Geek Speak – Technology Services News and Updates for October 13th, 2017

Technology Services News and Updates – October 13^th, 2017

Happy Friday the 13^th Everyone! Welcome to our weekly Technology Services newsletter for Hammersmith®! We’re hoping this will help everyone be better informed on the projects, events, and activities in Technology Services and maybe provide a bit of entertainment for your week as well. With that in mind we will call this communication Geek Speak moving forward.

This week in Technology Services we have been busy with cleanup of previous projects and preparation and work in our upcoming projects listed below. We have been working on our new printers to prepare for improved reporting and use as well as working on plans for our upcoming projects.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

1. Regular Friday maintenance tonight, October 13^th, 2017

We are continuing our regular, calendared maintenance on systems and network tonight from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM. By working on a consistent and standardized basis we will be able to get in front of any updates, issues, and preparation for new projects. The items for this week are:

• Microsoft Server Updates
• RUN maintenance
• Cisco Firewall updates and improvements at our Data Center and Inverness locations
• Jenark server development server and network setup for software testing with outside vendor

During our maintenance window servers, data, and connections to the network will be unavailable. EMAIL AND PILERA WILL CONTINUE FUNCTIONING AS USUAL.

2. New Technical Support and Business Center ticketing system

We are working earnestly on the implementation of our new ticketing system for Technology Services and the Business Center. Our new system, SAMANAGE, will be substantially more efficient and automated. It will also provide us with several new abilities.

CHANGES TO EXPECT
– We are shooting for a November 15^th start date in our new ticketing system
– Training information and communications will be coming in the next 10 business days
– The new system will have a web portal for ticket submission to improve communication and accuracy of assistance
– We will be able to setup recurring tasks and template tasks for items such as new user creation and association onboarding/offboarding

3. Network upgrades and improvements

Our network connectivity upgrades are continuing and we are now working with Comcast on hard dates for implementation at all our satellite offices. We are currently looking at the 2^nd-3^rd week of November as the time frame for these onsite implementations to take place and will communicate hard date and times to each office as we receive them from Comcast. These upgrades will allow us to have a private, secure, connection from each office to Inverness and our Data Center without having to go through an Internet tunnel. It will increase the speed of file opening and transfers inside the network and will separate our Internet traffic from inside the network for better management and security.

4. Server Upgrades

We are starting the process of upgrades on all our servers from the current version of Server 2008 to Server 2012. This will greatly improve our security as well as provide us with a better experience for users in file sharing, folder and file security, and Remote Desktop use. We will be phasing these upgrades in over the next few weeks and are starting on servers in groups of 5. We have a total of 34 servers in operation and will be communicating what changes you may encounter as we progress.

5. OFFICE 365

Part of the Server upgrade project is to prepare for transitioning Hammersmith® over to Office 365 for our Email, K Drives, Microsoft Office products, and other future enhancements and software. We are currently working to determine a partner to assist us with this project as it is a huge endeavor to move all our mailboxes, distribution groups, calendars, and Outlook functions from one provider to another. Our goal is to have this implemented and fully functioning by the end of 2017.

As we continue with the changes and improvements here at Hammersmith®, we want to keep the Technology Services Mission in everyone’s mind:

Technology Services provides secure, reliable, and integrated technology solutions in alignment with Company goals,

while delivering excellence in customer service. In support of this mission, we will:

Partner with the Hammersmith® community to understand the information technology needs of staff and clients.

Provide leadership and planning for the effective and strategic use of emerging technologies.

Demonstrate technical and operational excellence through a commitment to professionalism and continuous improvement.

 

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Ryan Vieth
Senior Systems Engineer