In attendance:
Terri Shelton, Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement
Bob Shea, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Tina McEntire, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management
Donna Heath, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer
Julia Jackson-Newsom, Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategy and Policy
Joe Ames, Director of Administrative Technologies and ITS Strategic Alignment Officer
Topic: Upcoming IT Audit.
Context: Western Carolina is in the process of completing their audit now and expect the final letter to be issued to the Chancellor within a week or two. East Carolina is also wrapping up and expects to have their findings by the end of January. UNCP and NC A&T are being audited now. UNCP expects to complete this month with findings issued in February. NC A&T reports they are about 40% complete. As expected, the auditors have focused heavily on the risk posed by distributed tech at all four schools along with compliance against the requirements specified in the existing UNC System IT Policies plus the new UNC System IT Governance Program. Expect the UNCG audit process to begin within the next several months and there are issues that the ESC needs to address on our campus pre-audit to make sure we can demonstrate that we have the appropriate mitigating controls in place for distributed technology.
Topic: Progress Update on the Application Lifecycle Team Initiative.
Context: The ESC reviewed and provided disposition on 10 recommendations from the Application Lifecycle Management Team on October 8, 2020.
Decision: Accept certain Prohibited Clauses in all Clickwrap Agreements.
Decision: Develop one entry point for all software acquisitions (software.uncg.edu). Provide easy access to all information regarding existing software for campus customers. Software purchasing web page is in progress and estimated to be complete by the end of February 2021. Develop integration and workflow between Jaggaer and ServiceNow including both the contract and e-procurement solutions. Single campus entry point for software requests – Required system upgrades to enable this functionality in the ServiceNow platform are in progress. Purchasing will not have time to work on readying the Jaggaer platform to support this integration until late March/early April at which time the team hopes this work can be prioritized and completed.
Decision: All software is required to go through the proper approval processes. University Procurement Card (PCard) can only be used as payment mechanism for software that has been through the approval process. Review and better define the existing software accounts and commodity codes that are still applicable and add new accounts as needed for new software types.
PCard purchasing process revisions – PCard/Bank of America identification and notification to users regarding software purchase and update to PCard training is expected to be implemented within the next couple of weeks. Once in place, users making software purchases on their PCard will be notified that they need to get a pre-purchase review and contract review if applicable. If the purchaser supplies the correct account software code when they make their purchase, the Purchasing Office will ask if they completed the required pre-purchase and contract reviews at the time of reconciliation. These new procedures will not prevent faculty and staff from making their purchase but will notify Purchasing and IT if the response is no and the purchaser who is not in compliance will be contacted to review the policy. After the new process has been in place for a sufficient amount of time for all faculty and staff to learn and use the new procedures effectively, the ESC will be asked to consider developing a policy to suspend PCard privileges for repeat policy violators.
Decision: Departmental liaisons will be appointed (individuals who are responsible for purchasing and/or contracts in each area) and trained on the new University software acquisition process and will act as advisors to faculty or staff in their area on software purchasing. Training will be provided on the correct identification of the account and commodity code to be used by staff authorized to prepare purchase requests. This training will be incorporated into the existing purchasing and PCard training. An online training program will also be developed and made available in Canvas for new hires and existing employees. Software purchasing liaisons will be trained by the Application Lifecycle Management Team over the next several months and will be listed on the Software Purchasing Website as points of contact for their departments.
Topic: Progress Update on the Secure Desktop Project
Decision: ESC members validated the list of “approvers” within functional areas who can certify the readiness of the Secure Computing Environment for implementation into production. Environment was certified and went into production in January 2021. Direct access to Banner was discontinued campus wide on 2/1/2021. No subsequent issues have been reported to date.
Topic: Post-Mortem from Chancellor’s Winter Huddle.
Context: Follow-up discussion regarding the need to develop a shared annual planning process on critical initiatives.