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CIO Update for the Week of Sep 26

A great weekend of college football (TAMU wins, Texas and Oklahoma lose, etc.)

For the week of September 26, the following items of general interest are worth commenting on.

News

New

  • It’s Tech Summit Week!

    • It’s not too late to join in the fun – registration is open through September 28.
    • Check out the schedule! Session recordings are available for 30 days after the summit – you can pick up any sessions you missed.
    • The fun begins Tuesday, September 27 at 1:00 p.m.!

     

  • IT Governance

    • The Financial Systems Modernization Executive Sponsor Committee meets Monday at 2:00 p.m.

Repeats

  • IT Modernization Plan

    You are free to submit drafts to me for review. After all members submit drafts, I will notify you when to submit your plan to DIR.

    • Each member is required to complete an IT Modernization Plan.
    • Notes
      • Due October 1; given the lengthy negotiations with DIR, it is expected that some IHEs may be a little late
      • Submit the completed and signed template to ITModernizationPlan@DIR.Texas.gov; digital signature may be acceptable
      • It is our understanding that the report is not subject to Open Records requests as it may contain sensitive material
      • ITCHE knows that IHEs do not create an IT Modernization Plan per se, but most cybersecurity initiatives and upgrades fall into that category; this includes refreshing laptops, desktops, servers, wireless, other networking, and classroom tech; this is true even if it is standard routine to upgrade laptops every three years (as an example)
    • Below is a brief description of what to do in each section and a suggested maximum page length in parentheses (Note: this has been agreed by ITCHE)
      • Section 1  –  Executive Summary (not to exceed 2 pages)
      • Section 2 –  Cut and paste from your institution’s material; this section is not about IT per se (not exceed 3 pages)
      • Section 3 – Enter IT modernization initiatives approved for FY 23 and if you have some for FY24/25 already approved (1-2 paragraphs each, up to ten initiatives)
      • Section 4 –  Consider a five year horizon and if something is not funded, just say undetermined for that column, include end of life applications, software, hardware; you may duplicate some of Sec 3 (1 page)
      • Section 5 –  Do a little research and document here (no limit)
      • Section 6 –  Mostly cut and paste  from risk management assessments, audits, insurance directives, etc. (not to exceed 3 pages)
      • Section 7 –  Optional (zero pages)

     

System-Wide Contracting News

New

In Process

  • A&M System-wide Contracts Under Development:

    • eSignature (NextGen)
    • Cohesity

     

Repeats

  • Current A&M System-wide Contracts:

    • 3 Play Media provides closed captioning services (discretionary)
    • Acadeum provides access to an online education marketplace that offers courses across a network of colleges and universities to help students stay on track and graduate faster (discretionary)
    • Accelevents supports virtual and hybrid conferences (discretionary)
    • AdmitHub fosters student success with artificial intelligence-powered mobile messaging and chatbots (discretionary)
    • Adobe provides full Creative Cloud suite and Adobe Pro software tools (discretionary)
    • Adobe Sign provides electronic signature and related workflow capabilities (discretionary)
    • airSlate / SignNow provides electronic signature and related workflow capabilities (discretionary)
    • AT&T provides network as a service and related services (discretionary)
    • Automatic Sync provides closed captioning services (discretionary)
    • Aventri supports virtual and hybrid conferences (discretionary)
    • Banner COE (CAG) provides Banner-related services (discretionary)
    • Blackboard provides a cloud-based learning management system (discretionary)
    • Campus Sonar provides specialized social listening services for higher education (discretionary)
    • campusM (Ex Libris) supports mobile application development (discretionary)
    • Canvas (Instructure) provides a cloud-based learning management system (discretionary)
    • Cisco Strategic Relationship supports the AT&T NaaS RELLIS services and includes discounted Cisco products and services (discretionary)
    • Class Climate (Scantron) allows students to evaluate academic courses and instructors (discretionary)
    • D2L provides a cloud-based learning management system (discretionary)
    • Diligent provides board portal functionality (discretionary)
    • DocuSign provides electronic signature and related workflow capabilities (discretionary)
    • Duo (Cisco) provides two-factor authentication (discretionary)
    • Examity provides on-line proctoring services (discretionary)
    • eXplorance allows students to evaluate academic courses and instructors (discretionary)
    • Exterro unifies e-discovery, privacy and digital forensics activities to help organizations manage and mitigate regulatory, compliance and litigation risks
    • Fetii provides contactless scanning technology through QR codes (discretionary)
    • GoReact provides a platform for feedback, grading and critiquing of video assignments (discretionary)
    • GovQA (WebQA) is the TAMUS approved Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) solution (assessed)
    • Guardian I-9 (LawLogix) provides electronic I-9 compliance verification (discretionary)
    • Hootsuite enables members to manage social networks, schedule messages and measure social media from a dashboard (discretionary)
    • Interfolio provides academic faculty management software (discretionary)
    • IOTA Solutions allows students to evaluate academic courses and instructors (discretionary)
    • Laserfiche provides document digitization and automated records processing, storage retrieval, security and archiving (discretionary)
    • LinkedIn Learning provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative and business skills (discretionary)
    • Microsoft provides business software and services (direct bill)
    • Modo Labs supports mobile application development (discretionary)
    • Navex provides on-line proctoring services (discretionary)
    • Oracle provides a shared hardware/software platform to host Oracle-based applications (discretionary)
    • Palo Alto provides firewalls and associated security subscription services (discretionary)
    • PlatformQ enables universities to connect with students at every stage of the recruitment process (discretionary)
    • Pluralsight offers a variety of video-based training for software developers, IT administrators and creative professionals (discretionary)
    • Portfolium (Instructure) provides students and recent graduates with the ability to connect with businesses and employers using previous academic work and projects to supplement their communication (discretionary)
    • Proctorio provides on-line proctoring services (discretionary)
    • Qualtrics provides an online survey tool that supports building and distributing surveys and analyzing the responses (discretionary)
    • Siteimprove checks web pages, every five days, for spelling, grammar, broken links, and accessibility (assessed)
    • Smart Net (Cisco) provides Cisco equipment maintenance (discretionary)
    • SmartEvals (Gap Technologies) allows students to evaluate academic courses and instructors (discretionary)
    • Sprout Social provides a social media management platform (discretionary)
    • Sterling provides background check services for employment, employment screening, drug testing, I-9 employment and education verification (discretionary)
    • TeamDynamix provides cloud-based IT service and project management software (discretionary)
    • Verbit provides closed captioning services (discretionary)
    • VMware provides various VMware software, services and training/consulting credits (discretionary)
    • WebEx (Cisco) provides online collaboration and meeting software (discretionary)

     

Travel

  • Dallas (Sept 29-30)
  • Dallas (Oct 3-4)