Welcome to the bi-Monthly Update series for the IT Change Program.

Every 2 months, we will keep you updated on the IT Change Program progress and upcoming key events. An overview of the program goals and milestones can be found on the One UNSW website.

Over the next 12 months, The IT Change Program will continue to focus on improving services to meet increasing demand and appropriate levels of expectations while maintaining satisfaction levels, containing costs and protecting UNSW.

The roll-out of the new Shared IT Utility Services started in early November to a pilot group of staff within IT at UNSW. These services included a new Windows XP based SOE (Standard Operating Environment); Microsoft Office 2007 and a new email client (Microsoft Exchange). By the end of 2008, Central IT staff will be using the new standard operating environment.

Selected staff in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Australian School of Business moved to the new shared Staff Email making them the first faculties to access this new shared email service. By the end of 2008, more than 550 staff across Central IT, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Australian School of Business will be using the new email service.

The roll out of services will continue throughout 2009. Plans will be developed on an area-by area basis for each Division / Faculty / School / Unit in consultation with local staff.

Work is now underway to provide the long awaited new data centre, which will be located on the Randwick campus. The project is collaboration between Central IT and Facilities Management.

The building has been selected and demolition works to clear the existing office layout is on track to be completed by end November. There will be a significant amount of re-construction required to secure the building for data centre use, plans for which are being drawn up with the intention of commencing building works February next year.

The infrastructure equipment for a high density IT facility has also been selected and planning is underway to implement this and complete the project with the migration of the AGSM IT equipment to the new facility in October next year.

During November, the new student email, ‘zMail’ was introduced students in the Faculty of Science. Summer School students in the School of Mathematics and Statistics began using the new student email, a web based service that provides a feature-rich web client and an email storage capacity of 10GB and 5GB file storage. The zMail service is managed by the University and hosted by Microsoft.

The consolidated servers program stream has resulted in a net reduction of 210 servers across UNSW. Over 2008, Not only will the consolidation of servers result in significant savings in the cost of power, cooling, maintenance and replacement, it will also reduced the University’s CO2 emissions by 945 Tonnes.

Sean Godfrey commenced in December as the new Director, Program Office and Administration. Sean brings to the University wealth of experience, including a strong background in finance. Sean will lead the team that provides a range of services supporting the establishment, delivery, governance and review of IT projects. The office also provides IT procurement services internally to IT at UNSW and more broadly to the University community.

The next update will be available in late February. Questions and feedback can be sent to IT Transition Director, Denise Black ext. 53408 or email ictprogram@unsw.edu.au.

For further news, updates and handy IT tips, keep an eye out for 'Click' a monthly newsletter published by the UNSW IT Customer Service Team.