News
New
New leadership leads to reorganization of staff at DIR. With a new face at the helm of the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR), a reorganization of staff has followed. Todd Kimbriel is currently serving as Interim Chief Information officer (CIO) and executive director of the agency following the retirement of former Texas CIO and DIR Executive Director Karen Robinson.
As part of the reorganization, John Hoffman has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer and Dale Richardson is the new Chief Operations Officer. Janet Gilmore will assume the role of IRM for the agency and has been promoted to take on the responsibilities of Director of Digital Government. Jennifer Buass has been promoted to assistant director of Texas.gov, the state’s official Web site.
Promoted to director of Data Center Services is Sally Ward, where she will oversee consolidation of agency data into two secure locations. Wayne Egeler has been promoted to Director of Communications Technology Services and the Capitol Complex Telephone System.
Vivian Cullipher has been promoted to Director of Communications, where she will focus on the agency’s redesigned Web site and divisional communications planning. Press and social medial will continue to be handled by Thomas Johnson and Lisa Nowotny will add to her role at the agency as new functions are added to the Communications division. Additionally, Lynda Baker is the new Stakeholder Engagement Manager and Amy Baillargeon in Government Relations will report directly to the office of the executive director.
Repeats
Websense Executive Briefing. The January 22nd Websense Executive Briefing will be held in Austin. Please contact Linnea Sandler about additional details.
A working group is being established to develop a Project Management Practices – TAC 216 Companion Guide for The Texas A&M University System. Alison Winslow from the Texas A&M IT PMO will coordinate this effort and the first meeting of the working group will be on February 11 during the Technology Summit. Expect mail from Alison Winslow (a-winslow@tamu.edu) this week with an invitation to appoint members of the working group.
You are invited to attend the new Texas A&M University System Technology Summit (formerly the TTVN conference) February 10-13, 2015 in Galveston, Texas. The Technology Summit is open to all Texas A&M University System employees and features 32 interactive sessions in four tracks:
- General IT: sessions include Zero day threats, Managing Macs, DevOps, eSignatures;
- Learning Technologies: sessions include Mobile technology in class, Learning analytics, Next gen learning spaces;
- Web: sessions include Mobile first, Continuous integration and testing, Usability; and
- Shared Services: Syncplicity, Digital signage, Two factor authentication, and 5 more sessions.
Additionally, we will hear from both the System Digital Media Center of Excellence and the System Council on Academic Technology and Innovative Education. The Summit is designed to give you plenty of time to network with your colleagues around the System, speakers, and our exhibitors. There are three pre-Summit workshops on IPv6, mobile site development, and effective teaching available at an additional charge. Register before February 1, 2015 to get the early-registration rate and be entered for the chance to win an iPad.
For details and registration information, visit http://techsummit.tamu.edu.
Thanks to the 11 Members who have provided feedback via the survey related to System Governance. The System Governance development team is interested in your approach to governance. Please take a few moments and complete the survey by Tuesday, February 20. Please contact Leslie Lenser at llenser@tamus.edu with questions.
Projects
New
Oracle(PeopleSoft) are on the College Station campus this week. Workday will be on the College Station campus next week to provide demonstrations to faculty, staff and administrators. Each vendor’s software will offer new functionality for faculty administration and research effort reporting.
There are many sessions in the vendor demos related to the various functionality of the vendors software as well as specific IT-related functions. Please take a look at the demo schedules and register for any sessions you may be interested in attending. There are specific IT sessions that will address security, development, API’s, and custom reporting.
Registration to attend is required as space is limited, and the registration link and agendas are available here.
Demo Schedule: http://it-tamus-edu.it.tamus.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2015/01/HRPayroll-Software-Demonstration-Agenda-Jan10.pdf
The hope is to have IT professionals who provide workflow, reporting or security for their departments on related topics and software participate in the demonstrations so that the Project team can gather their feedback on which solution would best fit from their perspective.
In Process
Utilities & Energy Services is working with Agrilife to serve as the pilot of Cisco EnergyWise.
The RFP for the Dollar Data Center closes this week. The RFP can be viewed by going to: http://esbd.cpa.state.tx.us/bid_show.cfm?bidid=115021
SCIO Trips/Visits
- Austin (January 22nd)