2008 in Review

Last year at this time we posted about upcoming changes the Office of Information Technology would be involved with in 2008. One year later, how did we do?

Hardware

We Said:

• Tablet PCs and all-in-one machines will become more popular
• There will be more widespread availability of solid state hard drives (hard drives without any moving parts).
• Widescreen monitors will rule the roost.

What Really Happened:

• Tablet PCs did become more popular, but not to the extent we imagined.  Dell introduced a much vaunted Tablet PC at a price of over $3,000 in a market where computers were, by and large, becoming relatively inexpensive commodities (though by the end of the year Dell had dropped the price of its tablet to around $1,800). Other vendor’s Tablet PCs failed to make much of a dent at Boise State University. We can see a use for a Tablet PC as an accessory with a desktop computer, but for those employees who want a Tablet PC to function as their primary work machine, they’re often sorely disappointed.
• Instead, we saw a lot of demand for small, lightweight laptops that provide a lot of bang for the buck, such as the terrific Dell Latitude E4300 and E4200.
• Solid state hard drives were still quit expensive by year’s end; while they boot up Windows at blazingly fast pace (around 30 seconds by our reckoning), their price puts them out of reach for most purchases, particularly in light of our challenging economic climate.
• All-in-one machines really didn’t make an impression in 2008; one of our biggest frustrations with all-in-one computers (such as the Apple iMac) is the products can be quite time-consuming to repair.
• Widescreen does, indeed, rule the roost.

Symantec AntiVirus

We Said:

• Our enterprise anti-virus software will be upgraded to a new version, known as Symantec Endpoint, in Spring ‘08.

What Really Happened:

• The upgrade has been put off until at least Summer ‘09, due to other IT projects taking precedence.

Novell ZenWorks

We Said:

• A new version of Novell ZenWorks, known as ZCM, will allow us to be able to provide better support for Windows Vista.

What Really Happened:

• We got ZCM all setup and use it for our Vista computers, but it had a number of problems with Windows XP.  As a result we kept most of our computers on the older, more stable version.  At this point we are a searching for a better solution to move forward with.

Knowledgebase

We Said:

• We plan to implement a new knowledgebase product, RightAnswers.

What Really Happened:

• RightAnswers was successfully implemented as a key part of Help Desk Self Service, our online suite of support tools. Help Desk Self Service combines a new knowledgebase with tens of thousands of knowledge articles, as well as nearly a thousand internally-written articles focusing on software and IT issues specific to Boise State University.
• Students can now peruse the knowledgebase, too.
• In addition, you can now use Help Desk Self Service for submitting account requests, and to check on the status of support requests to the OIT Help Desk (see our jaunty video).

PeopleSoft

We Said:

• Time and Labor will be a new module added to our PeopleSoft environment to allow for online time card and vacation tracking.
• The University plans to upgrade its Human Resources/Payroll and Student Administration systems from PeopleSoft 8 to PeopleSoft 9.

What Really Happened:

• Time and Labor was introduced as a separate tool in PeopleSoft 8, and later folded into PeopleSoft 9.
• The upgrade from PeopleSoft 8 to PeopleSoft 9 went very well.

Microsoft Site License

We Said:

• The University is pursuing a Microsoft Site License for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, providing enterprise copies for all University computers and eliminating the need for departments to purchase Office, XP, and Vista software separately.

What Really Happened:

• We got it!
• As part of the deal, employees can take advantage of the Microsoft Home Use Program to obtain full copies of Microsoft Office for personal computers for a small service fee. More information can be found on the Help Desk’s website.
• Another benefit is Microsoft Computer Based Training, covering a wide range of Microsoft software. This service is offered at no cost to full-time faculty (including Adjuncts) and staff. More information can be found (where else?) on the Help Desk’s website.

Apple OS 10.5

We Said:

• Apple’s OS X 10.5 operating system will prove to be popular among the campus Mac community.

What Really Happened:

• Leopard, Apple’s OS X 10.5 operating system, has matured quite a bit in 2008, and is easily Apple’s best OS to date. Which almost, but not quite, makes up for the MobileMe fiasco.

Microsoft Windows Vista

We Said:

• We expect all of our support tools to be able to work with Vista in 2008.
• Departments may have to purchase new software or new computers for use with Vista.

What Really Happened

• While most of our support tools and software do finally work with Vista, a few still don’t.
• The expected groundswell to upgrade existing Windows XP machines never materialized. Compared to the relative rush we saw several years ago to ugprade Windows 2000 machines to Windows XP, the desire from most folks on campus to upgrade to Windows Vista can best be expressed by dropping a pin and listening to the resulting sound.
• Instead, we focused our efforts on updating existing Windows XP machines with additional memory and other components to make them run even faster and last longer. We also finally got rid of Windows 2000 machines on campus.

Microsoft Office 2007 and 2008

We Said:

• OIT will be pushing out the Office 2007 Compatibility Translation Pack to supported areas to allow older versions of Office to open the new Office 2007 file formats.
• There is also a steep learning curve in learning the new version of Office, yet worth the effort.
• Office 2008, the latest Mac version of Microsoft Office, will be released in early ‘08.

What Really Happened:

• The Compatibility Pack was successfully pushed out to campus.
• The upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows proved much more popular than the upgrade to Windows Vista; surely our Microsoft Site License helped speed the adoption of Office 2007.
• The learning curve for Office 2007 was mitigated by some terrific tutorials available on Microsoft’s website.
• Microsoft Office 2008 finally made it to the Mac, and did so without incident.

Google Apps for Education

We Said:

• The University is planning to migrate to the Google Apps software suite for student email.
• Plans to migrate employees from GroupWise to Google Apps are being assessed.

What Really Happened:

• The BroncoMail migration to Google Apps was smooth as butter. In fact, it may have been the smoothest migration of an enterprise system many of us have ever been involved with during our respective careers.
• The assessment for Google Apps was completed and turned in to University executives.  Expect an official announcement from the University within the next couple of weeks!

What’s on the table for 2009? Stay tuned!