DOIT Newsletter - Spring 2019

Since the Division of IT launched the new one-stop IT Help website last fall, more than 11,000 IT service tickets have been opened using the new system. The new one-stop IT Help system provides faculty, students, and staff with a self-service feature to open and track status of their own tickets. Since all campus technical teams use the new system, once a ticket is opened, IT staff will route the service request behind the scenes to the appropriate responsible IT team without bouncing the customer from group to group. In addition, the website is a one-stop service for locating campus IT services. Faculty, students, and staff can look up a campus IT service and find solutions to their technology problems through the new and consolidated campus IT Service Catalog.

As part of a CSU system-wide security enhancement effort, we are implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), also known as Two-Step Verification, for accessing our Common Financial System (CFS). To comply with California State University (CSU) increased security requirements, changes to how you log in to CFS will be implemented by June 3, 2019. After the implementation of MFA, all CFS users will need to enter or acknowledge a second factor before being allowed to access CFS.

This migration to the Two-step verification for CFS will be performed in phases, beginning in April and ending by June 3, 2019. The detailed information regarding this change and the MFA implementation will be emailed to users of CFS in the coming weeks, including the date when a particular user of CFS will be required to use the Two-step verification, what to expect, and the preparation for this change.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Division of Information Technology at DoIT-ServiceManagement@csulb.edu or the Financial Information Systems Help Desk at FISHelpDesk@csulb.edu if you have any questions or need further information.

Technology accessibility means access to electronic materials and documents for everyone, regardless of disability. Implementing the Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI), which is mandated by the Chancellor’s Office, is a priority for CSULB. We recognize that all students, faculty, and staff need equal access to information to learn, teach, and work, regardless of ability. The CSULB ATI Steering Committee, with representation from all areas of the campus, is coordinating our implementation of ATI standards throughout the campus. We are working to improve technical accessibility of our instructional materials and websites, as well as ensuring all products and services purchased meet accessibility guidelines.

One of the key Smart Campus projects, we have been deploying eSignature with campus offices by using DocuSign.  DocuSign is a self-service tool that allows designated members of the campus to create and route electronic documents for signature.  Since the introduction of DocuSign, campus offices and units have digitized 170 paper forms and these digital forms have been used nearly 30,000 times in the past 11 months.

DocuSign is helping the campus move toward its goal of going “paperless.” To date, by using DocuSign the campus has saved the equivalent of:

• 7,530 pounds of wood
• 20,142 gallons of water
• 16,943 lb of CO2
• 1,111 pounds of waste

So far, there are over 60 digital signage display units installed throughout the campus, with more being added. Digital signage allows campus offices and units to post and update important information on digital displays. In addition to digital signage, the Division of IT is working on deploying new and improved campus interactive maps, called digital wayfinding. The campus’ new Student Success Center building is one of the first campus buildings to showcase an interactive wayfinding directory.

Since the launch of the Student Virtual Lab (SVL) a year ago, students and faculty have been able to access approved campus software anytime and anywhere (without being on campus) as long as they have an Internet connection. In January and February of this year, over 2045 unique logins have accessed the SVL environment and 35 classes are utilizing the service. Since last Fall, AutoCAD has been added to the list of campus software available in the SVL.

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) offers a Central High Performance Computing (HPC) environment for faculty who need to conduct computing-intensive research and teaching projects. This service includes shared computing cycles on several high performance clusters equipped with a variety of research software packages.  Since last Fall, 112 additional HPC cores and 1 terabyte of additional storage have been added to the HPC environment.