| During the past year, information technology strategic planning, with a focus on the broad needs of the University and Health System, has been completed. Across Johns Hopkins Medicine, revenue maximization, registration redesign, cost reductions, and service excellence remained high priorities. Network enhancements, and system stability across the entire enterprise were also a focus, leading to the consolidation of activities and resources across the University and Health System. And information services for our students and our researchers were identified as high priorities. Scenario building, with an eye toward 2005, has served as the foundation for much of this planning effort, as we collaboratively explored the future state of health care and education. The ability to imagine the future has provided a target for the future use of technology across our enterprise, and has created the blueprint for our application planning activities, and our networking initiatives. System solutions to support the education and research missions of the University were determined to be an imperative, recognizing a need for tactical solutions, while planning strategically. It was an incredibly rewarding year across the enterprise, where collaboration and consolidations allowed for operational improvements in the midst of comprehensive planning. Examples of accomplishments that resulted from broad collaboration, consolidation and realignment of resources include: - A reliable, redundant and secure network architecture that protects intellectual property, secures patient and student information, and promotes business efficiencies across the enterprise;
- A flawless opening of the Weinberg Cancer Center and the Cancer Research Building, utilizing wireless networks, point-of-care solutions, and patient-friendly applications implemented throughout the facilities, creating a state-of-the-art environment for the faculty, staff, patients, and students;
- Successful deployment of numerous web-based solutions, including a web version of an electronic patient record and central physician directory, allowing for the first time, community-based physicians to monitor their patients' medical record and health status, during and after an episode of care, in a secure user-friendly way;
- Web-enabled access to other resources including pharmacy data, lab results, medication error reporting, and knowledge bases;
- A migration to a standards-based approach to email and directory services, utilizing reliable access and authentication tools for remote access to campus-based resources, including library services;
- The selection of powerful tools and technologies to provide web-based access to our financial and administrative systems, with a particular focus on the needs of the researchers across our enterprise.
Moving ahead, our information technology goals and objectives include a commitment to empowerment of our customers and their customers. We will use the tools and technologies that we have acquired to web-enable applications, and provide meaningful data to decision-makers, and their customers. There is obviously much to do, and some examples of our strategic imperatives are listed below. Major strategic issues for the future now include: - Network infrastructure stability and performance to support program growth;
- Data and network security to support an evolving regulatory climate;
- Functional and technological integration to improve service and reduce costs;
- Innovation to support emerging user requirements and user empowerment;
- Collaboration to support research, education and patient care;
- System enhancements and replacements to support and define business process improvements;
- Service excellence and performance improvement to demonstrate our commitment to customer service.
A governance structure has been created and has provided a mechanism for establishing these strategic priorities. Organizational consolidations and staff realignments have provided the forum in which these new imperatives will be addressed. And broad collaboration will promote synergistic opportunities that will allow us to do more, and to do it more quickly. The resulting organization is decentralized, yet coordinated in a way that supports customer-centric support, while creating partnerships, introducing new technologies, and providing benefits that were not even anticipated. Like all service departments of the University and Health System, Information Technology @ Johns Hopkins is here to serve the enterprise and its missions. The following summary of activity attempts to describe in greater detail the initiatives that have been addressed during the past year. This information, and much more can be found on our web site. | 
JHM Revenue Recovery
A major JHM-wide initiative, focused on revenue recovery and registration redesign, brought focus to the registration and billing systems. The initiative enhanced the processes that gather the data to facilitate claims processing and claims adjudication. Many different IT solutions were put in place to respond to unmet needs, including Smart Talk, an automated appointment reminder system reduced the number of missed appointments in the Outpatient Center; HDX, an electronic eligibility verification system; new screen flows for Outpatient Scheduling; and outstanding balance interfaces from both Hospital and Professional Fee billing systems. Along with the IT solutions were improvements to processes and training of staff. JHH Registration Redesign
Desktop Services has helped provide a less confusing support structure for Registration Redesign, and the daily activities of the Outpatient Clinics, Access & Referral Services, Admitting and JHOC Administration. They accomplished this by providing more comprehensive support for desktop workstations in the Outpatient Center and other related areas. Specialized support is provided for call center servers, as well as a system that calls patients to remind them of appointments (Smarttalk). JHHS Executive Information System - Decision Support and Cost Accounting
During 2000, cost standards for both JHBMC and JHH were defined to the Executive Information System that allows for cost comparisons of products and services. Upgrades to the data server and to the report server allowed for standard report models to be built and demonstrated to senior leadership. Staff were trained on the clinical modules, and work groups were established to define how these modules will be used across Johns Hopkins Medicine. JHHS Materials Management and Accounts Payable System Replacement
Implemented in late spring of FY99, the new JHHS Materials Management System continued to provide better functionality to the user community than the system it replaced. Stability of the system was the main goal for the year coupled with expanding the user base to include electronic requisitioning and more user-friendly reports. Charge interfaces and Par Excellence interfaces development was initiated, with planned completion in 2001. JHM Electronic Patient Record
Under the leadership of Drs. Jim Michelson, Ronald Lesser, Kevin Johnson, William Dooley, and Stuart Ray the newest release of EPR, version 3.0 was fully deployed throughout the enterprise by November 2000. This latest version is a VB 6.0, 32 bit deployment and has an array of new features including new laboratory and graphing capabilities, new Overview screen including most recent labs, improved PAM list, and better editing capabilities. An array of new notes is now available including Endoscopy notes and all Oncology notes, including clinic notes and discharge notes. EPR continues to be rolled out at the Bayview Medical Center and is now located on over a thousand workstations and nearly 1,200 users have been trained. BMC Orthopedic clinic notes are in the system, with Urology notes and others to follow. Clictate, an authoring tool for creating templates to generate notes, was fully developed and is pilot in several locations across the enterprise. The JHH Weinberg Building | |
| The Weinberg Building was designed to be the model for advanced patient care and new technology, and the Information Systems Executive Committee provided oversight for nearly four years to ensure that these goals are brought to fruition. Working collaboratively with a broad array of clinicians and technical experts, a variety of new technologies and services were provided in the Weinberg Building to help promote an "ideal patient experience" for Hopkins' patients. The building successfully opened on Monday, September 18, 2000. |
JHHS Nutrition and Diet Office Systems
By the end of 1999, JHMCIS had developed and deployed an interim order-entry solution, Nutrinet, in order to cure Y2K issues inherent in the old system. The system has been a great success and a new pediatric and research module was deployed in 2000. A new client server Nutrition system, developed by VST Software, contains two major components, a Diet Order Entry (DOES) front end, and a full diet office product (Vision) that supports the growing needs of the Nutrition Department. The Vision diet office module, including the printing of tray line tickets was successfully deployed in September and is in use in the JHH Hospital kitchen. The same system went live at BMC in November, as did the pediatric component at JHH. The front end, DOES, is still in test and will be rolled out in 2001. | 
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JHH Medication Management
In order to support the goal to provide comprehensive medication ordering, dispensing, administration and reporting processes for Johns Hopkins a number of initiatives were started and or completed including: - The Web version of Micromedex Drug Databases, including Patient Leaflets is now fully available to all clinicians within the Johns Hopkins domain.
- A web based Medication Event Reporting Form has been developed to expedite medication event reporting and management. The Form has been rolled out to Psychiatry, Oncology, Surgery, Neurology, and Medicine. Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn and Ophthalmology are next in line.
- A web based Adverse Drug Event Form has been developed and will be piloted in early 2001.
- An evaluation of the Accuscan Medication Administration system, which uses wireless hand held barcode scanning devices to record medication administration, was successfully conducted. Nursing and pharmacy are working to develop a pilot study for early 2001.
- The new Accuate Reporting tool and an upgrade to the BDM application and database were completed in July. This major upgrade will enhance the pharmacy department's ability to track and report on pharmacy operations.
JHH Physician Order Entry (POE)
A series of daylong vendor demonstrations was initiated to understand the "state of the art" in Physician Order Entry products. The major vendors and a system developed by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center were evaluated - the last of which was completed in May. A summary of the findings as to which vendors can address the complex requirements of Johns Hopkins Medicine was presented to the Clinical Systems Advisory Committee (CSAC) in early June. The CSAC approved the findings and instructed JHMCIS to create an RFP and obtain formal responses from the selected group of vendors. An RFP was sent out in November, a Bidder's conference was held in early December, and responses were received by the end of December 2000. A rigorous analysis will begin in January 2001. The process will include: quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the RFP responses, vendor structured walk-through, reference checking, site visits, and other evaluative and techniques. It is expected that a recommendation will be made in time to ensure FY '02 capital budget funding. JHH Operating Room Management System
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| In July, the Johns Hopkins Hospital approved the funding to purchase a new Operating Room Management System (ORMS). Under the leadership of Drs. John Ulatowski and Robert Udelsman, and Lisa Rowen, a project team was assembled to develop an RFP, evaluate the marketplace, and select a vendor. The functionality will include OR scheduling, conflict checking, OR documentation, case cart management, interfaces with materials management, billing, accounting, and reporting. The project will include all inpatient and outpatient procedure areas including the GORs, Wilmer, the CVDL, JHOC, and Greenspring Station. The scope of the project was defined, and RFP was developed, a Bidder's conference was held, and RFP responses were received. The evaluation and selection process will occur in early 2001. |
JHM Perinatal Information System | | | The GE QS Perinatal system was selected and deployed in the Labor and Delivery suites of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Bayview Medical Center. Under the leadership of Drs. Harold Fox and George Huggins and Dianne Snyder, Lynn Jones, and Cynthia Walters the system was successfully installed to meet the Y2K requires of the institution and to move to complete digital capture of fetal monitoring and electronic charting. The system was expanded to meet the inpatient data capture, display, and reporting needs, and then attention was focused on roll out to clinic locations. Using wireless technology, the EBMC clinic was the first outpatient site to use the QS system and will be used as the model for rolling the system out to over a dozen locations in the next calendar year. |  |
JHH Radiology Imaging
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| This project will enable users to view Radiology images from within the EPR application. Phase 1 has been completed, whereby an orders/results interface has been established between SMS Radiology and the PACS broker. SMS's full accession number, which uniquely identifies a Radiology procedure and links it to one or more images, is now also being captured in the EPR database. The second phase of the project includes the completion of the EPR front-end changes and the implementation of the interface from the PACS broker to EPR that will allow users to select a report/image for viewing. This phase is near completion. |
JHM Data Warehousing
The Warehouse Team responded to hundreds of requests from customers for Epic data, and over thirty requests for Laboratory data. A broad range of customers, including Planning & Marketing, Pediatrics, Otolaryngology, and the Department of Medicine, exploited the information mined from the warehouse to support both operational and research activities. The team also worked extensively with the Central Physician Office for the development and enhancement of reports for them. | Data Center Upgrades | | | Within the consolidated data center, an automated tape robotic device, the IBM Virtual Tape System (VTS), has been implemented, allowing for the compression and storage of over 32,000 tape cartridges thereby providing a floor space savings of approximately 2300 square feet. The device has greatly improved the throughput and response time for tape related activities. The VTS has been configured to allow for expansion and will be used to house tape activities being performed by the University's mainframe systems. This will further leverage the investment in tape automation and enable the University to eliminate approximately 7,000 cartridges from their tape operation. This integration was completed by year-end 2000. |  |
Help Desk Service Expansion | | 
| The Problem and Change Management systems (ServiceCenter), as well as the new Automated Call Distribution system, have been in place for over a year. Now that the department has been acclimated to ServiceCenter, improvement has been seen in the Help Desk's abilities to resolve and track problems, communicate information to JHMCIS customers and understand the impact of changes on our environment. Drastic improvement has been seen in the Help Desk's abilities to respond to call volume. Where there was once an abandon call rate of 20-25%, now the abandon rate has been improved to 8%. In addition, the average time to answer currently sits at 43 seconds. |
Disaster Recovery Planning
JHMCIS is in the final stage of selecting a disaster recovery vendor to provide an alternate hardware strategy to support potential long-term outage to the JHMCIS hardware environments. The strategy will employ a combination of active stand-by equipment, quick-ship availability and mobile processing capabilities. The planned arrangement with the recovery vendor has been designed to establish a master agreement with configurations documented as attached schedules. This facilitates adding or removing processing platforms as necessary, while realizing the economies of scale of a single contract.
Information Security
| | Information Security, in conjunction with Network & Telecommunications Services has implemented a security incident reporting capability. This "SWAT" approach addresses the early identification of potential and actual security events, which could negatively affect the expected level of services to all network users. It also allows for detailed follow up on incidents to determine cause, effect, source of problem, remedial action, etc. This "SWAT" team has been invoked on several occasions and has proven effective in minimizing long-term impact to network availability. | 
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| Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Network & Telecommunications Enhancement Efforts
In March of 2000, a redundant Gigabit Ethernet network core was implemented to service the East Baltimore local and wide area user community. The new network design provides the necessary throughput for immediate needs, as well as, the ability to grow to meet future demands. Connectivity to the desktop is being provided through dedicated 10Mb switched connections, with the ability to provide 100-Mb connectivity, as needed for servers and high bandwidth workstations. The capability of extending Gigabit Ethernet to local segments in buildings is available, but must be funded departmentally. In addition to the installation of the Gigabit core, the new class-B license is being executed and managed through the use of Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) as the network is implemented. Homewood Campus Enhancement Efforts
During 2000, the Homewood campus continued the migration to a highly routed networked infrastructure. Efforts to complete the campus routing were completed during September. Other major initiatives included the continued replacement of older shared technology with newer Cisco switched technology, implementation of additional fiber in Krieger Hall, Homewood House, AMR Dormitories, New Engineering Building, Garland Hall, Bloomberg Hall, Shriver Hall, Gatehouse, and Wyman Park. In many of the aforementioned buildings, single mode fiber was also implemented for future preparation of Gigabit Ethernet as the demand for bandwidth increases over the next several years. Enterprise wide Enhancement Efforts
The SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) continues to provide very reliable, high speed, metropolitan network service to East Baltimore, Bayview, Homewood, APL, and the Peabody campuses. In an effort to increase redundancy for several of the main campus locations, a plan for redundant electronic components was developed and implemented during 2000. NTS staff is currently working with Bell Atlantic on redesign efforts of the SONET to further increase speeds where necessary, and to reduce costs on links that are underutilized. Wireless Efforts | | 
| The ratification of the 802.11b wireless standard by the International standards committee has caused a proliferation of cost effective and highly reliable wireless solutions. The interoperability of this technology along with the existing network infrastructure makes this technology viable for some applications throughout Hopkins. NTS, as well as other departmental IT groups, evaluated, compared, and reviewed many vendor wireless solutions throughout the year and selected Cisco's Aironet product line as the Hopkins standard. By mid-year, many efforts were under way that would utilize this technology in order to augment or enhance existing Ethernet connectivity. |
Access to Remote Campus Locations
The ability to provide data services and expand JHMI and JHU network resources to remote locations in a timely manner continues to be a challenge. The relocation of staff or the acquisition of existing buildings is frequently not communicated well in advance. NTS continues to support both dedicated (T1, 56Kb, FNS, etc) connections, as well as, switched/shared services, such as (ISDN, dial-up, DSL, etc). In an effort to reduce monthly recurring data communication charges (i.e. to Bell or AT&T) and to reduce implementation times, NTS is pursuing wireless network solutions when applicable. Due to recent developments in the wireless arena, several viable products are now available that can accommodate connectivity for some of our local "line of sight" clients. General Internet Access
During early July, NTS switched Internet Service Providers in order to provide increased bandwidth and improve overall reliability. The new service provider, AT&T Managed Internet Services, replaced BBN/GTE, which had been servicing the Homewood and East Baltimore user communities for the past four years. The new service offering from AT&T provides Internet connectivity to both East Baltimore and Homewood on two separate 20Mbs links using diverse routing paths. The data traffic for East Baltimore continues to flow through Washington, DC, while Homewood traffic routes north to Cambridge, MA. The implementation of diverse paths on the service provider's part gives Hopkins additional protection against fiber cuts, equipment failures, and routing issues. Internet 2 and vBNS | | Connectivity in support of Internet2 continued to be available for users on the old Class B (128.220 Network) at Homewood and East Baltimore. Planning efforts to extend this connectivity to the new 162 network for East Baltimore ended with a very successful series of router upgrades and changes completed during October, 2000. The current I2 connection is provided through a T-3 (45Mbs) link between the JHU Homewood campus and the service provider (MCI). While many new and existing grants require the use of I2 services, funding continues to be a challenge. | 
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Image, Video, Distance Education and Teleconferencing
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| Throughout 2000 there were many Hopkins and Vendor advancements within the video and teleconferencing arena. Hopkins continued investment in core and edge networking hardware was one of the key advancements during 2000, which is paramount to the successful implementation of all video technologies. The new network infrastructure will provide Hopkins with a solid foundation to move video initiatives forward. |
Host and Network Operating System Standards
The Institutional Computing Standards Committee has completed development of a series of documents that assist systems administrators with recommendations and standards. Documents have been completed for the UNIX, general LAN, Novell and NT environments. Documents supporting the Mac environments are under development. Network Security
Firewalls, router filters and other security products were purchased and implemented on both campuses during 2000. The firewalls have been configured to support load balancing and fail over in order to provide a very high level of throughput and availability. NTS Security Engineers and UNIX Systems Administrators have been involved with users and administrators from across JHMI as various network security problems have occurred. More intensive use of the scanning products purchased in fiscal year 1998 have allowed Security Engineers to isolate problem conditions before they manifest themselves in the network and, as a result, have increased both network stability and availability. These products have proven invaluable at detecting activity on the different campuses that warrant further investigation. As a proactive measure in preparation for systems being migrated to the new network, each system is being scanned and major issues resolved by systems administrators prior to these systems being migrated to the new network. Email
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| Dependable Email services are an essential component to basic operations for the entire Hopkins community. NTS has assumed a lead role in the mail services arena, treating it as a utility for all members of the Hopkins family. Both LAN based and Unix based Email are now centrally supported. Initially the concentration has been on restoration and stabilization of services and has since shifted to fine tuning in | | order to provide enhanced capabilities, improved system response times and improved mail flow. A new processor has been acquired and implemented supporting the East Baltimore community. In addition automatic sign up for Email, as well as automatic reconciliation and integration with the central LDAP directory have been developed and are in the final testing phase. New Email relays supporting mail delivery for the Homewood campus were acquired during 2000. Efforts to implement these devices were completed prior to September 2000. The new relays have proven to provide much needed relief to users of Unix based mail on the Homewood campus. |
Directory Services
NTS has adopted a number of standards that support Directory Enabled Networks (DEN). LDAP is the fundamental standard for directories and has become a crucial component to future authentication and directory services. Critical components of the East Baltimore architecture have been selected based partially upon their adoption and direction associated with DEN and LDAP. The DHCP product, the selection of Novel's directory, firewalls products, network management products and even the ISP selection have all been based to some extent upon the vendors direction and adoption of DEN and LDAP. PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and Digital Certificates
Application was made and accepted by the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking, (CREN) that will enable the university to issue digital certificates to its users. CREN was selected since many other Internet2 universities also use this organization as a certificate authority and would therefore offer electronic interoperability among these institutions. Policies surrounding the issuance, revocation and guidelines for the usage of these certificates need to be developed. The IT Policy Committee is addressing this. The server platform (Sun/Solaris) and the iPlanet Certificate Management software were configured during 2000. Proxy Services for the Libraries (RAUL)
A very successful pilot project was conducted during the spring semester of 2000, testing the proxy service that was developed to allow remote access users to be able to use library-licensed resources while off-campus. This pilot used the JHWorld directory as the authentication database and was offered to groups at SPSBE, Arts & Sciences, SOM/Singapore and SAIS. The proxy performed well, however many users were unable to authenticate due to incomplete data in JHWorld. Development of the production version of the proxy service began in the May time frame. The production version when deployed in September 2000 will use Horizon as its authentication database, eliminating the missing data elements. Voice Communications Systems | | 
| The Homewood main campus Lucent telephone system was upgraded to increase its capacity to 25,000 ports. The port expansion will provide the capacity needed to incorporate the Eastern High School campus into the main telephone system. In addition, the switch upgrade enables the deployment of advanced technology. Call Center functionality is one such technology that has been installed for several departments to facilitate the handling of high volumes of incoming calls. Call Center provides an even distribution of incoming calls to the staff and a variety of productivity reports to management. |
New Voice Communications Installations
Hopkins ITS installed two interconnected telephone systems at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC and became the telecommunications administrator for both locations. A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), Net2000, was used to provide dial tone and circuits between the two buildings. This first use by the University of a CLEC for primary dial tone allowed the customers to retain their existing telephone numbers and decrease costs. Telecommunications coordinated the installation of cabling and the expansion of the telephone system at Montgomery County Center for the addition of their new building. In progress are cabling designs and telephone systems for the Student Arts Building, Athletic Center addition, Clark Biomedical Engineering Building, and the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education Downtown Center. Cost Reduction Measures | | Telecommunications negotiated with AT&T to lower rates to 41 of Hopkins' most frequently called countries by 35%. A new teleconferencing service ECI Conference Call Services was adopted after repeated efforts to install a viable billing procedure with the former provider failed. We expect to reduce conference call charges by 25% and the call setup procedure has been simplified. At this time about 75% of our call are being handled by ECI. We are in the process of identifying users who are not using ECI and educating them in the benefits of switching. | 
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Desktop Services | | | During 2000, the Desktop/LAN Services group added in excess of 1,100 clients to its services. These include many regional sites, as well as the Homewood campus. Managing a staff and client base throughout the area has represented an organizational challenge that has required the group to adapt in a variety of ways. Service rates for core LAN Services have been stable for 4 years, due to productivity enhancements, automation efforts, and a flexible organization. In spite of increases in the cost of skilled technical professionals, costs for core services remain the same for 2001. |
GroupWise Upgrades and Remediation
GroupWise is used by more than 11,000 staff and faculty throughout the Institution. It represents the largest single messaging system and processes more than 5 million messages per month. A major effort during fiscal 2000 involved upgrading all GroupWise servers throughout the institution as well as other user desktops to the current release of the product. During the past fiscal year, the group has performed dozens of server upgrades and has helped deploy thousands of client updates. A variety of design changes were made to help simplify this complex system, and separate systems at Homewood and JHMI have been merged to form a consolidated system. A third generation web based access has been made generally available and support for Palm devices is now moving into a production environment. HIP 2.0
A next generation Host Interface Program (HIP) was developed and deployed by Desktop Services to meet the need of a changing host computing environment. Continuing to support over 15 hosts and 55 applications, HIP 2.0 enables systems administrators and developers to quickly update host and application access profiles without wide scale re-deployment of client software. The new version of HIP has been deployed to nearly half of the estimated 4,500 desktop PCs on which it is installed. As with the Public Workstation update, the learning curve for using this new application has been reduced to a single day and users adoption rates are very high. IPX Elimination | | 
| Desktop Services is in the midst of eliminating all reliance on the IPX protocol well ahead of the November 2001 deadline. During the second half of and continuing into the first half of 2000, over 50 servers were upgraded, as were hundreds of desktop PCs and printers to ensure that the TCP/IP protocol is the only required protocol for network communication. The information gained during this initiative will be used to provide other technical groups with some of the tools and methods to complete their own migration. In addition, Desktop Services is negotiating with an outside vendor to provide supplemental assistance with IPX elimination. The goal is to ensure that the September 2001 deadline for IPX elimination is met. |
Systems Management & Monitoring
During planning for Y2K, the benefits of a desktop management system became highly evident. The ability to retrieve detailed, up to date information on nearly all supported desktop PCs allowed Desktop Services to focus its efforts on remediation of only those systems that needed a desk-side visit. In many cases, updates were sent by remote control to large groups of PCs. The use of systems management for desktop devices continues to be important for information gathering, remote control support and for remote software distribution. In the future, it's likely that it will be used for automatic repair of configuration problems, as well as the deployment of a customized environment based on a user's needs. Currently, Desktop Services provides central support for the use of Microsoft's Systems Management Server. Plans to upgrade or replace this system will be developed during 2001.
Consolidation of Homewood Micro-Computing and JHMI Desktop Services
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| Responding to the need for economies of scale, as well as a focus on ensuring easier access to cross campus resources, the University Micro-Computing group merged with the JHMI Desktop Services group during the past fiscal year. Clients have benefited from a consolidated GroupWise system, a merged authentication directory and a common approach to systems management and end user services. Groups that have struggled with cross campus support have been among the most satisfied with the results of this organizational change. Cost savings and a change in service focus reduced the projected MNS budget deficit by nearly $400,000 during the first half of 2000. |
NDS Merges & Design Enhancements
The decentralized nature of Information Technology at Hopkins makes navigation to specific servers and resources difficult for the average user. Authentication issues have made it difficult for users to access their files and system resources when operating from locations other than their normal office. As Directory Enabled Network (DEN) becomes a reality, these problems will be resolved. Until that time, the investment of time in Novell Directory Services (NDS) and NT system consolidation has provided relief for many users. Desktop Services is at the forefront of ensuring that large numbers of users can access many Johns Hopkins systems with a single user ID and a single password. It is now possible for one of the several thousand individuals supported by this organization to access their individual user profile from any device within the network that is maintained with the same domain structure and has the GroupWise client software loaded. Enterprise Backup and Recovery
There has been a major effort to develop a central, network based, backup and recovery strategy. Several backup platforms, which in turn backup multiple servers have been deployed and support servers throughout many portions of the East Baltimore campus. Emphasis will be placed on a similar initiative supporting the Homewood campus during fiscal 2001. These systems are deployed as needed and can be adjusted and expanded as servers are added and moved. As the network has changed, the investment in this strategy has paid off considerably. Desktop Services is able to have a single FTE responsible for the backup of over 65 servers. Recovery efforts have allowed the group to stay within its service level agreement. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The cost of ownership of Desktop PCs has been reduced somewhat during the last fiscal year. Departments that are in their second and third year of stable LAN services are deploying new technology, and support costs increase for some specific projects. Costs related to core desktop and server management services continue to drop. Outsourcing of PC Build/Break/Fix Services
An era that resulted in a perpetual cycle of costly hardware replacement, misdiagnosed service problems and quality control issues ended during the last fiscal year. The MNS group custom built low quality PCs and then sold service contracts to deal with inevitable hardware/software configuration problems. Towards the end of the service, the group was losing money at the rate $50,000 per month. The practice of building PCs ended a year ago, and hardware service contracts were terminated July 1, 2000. An outside vendor, under a managed contract, is providing hardware break/fix services, and the MNS services have been reorganized around the LAN Services model, adapted for the Homewood campus. Nearly 50% of the former clients of MNS have signed onto LAN Services, and additional non-MNS groups are responding to the higher level of service.
Strategic Desktop Review Implementation | 
| During the previous year, the Desktop Services worked with a variety of vendors and internal clients to determine a desktop procurement strategy that would work well for the large majority of PC users within Johns Hopkins. Dell was chosen as the strategic desktop vendor, for its service reputation, low pricing and excellent support. The success of this choice has been apparent, although the prior Compaq standard PC remains a very high quality product and is preferred for critical server. |
| JHU Human Resources/Payroll Applications | 
| Regulatory and compliance requirements have consumed the available resources that support the Human Resources and Payroll systems. Financial reporting, electronic data transfer needs, and tax table enhancements, when coupled with production support activities, have allowed for little new development. To support the need for new technology, some application development has been, and will continue to be outsourced when feasible. Priorities for the next fiscal year have been established and presented to the Financial and Administrative Systems Advisory Committee. | |
JHU Student Services Application Initiatives
Over the past few years, student information systems have failed to keep pace with the demands and expectations of the student population. Faculty support in areas related to student-based information has also been lacking. During 2000, a University-wide initiative was completed, which resulted in the selection of a single-vendor-solution to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the student. The Exeter suite of products will be implemented for several divisions beginning in the Spring of 2001, with a plan to complete a comprehensive implementation across the Johns Hopkins University over the next two years. JHU Accounts Payable/Purchasing Applications Initiatives
A strong partnership has evolved between the Purchasing Department and the I.T. professionals who support the Accounts Payable and Purchasing Applications. Progress has been made in providing access to information during the past year, although production support requirements have consumed most of the resources that support these applications. Exploration is underway to evaluate vendor partnerships and selective outsourcing opportunities for new development needs. Replacement systems are also being explored. JHU General Accounting
Several minor enhancements were implemented to provide easier access to information that is resident in the CUFS financial system. There is a growing interest, however, in providing more timely access to data, in a more user-friendly manner. Much of 2000 was spent exploring alternative solutions for access to financial information, and a solution will be selected and implemented in 2001. |
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