Reminder: Microsoft to retire Skype for Business on January 31, 2022

Date: December 7, 2021
To:  InfoTech and EITU Listservs
From:
EASI Digital Workplace
Re: Reminder: Microsoft to retire Skype for Business on January 31, 2022

 

Dear colleagues,

This is a reminder that Microsoft will complete its retirement of Skype for Business Online on January 31, 2022. After January 31, the service will no longer be accessible. Teams will become the default client for chat, voice, video and meetings in Microsoft 365.

If your division is still using Skype for Business, we recommend you take the following actions as soon as possible:

For online meetings

If your division is still using Skype for Business to schedule online meetings, we recommend upgrading to Microsoft Teams.

For conference rooms

If your division is still using Skype for Business in your conference rooms, you will need to switch to an alternative service before January 31, 2022. We recommend upgrading to Microsoft Teams.

In both instances, Teams offers improved meeting features to Skype for Business and we expect you will find the transition to be a smooth one. You can learn more about using Teams on the University’s Microsoft 365 website: https://easi.its.utoronto.ca/shared-services/office365/teams/.

Please let us know how we can assist you in this transition by submitting a ticket through the Enterprise Service Centre.

Kind regards,

EASI Digital Workplace

Student System Application Support During 2021 Holiday Closure

Date: December 6, 2021
To: ROSI Users
From:
Student Information Systems
Re: Student System Application Support During 2021 Holiday Closure

 

Hi everyone,

We will be maintaining the same levels of application support for Student Systems over the December break as we have in other years. ACORN and other student information services will be available over the holidays and will be checked periodically to ensure they are running. We will respond to Enterprise Service Centre tickets when we return at the beginning of January.

Please note that online payments will be recorded as “pending” in students’ ACORN accounts from December 22, 2021 to 3-5 business days after January 3, 2022. Bank payments will be updated on January 3, 2022.

See a detailed description of support.

Happy holidays and we’ll see you in the New Year!

This email has been sent from a service account and does not accept replies. Please direct any follow up questions to the Enterprise Service Centre http://www.uoft.me/esc

AMS Holiday System Availability 2021

Date: December 6, 2021
To: AMS Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: AMS Holiday System Availability 2021

 

Hi everyone,

As we quickly approach this holiday season, we would like to notify you about upcoming system closures.

Here is a full list of the closures between December 21, 2021 and January 3, 2022, and the regular system availability during December 2021:

https://easi.its.utoronto.ca/system-availability/

Please note that if a system/interface is not available, reasonable but limited attempts will be made to fix the problem. There will be no HR or Financial Services staff available to help resolve problems for administrators.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration

Schedule for the production of the 2021 Tax Forms 

Date:  December 6, 2021   
To:
ROSI Users  
From:
Student Information Systems
Re: Schedule for the production of the 2021 Tax Forms

 

Dear ROSI users,

*** This e-mail is sent on behalf of Student Receivable and Accounting Office ***

Following is the schedule for the production of the 2021 Tax Forms.

T4A:  

  • Monday, January 10, 2022 – (night) details updated on ROSI.
  • Tuesday, January 11Friday, February 4, 2022-Divisional updates for T4A details on ROSI.
  • Monday, February 7, 2022 – file sent to Moore Wallace for printing and mailing of the T4A’s.

 T2202: 

  • Monday, January 31, 2022-(night) -details updated on ROSI .
  • Tuesday, February 1stFriday, February 11, 2022 Divisional updates of T2202 details on ROSI .

Feb 21, 2022: T2202 & T4A available on ACORN for students and ROSI/ROSI Express for staff.

For questions regarding the Education Credit details or overall schedule, contact Enterprise Service Centre (ESC): https://uoft.me/rosi-support

For questions regarding T4A details or Tuition Credit details, contact Student Receivable and Accounting Office (Ruth Bonifaz at 416 978-6400 or Audrey Cheung at 416 978-7295).

Sincerely,
Student Information Systems

Reminder: AMS System Maintenance – Dec. 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Date: December 3, 2021
To: U of T Staff
From:
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration 
Re: Reminder: AMS System Maintenance – Dec. 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

Hi everyone,

This is a reminder that the following systems will be unavailable on Saturday, December 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. due to scheduled system maintenance:

  • Administrative Academic Appointments (AAA)
  • AMS SAP GUI
  • My Research (MR/Portal)
  • Employees@UofT
  • Employee Self-Service (ESS)/Manager Self-Service (MSS)
  • Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD)
  • Capital Project Portal
  • Invoice Workflow

See our System Availability page for ongoing information on system status.

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

EASI Go Prod AMS Updates – August 1 to November 30, 2021

Date: December 1, 2021
To: Administrative Management System Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: EASI Go Prod AMS Updates – August 1 to November 30, 2021

 

Hi everyone,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) would like to update you on the latest major production releases and updates for U of T’s Administrative Management Systems.

The following are major changes from August 1 to November 30, 2021:

Enterprise Shared Services

Connect+Learn Back to Campus Series (August)

Throughout the month of August, the Enterprise Shared Services Connect+Learn team delivered a back to campus learning series designed to complement the Return to Campus ITS Toolkit. With 23 sessions and over 1,050 attendees, the series offered participants from across the University a chance to learn about the latest and greatest technologies for a hybrid workplace.

QLess (September)
QLess is a new U of T platform that helps manage space on campus. This virtual queue management tool eliminates the need for in-person lineups and can manage social distancing and capacity limits. It is also an effective and convenient solution to schedule appointments and manage lines in rooms. Currently, the International Student Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough is using this new platform. Other departments are currently being onboarded as well. If you are interested in using this space management tool, request access to the QLess service.

UTORmail Decommissioning (November 4)
After months of meticulous planning, community engagement and hard work, the Enterprise Shared Services’ Digital Workplace team successfully decommissioned U of T’s legacy UTORmail email service on November 4. The project also included the introduction of a new community email domain for student organizations and the launch of a new Microsoft 365-based alumni email service. This milestone project was completed in collaboration with the University’s Information Commons team.

Secure U of T Advanced Threat Protections (October/November)
As part of our efforts to maintain the security of the University’s enterprise systems, EASI’s Microsoft Cloud Architecture team in collaboration with Information Security have applied new advanced security features to all EASI staff members’ Microsoft 365 accounts. Enhanced security features include Safe Links for Email and Documents, Safe Attachments, Safe Documents, and Anti-phishing and impersonation services. These features are currently being extended to additional Microsoft accounts, including select staff and faculty as well as all student accounts. Learn more about this project.

Human Resources Information System (HRIS)

Kronos Implementations (August 1 – November 30)

Kronos, a convenient, cloud-based time and attendance system, eliminates the use of paper timesheets and the need to forecast employee hours through online approval processes. Following are the most recent updates:

  • The HRIS team has implemented Kronos’ Workforce Timekeeper across the University and it has officially gone live at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.
  • A new version of Advanced Scheduler for Casuals in Workforce Scheduler is now available. This module will help managers to schedule requests for events.
  • After hosting a highly successful Connect+Learn session on July 7, the Kronos team presented a kick-off session to provide more details. Several departments have since signed up for Kronos implementation.

Work Study Program Changes (September 1)
The Work Study Program is a way for staff and faculty to provide meaningful Work-Integrated Learning experiences for students. In order to extend the Fall/Winter Work Study program until March 31, the HRIS team implemented several enhancements to automate the process in the system.

SAP SuccessFactors Data Center Migration (November 27)
SAP migrated their legacy data center to the cloud on November 27. This upgrade will provide improved resiliency, availability and performance for SuccessFactors products, including the Learning Management System (LMS), Performance & Goals (PMGM) and Recruitment.

Financial Information System

Compensation Planning Tool
The ‘made @ U of T’ solution for compensation planning is currently in the final phase of User Acceptance Testing. Over 60 participants are involved in testing and represent key divisions, including University of Toronto Scarborough, University of Toronto Mississauga, the Faculty of Arts & Science, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, other academic divisions, and Shared Services divisions. Based on testing results and recommendations, the project leadership will determine if the product will be ready to be launched. Cutover planning will begin in January 2022 with an anticipated go-live in February.

EASI Go Prod NGSIS Updates – August 1 to November 30, 2021

Date: December 1, 2021
To: ROSI Users; Registrar’s Offices
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: EASI Go Prod NGSIS Updates – August 1 to November 30, 2021

 

Hi everyone,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) would like to update you on the latest major production releases and updates for the NGSIS program and student systems. From August 1 to November 30, 2021, EASI completed close to 61 releases for a wide range of applications.

The following are major changes during this timeframe:

Course Information System
The Course Information System streamlines syllabi and exams processes for instructors and administrators. CIS has made the following releases: 

  • Course Experience Tagging (August 5)
    Syllabi submissions now have a section for instructors to indicate whether their course involves a major component of certain learning experiences. This process is intended to support clear communication with students regarding required course experiences, as well as enable proactive faculty support and resourcing for various types of experiences, such as off-campus or laboratory-based experiences. Review a full overview of the goals of this process and the typology of learning experiences.
  • Improvements to the Exam Details Excel Spreadsheet (August 5)
    The Exam Details extracts for administrative staff now include two new columns for course titles and delivery modes for every course section.
  • Updates to Exam Details Submissions (August 5)
    Due to the University returning to campus for the Fall 2021 session, the Exam Details form for certain divisions was restructured to accommodate the range of delivery approaches a course may have.

Curriculum Management (CM) and Curriculum Publisher (CP)
Course Experience tags have been added to CM to reflect elements of Work-Integrated Learning incorporated into the design of undergraduate courses. The data is now available for reporting purposes and to be made available to students in Calendars, timetables and syllabi (via the Course Information System). Undergraduate divisions are adding the data to CM over the course of the current governance cycle. Course requisites fields have also been upgraded to accept formatting.

Curriculum Publisher has been upgraded to the current version of Drupal (9) ensuring adequate support and security.

COVID-19 Mitigation
In advance of the start of the Fall and Winter sessions, we assisted a number of divisions with batch updates of course offering information that was changed due to COVID-19 mitigations. This included both delivery mode information and a later start date for the winter session.

Integration with Admission Application Systems (Slate for the School of Graduate Studies overall and Salesforce for graduate Rotman programs)
EASI has developed a number of Application Programming Interfaces (API) to import application, admission and response data for applicants to the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) overall and for a specific application for Rotman graduate programs. These APIs replace older batch processes for the legacy SGS admissions application and manual entry for admission decisions and responses, and the initial application for Rotman. These new integrations will reduce data entry by administrative staff, improve data integrity and decrease the time required for data transfer.

SuccessFactors System Issue – Resolved

Date: November 30, 2021
To: SuccessFactors Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration 
Re: SuccessFactors System Issue – Resolved

 

Dear SuccessFactors users,

SAP has confirmed that the issue that we encountered after an upgrade to the SuccessFactors Data Center has been resolved. All SuccessFactors applications are now available (Recruitment, Performance & Goals and Learning Management System) and the data between HRIS and SuccessFactors is synchronized.

Thank you for your patience as we worked to resolve this issue.

Sincerely,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

AMS System Maintenance – Dec. 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Date: November 30, 2021
To:
U of T Staff
From:
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration 
Re: AMS System Maintenance – Dec. 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

 

Hi everyone,

Please note that the following systems will be unavailable on Saturday, December 4 from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. due to scheduled system maintenance:

  • Administrative Academic Appointments (AAA)
  • AMS SAP GUI
  • My Research (MR/Portal)
  • Employees@UofT
  • Employee Self-Service (ESS)/Manager Self-Service (MSS)
  • Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD)
  • Capital Project Portal
  • Invoice Workflow

See our System Availability page for ongoing information on system status.

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)