ISC Progress Report, April 2018

Here’s a brief report on many of our major activities,
organized by our three strategic themes.

Modernize the IT environment that supports the University

Access Management Service: ISC’s new Access Management Service provide's authentication and authorization services for all University-wide digital resources, including web applications, web services, federated provider applications, mobile applications, desktops, IOT devices, and networks.

Brokered Products Service: ISC’s new Brokered Products Service (BPS) provides Schools and Centers with access to enterprise-level licensing and third-party service contracts. This offering is lightweight by design, limited to providing product access, tracking compliance, sharing costs and managing vendors/contracts. The current Brokered Products portfolio includes Adobe enterprise software, Amazon Web Services, Azure hosting services, and more.

IT Community Events: ISC’s newly consolidated IT Community Events service helps the University respond to changing conditions in Penn's IT environment and stay current on emerging technologies. Offerings include Special Interest Groups (SIGs), the IT Staff Convention, Lunchtime Learning, and IT Orientation.

Next Generation Student Systems (NGSS): Preparations continue for the University Catalog's third and final release the week after Memorial Day. Additionally, activities are underway for the late-August rollout of the course and program management tool that faculty and staff will use to facilitate curricular changes. More about these projects and other updates can be found in the April NGSS Update newsletter. New application developers have arrived, as planned, to support the program’s build phase.

Human Capital Management: The Human Capital Management (HCM) project is transforming how Penn delivers services related to the broad range of human capital management. All Penn employees will have a self-service role at Go-live on July 1. You will manage your own information with simplified processes, and easy access to your work and pay in one convenient place. Formal training for members of the University community who will have human resources and payroll responsibilities in Workday@Penn begins on April 29 and continues through Go-live on July 1.

Secure Penn’s operating environment and maintain
open and free sharing of information globally

Identity & Access Management Program: Please see our latest update regarding the upcoming Consumer IAM project pilot, Internal IAM project developments, and what’s next.

Network Segmentation: ISC is modernizing Penn’s network, securely segmenting it and providing avenues to access Penn resources in a safe way from places other than Penn’s campus. We will implement a central Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution using our campus border firewall, design network enclaves and applicable rulesets, and expedite the purchase and deployment of building entrance routers to reduce the current replacement timeline and allow segmentation definition and roll-out on an accelerated timeline. 

Information Assurance: Penn’s Information Assurance program utilizes tools and risk-based analysis functions.  The primary outreach tools are Security & Privacy Impact Assessment (SPIA), Vendor Assessment Technical Assessment of Risk (V-STAR), information security policy variances, and critical components scanning.  The process provides visibility into risk for Penn’s relevant governance committees.

Apptio: ISC is continuing to improve the Apptio IT financial management tool that breaks down costs by service, project, and application. We are modifying the client Bill of IT to account for the transition of “common good” services to allocated funding via the new Penn Technology Investment Committee (PTIC). We are requesting client feedback on the Bill of IT for incorporation into the new fiscal year.

Remedy: ISC's Client Intake, Follow-up & Reporting project team has transitioned to operations and we have formed a new cross-ISC team structure to make sure that our Remedy implementation continues to improve and stays up to date with the latest versions.  In fact, in May a new version of Support Center will be implemented in our production environment. 

Service Management: 51 of the initial 53 Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are published on the SLA web page and the entire process will be complete in May.  As promised in each SLA, we will conduct the Annual SLA Refresh process on a rolling schedule, based on the quarter when each SLA was initially published.

Thank you for your support!

The ISC Leadership Team