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CIO Update for the Week of Feb 29

The calendar turns to March this week heralding the arrival of Spring. There are two weeks left in the academic calendar before Spring Break. In looking at the calendar for the week of February 29th, the following items of general interest are worth commenting on:

News

New

  • The Monthly CIO Chat is set for Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

  • The ServiceNow Sponsor Steering Committee meets on Wednesday.

  • The Chancellor’s Century Council meets on Thursday and Friday in San Antonio.

  • Coming out of the last CIO Council, I wanted to clarify the characteristics, role, and responsibilities of the Security Operations Center (“SOC”). They are as follows:

    • Shared Service Center
      The SOC is a shared service center. As such, it will be funded by the members. It will be the owner of system-wide master contracts for security products and services. It will provide services to members as defined by the Security Operations Center Advisory Board and CIO Council.
    • Security Policies
      The SOC will be the author and librarian for all system policies and regulations related to security. It will work with the members to develop rules and procedures at the member-level as is required. The System Chief Information Security Officer will provide oversight of this role.
    • Wide Area Network Monitoring
      The SOC will be responsible for monitoring the wide area network. This ensures that one entity has the ability – for example – to block IP addresses at the WAN-level to protect all members. This will necessitate the members providing the SOC with data/information as is needed for the SOC to monitor the wide area network.
    • Cyber Monitoring
      The SOC will be responsible for all cyber monitoring across the system. The SOC will take the lead in monitoring the non-TAMU entities in 2016. TAMU will be allowed to implement an equivalent cyber monitoring solution in 2016 in order to allow the system to meet the goal of 100% cyber monitoring by the end of 2016.
    • Data Loss Prevention
      The SOC will be responsible for ensuring that all members have fully implemented a data loss prevention strategy by the end of 2016. The SOC already owns a sufficient number of DLP licenses for all members.
    • Future Role
      The expanded role of the SOC in 2017 (and beyond) will be determined by the Security Operations Center Advisory Board and the CIO Council.

     

  • A thank you was received from Presidio for time on the CIO Council’s February agenda.

    All:

    I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to review the SmartNet Procedures with you all last week. Nicole will be reaching out to the designated points of contact to initiate Quarterly True-ups and we will be getting everyone set up on Presidio’s Vision Portal. The Vision Portal provides clients with a tool that is part of every maintenance engagement as a valued add. Please feel free in the meantime to reach out to me with any follow-up questions you may have.

    Thanks,

    Lesli Howland

System-Wide Contracting News

Repeats

  • Current System-wide Contracts

    • Cisco SmartNet (discretionary)
    • Diligent provides board portal functionality for all members. (discretionary)
    • Hootsuite will enable members to manage social networks, schedule messages and measure social media from a dashboard under a master contract. (discretionary)
    • Modo Labs provides mobile application development support for all members. (discretionary)
    • Proofpoint email filtering and data loss prevention tools are available for all members. (in annual assessment)
    • Security Operations Center (in annual assessment)
    • Siteimprove checks web pages, every five days, for spelling, grammar, broken links and accessibility. The cost is 54 cents per web page per year. Any member interested in adding this service need to contact me directly. (discretionary)
    • StealthWatch provides cyber security monitoring for all members. (in annual assessment)
    • Syncplicity licensing is available for all members. (in annual assessment)
    • WebEx is available to all members. Faculty/administrators can obtain licenses at the low cost of $1.44/month/license. (discretionary)
    • WebQA is the TAMUS approved Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) solution for all members. (in annual assessment)

     

  • System-wide Contracts Under Development

    • Banner COE will enable all members to obtain Banner-related services under a master contract. (discretionary)
    • Contract Management COE will provide members with the ability to track, manage and optimize contracts under a master contract. (discretionary)
    • Docusign will provide members with electronic signature and related workflow capabilities under a master contract. (discretionary)

Projects

New

  • Project Helios

    • Design Prep sessions this week focused on Talent Management, Compensation and Onboarding.
    • The team is getting ready for business process design sessions that begin on March 22. Detailed planning continues for two kickoff sessions scheduled for March 8 and 9.
    • Design sessions continued on the “Payroll Accounting Link” integration that will integrate Workday and FAMIS.
    • Grant Thornton LLP, our IV&V partner, is meeting with the team and is reviewing Vision and Plan deliverables and the Implementation project plan.
    • An exploration team is being formed to ask questions about the Workday Financials product. The team’s goal is to learn about the product through workshops, discussions, demos and webinars.

SCIO Trips/Visits

  • San Antonio/Chancellor’s Century Council (March 3-4)