Computing & Information Technology Budget Proposal

FY 2007

 

 

Strategic Alignment

The priorities reflected in our budget request follow the priorities laid out in the Information Technology Planning Council and are based on the Strategic Vision for UVM. Specific needs were identified and validated through an extensive campus wide survey, as part of a strategic IT planning effort.[1]

 

Three Budget Headlines

 

Budget Impact of Peoplesoft Systems

But our current shortfalls pale in comparison to the budget demands that project Catalyst will have on CIT. In July 2006, CIT will assume budgetary responsibility for the following Peoplesoft related expenses:

• Software licensing and maintenance costs for Applications, Middleware, and Utilities
• Hardware maintenance and renewal costs
• An additional 9 IT professional positions

The Peoplesoft systems will require an increase to various CIT budgets totaling $2,551,584.

 

Deferred maintenance

CIT’s current budget is insufficient to support delivery of an appropriate array of high quality services to students, teachers, researchers, staff, and University officers. The most critical shortfalls are in our equipment replacement budget and in our desktop support ratios. Our inability to purchase high quality electronics and replace them on a reasonable schedule is creating a deferred maintenance liability. Our current support ratio of 206 students for each central IT staff position is 67% higher than the Doctorate-granting Institutions’ mean of 123 to 1.^[2]

 

Server hosting environments (Machine rooms)

The University of Vermont should have at a minimum 2 geographically separate server rooms with adequate environmentals including access controls, emergency power, sufficient cooling, fire suppression and security features. Central services are currently deployed in main part in 205 Waterman. A small 2^nd site was created in Mann Hall coincident with the upgrades following the Trinity acquisition. Some servers are housed there, including our main backup infrastructure. Some of the Project Catalyst servers are housed in the telecom switchroom in Southwick. A detailed proposal for creating a server room in Southwick has been prepared. The proposed budget for this project is $1.8M. A proposal is being prepared to renovate the Mann Hall gymnasium into a larger server room. No cost estimate is available at this time.

 

CIT accomplishments

CIT plays an important role contributing to UVM’s national rankings. The Princeton Review's 2004 edition of "America's Most Connected Campuses" ranked the University of Vermont 20th among 357 top colleges and universities surveyed for technological sophistication.

 

Here are some of our specific accomplishments this year.

 

• Rerouted all major network links around planned construction sites with minimal disruption.
• Delivered network and telecom service to new facilities including the Medical Education Center.
• Completed migration of over one thousand staff and faculty computers from Novell NetWare file services to Windows Server 2003; implemented basic workstation patch management.
• Provided uninterrupted support for legacy applications while contributing many senior staff to the Catalyst project.
• Provided critical technical expertise and staffing in support of the Catalyst hardware infrastructure design and deployment.
• Completed upgrade of Documentum business document imaging system. 
• Resolved over 4,100 client trouble reports and help requests. 
• Documented need for life-cycle funding of classroom technology.  Funds, including student technology fee, are now allocated for classroom improvement.
• Provided database services for business applications including: Facilities Management, Transportation and Parking, Sponsored Research, Financial Reporting, Business document imaging and Events Management.
• Launched Safe Computing initiative.
• Implemented Microsoft Campus Agreement for all faculty and staff, including software distribution and financial mechanisms. 
• Built and implemented a network registration system for residence halls.
• Managed a dramatic increase in student computer sales. 
• In collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning, implemented UVM blog service. 
• Participated in many campus planning efforts.

 

Specific Budget Requests

Peoplesoft systems budget impact

Summary

Hardware renewal	$457,142
Software Licensing and Support	$569,537
Network Services	$7,200
Personnel	$1,517,705
Total impact of Peoplesoft project on CIT budget (annual)	$2,551,584

 

Hardware renewal

The hardware infrastructure built to support UVM’s Peoplesoft applications will have to be maintained. To date we have purchased approximately $1.6M worth of electronics. If we plan for an average serviceable life of 3 1/2 years, long-term we will need an annual equipment replacement budget of $457,142. We will not of course replace all these devices on a fixed schedule. Experience and need will drive annual purchasing decisions. But using a planned replacement cycle to estimate funding needs is simple and reasonably accurate, and provides the important flexibility required to react to events and opportunities.

 

Hardware maintenance

While 3 year of hardware maintenance is included in most of the Peoplesoft related equipment purchases, in FY09 we will see in excess of $100K in increased maintenance costs.

 

Software Support

Annual software costs include annual license costs, upgrade protection and software support

 

Oracle (PeopleSoft)	$275,808
Oracle (Campus Database)	$163,192
Segue (Load Testing Software)	$18,819
Load Balancing Software	$8,200
Legato Backup licenses	$8118
UPK Annual license	$95,400
	$569,537

           

Network Services (fiber between Mann & Southwick)          

Project Catalyst is paying for fiber between Mann Hall and Southwick. This is one of those “pay-as-you-go” network links separately budgeted and charged to a department. CIT recommends these inter-server-room links be funded centrally out of port charges. $7200

Personnel

Our staffing plan for support of the Peoplesoft systems is based on discussions between the Project Catalyst Director and current CIT managers. The responsibility for operating these systems will be shared between operating units and support units. Operating units own the applications. The Division of Computing and Information Technology provides specific support services.

 

This staffing plan is our best guess at this point of the specific roles that will be assigned to CIT, and the necessary staffing levels to provide the services.

 

Staffing requirements:

Position	FTE required	Estimated FY07 Salary per position	Total Salary + Fringe
Developer/analysts dedicated to supporting Finance, AP, Procurement, HCM, Budgeting, and Grants:	5	$73,485	$514,395
Developer analyst dedicated to supporting PS Workflow.	1	$71,415	$99,981
Database Analysts:	3	$89,010	$373,842
Reporting support analysts:	2	$73,485	$205,758
System Administrators:	4	$79,488	$445,133
Network Analyst:	1	$65,000	$91,000
Security Administrator:	1	$71,415	$99,981
Additional manager	1	$90,000	$126,000
Current CIT positions available to reassign to Peoplesoft systems	(6)		($528,385)
New positions required	12		$1,427,705
Operating expenses related to new positions (professional development, personal computing devices)	12	$7,500	$90,000
Total			$1,517,705

 

 

Requests not related to the Peoplesoft Project

Equipment replacement fund   

One of the biggest challenges of anyone developing an IT budget is building in sufficient flexibility to assure that the unit can respond to rapid changes in user demand, emerging technologies and sudden threats. For this purpose, CIT has long maintained an “equipment replacement fund”. This budget is always used to meet institutional needs (not departmental needs). In general, this has meant that CIT has not needed to make specific ad hoc requests for hardware and software purchases in response to unexpected demand. Unfortunately, several sources that have traditionally fed this equipment budget have declined, and we are finding that we must request funds that in earlier years we could fill using this budget. An increase in the equipment budget will reduce the need for special requests. We propose that the capital budget be increased by $250,000. This is independent of and in addition to the Peoplesoft related needs.

 

Client support        

CIT provides computing and networking advice, guidance, education, publications, and problem resolution assistance for approximately 18,952 UVM students, faculty, staff, retirees, and emeriti (some of whom are also supported by local IT personnel).  Services in these areas, which are provided by 10.4 FTE regular staff and eight trained and skilled student employees, include telephone (Help Line), a drop-in support center, roving clinics, and on-site support. Unfortunately, most of our efforts are now reactive, and often come too late. Higher rates of computer ownership, increasing enrollment and employee headcount, greater integration of computing into our daily lives, higher expectations, intense executive support, lack of information literacy, illegal file sharing, and continuing escalation of threats from malicious software have resulted in frustrating call queuing at the Help Line; large crowds during drop-in help hours; an unacceptable average of seven days to complete a help request, and client wait times that can exceed two weeks for on-site help. The damage to client productivity is substantial.  Very little time is available for proactive work such as teaching, publication, and research into new technologies.  Client surveys show that our services are needed and appreciated, but are insufficient to meet demand.  Several remedies would improve this situation. Additional staffing at the Information Technology Professional level at the Help Line, drop-in support, and on-site would have the most direct impact, decreasing wait times while permitting more proactive problem-avoidance work.  Three additional positions, one providing a full-time professional at the Help Line and two working at the drop-in support center and on-site, would improve our client support ratio for general computing needs from 1,822 clients per regular staff member to 1,414, or 1.4 hours per client per year, up from 1.1 hours, $147,000.

 

 

 

Expansion of Campus File Services and workstation management
Now that departmental clients have migrated from Novell NetWare-based  file services to Campus File Services running on Windows 2003 Server,  it is time to expand the value of that investment by providing file  services to all faculty and staff.  A testing lab is needed to support nondisruptive system enhancement.  Cost: one position at the Information Technology Professional Senior level, salary and benefits $74200; hardware (primarily storage):  $207,000; software: $8,000 total $289,200.

Effective management of individual workstations is one of the most promising areas for future investment, and one of the most critical, given the damage and complaints generated by unpatched computers.   Relatively basic, high-value workstation management services are now in place, and we would like to investigate the feasibility of more comprehensive services.  A rough estimate of costs is $85,000 for hardware, software, education, and consulting. Development and ongoing support would call for an additional Information Technology Professional Senior.

 

 

Wireless network   
The Cat's PAWS wireless network sees an average of one thousand daily users.  Most students on campus own laptop computers, and they expect to use UVM's wireless network in more locations than have been funded to date, particularly in their residence hall rooms.   One result is rogue wireless networks that interfere with network performance and security.  The IT Planning Council found that wireless expansion is the top IT issue for students; it was ranked second by all students, faculty, and staff.  Additional investments are needed to increase coverage, to ensure appropriate security, and to improve our competitive position.  We request $30,000 to study feasibility, costs, and community preferences for new areas of wireless network coverage.

 

Technical communications and publications

Many clients are unaware of, or unable to take advantage of, important IT services available to them. Some services are undocumented, and limited-scale publications don't reach intended audiences.  Some offerings are underutilized for lack of client education.   Significantly increased education, communication, and marketing would improve student, faculty, and staff productivity, while reducing the demand for problem resolution.  One position at the Information Technology Professional Senior level, dedicated to Web and print publications and teaching, would make a positive difference.   Salary and benefits $67,000.

 

Support for additional personal information management devices       

Each separate personal digital assistant (PDA) architecture that we choose to support requires specialized expertise. To date we have been able to provide minimal, calendar-only support for the Palm family of devices, with primary support provided by a student employee. We are also supporting the executive offices' use of PocketPC Axims.  Meeting client demand for more comprehensive support (wireless, email, special applications), and for additional platforms (PocketPC, Blackberry, "smart" phones) would require additional staff education, time, and equipment.  To add full support for Palm and PocketPC would require an additional 0.5 FTE. Products like Blackberry may require dedicated servers, which we estimate would add a minimum of 0.5 FTE. Providing full support for all three architectures would require an additional FTE at an estimated cost of $63,000.

 

Major IT projects

This year, at the direction of the Information Technology Planning Council, CIT prepared 5 year budgets for 14 major IT projects. This exercise was meant to broadly identify unmet needs and opportunities, and to investigate a potential IT funding gap. Some of these budgets are fairly high level estimates, but many are fairly detailed plans. I want to draw attention especially to the plan for improving Business Continuity. Our existing mission critical systems are deployed with SIGNIFICANTLY fewer failover features that our new Human Capital Management and Finance systems. There are many affordable opportunities for improving the survivability of our core services. We have attached a copy of our Business Continuity proposal, prepared by our senior database analyst Michael Grundhauser.

 

Here is the entire list and the 5 year budget for each.

Student Portal

 

Student Portal	$2,492,989
Class & Meeting Rooms	$7,986,028
Email & Calendar	$9,493,984
Network Infrastructure	$13,753,129
Network Security	$803,341
Business Systems Continuity	$6,325,938
CIT Machine Room Renovate	$1,316,000[3]
Electronic Storage	$4,451,224
Learning Management Systems	$437,958
System Backups	$2,489,161
SIS Enhancements	$4,668,403
Digital Repositories	$729,158
Business Document Imaging	$894,223
Microsoft CA for Employees	$732,743
	$56,574,279

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attachments:

1. Business continuity recommendations