On September 17, the University of Toronto will be launching the IT Service Centre as part of the Enterprise Service Centre (ESC). This service desk solution will enable the University to eventually streamline, track and respond to over 38,000 annual IT inquiries. In the future, the ESC will also help the University process over 40,000 annual Human Resources service requests.

The ESC, based on the ServiceNow platform, will provide a modern employee experience, help to manage a growing workload, allow for seamless collaboration and provide real-time data to make evidence-based decisions to help adjust our services according to demand.

Here is a Q&A with Gary Raposo, manager of enterprise shared services with Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI):

Why is U of T developing the Enterprise Service Centre?
The Enterprise Service Centre, or ESC, is a service desk platform that will unify the way you submit requests and open incident tickets at the University. Today there is no consistent way to do this – in some cases you send an email, in some cases you have to make a phone call, sometimes there’s a web app, or even a paper-based process. With ESC, we want to provide a single portal for all your requests.

What will it be used for?
ESC will support a number of central IT requests and HR cases at launch. We’re using a continuous development process with ESC so new applications will be added on a regular basis after that.

Who will be able to use it?
The system will be open to anyone who has a UTORid. ESC will present service catalogue options relevant to your profile so only items that are useful to you will appear. We’re hoping to make the ESC experience a personalized one.

What will users find most valuable about the new platform?
Over time, ESC will simplify your life. It starts by providing you with a single portal for all your requests so you won’t have to remember a myriad of emails, phone numbers, and websites. ESC also has a built-in knowledge base allowing you to get answers to your questions without having to open tickets in the first place. Finally, ESC provides full visibility to your tickets and requests so you’ll always know who’s working on your request and you’ll have the latest updates. You’ll never wonder if that email or web request ended up in a black hole.

When will it be launched?
The IT Service Centre will launch with the first wave of applications on September 17, 2019. The HR Service Centre is planned to follow in November 2019. We will be working with local IT teams to push out a desktop shortcut icon to access this cloud-based service.

Initial services will include a ticketing system for the Joint Operations Group, the Digital Workplace managed desktops and EASI services such as ROSI access and SharePoint Online support.

How do you see this platform evolving in the future?
ESC is built on an extremely flexible, cloud-based platform from ServiceNow. ServiceNow provides us with the building blocks to automate and streamline almost any workflow. I’d like to see the ESC evolve beyond IT and HR and into things like asset management, facilities requests, and even business and procurement requests. More importantly, I see ESC evolving across more departments, faculties, and divisions to provide a truly consistent experience across the University.

Questions? Check out the Enterprise Service Centre project website.

You can also watch this video about the IT Service Centre.

On September 17, the University of Toronto will be launching the IT Service Centre as part of the Enterprise Service Centre (ESC). This service desk solution will enable the University to eventually streamline, track and respond to over 38,000 annual IT inquiries. In the future, the ESC will also help the University process over 40,000 annual Human Resources service requests.

The ESC, based on the ServiceNow platform, will provide a modern employee experience, help to manage a growing workload, allow for seamless collaboration and provide real-time data to make evidence-based decisions to help adjust our services according to demand.

“Information Technology Services is working to serve the broader University of Toronto community better by introducing modern, agile tools that enable efficient service delivery,” says Cathy Eberts, executive director of Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI). “This will improve the employee experience by helping users find the information and get the help they need when they need it.”

The University of Toronto Mississauga has used ServiceNow for over three years with great success at handling over 15,000 annual service requests.

What can you expect with the Enterprise Service Centre?

• Ticketing system – allows users to quickly submit and track support incidents and inquiries.
• Service catalogue – allows users search the catalogue by category to submit online requests.
• Knowledge base – allows users to easily search a database of articles that are linked and categorized based on relevance to frequently asked questions and topics.
• Dashboards and analytics – allows users to view important data at a glance and prioritize tasks.

To prepare for this change, the project team has gone through an extensive six-week program of user acceptance testing followed by targeted training with participation from users across the University.

“Workshops and discussions with our user community were essential for understanding how to move them from traditional processes to a digital platform,” says Gary Raposo, manager of enterprise shared services with EASI. “As development progressed, it was great to see the excitement grow as people realized the potential of this platform.”

There are a lot of exciting changes coming this fall with a roadmap for continued development of the ESC.

For a complete list of which services you will be able to access from the ESC, visit the Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration website.

It’s one of the most intense days of the year for U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science students – when thousands of users log in to the student information system to enrol. But this year, students could breathe a sigh of relief as the system, called ACORN, expertly handled over 53,000 transactions in record time.

In the past, ACORN struggled to deal with a high volume of concurrent users, but a three-year project to modernize the system with a new code base and infrastructure has paid off – on August 2, it took students an average of seven minutes versus nine to complete their enrolment.

The enrolment day and the project, known as the NGSIS Platform Modernization Project, involved Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI), Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS), and Information Security at U of T’s Information Technology Services.

“This peak enrolment period is the time of year that really puts our system to the test,” says Frank Boshoff, senior manager of technical solutions and architecture with EASI. “This year was the smoothest enrolment to date. The new platform has given us the flexibility to deliver the services that a university of our stature requires.”

To prepare for the big day, the team increased monitoring, analytics and performance testing on the system.

“We had at least three months of preparation and we rolled out improvements to ensure the best user experience possible,” says Haroon Rafique, manager of development operations with EASI. “Leading up to the big day all indications showed that the system was performing well, but we were still waiting to see how it handled such a large volume. There were only slight delays during login and almost negligible performance degradation.”

Last year it took 24 seconds for an average page to load and this year only took 5.8 seconds, allowing students to complete their enrolment more quickly.

After the success of this enrolment period, the team now plans to explore the opportunity to compress the enrolment time period, allowing administrators more time to react to classes that are oversubscribed.

“It was rewarding to see how all of our work has paid off and it will be even more rewarding to see where future improvements take us,” says Laurel Williams, Information Technology Analyst with EASI.

From a broader perspective, the new platform will also offer an opportunity for future integration.

“The results from this day have shown that improving the platform was an investment well worth making,” says Boshoff. “We’re excited about the ability to integrate this platform with other systems and support more responsive, convenient outcomes for constituents.”

Congratulations to Vikram Chadalawada, Senior Manager of Student Information Systems at EASI for being recognized for Sustained Service of Excellence at the 2019 Simcoe Hall Vice-Presidential Staff Award.

Since 2013, the Simcoe Hall Vice-Presidential Staff Award has recognized outstanding performance in the portfolios reporting into the Offices of the President, Vice-President & Provost, the Simcoe Hall Vice-Presidents, and the Office of the Governing Council. Each year the award recognizes staff members who have contributed to their Division or to the broader University in an exceptional way.

The Sustained Service of Excellence award is given to an individual, with exemplary service to the University, and who is held in high regard by their colleagues and peers in areas that are core to the University’s values including: excellence, service orientation, citizenship, professionalism, collegiality, integrity, and innovation.

Vikram was nominated by Cathy Eberts who wrote that “Vik cares deeply about the University of Toronto. Most notably, he promotes our ideals as an organization and sincerely values our contributions to society. He understands that the cultivation of healthy and productive working relationships translates into exemplary service for our students, staff, faculty and alumni. He has a strong locus of control and uses the power of civic responsibility to make a positive impact in all aspects of his work and beyond…there are few people I have met at U of T who more clearly “walk the talk” than Vik.”

Vikram was presented with the award on July 10 at U of T’s Faculty Club.

They’re responsible for running integral processes at the University – from payroll to vacation and sick leave requests to job applications. Now, after a thorough audit and the resulting improved processes, the Administrative Management Systems have increased system availability to 90 per cent uptime.

To bring this project to life, the team at Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) formed a working group in late January 2019 to see how to improve system availability. This included looking at scheduled outages due to bi-weekly and monthly payroll, fiscal month-end and year end and system restart and backups.

“We decided to look objectively at these outages and ask if they were needed,” says Gary Raposo, manager of Enterprise Shared Services at EASI. “We focused on web-based applications, which are more commonly used during off-business hours, and we were able to make significant improvements to maximize uptime.”

One of the main drivers for improved processes was new developments for Employee Self-Service (ESS) and Manager Self-Service (MSS).

“We’re asking users to report vacation and sick days through ESS, but in the past this service was only available between 7 a.m. and 1 a.m. the following day,” says Raposo. “Now someone who needs to take a sick day can submit their ESS request right away rather than having to wait until after 7 a.m. It’s much more convenient.”

After cataloging the systems for a month and examining processes, the team implemented changes gradually over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition.

“We’re trying to move more towards a 24/7 user experience,” says Paul Littlefield, security and solution developer/analyst with EASI and technical project lead. “Another noticeable improvement is that staff can have access to their T4 slips during the last week of April. In the past, they didn’t have this because we would shut down many systems for fiscal year end. Now ESS stays open and staff can easily get what they need.”

In the future, the team will continue to improve processes. This work will continue with the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program – a three-to five-year project that will transform the entire HR Talent Management Suite and the core HR, Research and Finance systems.

“We look forward to making future improvements to our systems, especially through the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program,” says Raposo. “Our ultimate goal is to provide more streamlined and convenient services for an overall better user experience.”

From human resources to financial and research applications, technology touches all aspects of the U of T employee experience. Now, the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program is set to transform the future for staff and faculty who depend on the Administrative Management Systems.

After a comprehensive review of current technology options, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) will use the latest SAP technology over the next five years to upgrade these systems – providing a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience.

“The original system was implemented in 1995, and over time has undergone many upgrades. Now it’s time to bring U of T into the future,” says Cathy Eberts, executive director of EASI. “The new version of SAP promises vast improvements in system performance and a new user interface for our mobile friendly HR talent management products.”

The first phase of the overhaul, part of the HR Technology Roadmap, includes a “one-stop-shop” for all human resources needs. This includes learning management, performance and goals, recruitment, onboarding, and succession planning.

“This suite of applications will provide an integrated employee experience from hire to retire, and is designed to attract, retain and develop each employee,” says Erin Jackson, chief human resources officer with Human Resources & Equity. “We want to empower employees with modern software so that they can grow and develop their careers at U of T, and to provide HR professionals with strategic HR resources that they can use to deliver best-in-class HR services.”

The project team will first tackle learning management, which will link employees’ personal and development goals using dynamic online material and external online learning sources. It will also allow staff to conveniently register for courses and record completion of mandatory courses.

The new learning module helps users easily view personalized training plans, and access new course catalogues and online learning.

“I’m especially excited about the new SAP Learning Management System for staff.  We haven’t had a system like this at U of T,” says Eberts. “With so many new technologies and applications, such as Office 365, VoIP, and the new SAP products coming on board, staff really need a state-of-the-art system to find the training they require. We’re planning to make this new module available to staff in September 2019.”

From 2019 to 2020, EASI will also be retiring Performance and Goals and Recruitment, and replacing these applications with new versions from SAP SuccessFactors.

Beyond the HR Technology Roadmap, later phases of the project include updates to U of T’s research, financial and procurement applications, and payroll processing.

“This is a whole new world from a technology standpoint,” says Sheila Brown, U of T’s chief financial officer. “The new financial system will be faster, more flexible and user-friendly. We’re one of the top universities in the world, and this technology upgrade reflects our ongoing dedication to excellence in everything we do.”

All of these applications will run on a more robust cloud platform, allowing for faster performance and 24/7 support. It will use SAP HANA, which is a large in-memory database that consolidates thousands of tables and allows users to run faster reports.

These upgrades will lead to new analytics and improved insight into financial, HR, and research administration operations at the university, allowing managers to make enhanced evidence-based decisions.

As next steps, the EASI and HR&E teams are currently participating in workshops to outline project objectives, timelines, and roles and responsibilities.

“This is one of the biggest projects happening at U of T and we’re excited about how it will transform operations at the university,” says Eberts. “With large strategic projects like SAP now in motion, U of T will soon be positioned to offer a first-rate employee and administrator experience.”

Do you create tables and graphs as part of your day-to-day work? Have you struggled with which visualization best communicates the data you’re working with? Have you encountered issues with what to do with missing values, data that spans wide ranges, or an overwhelming number of values?

The University of Toronto’s Institutional Data Hub, a collaboration between the Planning & Budget Office and Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration, is pleased to host one of the world’s foremost Data Visualization workshops on April 30 and May 1, 2019.

Based on Stephen Few’s bestselling Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Nick Desbarats will take you through a two-day workshop on how to design graphs and charts that are quick and easy to understand. You’ll also learn how to make key insights within your data clear and accurate to minimize the risk of presenting misleading visualizations.

This free workshop will consist of interactive presentation segments as well as eight group exercises and discussions that will be reinforced by examples.

Upon completion of the workshop, each participant will receive a copy of Stephen Few’s book, Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten. For those unable to attend, you can borrow a copy from the Map & Data Library– HA31.F49 2012Y.

Details:
WHERE: University of Toronto, St. George Campus
WHEN: April 30 and May 1, 2019: 9am – 4pm
LOCATION: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 5170-252 Bloor St West. Toronto, ON. M5S 1V6.
PRESENTER: Nick Desbarats – Practical Reporting Inc.

Questions?
Please contact us at data@utoronto.ca.