Transcript Mur Muchane

In Plain English, Please:
Effective IT Communications
Lisa Trubitt
Assistant to the CIO
for Policy & Communications
University at Albany, SUNY
[email protected]
Mur Muchane
Executive Director,
Information Technology Services
Davidson College
[email protected]
How we got here …
Met in Dallas at EDUCAUSE 2006
Discovered we were both “translators” for our
organizations with a common set of challenges
Decided we wanted to continue our conversation with a
larger audience
Why do we communicate?
To educate our users
Share information about
programs/services
Notifications
Emergencies and/or service
interruptions
Common pitfalls in
IT communications
Hard for non-technical folks to understand
Too much information
Heavy on technical details
About Davidson
National Liberal Arts College
Located in Davidson, North Carolina
~ 170 faculty, 500 staff
~ 1700 students, all residential
10:1 student to faculty ratio
USNWR top ten
About IT at Davidson
Centralized IT staff of 38 reporting to
CIO
Five teams:
Business Operations
Enterprise Applications
Instructional Tech & Media Prod.
Technology Help Services
Systems and Networks
Communication at Davidson
before …
Highly technical
Too detailed
Wrong tone
Monodimensional
Increase in Email Quotas before …
Subject: Important information about Faculty and Staff email accounts
In preparation for introduction of Office 2007 to campus later this month, a change to your email account will be
made on Friday, September 21st. This change will affect faculty and staff email accounts. Students’ accounts were
changed at the end of the summer.
Friday, September 21 at 5:00 pm, staff and faculty mailboxes will be moved to a new email server. The moves
will be completed by 9 am on Saturday.
An individual’s email will be inaccessible for 15-20 minutes during the actual mailbox move. ITS cannot predict
when a specific mailbox will be moved, but we will post an entry on the ITS News blog after all the moves are
completed. The mailbox move will be transparent to Outlook users on campus. The next time they start Outlook, it
will automatically “discover” that their mailbox is in a new location.
If you use Entourage, Smartphone/Active Sync, or Outlook full client from off campus (RPC over
HTTP), you will need to make changes to your current setup after your mailbox is on the new server. We
will send instructions about those changes next week.
If there is a reason your mailbox should not be moved on Friday, September 21, please let us know by
Replying to this message.
The exciting news is that your storage space on the new server will increase from 100MB to 1GB. Enhancements to
the anti-spam software are already in place to help better manage the influx of spam to campus.
Information about Office 2007, Outlook Web Access (OWA),anti-virus software change, and Vista will also be
forthcoming from ITS.
Responses will go to the Help Desk.
Increase in Email Quotas after …
Dear Campus Colleagues,
We are very pleased to announce larger email quotas. On Friday, September 21st at 5:00 p.m., faculty and staff
mailboxes will be moved to a new email server and your email quota will increase from 100MB to 1GB. The move
process will take15-20 minutes per account. Your email will be inaccessible during this short window. If moving
your email account on Friday presents a problem for you, we’ll be happy to accommodate you. Simply let us know
by replying to this message.
If you use Entourage, a Smartphone, or Outlook from off campus, you will need to make changes to your current
setup after your mailbox is on the new server.
Please let us know if you have any questions by contacting our Help Desk.
Best, Mur Muchane
Communication at Davidson
now …
CIO review of IT messages
Revised our vision statement
Multiple channels
Language appropriate to audience
used
Simple and direct
Communication at Davidson
now …
From print to blog
Less IT email clutter
Trying to make it interactive
Communication at Davidson
now …
Podcasts
Light touch for “unpleasant
topics”
Recent podcasts include:
Avoiding the RIAA
Online Privacy
Acceptable Use
Communication at Davidson
now …
Cable TV in residence halls
Take the message to the
students
IT Podcasts on channel
guide
Communication at Davidson
now …
Cable TV in residence
halls
Conceptual messages vs.
operational
Communication at Davidson
now …
Flat panel monitors
Conceptual and
humorous IT messages
Communication at Davidson
now …
Communication at Davidson
now …
Communication at Davidson
now …
More face time
Academic and administrative
departmental meetings
Faculty retreats
Technology advisory groups
About UAlbany
One of four University Centers in the SUNY system
10 colleges and schools across 3 campuses
~17,000 students (7500 residential)
~4,400 faculty and staff
About IT at UAlbany
Centralized ITS staff of 130 reports to CIO
OCIO staff
Client Support Services
Information Security Officer
Research IT Group
Systems Management & Operations
Telecommunications
University Applications Development
~50 distributed IT staff in colleges, schools and centers
Communication at UAlbany
before …
Internally …
Not enough to non-existent
Not coordinated
Not cooperative
Externally …
Too bossy
Too technical
Too apologetic
Communication at UAlbany now …
Centralized through Office of the CIO
Different mechanisms used for different kinds of
communicating
Keep it simple
Ask yourself: what do people really need to know?
Communication at UAlbany now …
Multiple forums for getting the word out
Input from numerous stakeholder groups
Becoming better listeners
Emphasis on relationship-building and learning more
about needs in other divisions
Communication Challenges
Getting buy-in from executive management
Getting buy-in from IT staff
Where’s the rest of the information?!
Remember: communication is an on-going process
Daylight Savings Time Before …
Subject Line: Daylight Saving Time Impact on Exchange
Daylight Saving Time (DST) Change
As of March 11, 2007 Daylight Saving Time starts three weeks earlier and ends one week later than it has in the past. Any devices using date and time to function
properly will be impacted, including computers, calendaring applications, mobile devices, and even home electronics like a VCR. The greatest impact on campus has to do
with computer time changes and Exchange calendars.
What Customers May Notice
Microsoft released an operating system patch last week which now has Outlook meetings during the period March 11 - April 1, 2007 appearing to be off by one hour.
What ITS is Doing to Address DST
We recognize this situation is highly problematic for our customers and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. The national media has ranked the DST issue on
the same scale as Y2K, with weeks instead of months to address issues. Microsoft just released their patches and ITS has begun the implementation process; the steps
involved in this process are:
Patches will be automatically installed on domain computers over the next two days
The Exchange and OWA servers will be taken down for a brief period at 5:00 pm this Friday (2/23) to be patched
Once the servers are patched a tool will be run against each person’s Exchange calendar to correct meetings scheduled 3/11-4/1. This tool will take several hours to run
and may impact Exchange system performance, so it will be run over the weekend in order to minimize its effect on customer productivity. Exchange and OWA will still
be accessible over the weekend.
When people return to work Monday, they may have new meeting requests in their inboxes which pertain to meetings that were already scheduled on their calendars,
during these three weeks; the tool is designed to send out replacement meeting requests reflecting the corrected meeting time.
What Customers Can Do
For the remainder of the week, customers may find inaccuracies in meeting times for the period 3/11-4/1. We ask that customers not modify these appointments
manually, as once updates are made to the servers the appointment times should be corrected. In the meantime, for new meetings, we recommend that the correct
meeting time be listed in the appointment’s subject line and that you verify the accuracy of appointment times for the affected calendar period. This Friday, we ask that
you log off of your computer before leaving for the day.
On Monday, we ask customers to accept the replacement meeting requests and also check their calendars and confirm any meeting times for the DST period as there is a
chance that some meetings may not be fixed by the tool.
If meetings are still incorrect after Monday, we encourage customers to contact their Technology Coordinator for assistance; ITS-supported customers can submit a help
request at www.albany.edu/its/help and include a description of the problem.
Throughout this new DST period, Microsoft suggests that “all users affected by the time change give extra attention to meetings and appointments scheduled between
March 11, 2007 to April 1, 2007 and October 28, 2007 to November 4, 2007. People should view any appointments that fall into these date ranges as suspect until they
communicate with all meeting invitees to make sure that the item shows up correctly on everyone’s calendar both internally and externally”.
ITS will update its website, www.albany.edu/its, to cover the DST situation and solutions in more depth, so please check it periodically as information may change.
Thank you for your patience and attention to this matter.
Daylight Savings Time after …
Daylight Saving Time Impacts Calendaring in Outlook!
Please be aware that Daylight Saving Time starts three weeks earlier than it has in the past. This will have an
effect on your Outlook calendar between March 11 - April 1, 2007.
ITS is aware of the problem and has a solution. This weekend, we will take the necessary steps to accommodate
the new Daylight Saving Time legislation. Please do not attempt to modify any existing appointments, as we
expect calendars to be properly updated by Monday morning.
It is important that you log off your computer before you leave for the weekend. By Monday, February 26, 2007,
you will have replacement meeting requests, which you should accept. We suggest that you check your calendar
to ensure the accuracy of appointments.
For further information, please visit our website at www.albany.edu/its.
Lessons Learned
Expect to explain why messages are written “your way.”
Solicit feedback from your users; then use it to your
advantage
Less really is more
Lessons from the audience?
What next?
Constituent group, anyone?
Other suggestions?