By Alison A Fox
FT Staff only – How to request vacation time
For some of us, the vacation request process is still new and easy to forget. In case you ever need a refresher course, see the page at
https://www.bu.edu/techinternal/staff-info/how-to-request-vacation-time/.
President Brown’s Broadcast Mail Re: Race/Ethnicity
The IT Help Center team is working with the President’s Office to prepare a large scale broadcast mail message that will be sent out to over 26,000 faculty, staff and students. The message is a resurvey of the race and ethnicity of the BU community. Please note that incoming freshmen, transfer and international students will not be a part of the resurvey because their information is already up-to-date. The message will be sent on Friday, August 27th at 12:01 am. The mail includes a hyperlink that will take each person to The Link (either Employee or Student) to make their updates or confirm their information. A person who is both an employee and a student will be sent to the Employee Link, that would be their ‘primary’ designation.
The mail will specify that the resurvey should be completed by September 7th. There are plans for targeted follow up e-mails to more specific groups at a later date.
Clients may have questions or run into issues and the might contact us for assistance.
There is an FAQ page at http://www.bu.edu/oir/ethnicityfaq.html that you should familiarize yourself with ahead of time.
Some issues we could see:
- Account/Password/Browser issues: Handled at the Service Desk, seek the help of a Client Support Specialist if necessary.
- Problems with the Primary Designation: Calls regarding the person’s status should be escalated to HR or the Registrar. See the intranet for contact info. (Need to get contact info for the intranet posting)
- Problems with the backend application: Calls reporting these issues should be escalated to Link Support, 3-LINK.
Tax Free Weekend Aug 14/15
You will be soon fielding calls about Massachusetts’s upcoming tax free weekend. Here is information to help you with these questions.
The IT Help Center will NOT be participating in the tax free weekend. The reason is simple; we are closed on the weekends. Of course, customers are going to want a little better answer than that.
Why are we not open on the weekends?
The IT Help Center is designed to be open when classes are in session. Therefore, except for move-in weekend we are not open on Saturday or Sunday.
What if I place an online order on your website?
All orders for software from the IT Help Center must first be verified by a staff member to insure eligibility. In other words, even if the order was placed on the weekend, it would not be processed until Monday, and therefore would not be eligible for the tax exemption.
What about computer purchases?
The e-commerce sites linked off our website are maintained by their respective manufacturers. Clients should contact them directly.
Apple: 1-800-MY-APPLE
Dell: 1-877-236-8657
Lenovo: 1-877-222-6426 Ext. 4213
Here is an article about the weekend:
http://www.projo.com/economy/MASS_TAX_HOLIDAY_08-03-10_TIJDR8O_v31.20ebb0e.html
Welcome David Cole!
David Cole will begin his new role as Service Desk Manager this coming Wednesday, August 11.
Just a reminder from Stacy's earlier message, "David comes to the IT Help Center from Information Technology Services at Boston University’s School of Management where he has been Associate Director since 2007. David brings with him great experience in managing a professional help desk staff, utilizing a ticketing tool, and coordinating escalation of client cases.
David has acquired his ITIL v.3 Foundations certification, serves on BU’s IT Governance Committee for Communication and Collaboration Systems, and has been a member of the IT Commons group made up of technology support representatives from BU’s schools and colleges. He has also participated in other IT projects here at BU, such as digital signage, Exchange migrations, and the development of service level agreements."
We're looking forward to having him on board!
Digication training for all CSS staff
Digication is an e-portfolio service that we are now supporting in two contexts:
1. Account and site setup for faculty
2. Potential questions about use of the product
Learn more about it at www.bu.edu/tech/digication.
It's been a quiet service this summer, but marketing to faculty is about to increase and we need to be better-prepared to support it. Please mark your calendar for an upcoming training class for CSS staff. It will be held at 111 Cummington in LCR on August 17 from 3-5. Meanwhile, if you do get any questions that you are unable to answer, Austin is the subject matter expert (SME) who can best assist you.
No more Early Bird Renewal!
Fingers crossed for shorter lines during move-in this year! Students will no longer be required to show their ID to "renew" their ACS account when they come to campus OR to change their password. The account that they set up in the spring/summer through the Early Bird program is the account that they will get to keep -as is. They don't need to do anything else. Yay Linda!
That said, there might still be people who come in either a) because they don't know about the change or b) because they are BU student employees (who do need to show the ID in order to get their on-line pay stubs). So don't turn away anyone who comes in, but the vast majority probably won't.
Over the next few weeks, Doc/Tools will be working to eradicate mention of Early Bird *Renewal* from the BU Web. (For now, "Early Bird" is still a name used to describe the concept of getting an account early - that might change next year.)
and…No more BUVS requirement on ResNet!
Yes, the rumors are true! Students moving in to residences this fall will *not* be required to run BUVS. If they want/need to use Ethernet, they will still be required to NetReg. Several factors combined lead to this change:
- With the increased availability of wireless access in residences, there are many more people coming to campus who might never need to plug in. (BUVS is not required on the wireless network because there is no way to section off just the residences.)
- Many people coming to campus now have never plugged in at home, so introducing them to an older technology, and forcing them to buy a cable for that purpose, didn't seem right.
- Significant Mac usage, plus the secure nature of Windows 7, combine to provide us with hope that removing the BUVS restriction will be ok.
BUVS will still be available as a diagnostic and repair tool, and certainly the people we help, or the clients themselves, can still opt to run it. It is still available as a download from TechWeb, just as it always was.
Linda will be providing more information on this big change as ResNet approaches.
Doc/Tools has a new name and is moving to 100
You'll notice that some of the staff are changing offices. We are making room for new people coming in to 533, and better organizing ourselves according to our job roles. As part of that move, the Documentation & Tools team will be moving to 100 Cummington Street. You'll still see a lot of us (and Austin, especially, will continue to spend time at 533) but please e-mail if you need anything - and come visit any time!
We also have a new name. Documentation & Tools is designed to acknowledge both the documentation that we develop, and the delivery tools that we coordinate. Clare Shawcross has joined our group and we will be involved in coordinating the integration of the new service management tool in the upcoming year. Wish us luck!
Helping an incoming student or parent? Looking for the video?
We have been compiling information that parents and incoming students will find helpful, based on the questions they tend to ask us. It's on a TechWeb page that we feature during the Parent Orientation each Thursday.
As August approaches, you might find this page increasingly useful, and we will begin to feature it as a TechWeb news item in a few more weeks.
The ResNet/Move-in video is also linked from that page, or available directly at:
The Knowledgebase is your friend
The knowledgebase is about two weeks old now and we are working hard to make sure it contains information that will be helpful to you. If you have not already started to use it in your support work, please give it a try - login at http://www.bu.edu/tech/fm/kb/.
Also, let us know when you see errors or couldn't find information that you were looking for. Send ideas, comments, suggestions, etc. to afox@bu.edu and awhipple@bu.edu.