Purdue University is a birthplace of ideas. It takes pride in responsible stewardship with shared leadership, as it looks forward to an exciting and rewarding future in a new millennium. Purdue's housing, food, and student union operations are preeminent in quality, and financial and operational management and are showplaces for visitors. Providing technology support in this environment requires a proactive standard of service dedicated to providing customer support and training at the highest levels.

Preamble

Modern-day computing started in Housing and Food Services in 1985 with the hiring of a fulltime programmer. A dBase system known as Residence Hall Information System (RHIS) was written and used as a management system until the advent of a mainframe application known as PRIDE (Purdue Residence Information Data Exchange). The food management system, FSMIS, was written by the Administrative Data Processing Center (ADPC) and came on-line in 1987. At that time, each food office had one computer. PRIDE came on-line in 1990 and replaced RHIS for the 1991-92 school year.

In 1991 a large purchase of computers was made and computers were installed in the front office of each residence hall. Prior to that time, only the hall account clerks and secretaries used computers.

Computing at Purdue Memorial Union also started about 1985 with purchase of a computer for the business office, then a Property Management System for the Union Club was purchased in 1987 and brought on-line in 1988. The next two computers in the Union were for Jerry Day to manage the Property Management System and for the Director's Secretary for office functions.

In 1993, Purdue published the Administrative Computing Master Plan, which called on all departments to name a manager of computing. The administration of computing in HFS was moved from the Business Office to a new group known as HFS Computing. Also in 1993, local area networks were established and supported by ADPC, and HFS converted to the network using Windows 3 with Microsoft Office 4.3.

In 2000, a Data Analysis and Programming area was added to HFS Computing Support to meet the needs in HFS for programming, database development, and reporting. HFS Computing Support is currently comprised of a staff of eight in the Desktop Support and Data Analysis/Programming areas.

The mission of Housing & Food Services Computing Support is to deliver excellent computing support to Housing & Food Services through a combination of customer training, up-to-date software and hardware, and the skills of a well-trained computing support staff.

HFS Computing Support seeks to advance the strategic plan of HFS by taking a proactive approach to the implementation of new technologies and strategies that will help all Housing & Food Services areas achieve their business goals.

Our vision is to provide an exceptional level of customer support both in the day-to-day computing needs of Housing & Food Services and in the long-term planning and implementation of business strategies. We will maintain a clear understanding of the University's computing direction and its impact on Housing & Food Services. We recognize that computing resources will become more important to the operation of HFS. Our staff will maintain a high level of training and will exemplify the caring atmosphere that exists throughout Housing & Food Services.

Goals of the HFS Computing Support Strategic Plan

• Provide the most efficient network, desktop, and software application support.

Goal 2 - Take a proactive stance with technology.

• Commit to providing the most up-to-date computing environment.

Goal 3 - Broaden the skill set of staff through professional development .

• Continuous staff training is essential to effective support of computing services.

Goal 4 - Provide for a more secure computing environment .

• Protect computers and applications from hacking and virus attacks.

Goal 5 - Manage the evolution to Web-based services and maximize technology

and staff productivity.

• Define area responsibilities and eliminate development redundancy.

• Establish a desktop support system.
• Update account management procedure.
• Establish a documentation standard.
• Establish an inventory/user information system.
• Establish Update/Upgrade/Patch Management process.

• Decrease response time.
• Decrease search time for information.
• Publish and adhere to documentation standard.
• Decrease the number of redundant (inventory/user data) systems.
• Reduce workstation downtime.

Benchmarks:

• Internal: Compare with other University-wide technical areas.
• External: Compare with peer institutions in the Big 10.

• Listen to customer's computing and business practice needs.
• Keep current on technology trends.
• Anticipate the needs of our customers.

Metrics:

• Increase opportunities for customer input and evaluate customer input.
• Attendance at events and meetings associated with computing and business standards. (e.g., DCM, MDC, Data Steward, ERP, conferences, and seminars).
• Research new technologies that can increase efficiency and/or accuracy of the business processes of our customers.

Benchmarks:

• Internal: Compare with other University-wide technical areas.
• External: Compare with peer institutions in the Big 10.

• Attend professional workshops and conferences.
• Attend off-site training (ex. LanTech).
• Utilize peer-to-peer training.
• Attend ITaP sponsored sessions.
• Read professional periodicals.
• View web seminars.
• Staff retreat.

Metrics:

• Number of training sessions attended by staff.
• Attend one course or conference per year per employee.
• Annual staff retreat.

Benchmarks:

• Internal: Each employee meets the annual training goal.
• Other HFS areas (ex. Marketing).
• External: Other Purdue University administrative computing support groups.
• Key Strategies Specific to Goal 4 (Provide for a more secure computing environment)
• Virus protection: User education.
• Update virus scanner version.
• Secure passwords.
• Use SUS to automatically deploy Windows updates.
• Revise standard workstation configuration to restrict files that can be installed.
• Use Windows XP to have firewall protection on each computer.
• User training: What types of documents should not be placed in the exchange folders.
• Automatic deletion of old files in the exchange directories.

Metrics:

• Less staff time spent re-imaging computers.
• All computers will always have the latest patches or upgrades.
• Establishment of an automatic purge routine for the exchange folders.
• New customers receive training re: secure data handling.

Benchmarks:

• Internal: Comparison to current organization statistics.
• External: Other Purdue University administrative computing support groups.
• Other Big 10 housing computing support groups.

Key Strategies Specific to Goal 5 (Manage the evolution to Web-based services and maximize technology and staff productivity)

• Identify the skills needed to accomplish the desired development of Web-based services.
• Provide appropriate training to existing staff.
• Identify additional staffing needs and hire as necessary.
• Create a Web content standard manual for HFS Computing and HFS Marketing.

Metrics:

• Efficient use of staff time - no duplication of effort between HFS Computing and HFS Marketing.
• Decrease the time needed to complete the development of Web-based projects.
• Better management of budgeted resources.

Benchmarks:

• Internal: Purdue Marketing and Communications.
• Information Technology at Purdue University.
• External: Peer institutions in the Big 10.

Peer Institutions

The computing mission is similar in every college housing operation, and that is to provide administrative computing support with desktop machines and servers for staff use and to provide varied levels of in-room and laboratory support for residents. Every school accomplishes its mission with different policies and levels of support from campus IT resources.

Funding the Plan

Funding of HFS Computing Support is by proportional contribution from HFS operating departments. Actual equipment purchases are charged to the unit receiving the equipment.

Implementing the Plan

For assistance, please call the Help Line at 66810, or email HFSZoneHelp@purdue.edu.

Click here to download a copy of HFS Computing's strategic plan as a MS Word document.