedia facility that has modern multimedia authoring hardware and software, along with assistance from expert staff instructional staff. Faculty use projection technology for multimedia-enriched presentations and lectures, and students take advantage of computer workstations for hands-on learning. The BNMC sponsors an average of 40 technology events per year, and last year hosted dozens of classes from a variety of departments. Our program is part of the New Media Centers Consortium, an international organization designed tofoster multimedia in higher education.
Learn@UW
This is an online course management system that offers many tools to enhance the learning experience for traditional, online, or hybrid courses. In addition to delivering course materials to students via this course space, Learn@UW also provides online quizzing/surveying, discussion forums, secure online grade books, calendaring and progress-tracking.
During the 2005-06 academic year, approximately 2,000 courses were activated and populated with appropriate student data, course materials and support resources. This is a significant increase from 1,345 courses the previous academic year.
Technology Accessibility Program (TAP)
The National Association of College and University Business Officers recognizes DoIT as a leader in areas of web accessibility policy development and access. DoIT's Technology Accessibility Program provides accessibility technology support for people with disabilities and for those designing applications, instruction and Web pages. Resources, such as educational videos, an accessibility checklist, and an online course called Web Accessibility 101, help faculty and staff understand and comply with the campus Web accessibility policy.
Policies
Information on various policies and guidelines regarding the use of campus computing resources can be found at http://www.doit.wisc.edu/security/policies and include:
- Appropriate Use Policy
- Appropriate Use Campaign
- Electronic Devices Policy
- Email Servers Policy
- Guest NetID Policy
- State of Wisconsin Cellular Policy
- UW-Madison Supplemental Cellular Policy
- USENET News Guidelines
- Web accessibility
- Access to Faculty and Staff Electronic Files
- Computer Logging Statement
- University of Wisconsin System Policy on the Use of Information Technology Resources
- ARMS (Archives and Records Management Services) Email Policy and Best Practices
- UW-Housing ResNet Policy
- Copyright Resources