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ITS Quick Start for New Hires
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Hello New Hires,
I wanted to provide a quick, not overly technical overview of what ITS is and how the services we provide to you.
ITS is centralized for all three colleges but we are divided into 3 main types of services.
Centralized Services
- Administrative Services – Lead by Edgar Coronel
They support the ERP system called Banner which is a where all the data about employees, student and the institution business processes are stored. They also support anything that connects to Banner such as WebSMART and CCCApply. Banner has modules for different business areas (students, human resources, financial aid, payroll, finance) and we have a specialized programmer for each module. - Technology Support – Lead by Yoseph Demissie
They are the technicians on the front lines who physically come to your office, classrooms or conference rooms to fix computers, phones, media and networks.
— Computers Support – We have technicians at each of the three colleges. You want these guys to be your best friends because they will take care of you when your computer crashes.
— Network and Phone Support – Seems like an odd combination, but our phones sit on our network so it works.
— Media Services – Audio/Visual Systems – Supporting Digital Signage, Smart Classrooms, and Media at Events so people can have a sound system, microphones, projectors and big screens. - Web Services – Lead by Christopher Smith
Much of what we do is online now so we have a department to help support the dozens of web applications we offer to our students and staff online. (i.e. Canvas, OmniUpdate, Google Apps, O365, WebSchedule, Directory, GWAMail. NoviSurvey, etc…) as well as help support the college web folks on advanced programming and/or integrating systems into their college websites. - CRM Services – Lead by Sandy Allen
A CRM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of our many solutions to help boost student success. It will allow us to track every service a student uses from interest in applying, all the way until graduation so we can gauge success and quickly match struggling students with appropriate services.
Help Desk
When you first get started it can be confusing knowing who to contact. We have centralized all our employee services under one help desk. If you need any assistance you can access the help desk from the portal.
https://smccd.edu/portal
You will login with your email username and password. If you don’t know your email username and password then you can call us at extension 6543
Lost Passwords
We offer a Self-service password management solution where you can reset your password with security questions on text message BUT in order for it to work you must register before you lose your password. Register today!
Wireless Internet
We offer free wireless (wifi) to all employees and guests. You can login to our fast and secure employee wifi “FacStaff” by using your email address as your username and your email password as your password. If you are on a non-district device you may need to connect to the “Public” wifi which will require you accept the “Terms of Service” when you join.
Buying Technology
If you need something technology related then you need to discuss it with your Dean or Manager. We like to plan how we are going to allocate our technology budgets sometimes years in advance. When it comes to replacing equipment ITS has a spreadsheet of recommendation based on the items that are aging out of warranty BUT it’s a recommendation, ultimately the colleges decide how to spend their money. You can try to bribe us with candy, but unfortunately there’s no way ITS can buy you a new laptop unless your college pays for it.
Technology Standards
All our standards are on the District Supported Goods & Services (DSGS) website – http://smccd.edu/dsgs
The reason we have standards is because our technicians are smart but it’s impossible to be able to efficiently support every type of device that is thrown at us. Standards helps us be able to respond quickly with new parts and debug issues.
There are some great discounts too, if you want to buy items for your own personal use, such as you can get 17% off your AT&T bill and 15% off your Verizon bill.
ITS Supported Services
Before you go out and sign up for an online service, see what ITS already owns and can give you for free.
ITS also has a website – http://smccd.edu/its/ – announcements and tutorials.
Most commonly request tutorials:
Status Page
To view the status of web services – http://smccd.college.technology
State Chancellor’s Office
- Zoom – From the State Chancellor’s Office we have Zoom free for video conferencing. http://conferzoom.org/ I LOVE zoom and someday a new hire orientation could happen all on zoom
- Lynda.com – Has video tutorials on every technology you could want to master. Login through the Learn Academy
- College.technology – In fact there are so many wonderful services that the State Chancellor’s Office offers, that I don’t think many people statewide know about. I created a list of all services I could find – http://ca.college.technology
Technology Security
I could write a book on this topic but here are the most important things you should consider as a new hire.
- Don’t let anyone log into your computer or any of our systems with your credentials.
- Be cautious that you will receive dozens of fake emails that look like they are from ITS asking you to login with your credentials.
- Don’t open attachments unless you know who they were from and you were expecting them.
- Don’t store confidential files on computers that are not owned by the District.
- Make sure your passwords are at least 12 characters. Using an uncommon phrase or sentence is good practice.
- You should probably change your passwords if you ever log into websites while connected to a wireless network at Starbucks, Hotel, Airport, etc…,
- BACKUP anything that is on your computer that you don’t want to lose. Make sure those backups are encrypted.
- When in doubt, ask ITS. We are here to help.
