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EASI Go Prod AMS Updates – Dec. 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022

Date: June 27, 2022
To: U of T Staff
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: EASI Go Prod AMS Updates – Dec. 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022

 

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 December 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022:

Enterprise Shared Services

Microsoft Office 365 Security Enhancements (March – June)
As part of the Secure U(ofT) program, and a collaborative initiative between Information Security and EASI, the University recently implemented a series of essential protections to secure data and collaboration tools in Microsoft Office 365 with the help of vendor BlueVoyant. This was an accelerated effort, with an aggressive timeline, as heightened security risk due to the current geo-political situation has amplified the need to enhance security protections.

Microsoft License Renewal (June/July)
Microsoft business applications and collaboration tools are the underpinnings of key institutional systems such as UTORmail+, SharePoint Online, and Teams. The agreement between U of T and Microsoft was renewed by the M365 team in May after a year of discussions and negotiations. The new agreement will provide U of T with access to additional Microsoft features and applications as well as enhanced security across our tenant while managing the overall costs of these services. The M365 team is now focused on transitioning from our legacy licenses to the new licenses by the end of July.

Research Information System

SIG System Rebuild (May)
U of T’s internal system used to manage the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Institutional Grant (SIG), was rebuilt and incorporated into the upgraded My Research Applications & Agreements (MRA)  as a modernized block grant management tool. This rebuild replaces the University’s outdated SIG system and brings many benefits to the U of T Research and Innovation community, including:

  • Consolidating the application submission process for funding programs into one system with a single set of credentials.
  • Improving the user experience through a user centric design that optimizes navigation.
  • Moving block grants to a newer technology will ensure continued access to an automated allocation and award set-up tool.

Human Resources Information System

Kronos
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:

  • In April, the EASI Kronos team restarted the implementation of Kronos Timekeeper module for nine departments – the largest at any one time.
  • On May 4, the ITS EASI UKG (Kronos) Implementation Teams channel was launched. This space caters to HR and Payroll administrators leading the Kronos implementation for their departments and serves as a repository for users seeking answers to frequently asked questions. The channel provides easy access to implementation reference materials, deadlines for major implementation tasks, upcoming events, implementation tips, and allows a safe space for users to post questions and share ideas on the implementation process.

Financial Information System

Compensation Planning Tool

  • Initial Launch (February 15)
    On February 15, 2022 the Planning & Budget Office, in partnership with EASI, launched the new “made @ U of T” Compensation Planning Tool with improvements to the previous SAP tool (B6). This approach has delivered improvements to the financial planning community, while retaining the robust security, performance, and familiar interface of the SAP platform. The tool provides an improved user experience, a holistic view of compensation, salary increase scenario planning, and simplified compensation projections. The enhanced app also facilitates long-term compensation planning (up to 6 years).
  • Progression Through the Ranks (PTR) Pool Calculation (June 1)

On June 1, the Planning & Budget Office in partnership with EASI launched PTR Pool calculation. This enhancement allows users to view updated salary data for more accurate calculation, along with an enhanced user experience and reporting features.

Fiscal Year End 2022 (May 2)
Multiple teams from EASI and Financial Services worked together to ensure the 2022 FI Fiscal Year End event was successful. One year after implementation, the benefits of the SAP S/4HANA environment continue to reduce overall processing time. This year, additional reports using real-time data were added to Fiori Launchpad Reporting, allowing users to proceed with business operations during the fiscal year end closure period. Throughout the year, the teams worked to optimize system efficiencies and reengineered programs that ran faster with as much as a 30 per cent decrease in processing time for some programs.

Facilities & Services

SAP Plant Maintenance and Asset Manager Applications (June 1)
Facilities & Services (F&S), in partnership with EASI, launched the SAP Plant Maintenance and Asset Manager applications on June 1. These applications will support F&S in improving the stewardship of campus buildings and utility assets. Benefits include a mobile work order for trades and engineering staff, user-friendly tools to manage work orders, and a central repository of building and utilities equipment data. This repository will enhance asset tracking and aid in repairs and maintenance, as well as provide improved reporting capabilities. This implementation is the starting point for F&S to move towards more preventive and predictive maintenance, and to improve the reliability of campus facilities and the client experience for the university community.

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AMS GUI Planned Outage for ATB Increase – July 8

Date: June 27, 2022
To: AMS GUI Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: AMS GUI Planned Outage for ATB Increase – July 8

 

Dear AMS GUI users,

Please note that the Administrative Management System (AMS) will not be available for GUI users from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Friday, July 8, 2022. This outage will allow for the preparation for the across-the-board (ATB) increase for USW staff. More information can be found in the Memorandum of Agreement, on the People Strategy, Equity & Culture website.

All other AMS web-based systems, including Administrative Academic Appointments (AAA), Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD), My Research, Capital Project Portal, Invoice Workflow, Employee Self-Service (ESS), Manager Self-Service (MSS), EvoSuite Applications, SAP Asset Manager Mobile, and Fiori Launchpad Reporting will be available during this time.

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

Sincerely,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration

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Planning for the future: U of T launches new student timetable builder app

Woman sitting at a table using a laptop computer

Selecting the right courses, scheduling around personal commitments and balancing life as a student can be a tough task. But planning ahead just became easier with the new Timetable Builder application. This application provides one convenient location for University of Toronto students to search for courses and easily create, optimize and share their intended course schedules.

After a successful pilot at U of T Scarborough, as well as extensive consultations across all three campuses, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) released the application in June 2022.

“The previous timetable systems each provided students with partial information, forcing them to consult multiple sources,” says Rodney Branch, manager of client services and process integration, Student Information Systems. “The new Timetable Builder combines the best functionality from the earlier pilot with U of Scarborough, divisional applications and the now retired Course Finder.”

Using the new application, students can search for courses across divisions with greatly improved filtering and can view near real-time information about course sections. They can also manually or automatically generate a visual course timetable based on their preferred course sections and time preferences.

Timetable Builder application interface showing course details as well as a visual representation of timetable.

As students add courses to their timetable, they can see all details including, day/time, location, instructor(s), availability, waitlist details, enrolment controls and delivery mode. Students can also see a visual representation of their timetable, making it easier to optimize their schedules.

To date, the application has been released to U of T Scarborough, U of T Mississauga, the Faculty of Arts & Science, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, the Faculty of Music, and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. In the future, it will be released more broadly across U of T.

User experience was a major focus leading to the success of the project. EASI’s User Experience and Process Design team conducted university-wide interviews with students and created several prototypes for usability testing.

“At the beginning of the project, we conducted an environmental scan within and outside of U of T to see what timetable applications students were using,” says Stefanos Kythreotis, junior user experience designer with EASI. “It was challenging because each tool was unique and each division had its own requirements. To create an effective application, it was important to fully understand the student and staff perspective.”

In addition to the student facing application, staff can use the Online Administrative Student Information System (OASIS) to access the administrative interface. This interface gives academic divisions the ability to create a “legend” of division-specific information that will be displayed with each of its courses, as well as functionality to create and edit course or section-level notes individually or via a batch file upload.

Over the course of the project some potential future improvements were identified by the team and participating divisions. These include exporting a created timetable into a student’s ACORN enrolment cart, and the ability to prepopulate the timetable with courses a student has already enrolled in for the current session.

“The greatest benefit for students and staff is that they will only need to go to one place to search for courses across U of T,” says Branch. “I want to thank all of the divisions for their input and helping to optimize the application. We look forward to releasing this more broadly across U of T and streamlining the planning process for all students.”

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Updates to Microsoft 365 licensing model

Date: June 21, 2022
To: EITU, InfoTech
From: EASI Communications
Re: Updates to Microsoft 365 licensing model

 

Dear colleagues,

As part of our continued commitment to service excellence, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) is pleased to announce that the University has reached a new licensing agreement with Microsoft. The new agreement will streamline the existing licensing model, providing a more secure, transparent and personalized Microsoft 365 experience for all members of the University community.

EASI will initiate a phased rollout of the new licensing model on June 20 with a scheduled completion date of July 30.

The impact of this planned migration on University-wide business processes will be minimal. However, we ask that you review the information below to learn more about how the improved licensing model will work, its benefits and how you can prepare for this change.

EASI extends our thanks to divisional IT leadership for their active participation in the development of this licensing model.

How does the new Microsoft 365 licensing model work?

The new Microsoft licensing model automatically assigns University community members with the Microsoft license that best suits the type of work they do at the University. EASI uses information in ROSI, HRIS and other data sources to determine the default toolkit that someone is assigned. This process is automated.

What are the benefits of this new licensing model?

The benefits of this new framework include:

    • Improved security posture: All U of T community members and shared mailboxes will be enrolled in advanced M365 security services.
    • Personalized automated access: Individuals will receive automatic license assignments based on the nature of the work they do with the University.
    • Advanced administrative tools: Administrative staff, faculty and librarians will have access to a number of advanced administrative features such as the full version of Power BI and Teams audio conferencing.
    • Flexibility: The updated licensing model recognizes that sometimes an individual will require access to tools outside of their toolkit. In these instances, divisions may submit an exceptions form on behalf of the individual.

How will the new licensing model impact my division?

The new licensing model will have minimal impact on existing business processes and most users will experience a seamless transition: all staff, students and faculty will continue to have access to a full range of online Microsoft 365 products. However, please be aware of the following changes:

    • Faculty, librarians, administrative staff and students will now receive automatic access to the A5/full toolkit. The toolkit includes the full version of Power BI, Bookings and Microsoft 365 Apps (Desktop) for Enterprise.
    • Casual staff and University staff members whose core job descriptions do not feature computing administrative duties (e.g. food service workers) will continue to have access to the standard range of Microsoft 365 products, including online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint via the A1/standard toolkit. However, these groups must submit an exceptions request to access advanced administrative tools such as Bookings and Microsoft 365 Apps (Desktop) for Enterprise.
    • Mailboxes in A1/standard toolkits are limited to 50GB of storage space.

Next steps

EASI will collaborate with divisional IT leadership throughout the migration to relay these changes to impacted stakeholders. We will distribute targeted communications to divisional IT leaders to provide timelines, user lists and resources.

For more information on Microsoft 365 licensing and toolkits, please review these knowledge base articles: Toolkit overview and eligibility | Toolkits for staff, faculty, students and other community members.

For any technical issues, help desks are asked to please open a ticket at https://uoft.me/m365help. For any other questions, please reach out to Prajwal Channaiah at prajwal.channaiah@utoronto.ca.

Kind regards,

EASI Communications

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Resolved: Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

Date: June 20, 2022
To: ROSI Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration – Student Information Systems
Re: Resolved: Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

Hi everyone,

Further to an email sent on June 9, please note that the intermittent performance and data load issues with the Timetable Builder application have been resolved. Our technical team has optimized the application and it continues to be available for courses in the following divisions:

  • University of Toronto Scarborough
  • University of Toronto Mississauga
  • The Faculty of Arts & Science
  • The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
  • The Faculty of Music
  • The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design

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

Sincerely,
Student Information Systems

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Reminder: AMS System Maintenance – Saturday, June 18 from 8:00am to 1:00pm

Date: June 15, 2022
To: U of T Staff
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration 
Re: Reminder: AMS System Maintenance – Saturday, June 18 from 8:00am to 1:00pm

 

Hi everyone,

This is a reminder that there will be scheduled system maintenance on Saturday, June 18 from 8:00am to 1:00pm. The following systems will not be available during that time:

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

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

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

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ROSI Express Reports User Survey

Date: June 15, 2022
To: ROSI Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration – Student Information Systems
Re: ROSI Express Reports User Survey

 

ROSI and ROSI Express Users

As you may know, EASI has been developing a new report platform based on Power BI. We are referring to our implementation as OAR (Operational and Academic Reporting). The new platform has a number of benefits including the option to combine data from multiple sources and it is not restricted to users who hold a ROSI ID.

We have already moved the governance and Curriculum Management related reports to OAR and in the near future plan to move a number of the reports currently housed in ROSI Express. Before we do that, we want to be sure that we review those reports, removing any that are no longer helpful, and identifying what changes might make existing reports more useful to users. If you use ROSI Express reports we would appreciate your feedback in the survey that can be found at this link. Please note, the document is set up in Microsoft Forms and so is not anonymous.  We would appreciate your response by June 30.

Many thanks

The Student Information Systems team.

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Update: Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

Date: June 9, 2022
To: ROSI User
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration – Student Information Systems
Re: Update: Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

 

Hi everyone,

Further to yesterday’s email, please note that some users continue to experience intermittent performance and data load issues with the Timetable Builder application. Our technical team will continue to monitor the issue over the next few weeks and will work towards optimizing the application.

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the issue.

Sincerely,
Student Information Systems

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Reminder: End of support for Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10

Date: June 9, 2022
To: InfoTech Listserv
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: End of support for Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10

 

Dear IT colleagues

This is a final reminder that Microsoft will end support and retire Internet Explorer 11 on June 15, for the following versions of Windows 10:

    • Windows 10 client SKUs (version 20H2 and later)
    • Windows 10 IoT (version 20H2 and later) 

A full list of impacted operating systems can be found here.  

In preparation for this change, we recommend you take the following actions: 

End users 

Community members using Internet Explorer 11 on their Windows 10 devices should upgrade to Microsoft Edge or a supported browser such as Chrome as soon as possible. Support for Internet 11 with Microsoft 365 online services previously ended in August 2021. 

IT staff 

If your division has sites or services that rely on legacy document modes or ActiveX controls for third-party apps, Microsoft Edge has Internet Explorer mode built in. Internet Explorer mode enables backward compatibility and will be supported through at least 2029. 

Please submit a ticket through uoft.me/m365help as soon as possible if you have concerns that your divisional site or service will be impacted by the June 2022 end of service date. 

For additional information, please review this FAQ from Microsoft. 

Kind regards, 

EASI Digital Workplace 

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Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

Date: June 8, 2022
To: ROSI Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration – Student Information Systems
Re: Timetable Builder Application – Performance and Data Load Issues

 

Hi everyone,

Please note that some users are experiencing intermittent performance and data load issues with the Timetable Builder application. Our technical team is aware of the issue and will be working towards optimizing the application. We will provide another update by Friday, June 10.

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the issue.

Sincerely,
Student Information Systems