This report describes the activities and accomplishments of the Office of Telecommunications for the period from July 1, 1997 through June 30, 1998, with special emphasis upon the most recent six months.
Among the notable accomplishments during the period were further development of partnerships with AT&T, Vanguard/CellularOne and Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications, completion of the first phase of the multi-year, Commonwealth-funded $15.8M information infrastructure program at University Park (UP), completion of the longstanding plan to upgrade cabling at campuses other than University Park, deployment of services associated with Penn State's associations with the Dickinson School of Law, the Penn State Geisinger Health System, and firms in the research park, and initiation of formal actions relative to the next generation of UP voice services and the continued deployment of services via the University's new "Integrated Backbone". In addition, a degree of progress continued to be made in refining the process by which OTC services are funded by the University, and in improving the process by which residence hall students activate their network connections. Our assistance with the 1998 Dance Marathon, which enabled participants to view and "chat" with patients at the Hershey Medical Center, coupled with our support of communications needs related to the Space Shuttle mission, further underscored the degree of activity in an "out of this world" year!
The litany of items above complement those reported in the semi-annual report, including activation of a "call trace" feature to enhance personal security, increasing service levels/bandwidth associated with Internet/Internet2 connections, increasing bandwidth and deploying integrated backbone services at all Penn State campuses, development of leading-edge interactive videoconferencing facilities, expansion of dial-in services, and decommissioning of certain outdated technology. In all, 1997/98 was an intensely busy and very productive year, with major strides made in enhancing the University's recognized leadership in providing high-quality, advanced telecommunications services to students, faculty, and staff.
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
Effective July 1, 1997, OTC began using IBIS exclusively to handle its accounting functions. All staff members in the Accounting Office participated in IBIS training and were members of a process improvement team facilitated by the C&IS Process Improvement Coordinator. The team implemented several improvements, resulting in time-savings by eliminating duplicate entry and other redundant work. The team has identified additional improvements and continues toward their implementation.
All of OTC's CQI team members participated in the annual CQI Fair in April.
Two OTC staff personnel continue as members of the Computer and Information Systems Continuous Quality Improvement (C&IS CQI) team working towards an improved interface on the Penn State home page regarding information about C&IS provided services. In addition, documents are continually being added to the OTC Web site. A major redesign of OTC's site is also underway to make information about standard OTC-provided products and services easier to find.
AT&T Alliance
The AT&T/Penn State Alliance continues to evolve. Organizationally, Carol Knauff has replaced Harry Bennett as the AT&T Campus Executive. Carol is in the Consumer Services division of AT&T and an alumna of the College of Engineering, and has already proven to be quite helpful in resolving issues associated with student service rate plans and other issues.
Student Long Distance Programs
Significant changes occurred in the student long distance program during this period. A new University ID card was introduced for all students, faculty and staff. For students, this card can also function as an AT&T calling card. At the urging of Penn State, AT&T developed new internal procedures to allow their ACUS (AT&T College and University Solutions) division to create the calling card bill. For on-campus students, this means one bill can carry both "1+" as well as calling card billing information. For all students, this means the ACUS service and account management capabilities are extended to their calling card accounts. It is expected that this approach will now be adopted at other universities using AT&T's services.
Off-campus students will have new services available this fall. AT&T will offer "Dial One" services to these students. Dial One will provide an option of three different calling rate plans and a call organizer capability, which separates the billing statement into separate sections based on the use of an account code. While not as desirable as individual bills, it is significantly better than one bill per apartment, which was an initial goal. We continue to work with AT&T to improve both billing and call rates and are optimistic that further improvements to the off-campus program will continue to be made.
True PSU Program
New rate plans were announced for the upcoming year for True PSU and on-campus students. Known as a "postalized" rate structure, a flat rate will be charged, based on time of day, regardless of the call destination. Domestic calls made between 7 am and 7 pm, Monday - Friday will be charged $.15 per minute. Domestic calls made at other times and days will be $.10 per minute. An international option will also be offered. In addition, for a fixed $1.50 per month, a single rate for international calls, on a country by country basis, can be obtained.
Joint Penn State/AT&T Alliance Meeting
An alliance meeting was held in April at University Park. There were several developments arising from this meeting:
- Penn State was encouraged to develop a teacher certification program for using the Internet. Gary Miller, of Continuing Education, reported that five 3-credit courses should be ready by fall.
- AT&T committed to review "OC-3" pricing that had been delivered to Penn State. In subsequent actions, this rate was lowered and a contract was established with AT&T for this service, with installation planned later in 1998.
- A "Lighthouse" visit to Campus by AT&T Labs personnel identified some potential joint research projects. Follow-up visits and discussions will be conducted over the summer months, with an emphasis on World Campus potential.
- The idea of having AT&T Chairman, C. Michael Armstrong, visit campus was discussed; it seems likely this could happen within the next year.
- The next Alliance team meeting will be held in New Jersey, to enable the Penn State contingent ton meet more members of the AT&T team.
Vanguard Alliance
This Alliance, announced at the end of September 1997, began to develop momentum. A testing period ended in February, and general availability of cellular phone service began in April. By the end of the fiscal year, nearly 200 digital cellular phones were in use across the campus.
A project linking Vanguard and Applied Research Lab (ARL) was started. ARL is involved in creating a demonstration for Penn DOT to show the benefits of using wireless communications and GIS information to decrease arrival times to accidents and for emergency medical treatment. This project is expected to continue throughout fiscal year 98/99.
Plans for a student cellular service were also started during this reporting period. Hopefully to be introduced near the beginning of fall semester, this plan has a goal of providing affordable digital cellular service. There are many details to be developed yet, with one of the largest obstacles being the cost of digital cellular phones. Based on student focus groups, there appears to be student interest - if the prices points are right. Cellular phones will be provided to a class of journalism students as the result of a classroom project started with the College of Communications. The phones will be used in conducting field interviews and field reporting.
Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications
In March, the Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications, Inc. announced its plans to acquire space in the new Multi-tenant Building being constructed in Phase Two of the Research Park. Allegheny Hyperion (AHT) is a partnership of two Pennsylvania companies, Allegheny Power and Hyperion Telecommunications. Although the University has no direct services currently from AHT, a new high-speed circuit (OC-3) to be provided by AT&T will use AHT services in addition to providing the State College to Altoona portion of the circuit connecting the University to Pittsburgh's Internet2 "gigapop". AHT is expected to offer other commercial services in the State College area in late 1998.
Lucent Technologies
The College of Business and OTC have agreed to work with Lucent Technologies, experimenting with a wireless LAN to be installed in Beam Hall. As a former residence hall, parts of this building are difficult to wire, yet the College of Business depends upon use of this building for conducting classes. One room, in particular, will be used-often for classes involving a large number of portable computers. Using Lucent Technologies' equipment, a wireless LAN will be constructed in this classroom, and appropriate wireless modems installed in the computers. This activity will be completed during the upcoming academic year.
Funding and Budget Changes
Much of Penn State's telecommunications' budget is based upon recovery of appropriate costs for service from individual college, campus, and departmental budgets. The current charging scheme has been in place since 1984, using a "maturity of service" continuum to determine the degree of recovery. Services at the end of the continuum corresponding to immature services are heavily subsidized while services at the other end, corresponding to mature services, are fully cost-recovered. With technologies converging it is becoming increasingly difficult to neatly separate services along this continuum. In addition to this problem, there are additional factors warranting change to this approach of cost-recovery. Services that have traditionally carried the bulk of the cost-recovery burden, such as dial tone and long distance, are beginning to decline in use, and there is an increasing emphasis upon encouraging departments to more aggressively make use of information technologies. For these reasons, OTC is actively working to change the University's approach to budgeting these critical services. An initial step in this process is to remove the salaries from the overhead base that must be cost-recovered. A "budget-neutral" method to achieve this goal is currently under development and is expected to be implemented during fiscal year 98/99.
Local Area Networks (LAN)
Ninety-one LAN designs were completed and 29 LANs were installed during this reporting period, bringing the total number of OTC-installed LANs to 114 and the total number of OTC-supported LANs to 111. The chart in Appendix A illustrates the continued growth trend for requests for OTC LAN installations. A strategy of all LAN designs using only newer-technology switch-based components was also adopted during this reporting year. At some point during the 1998 calendar year, it is expected that the older, repeater-based components will no longer be offered.
Interactive Videoconferencing Facilities
Work continued to progress on two new types of videoconferencing venues. The first, a large classroom located in 108 Wartik, will seat approximately 80 students and will be equipped with the ability to link to one, or more, remote facilities utilizing the latest in large scale interactive technologies. Remote linkages will initially be provided over the public switched network but work is rapidly progressing on providing similar, improved, connections over Internet2 and Penn State's Integrated Backbone. This project was particularly challenging because of its scale (a large classroom) and the desire to insure that the technology used in the classroom is not an impediment to learning. This facility is to be operational by January 1999.
The second venue is a small, experimental, interactive classroom that will be used to test and support new teaching models. This facility differs from a normal conference room in that it can support a dynamic group environment without the video/audio technology being restrictive. This facility is expected to be operational by January 1999.
In addition to the venues mentioned above, development and experimentation of several approaches to provide interactive conferencing using Internet2 were undertaken. The systems being developed support both desktop computers and traditional conference rooms, representing both "low end" conferencing, and the distribution of high quality video/audio. Currently, Penn State is awaiting response from other CIC sites which may be able to partner on the trial of high quality systems. A trial of the "low end" conferencing will take place next quarter.
Network Time Source
A new, more accurate, network time source has been selected and ordered for use on the Integrated Backbone. The new time source will be 100,000 times more accurate than the current source (clock.psu.edu) and will be capable of providing time reference to 250ns for devices attached to the Integrated Backbone.
Security Technique Developed
A technique was developed that will provide the same level of security on the ATM portion of the Integrated Backbone as was always available on the High-speed Data Backbone. With the addition of this security feature it will now be possible to provide switched (compared with static) access to Integrated Backbone customers. This means that it will now be possible for an ATM connected site to place ATM switched calls through the Integrated Backbone to another ATM connected site.
Statistical counts showing a growth trend over a seven-year period on the number of Penn State Data Backbone connections and hosts have been charted in Appendix B.
Backbone Upgrades and Auto-Dial Back-up Connections
The installation of the non-University Park backbone upgrades and auto-dial back-up connections was begun this year. Altoona's test configuration was made operational in January and work at Behrend was completed in February. The upgrade for these sites consisted of the installation of 2 T1 circuits, a new router and an ATM switch at each location. The auto-dial back-up connections consist of 4 BRIs to each site with appropriate Ascend equipment. The backup links will be automatically activated (dial-up to University Park) if the routers located at the remote locations lose the ability to see routes coming from the University Park routers. Backbone connections to Penn State Harrisburg, Dickinson School of Law and the campuses connected to the Penn State Harrisburg hub were upgraded and equipped with auto-dial back-up connections in March. Penn State Harrisburg received 3 T1s, 4 BRIs and related equipment (ATM switches, routers, and Ascend equipment). The Dickinson School of Law and the Penn State Harrisburg satellite campuses each received 2 T1s, 4 BRIs and related equipment. McKeesport and the campuses connected to the McKeesport hub are scheduled to receive the next upgrades and backup connections when funds are available.
Maintenance Network
A maintenance network to service Non-University Park campuses was installed at Penn State Harrisburg, Delaware County, Abington, Altoona, and Berks locations in January; at the Mont Alto, and York locations in March; and at the Hazleton, Shenango, and Wilkes-Barre locations in May. As an alternate method of accessing the equipment while trouble-shooting network difficulties, terminal servers and dial-up modems were connected to the console ports of the routers, ATM switches and Ascend units at each location.
Development of New OTC Service Offerings
Evaluation and testing continued or was initiated on many new technologies that may become new OTC service offerings. The new technologies being evaluated include:
Authentication in a switch based edge device (more efficient authentication than is currently available today),
MPOA (allows an end-to-end ATM path while maintaining IP layer control),
Multi-line ISDN for remote office connectivity (more bandwidth for sites using ISDN for backbone connections),
Firewalls (add more security controls to LAN segments for sites that want OTC maintenance and increased security),
ATM to the desktop (support ATM as an OTC LAN option),
Wireless LANs (OTC support for a wireless LAN environment),
Single mode fiber for backbone connections (use single mode fiber between a hub and a customer's LAN for backbone connectivity).
It is anticipated that some of these evaluations will lead to new OTC services.
New customer service design requests continue to grow. A large number of these requests, including 91 LAN designs, 36 Integrated Backbone connections, 21 videoconferencing-related systems, six CATV (Cable TV) systems, and seven dial-up expansions, were completed. This was-easily-a new high-water mark for OTC's Network Planning & Integration staff.
Space Shuttle Mission
OTC was instrumental to the success of two specific activities related to the Columbia shuttle mission that took place in March of this reporting period. The first was to add NASA TV to the channels fed to the three on-campus video systems (Housing, classrooms, and internal TCI feeds) so students in the residence halls and others on campus could watch the activities of Professor James Pawelczyk, the first Penn State faculty member to fly in a shuttle mission. The second activity was to set up a live, interactive connection between Penn State and the shuttle via OTC's uplink service so that Penn State students could ask questions and receive answers from Professor Pawelczyk while he was aboard the space shuttle.
Access Modem Project/Internet Access Services
Faster, more reliable dial-up Services were provided. OTC, in conjunction with the Center for Academic Computing, has upgraded the dial-up capabilities and modem counts in place at many campuses. These upgrades allow faster access and decrease the possibility of getting a busy signal. Some campuses were provided digital dial-up capability, using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines, while the size and speed of modem pools were upgraded at the other campuses.
The following improvements have been made as a result of the Access Modem Project:
Behrend's ISDN capability was increased from 47 to 59 lines.
Altoona's ISDN capability was increased from 47 to 60 lines. In addition, in order to encourage students living in residence halls to take advantage of their Ethernet connections, as well as to ensure that the campus access modem pools are reserved for users for which dial-up is the only option (i.e. those who live off-campus), the campus implemented call blocking from residence hall rooms to the modem pool effective January 12th.
ISDN capability was added to the Center for Academic Computing's (CAC) dial-up service at University Park. Two hundred and thirty lines were added for a total of 1,062 dial-up lines.
Work continues to "recycle" analog modems to those locations that use them so that most locations have a minimum of 16 modems capable of 28.8Kbps speed.
The table in Appendix C shows the current counts and speeds of access modem pools at Penn State Campus locations.
Penn State Call Center
In order to reflect increased responsibilities, the Penn State Information Operators became the Penn State Call Center. In addition to providing all types of information, scheduling use of interactive video services, handling emergencies, and other duties, during this reporting period the Call Center handled roughly 619,000 requests for directory assistance. This reflects an average of between 3 and 4 calls per minute to check telephone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of Penn State faculty, staff, students, and departments. In June, several members visited the Bell Atlantic Directory Assistance Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA, to examine how requests for Penn State telephone numbers are handled and to discuss ideas for ways to improve accuracy of directory assistance.
The Call Center provides Audio Conference Calling services ("Meet Me" and Operator Assisted Conference Calling), and OTC Videoconferencing services. In a recent survey of audio conference users, 98% of respondents rated their overall satisfaction with the service as either good or excellent. OTC Video Conference rooms (located at USB2 rooms 106 and 120), and the Penn State Video Bridge, continue to be utilized by staff and faculty. These conference rooms averaged approximately 2 videoconferencing events per day, while video events requiring a video bridge averaged approximately 3 events per day. The charts in Appendix D illustrate the utilization of the Audio Conferencing and OTC Videoconferencing services.
Voicemail
The number of voice mailboxes and Single Digit Menus at University Park has grown more than ten-fold in an eight-year period. The charts in Appendix E illustrate the installation of mailboxes at the rate of at least one per day since 1990.
In addition, other notable voicemail activity included:
Implementation of a single digit menu for the University Health Services (UHS) to handle their increased call load. The statistics for the UHS Pharmacy single digit menu system show between 1,500 and 2,000 calls being processed weekly since the system was implemented in February 1998.
Implementation of a voice mailbox (814 865-4000) for Department of Public Information for general announcements such as weather-related closings and cancellations at University Park.
Implementation of new software on the University Park voicemail system that provides an 800-number, offering recorded information and fax-on-demand for the College of Agricultural Sciences. The system, which Agricultural Sciences operates on a year-round basis, processed over 2,000 calls during the growing season between April 1 and September 30, 1997. The system is utilized by the Pesticides Education Group and the Integrated Pesticides Management Group (IPM) and provides information on pesticides and crop commodities throughout the state during the year. With more than 25,000 pesticide application licenses in force, there are literally hundreds of training sessions that occur throughout the year. In the past, phone calls were made to extension offices or regional offices requesting information on training schedules. However, by using the IPM number, a caller can receive requested information around the clock. In addition, callers can obtain more in-depth information about crops by using the "fax-on-demand" system. Dr. Alan MacNab, professor of Plant Pathology, believes that the use of real time information saved 60 percent of the tomato crop last year.
Operational Measurement Reporting
To help departments manage incoming call flow, a structured approach to producing operational measurement reports was implemented. Reports for departments using UCD (Uniform Call Distribution, a method used for distributing many incoming calls uniformly among a group of people) are produced on a routine basis (daily or weekly) depending on the needs of the user office. Development of a web-based interface to these reports was completed with a trial scheduled for July and implementation in August 1998.
Training
The Penn State Community continues to take advantage of the no-fee telecommunications training services offered by OTC. As evidenced in the charts in Appendix F, over one thousand people were trained on Merlin, Centrex/Meridian Business Sets, Voicemail, Videoconferencing, and other systems.
Preventive Maintenance
In April, representatives from the College of Agricultural (Ag) Sciences met with representatives from OTC to discuss the maintenance of downlink equipment located at the county Ag Extension sites. The College ultimately requested maintenance by OTC for all 56 Ag Extension downlink sites. The maintenance agreement includes a yearly preventive maintenance (PM) check of all sites. (Previously OTC performed yearly PMs for some of these sites, but had no formal arrangement with the College for ongoing maintenance). The PMs began in April and will continue into the fall. This year, as part of the yearly PM, upgrades are being made to digital receivers.
Perfect Uplinkers Award
For the second consecutive year, our Video Operations group has received Loral Skynet's "Perfect Uplinkers Award". By providing at least 50 consecutive perfect uplinks, Penn State qualified for the bronze-level award. This included a certificate, invitation to a special reception sponsored by Loral Skynet, and Penn State's name prominently displayed at the Loral Skynet booth at the National Association of Broadcasters conference.
OTC hosted a visit from the Air National Guard to discuss implementation of NT servers in early 1998.
OTC provided the private fiber infrastructure for University Police Services and the County 911 Center that will enable the County, Borough, and University Park Police departments to share databases for their 911 service.
OTC provided a Microsoft Exchange server for use by the Penn Stater during an Outlook training session.
OTC provided OC-12 ATM connectivity at the Penn Stater for the Common Solutions Group (CSG) meeting in June 1998.
Residence Hall Telephone Services
The "Call Trace" feature was added to all University Park residence hall student telephone lines in January. Call Trace is a caller-activated feature that enables receivers of obscene, harassing, or life-threatening calls to quickly activate a trace against the telephone number used to place the call. By immediate notification of Penn State Police Services, there is a good chance that the caller can be identified and prosecuted. This feature was also added to University Park administrative telephone lines in March. OTC is investigating the possibility of adding a similar feature at other Penn State campuses.
Residence Hall Data Services
The project to install electronics on all non-University Park residence hall ports (one per pillow) began summer session 1998. Installations at residence halls at Beaver, Hazleton, and McKeesport were completed by the close of this reporting period. The Dickinson School of Law, Altoona, Behrend and Berks locations are scheduled to be completed by fall semester.
As of the end of spring semester, 5,691 residence hall Ethernet connections had been activated at University Park, and 1,021 connections had been activated in the residence halls at non-University Park locations. Compared to the previous year, we have experienced nearly a 50 percent growth in connections at University Park in fall semester alone. The charts in Appendix G show an increase of connections forty-four times the number activated since the spring of 1995, which was the first semester that all of the wiring was completed.
As of the end of spring semester 1998, 2,731 advance requests for residence hall connection renewals have been received for fall semester 1998. These requests were submitted electronically via a specialized application, developed and maintained by OTC, which enables students to register for residence hall backbone connections via a Web page. The advance request ensures that the students' Internet connections will be ready the day they return to campus in the fall.
$15.8M Telecommunications Infrastructure Project
The first portion of Phase A (A-1) of the multi-year Telecommunications Infrastructure project was completed.
Phase A-2 design was also completed and approved by Department of General Service (DGS). Funds were released for construction of this phase in November 1997. The project was bid and contracts were awarded to the successful bidders. A Notice to Proceed was issued to the contractors, and installation work began in February 1998. Construction of the phase is approximately 50% complete, with several buildings already turned over to the University.
In addition to internal building wiring, phase A-2 also includes the first phase of the telecommunications closet security system. This system will add card access security systems to 64 buildings and create a central campus monitoring system that will be located in the Eisenhower Parking Deck office of Police Services. Following the installation of this system, Police Services will administer and monitor the system.
Also included in phase A-2 is the installation of a redundant single mode fiber path between each of the on-campus hubs (excludes Research Park and Rider I hubs), offering increased reliability and more efficient traffic flow for the Integrated Backbone. The redundant ring is expected to be operational by the start of fall 1998.
Phase B of the project is near the completion of the design phase and is on-schedule. The design documents were submitted to DGS for review and were approved. Request for release of funds in August will be submitted to the Commonwealth in July.
Integrated Backbone
The installation of the Integrated Backbone was completed at University Park in March with the installation of new routers and ATM switches at Pattee and Rider Building. At the same time, the installation of the maintenance network at UP was completed as terminal servers and dial-up modems were connected to the console ports of the routers and ATM switches at Pattee and Rider.
Fiber Audit
An audit of all University Park fiber was initiated in January. A qualified student was hired on a part-time basis to visit all telecommunications rooms in which fiber is terminated. Fiber cables and patch panels were checked for adequate and correct labeling, and the condition of telecommunications rooms was surveyed. Label information was recorded and compared to the information in OTC's Cable Assignment and Business Office databases and the panels were re-labeled with complete and correct information. Telecommunications Rooms in need of custodial service were also noted. Rooms that were cluttered with items unrelated to telecommunications items were identified for later clean-up work.
The audit was completed in April. The database information comparison and corrections, tracing and labeling of unlabeled fibers, and the cleaning of closets will continue through the summer.
Cable TV (CATV)
Planning was accelerated for a "merged" CATV distribution system at University Park. A design study that determined the feasibility of merging the two existing systems (campus cable and residence halls) was completed and a three-year plan developed that will, when complete, make the merged system available to those University Park buildings which currently use either system. A steering committee was established and charged with overseeing the merging process. This committee has representatives from all of the major CATV system users at University Park and has been dealing with such issues as the number and type of services carried by the merged system, the channel line-up on each service, the per-tap charge of each service, and other aspects. It is expected that the merged system will become available at selected locations during fall 1998.
Cable Upgrade Project and Switch Enhancements
The University's multi-year program to install fiber optic and other cabling necessary to support advanced telecommunications services was completed. As a result, that work initially planned at all campuses to have fiber optic cabling installed among major buildings has now been completed. These same campuses now have cabling which meets University networking standards installed within each major building.
Telephone switches at Beaver and McKeesport were replaced during this reporting period, eliminating the last two GTE "Omni" switches still in use within Penn State. The old switches were replaced by Lucent switches which use ISDN-Primary Rate Interface (PRI) digital facilities to support administrative and residence hall students.
Hershey
A Penn State Point-Of-Presence (POP) has been established at the Hershey Medical Center. This POP provides a Penn State Integrated Backbone connection to departments within the College of Medicine. Future direction includes the conversion of the Penn State-to-Hershey backbone connection to an ATM link.
Penn State Geisinger Sports Medicine Clinics located in State College decided to move their current voice services off Penn State's Centrex System and install their own PBX systems to support their needs to interact with other Geisinger facilities. Eight Centrex lines will remain in service on a permanent basis to continue to support the importance of the relationship between Penn State faculty and staff and the Sports Medicine Clinics. By retaining these Centrex lines, faculty and staff will be able to continue using 5-digit dialing to reach this facility. The Penn State Geisinger West facility cut over will take place on July 15, 1998 and the other two facilities plan to cut over to new services on July 22, 1998.
Dickinson
Residence hall electronics have been upgraded to a higher speed and more secure configuration at the Dickinson School of Law. Further enhancements at the campus this year include a newly installed PictureTel interactive video room system and a replacement of the analog modem pool with 23 ports of concurrent access using ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI).
Software Upgrades
Conversion of desktop operating systems to Windows NT 4.0 was accomplished in early 1998. Hands-on training took place in January.
Hardware Upgrades
An upgrade to the AlphaServer StorageWorks occurred in January. All 486-based desktop systems have been replaced with Pentium systems.
Telecommunications Management System
An integrated telecommunications management system was purchased which will manage all OTC internal processes, including assignment and tracking of cable pairs, inventory, TSRs (Telecommunications Service Requisitions), trouble tickets, on-line directory, and billing. Installation and training occurred in early 1998 and simultaneous system operation began in May. Plans are to decommission the old system and go into production with the new system in August 1998.
Reorganization
Stimulated in part by the changing nature of demands placed upon the OTC Business and Accounting Offices, and by the pending retirement of the Manager of that group, the Business Office, Accounting Office, and Call Center were reorganized under a single Manager of Financial and Administrative Services. This "flattening" of the organization further increased efficiency and quality, by increasing the responsibility and accountability of those in the new organization. In recognition of that, positions were reviewed, with grade and title changes made where appropriate.
25-Year Chair Recipients
Three OTC employees have recently celebrated their 25 years of service at Penn State. They are:
- Margaret Gearhart, Communications Analyst II
- Sue Govedich, Communications Analyst I
- Greg Ritchey, Administrative Computing Manager
Appendix A: Penn State OTC-Installed Local Area Networks (LANs)
Appendix B: Penn State Data Backbone Statistics
Appendix C: Penn State Access Modem Counts and Speeds Table
Appendix E: University Park Voicemail Statistics
Appendix F: Penn State Training Summary
Appendix G: Penn State Student Residence Hall Internet Connection Statistics
