Information
Technology Activity
Contact Information
Technology
Anytime Support Desk
Available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week
(310) 506-HELP (4357)
or (866) 767-8623
Tech Central
for Students
Payson Library, 2nd Floor
Mon. - Thur. 10:00 am- 8:00 pm
Fridays 10:00 am- 6:00 pm
(310) 506-4811
Office of the Vice
Provost and Chief
Information Officer
(310) 506-4501
Request IT Services
http://services.pepperdine.edu/it
/forms
and Status Report
April 2010
Administrative Support for Schools
Learning Management Systems Study Begins to Wrap Up.
Pepperdine IT's Technology and Learning group is investigating faculty use
and satisfaction of Blackboard, Sakai, and TWEN. As part of this study, 19
faculty members participated in 90-minute focus groups recently held at all
five schools. Faculty shared their thoughts on these learning management
systems, identified the critical and desired features required in an LMS, and
expressed how they would feel about adopting a new LMS.
Subsequent to the focus groups, “Blackboard vs. Sakai” informational ses-
sions were held at the Encino, Irvine, Malibu, Westlake, and West Los Ange-
les campuses to generate additional feedback. The Technology and Learning
group is currently interviewing faculty who are extensive Blackboard users
to determine their opinions about adopting Sakai as their new LMS.
Faculty feedback from the focus groups, question and answer sessions, and
Blackboard outreach will be incorporated into the LMS study report and
presented to a select group of faculty and deans this May. Faculty members
who want to contribute comments and suggestions to the LMS study are
encouraged to contact Gerard Flynn, director of Technology and Learning,
via email at Gerard.Flynn@pepperdine.edu.
Pepperdine Faculty to Attend Sakai Conference in June. As
part of the LMS study, IT has implemented a pilot test of Sakai, a collabora-
tion and learning management system that provides users with a suite of
learning, portfolio, and project tools. To help faculty learn more about Sakai,
several faculty members from each Pepperdine school were invited to at-
tend the annual Sakai conference in Denver this June.
Pepperdine Faculty and IT Staff to Present at Sakai Con-
ference. Several Pepperdine faculty and staff will present at the annual
Sakai conference in Denver, June 15-17, 2010. Dr. Chris Heard will present
1 Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2010
"Paperless and Plugged In: Religion 101 for the 21st Century," Technology and Learning program man-
ager Alan Regan will present on documentation for the Sakai community, and Linda Wallace, senior e-
learning specialist from the Graziadio School of Business and Management (GSBM), will present on using
Sakai project sites for executive MBA programs.

SCCUR 2010 Conference Update. This fall Pepperdine University will host the Southern Cali-
fornia Conference on Undergraduate Research (SCCUR). The conference draws awareness to faculty-
mentored, undergraduate research and other scholarly activities within academic institutions. Technology
and Learning staff will join Dr. Stephen Davis of Seaver College on Saturday, April 10 at the SCCUR
board meeting at Cal Poly Pomona to unveil an IT-developed web application that will allow under-
graduate students to submit conference presentation proposals online. Technology and Learning staff will
demo the application, answer questions, and collect design feedback from SCCUR board members.

Administrative Support for the University

Preparing for the Opening of LaBrea Bakery. IT staff recently upgraded a server and a
software application to the latest version allowing for Sodexho, the food management service company
for Pepperdine's cafeteria, to open new point-of-sale locations in the Tyler Campus Center and to cre-
ate new menus for Jamba Juice and LaBrea bakery.

Video Conferencing Feature of Cisco Telephone System Being Tested. As part of

the telephone system upgrade currently taking place on several Pepperdine campuses, a team of IT staff
members is testing the built-in, web-based, video conferencing features of the new office and computer-
based phones. When fully operational, these features will provide additional opportunities for student/
teacher interactions and remote lecturing, and will facilitate group work and meetings for Pepperdine
students.

New Cisco Telephone System Installed in Irvine and Encino. On Pepperdine's Irvine
campus, several IT staff members migrated 97 phones, extensions, and voicemail accounts to the new
Cisco telephone system with no downtime to end users. The Encino campus deployment also con-
cluded this month. The IT project team has begun to coordinate and plan for the West Los Angeles
campus deployment this summer. Following the West Los Angles deployment, Westlake and the Dre-
scher campus will receive the new telephone system. This fall, IT staff will begin the planning and assess-
ment phase for the lower Malibu campus deployment.

Page Conference Room to Receive Technology Upgrade. The Page Conference Room,
located in the Thornton Administrative Center, will receive new technology in May. IT staff will install a
high definition video conferencing unit, a new projector, a Smart Sympodium, and a new computer in
the conference room.

Public Safety Moves Toward NComputing. With the support of Pepperdine IT, the office of
Public Safety plans to purchase and install eight NComputing desktop units. NComputing is a virtual
computing technology that allows one personal computer to support up to 30 users. This technology
reduces the cost of a personal computer by nearly 75 percent and requires only 20 percent of the en-
ergy of a typical personal computer.

2 Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2010

Infrastructure, Systems, and Networking Updates
Encino Campus Renovation Underway. IT staff recently completed phase one of the Encino
campus renovation. The newly installed network cabling will support the new Cisco telephone system
recently installed on campus and the upcoming classroom technology upgrades. Phase two of the reno-
vation project will occur this summer.

Data Center Virtualization Project Builds on Success. Last month IT announced an an-
nual cost savings of approximately $34,000 as a result of virtualizing 25 percent of the Malibu data cen-
ter. Given the success of this project, IT staff is working with University administration to explore options
for virtualizing an additional 50 percent of the data center. Staff members are collecting quotes and will
submit a formal proposal to University administration this summer.

Administrative Support - Software Tools

GSBM Admission Prepares to Use Nolij for Document Storage. Pepperdine IT's Nolij
support team met with GSBM's IT director and technical staff to assist in project planning for GSBM
Admission. The current admission process involves making several copies of physical files and sharing
them with the members of the Admission board; using Nolij will greatly increase efficiency in this proc-
ess. The teams discussed several technical challenges and reviewed GSBM's project outline for June
2010.

Finance PeopleSoft Tools Upgrade Successfully Completed. After months of testing

and preparation, IT staff successfully upgraded the finance tools in Pepperdine's PeopleSoft environment.
Among other benefits, the upgrade provides the framework to begin the PeopleSoft Travel and Expense
module for the University's Finance department.

The WaveNet Uppercase Login Problem Solved. Approximately a year ago, an unex-
pected change by the PeopleSoft vendor, caused IT staff to implement an uppercase-only username to
log in to WaveNet. This past month, IT staff members developed a fix to transform usernames to all
capital letters when the login button is clicked. Faculty, staff, and students can now enter uppercase, low-
ercase, and mixed-case usernames on the WaveNet login screen without issue.

Other News
NComputing Tours Take Place at Pepperdine. During the past month IT staff hosted rep-
resentatives from East LA College and from Riverside Community College District in Malibu. Represen-
tatives toured computer labs and learned about the NComputing implementation process. Pepperdine
University now has 155 virtual desktop units.

Presentations
IT Staff to Present at TechEd Conference in April. IT staff members Gerard Flynn and
Thomas Hoover will present "Virtual Computing: Riding the Wave of Virtualization at Pepperdine Uni-
versity” at the TechEd conference in Pasadena, California in mid-April. In addition, IT staff members
Prakash Sharma and Thomas Hoover will conduct a presentation entitled "Implementing a University-
wide Public Printing Solution: Can it be Done?"

3 Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2010

Gartner CIO Event Hosted at Pepperdine in March. On March 24, Pepperdine IT hosted
the Gartner Executive Programs Community Event about the Higher Education 2010 CIO Agenda and
Strategies. Two representatives from Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company,
presented various research findings to approximately fifteen southern California education chief infor-
mation officers and directors from schools, such as UCLA, USC, California State University, Charles
Drew University, Loyola Marymount University, and Mount St. Mary's College. Attendees discussed cur-
rent technology trends in higher education, the impact of the CIO's role, and the impact the recession
has had on IT priorities.

4 Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2010

Benchmarks and Accountability
Anytime Support Help Desk Statistics for March. During March 2010, there were 2,776
requests for support managed through the Anytime Support Desk. Of these requests, 91 percent were
resolved within one day and 95 percent were resolved in fewer than five days. The average wait time for
individuals calling the Anytime Support Help Desk was 77 seconds. Ninety percent of the requests were
resolved on the first call.

Online Requests. In March 2010, there were 250 additional requests for support managed through
online web request forms. The top two types of online requests were audio-visual service (86) and de-
partmental phone service (33).

Anytime Support Desk User Survey Results for March. Through an automated feedback
process, all Anytime Support Help Desk callers have the opportunity to complete a web-based satisfac-
tion survey. In March, 238 (9%) of 2,799 survey requests sent to customers were completed. The five-
question survey uses a “1 to 9” sliding scale with “7.00-9.00” equal to excellent.

Response Overall Response Skill Communi- Resolution

Month
Rate Satisfaction Timeliness Set cation Timeliness
January 10% 8.08 8.08 8.39 8.23 8.22
February 9% 7.72 7.99 8.25 7.88 7.89
March 9% 8.03 7.74 8.30 8.00 8.10

Staff Support by Major Area. All Pepperdine IT staff allocate their day-to-day efforts using cli-
ent, project, and task codes; using this data, total division-wide staff effort for March 2010 was distributed
as follows:

University Administration Support 1,651 hours 10.69% $77,624.96

Colleges, Academic Affairs 3,249 hours 21.05% $86,246.29

University-Wide, Common Services 4,980 hours 32.00% $226,256.61

IT Administration and Management 3,360 hours 21.76% $128,529.68

General Overhead (Leave, Holiday) 2,197 hours 14.24% $92,125.81

Total: 15,437 hours 100% $610,783.35

Support for Schools. Pepperdine IT staff effort provided to Pepperdine Schools, is as follows:

Month Seaver GSBM GSEP SOL SPP

January 58.47% 18.97% 19.21% 0.48% 2.86%

February 55.02% 24.28% 18.44% 0.56% 1.69%
March 51.15% 23.95% 21.91% 0.86% 2.14%

How to Subscribe to this Report. If you would like to be added to the distribution list for this
report, please contact Dana Hoover, program manager for communications, at extension x4948. The
Monthly IT Status Report archive is available online at services.pepperdine.edu/it/about/status-
reports.htm.

5 Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2010