Welcome to Fall

Modernize the IT environment that supports the University

Cloud Solutions Service: ISC’s new Cloud Solutions service helps IT service providers throughout campus to deploy and run systems in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud providers. Our initial offering is AWS@Penn, which provides consolidated billing, account management, integration, security controls, and consulting. The University-wide contract provides additional services and protections beyond what is available to individuals or organizations going directly to AWS.

Online Accessibility Project: Penn is working with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on efforts to make campus websites and applications more accessible for persons with disabilities. We have formed a central management team to assist Schools and Centers in resolving compliance issues.

PennERA: An upgrade to the PennERA (Electronic Research Administration) application is currently being planned with a target implementation date of April 20, 2020. The upgrade is required to effectively respond to current and future business needs and will bring improved functionality to users. Enhancements include an updated user interface, a new user-access and routing module, an improved Proposal Development budget tool, and other functionality. PennERA users will be contacted directly with information about the upgrade as rollout approaches.

Next Generation Student Systems (NGSS): Curriculum Manager (CM) was released on August 28 and now serves as the University-wide tool for facilitating curricular changes across all courses and programs. NGSS is progressing its build activities for Records and Financial Aid Release 1 (Fall 2020) and designing components for Release 2 (Spring 2021), all focusing on the 2021-2022 Academic Year. Additionally, the project is conducting fall presentations to academic and executive councils to share progress updates on NGSS and provide details about key upcoming activities.

Workday@Penn: As it nears the end of its first six months of operation, Workday@Penn continues to function accurately with minimal system issues, and the platform is being continuously improved to meet Penn's needs. Retiree open enrollment is efficiently underway, and the smooth rollout of end-of-year W-2s is anticipated. A new Workday Operating Group, with representatives from Schools and Centers, advises the Operations team. The team is shifting from full-time problem solving to knowledge building among end users. With more than 30 office hour sessions, 25 newsletter issues, 15 webinar sessions, and other in-person meetings – all ongoing since go-live – engagement among the Schools and Centers continues to be robust as improvement opportunities are identified. A newly designed training program rolled out in October. The team will soon start to train a small group of super users to assist their respective Schools and Centers with in-house expertise.

Penn O365: The PennO365 Security enhancement team rolled out the new Penn Email Routing application, which will be used to manage mail routing for most of the email coming to Penn. That application now updates the Proofpoint infrastructure, which is ready to start sanitizing email on behalf of Penn. Schools who are part of this effort will onboard with Proofpoint as their academic schedule permits.

Identity & Access Management Program: Please see our latest update regarding PennPath rollout, Internal IAM project developments, and look out for a new update coming later this month.

Penn Technology Investment Committee: PTIC is a committee of senior academic and administrative leaders established to streamline Penn’s IT funding model, facilitate more shared governance, and ensure a sustainable technology core. The Committee facilitated the transition of “common good” services from direct-billed to the University Services allocated cost pool, beginning in FY2020. They are chartered with the following activities:

Thank you for your support!