Category: New Services
MicroStrategy report service support information
A new report service for research faculty called MicroStrategy is now available. Clients of this service will soon be notified of its availability. If we get tickets about it, please refer to KB0011548 for more information, including escalation information.
Primarily, we will be responsible for troubleshooting authentication issues before escalating tickets to either Information Security or Business Intelligence Reporting, depending on what the KB articles says to do.
These tickets should be classified as the Service Component “Grants Management Reporting”.
Escalation path for new mobile application
A new application which will allow students to check their schedules via mobile devices has been deployed to Beta testing. There are about 50 individuals aware of the app, but it isn't hidden from anyone.
We will be getting feedback tickets as we do for the BU Mobile app.
Escalation path for these tickets is now in the KB. Search for "Mobile Schedule Support"
Support for The Links
Support for The Links will be fully transitioned to the Service Desk on Monday, 9/19. Currently their email address is creating tickets in ServiceNow with Client Service "The Links" and the Service Desk as the Assignment Group. On Monday, their phone number 353-LINK will be permanently forwarded to 353-HELP. If we receive issues that we cannot resolve we'll assign the ticket to Student Systems.
Legacy Sponsored Research Data Cleanup / Kuali Coeus escalations
A message is going out to concerned parties about Legacy Sponsored Research Data Cleanup, which is related to Kuali Coeus. This message is encouraging clients to create tickets that we might see in ServiceNow.
If you see any tickets related to this subject, they should be assigned to the “BUworks Reporting (BW)” Assignment Group unless they pertain to incorrect data in grant budgets – those tickets should be assigned to the “Kuali Coeus” Assignment Group.
We really don’t have any idea what the volume of these tickets or calls will be, but please be aware of this happening and the difference between Assignment Groups.
BU Voice Mail Portal
Telecom is preparing to announce a new Voice Mail Portal to all Charles River Campus staff and faculty. Instructions about the service are already available on Tech Web. Clients will be able to receive notification of new voice mail messages via e-mail, text message, or a call to the phone number of their choice (such as a mobile phone).
Below is the full text of the announcement they are sending out soon. Please look at the information posted on Tech Web. We should escalate tickets to phone@bu.edu as an external mail for any questions we are unable to answer. Some things of note, the client will need to log in to http://nowmsg.bu.edu with their seven digit BU phone number (without any dashes) and the same passcode they use to access voice mail on their phone. The form at that site is a little squirrely - it auto-saves after you type in each item, such as First or Last Name. Additionally, clients will receive a confirmation e-mail or text message depending on which features they enable.
CrashPlan Notebook Backup
On Monday, Nov. 29, IS&T will make CrashPlan notebook backups available to all faculty and staff at no cost. Faculty and staff can store up to 10 GB of important data from their university-owned Windows, Mac, or Linux notebooks. The service is meant to protect the most irreplaceable files, folders, and directories, not necessarily entire disks or installed programs.
Licenses are distributed from the various installation pages listed on the TechWeb Service Overview page. Before installation and setup, the client must register their BU login name, which adds ad-cplan to the their bu-ph-host field.
All IT Help Center staff are able to try out the software. However, if you are not interested in long-term use of the service for support or backup, please let Austin know and your license will be returned to the pool after you try it out.
Along with TechWeb and our KB (article 876), CrashPlan provides documentation at support.crashplan.com.
Local departmental IT will provide tier 1 support for their respective groups, and any problems beyond basic installation and account issues can be escalated to John Yu (jky@bu.edu) or John Lentz (jfl@bu.edu) of Storage Administration.
SimpleHelp – remote desktop support
SimpleHelp is web-based remote support software that allows a client using Windows, MacOS or UNIX to navigate to a BU web page and initiate a support session with a technician. The technician can chat with the client and gain full remote access to the client’s computer.
SimpleHelp was recently installed and configured at Boston University, and a number of BU’s computer support groups are now evaluating whether to use it as part of their support offerings. BU MED IT is one of the early adopters, but various support groups across the university are starting to use it.
Note: The IT Help Center is one of the groups currently evaluating when and whether to use this product in our own support offerings. Please do not suggest anything more than this to any of our clients.
Please go now and make yourselves *very* familiar with the material at www.bu.edu/tech/simplehelp and its sub-pages so that you understand how this works from both the client and technician perspective.
- Questions in general -- can be answered by the web pages
- Questions about how a particular department is using the tool -- direct to that department
- Tough questions about our installation and configuration -- may be answered by Clare
Thanks for your attention, and I hope you enjoy learning about this interesting new tool.
- Clare
Digital Signage support
The new Digital Signage service has been added to TechWeb:
For any incidents or requests that we receive regarding Digital Signage, please send the ticket as an external e-mail to Deb Melo dmelo@bu.edu.
Other key terms used to describe Digital Signage are Visix or Axis TV.
New Service – e-Portfolios Digication
The IT Help Center will be taking over support for e-Portfolios Digication. It was previously supported by Jeff Albro with assistance from the vendor. The expected number of requests for the coming semester is low, but please take some time to read the e-Portfolio Sites overview on TechWeb.
Digication can be accessed at http://bu.digication.com/ and the Help section includes a lot of very useful information. In addition, we have a few articles in the knowledgebase that will help create new users and courses -- search for "Digication."
We will be getting administrative access for a number of staff members, but please let Austin know if you have any questions.
New Service – PaperCut Print Quota Software
IS&T has purchased a license for PaperCut -- print management software that allows departments to control printing costs by implementing quotas. Please take a look at the PaperCut overview on TechWeb so you can become familiar with this service offering.
Although the IT Help Center could receive general PaperCut inquiries that are submitted through the Help button on TechWeb, most requests for help will be referred directly to support@papercut.com.
Download, license, and support information is available as follows:
- the TechWeb overview
- information on the BU license
- the vendor's download and information page
Although we do not provide primary support for this product, it is important to make sure the client is satisfied with our assistance if they do come to us first.