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Systems Support Users
Group Minutes |
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Systems Support Users
Group Minutes |
Present: Eric Hodges, Bart Lytel,
Dudley Roach, Linda Thomas, Shawn Hayes, Cheryl Young, Pam Beach, Ballard
McCleskey, Tina Wright, Julie Goodlick, Kriss Davis, Carmen Plummer, Shirley
Murphy, Thomas Fowles.
Absent: Bob Aaron, Shannon Covey, Donna Simms
The main focus of the meeting was to discuss 2 issues. Issues related to Outlook
and Eudora and issues around possibly installing Office 2003 sooner than the
planned Summer roll-out.
The following is a laundry list of Eudora/Outlook observations:
1. Auto addressing is annoying, can it be turned off.
2. Contact list management (cut/paste) difficulties for Outlook users running
Outlook (not OWA) at home.
3. Outlook Web Access (OWA, browser based outlook processing), can't seem to
send to a distribution list.
4. OWA. Right click to delete mail is not there. This is due to the fact that
right click on a web page is generally not under application control. There is a
delete (big red x) in OWA to handle deletes.
5. Campus PH directory not accessible. (actually, it is accessible, but not all
fields are searchable as they were in Eudora. 20 or so fields are searchable in
Outlook).
6. When OWA or OUTLOOK at home crashes, no draft saved. This is actually a
parameter than can be set to tell Outlook how soon after a message is started it
should copy content into the DRAFTs folder for safe keeping.
7. Contact List corrupted (isolated case this appears to be).
8. More spam (but most of this issue may be related to the well-documented fact
that the prevalence of SPAM on the entire internet as gone up over the past year
or so. So while to the end user, it appears OUTLOOK gets more spam, basically,
if we were still on Eudora, there would be more spam there also. The deployment
of OUTLOOK just coincided with a general occurrence in the outside environment.
9. Many felt that contacting users outside ISU with OUTLOOK was good in the
sense they generally were sending messages to people that also had OUTLOOK.
As System Support learns of problems and fixes for Outlook and OWA, this
information is posted to http://www.sys.ilstu.edu/ look under
OUTLOOK Q and A from Training.
Eric then asked each area their opinion on returning to Eudora. The general
feeling is that this would be a highly unproductive to move back to Eudora. The
learning curve has been overcome for the most part. Many units have started
using advanced features in Outlook that are not available in Eudora (task list,
some calendaring, etc.) And look forward to using more as deployment of Outlook
becomes more general around campus.
Specifically -
HR - no real response either way, positive or negative to Eudora
Parking - Outlook is working and is getting the job done
Comptroller - a few high-profile individuals seem to have problems and if these
could be worked out, the rest of the comptroller's office is getting along with
OUTLOOK just fine.
AIS - Conversion issues started off folks kind of unhappy, but generally people
are getting along.
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The second part of the meeting was a demo of Office 2003. Eric wanted to show
some of the "cool" things it has to offer to help the meeting attendees gauge
whether they want to get Office 2003 sooner rather than later. IWSS has been
pushing folks to move to FrontPage 2003 (FP 2003) as IWSS wants to establish
global templates that will make editing pages in FP 2000 impossible. IWSS is
moving ahead at a quick pace on this. Eric wants to avoid installing pieces of
2003 to meet individual needs and also would like both divisions to be on the
same office product so support can be more focused.
Some office 2003/ Outlook 2003 features. Outlook was upgraded in Office 2003
very heavily.
1. Built-in SPAM filtering. Both on campus and off-campus sources feel Microsoft
did a good job of putting this in OUTLOOK. Some on-campus users that have been
running OUTLOOK 2003 for 3 months report virtually zero spam in their in-box
after that long a period of use.
2. On a given Email, you can temporarily remove individual recipients. You can
even do this for "embedded" distribution lists. (group felt this was VERY
beneficial).
3. For spam filter to work, "caching" must be turned on. There may be some
issues with dial-up users while folders an synchronized between work and home
outlook instances.
4. POP-UP notification. OUTLOOK 2003 gives you more info in the pop-up window
and you can delete unwanted way right in the pop-up. You do not need to open the
outlook client window up to delete mail. You can also open the mail from the
popup for a quick reply.
Office 2003 availability (it is available NOW!)
1. ISU can no longer copy a master CD of the OFFICE suite (as of 2003) and give
it out. Each copy must carry a unique Microsoft serial number. During the
install, the install process contacts MS and makes sure this serial number is
not installed on another machine.
2. Individual users can go to Tech Zone and for a "nominal" fee, get an OFFICE
2003 CD for home install (do NOT install this version on your office machine). 8
to 10 bucks was the estimate given by Tech Zone). You will then have a complete
copy to keep at home if you need to install extra components later. File
compatibility between 2000 and 2003 is supposed to be ubiquitous. One exception
is Powerpoint viewer app. You need to download a new version of that to look at
powerpoint 2003 files.
Other announcements.
System support will be going on a planning retreat sometime in April.
Eric is looking for input from each group on what possible installations of new
software and hardware might be approved by the divisions. As soon as folks know
about mass PC purchases or potential moves, he would appreciate a heads up.
A large project is scheduled to "refresh" the REDBIRD debit card system. New
servers, new photo equipment, new software, etc. It will still be Diebold, but a
newer version.
A large system change for Parking is being planned.
Mobile computing is becoming a hotter topic and time will need to be spent on
coming up with options and standards.
New rules related to CMS and computers turned into Springfield for surplus. Hard
disks must be wiped 10 times to remove residual data. Two student workers are
planned to be located at central stores to receive and insure this wiping
occurs. If there is salvageable equipment, it can be intercepted before being
sent to Springfield. In one instance, a machine still under warrantee was found
in surplus and was returned to work at ISU for NO cost.
END