Committee meeting - April 18, 2013

Melissa Conrad
Secretary to the Committee
April 29, 2013

Present:

Dave Wallace (Chair), Melissa Conrad (Secretary), Bill Baer, Pascal Calarco, Bruce Campbell, Andrea Chappell, Erick Engelke, Bob Hicks, Bill Ince, Dave Kibble, Robyn Landers, Paul Miskovsky, Terry Stewart, Jason Testart

Guests:

Trevor Bain, Pavol Chvala, Derek Kirkland, Kris Olafson

Regrets:

Marko Dumancic, Dawn Keenan, Martin Timmerman

Agenda

  1. Student Portal, EBI, and Collaborate (Pavol Chvala, Derek Kirkland, Kris Olafson; 1:30-2:00 pm)
  2. Email security (Trevor Bain, Jason Testart; 2:00-2:45 pm)
  3. Chair’s remarks (2:45pm-2:50pm)
  4. Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of April 4, 2013 and Business Arising (2:50pm-2:55pm)
  5. Introduction to Identity Management Roadmap (2:55-3:00pm; Jason Testart)
  6. Next Computing Technology and Services Committee (CTSC) meeting
    [Will be held Thursday, May 2, 2013, at 1:30 p.m., in Mathematics & Computing building (MC) 2018A.]

Student Portal (Pavol Chvala)

Pavol Chvala provided a demonstration of the student portal.

Collaborate (Kris Olafson)

Kris provided a demonstration of the collaboration site.

Enterprise Business Intelligence (EBI) (Derek Kirkland)

In advance of the meeting, Kirkland distributed an EBI Strategy Summary and an Enterprise Portal -Data Services Architecture Summary.

Institutional goals driving EBI

  • Insight/data driven business process optimization
  • Integrated information delivery using verified, consistent data

EBI delivery strategy

  • Generation and cross-campus distribution of institutional reports, inquiries, analytics (Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) / scorecards), dashboards, Microsoft Suite (MS) Excel files and automated alerts
    • to support high-value institutional activities
      • with better integration of data and greater data integrity
      • with better and faster service to users
      • with easy to use, intuitive tools
      • with revitalization of existing report and statistical analysis cube inventory through conversion and/or redesign-redevelopment
  • Campus-wide data provisioning of raw & enriched institutional data through web services for:
    • Student applications – Mobile and web
    • Faculty applications – Mobile and web
    • Faculty databases
    • Student Portal and other future portals

EBI Architecture strategy

  • Acquisition of integrated enterprise-level Business Intelligence environment/infrastructure
    • Single-version-of-the-truth through verified institutional data models/metadata
    • Simultaneous access to multiple federated enterprise databases and data warehouses
      • With appropriate data access security controls & governance
    • Nexus (ADS), then Central Authentication System (CAS) Single-signon user authentication
      • User access from all device types/browsers  - workstations/laptops, mobile devices
    • Distributed report/inquiry/analytics development and authoring
  • Development of data warehouses optimized for system performance, reporting and analysis

A summary of the subsequent group discussion follows:

  • This project has been struck because our current reporting structure is using very old technology
  • We are looking to make the right investment so everyone can benefit.
  • It has been proposed that we would use Cognos 10.2, one of the leading BI packages. We already have some licenses with Cognos so costs would be incremental.
  • The governance structure is being developed.
  • The architecture working group will continue to look at design elements.
  • CTSC group will be involved in the overall implementation.
  • This has been introduced to University Committee on Information Systems & Technology (UCIST) and will be brought back to them with more detail now that it has been presented to CTSC.

Email security (Trevor Bain, Jason Testart)

As the result of a UCIST request to talk about use of email and deal with misunderstandings regarding appropriateness of its use, a draft discussion document has been created. View the draft email discussion document (PDF).

CTSC members provided input and the draft will be revised accordingly.

This was also discussed at The Campus Email Services Committee (CESC), where members agreed that the institution, as a whole, needs to come up with a mechanism to send and receive data that is secure, but also convenient. If the solution is not convenient, people will find workarounds. Generally it was also thought this is an education and awareness campaign; the evolution of this document will need to be distributed as widely as possible.

CTSC members also discussed the fact that most students forward their email to a non-uWaterloo account and that we need to think about other options (e.g., 365, Gmail, etc).

Chair's remarks (Dave Wallace)

None.

Approval of the minutes of the meeting of April 4, 2012 and business arising

Due to time constraints, the minutes of the meeting of April 4, 2013 will be approved via email. [Secretary’s note: these minutes have now been approved.]

Introduction to identity management roadmap (Jason Testart)

Prior to the meeting, Testart distributed presentation slides for an introduction to an Identity Road Map (PDF).

The slides were reviewed at the meeting and “food for thought” included:

  • Business processes may need to change.
  • De-couple “directory service” and “workstation management”.
  • What does “critical data” mean to you?
  • What do you see as an alternative to the password? Where should such an alternative be used?

Further discussion will occur at the next meeting.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on May 2, 2013, at 1:30pm, in MC 2018A.