Since the IT transformation was formalized in August 2020, ET&S consolidated the IT workforce, established defined technology and cybersecurity services, and began the standardization of service delivery across the university system. These efforts enabled each institution to leverage the depth of IT expertise, increase access to curated data, improve the collective cybersecurity posture of our academic, business, and research operations, improve the spin-up time of new capabilities for emerging needs, and reduce the overall costs to support enterprise services. Some examples of ET&S achievements include the following
Partnerships
ET&S teamed with CCSNH and the NH Department of Education: ET&S negotiated key contracts with Canvas, Zoom, and Kaltura to deliver statewide faculty and student education technology to both Higher Ed systems and K-12 districts state-wide to include the stand-up of iLearnNH, an organization dedicated to K-12 support.
ET&S partnered with UNH Research to establish a data warehouse, reporting tools, and a data-sharing architecture. This enabled the COVID Testing laboratory, health providers, public safety, state officials, and senior campus leadership to assess and translate hundreds of thousands of COVID test results into consumable and meaningful data in order to drive thoughtful responses to the conditions at the campus throughout the pandemic.
Hybrid Work Support
In Spring/Summer 2020, ET&S designed and installed high-tech video systems across 193 USNH classrooms to support both in-class and remote teaching and learning. This new technology coupled with extensive faculty training was critical to enabling academic and research activity throughout the pandemic. Given the workforce and workplace of the future, ET&S will build upon the work over the past year to further advance the technology and pedagogical support for hybrid teaching to support the hybrid work environment of the future. We will provide recommendations on conference room and workspace technology and training and support for employees on best practices for using technology to engage a hybrid workforce. Look for scheduled training later this summer on key topics like facilitating hybrid meetings and using Microsoft 365 to maximize team collaboration.
Improved Cybersecurity
Keeping our environment safe and secure is the job of all USNH faculty, staff, and students. ET&S enabled this through integrated cybersecurity policies, training opportunities, strong configuration management and constant maintenance of the environment to counter emerging threats against our data and systems. Some key ET&S achievements and planned activities:
- ET&S collaborated with the cabinet officials at each institution to establish three critical USNH policies: the Acceptable Use Policy, the USNH Cybersecurity Policy, and the Information Classification Policy. These policies integrate the ‘best of breed’ policies from each institution to bring a unified approach to securing our data and systems.
- ET&S will offer training and educational opportunities for staff to help better articulate the employee role in cybersecurity to help with the USNH effort to achieve the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), which will strengthen our position for compliance required for future funding opportunities. ET&S will also continue to support Cybersecurity Month (October) with training opportunities, professional development and vendor engagements.
- With the consolidation of IT services across the university system, ET&S conducted a comprehensive cybersecurity penetration test to provide a baseline cybersecurity posture, catalog deficiencies, and establish a prioritized remediation plan. The good news is that ET&S addressed many of the key deficiencies. This work will continue into FY22 and beyond as we continually reassess our baseline against emerging threats.
Increased access to key institutional data
Access to data is crucial to supporting the many academic, research and business activities. The last year showed a steep increase in this need to support operations, financial analysis and public safety during the pandemic. Some key ET&S achievements and planned activities:
- Introduced the Web Intelligence (WeBI) enterprise reporting tool to institutions that did not previously use WebI for self-service access to data and information. These new tools enabled campus leaders to deliver timely and relevant data to support public safety during COVID-19, informed critical decision-making for complex financial analysis, and supported strategic USNH goals and initiatives.
- Leveraged the use of the Tableau data visualization tool across USNH to develop new self-service data visualizations and dashboards.
- Collaborated across interdisciplinary units to acquire and combine data in new ways to provide data-based analysis to support student success initiatives across USNH. Similar initiatives will continue in FY22 as ET&S strives to increase self-service access to data and information.
Network expansion
ET&S completed a massive system-wide improvement to network infrastructure to support the demand signal from hybrid academic and research operations. In FY22, these improvements will continue with a comprehensive modernization of telephone systems across USNH, and a USNH-wide wireless project for EDUROAM—a global roaming wireless access network with a presence in over 100 locations worldwide.
Student Technology
ET&S built a program to expand student access to technology with a technology bundle program, providing free laptops to students in need and expanded remote access to on-campus computers and specialized software. Work will continue this year to allow users easier access to technology by automating processes and providing additional self-service tools.
Strategic vendor relationships
Licensed new tools with key partners like Microsoft and VMware to help us speed up deployment, management, and upgrading of our infrastructure—direct capability improvements to our customer base. Garnered contract support from Microsoft to assist with data migrations and renaming of the IT enterprise environment.
IT contracts overhaul
ET&S overhauled many IT contracts, expected to result in $800K+ in savings in FY22.
Reduced personnel requirements
ET&S reduced the amount of personnel by consolidating all USNH IT departments into a single unit. This effort will save USNH millions annually, given the transformation of the organization and services.
Technology and Service Standardization
ET&S integrated software, services and processes across USNH to provide the USNH with more efficiency, better 24/7 customer support, and promote collaboration and communication across all institutions.
- This includes the Microsoft 365 Project to put all USNH campuses in the same Microsoft environment;
- The Moodle to Canvas Migration to standardize a single learning management system for all of USNH. This effort in conjunction with the partnership with the NH Department of Education enabled ET&S to offer that same technology to all K-12 schools in NH
- The information technology help desk consolidation created a single ticketing system and built flexible support teams to meet the demands created by the new unified environments and provide customers with consistent 24/7 support.
