News
New
Many of you have reached out to Mark Schulz or myself concerning BAM performance, response time, and overall usability. We wanted to let you know that Periscope has realigned resources and formed an internal team to specifically address these issues. We have seen an early plan, and they have begun to execute on it. We have also assisted with plan development by gathering information, assisting with analysis, and reporting observations.
Note that some of the plan is hardware and software related, while some of the plan relates to improving and streamlining the user experience. We don’t know when the implementation will make the system feel faster and/or more useable, but we hope by consistent progress we will reach a tipping point. The implementation team is also planning a weekly executive communication with high level status updates. This will begin the week of January 25th. If you need answers to any questions, please contact Mark Schulz or myself.
System-Wide Contracting News
New
The committee scoring the Student Information Systems RFP will conclude its work today (Tuesday).
The committee evaluating responses to the Dollar Data Center RFP selected a finalist. Contract negotiations with the finalist are underway. The selection will be taken to the Board of Regents in February.
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)
- 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 Updates
- The Project Helios IV&V (Independent Verification & Validation) evaluation team continues contract negotiations with the sole finalist.
- Vision and Plan deliverables continue to be completed and are being tracked against the Stage 1 Deliverables Log. This week focused on change management, data conversion and testing deliverables.
- The team provided a recommended scope, go live approach and go live date to the Executive Sponsors. The team will meet with the Executive Advisory Committee on January 27th. Final approval of the scope, go live approach and go live date is expected at the end of January.
SCIO Trips/Visits
- No trips scheduled for this week.