A new press release from Oracle Corporation announces the university’s recent selection of Oracle’s PeopleSoft applications and Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Budgeting and Planning. The release details the reasons Puget Sound selected Oracle products and quotes Sherry Mondou, the university’s vice president for finance and administration, and Steve Koporec, vice president, applications, for Oracle Higher Education. Check it out!

TS staff will present on a range of technology topics and tools during the annual Professional Development and Enrichment Conference for university faculty and staff which is held Monday, January 9, through Thursday, January 12. There will be sessions on Buying a New Home Computer or Printer, Google Maps, iMovie, Mobile Devices, Moodle, New to Computers, Photoshop, Presenting with Digital Tools, SoundNet, vDesk, and Web 2.0 Tools.

Representatives from the Office of Communications will present on using the content management system for the campus website, social media at Puget Sound, and the university’s online image library. Sessions specifically related to the work involved in Optimize Puget Sound include Decision Making and Delegation and Adapting to Change, both of which will be presented by Susan Coskey of BrightSpring Consulting.

Most sessions are still open for registration. See the conference schedule for more information, including dates, times, locations, and session descriptions. To register for sessions, email trainme@pugetsound.edu or call 253.879.3369 by Friday, January 6.

Beginning Thursday, December 8, hours at the Tech Center in the lower level of Collins Memorial Library will be as follows:

          Thursday-Friday, December 8-9, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
          Saturday-Sunday, December 10-11, noon to 10:00 p.m.
          Monday-Thursday, December 12-15, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
          Friday, December 16, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Technology Service Desk will be open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. between semesters. However, the Service Desk will be closed from December 23 through January 2 for the holiday break.

The Technology Service Desk will close at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23, for the Thanksgiving holiday break and will re-open Monday, November 28, at 8:00 a.m.

We wish everyone safe travels and a very happy Thanksgiving!

Planned updates to several of the university’s database systems were performed successfully on Saturday, November 19. Technology Services was able to restore access to Cascade and Cascade Web Forms by noon, and all maintenance was completed by 3:00 p.m., much earlier than had been anticipated initially.

Services have also been restored to those members of the university community impacted by last week’s account issues. If any remaining problems are encountered, please contact the Technology Service Desk at 253.879.8585 or servicedesk@pugetsound.edu.

For more information, see our Service Announcements.

Email, Cascade, and most systems requiring a Puget Sound login should be accessible by the 210 staff members affected by yesterday’s account issues. We continue to work on residual issues associated with some of these accounts. Please contact the Technology Service Desk at 253.879.8585 or servicedesk@pugetsound.edu if you experience any problems.

See our Service Announcements for more information.

Your patience is very greatly appreciated!

[Updated 11/17/11 6:37 p.m.] Email service has now been restored for affected users. We continue to work to address any residual issues affecting accounts and permissions for these particular members of the Puget Sound community. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated!

[Updated 11/17/11 3:37 p.m.] At this time, affected users are being notified individually by the Technology Service Desk that access to Cascade has been restored. We continue to work to restore email and access to other services which require a Puget Sound login. We sincerely regret the inconvenience and thank you again for your patience!

An issue has arisen which affects the Puget Sound login for certain members of the campus community. If you are in this group, you may not be able to log onto university computers or access email, Cascade, Moodle, or other accounts which require your Puget Sound username and password.

We are working to restore service as quickly as possible, but this issue may take several hours to resolve. We appreciate your patience and apologize greatly for the inconvenience.

See our Service Announcements for more information and updates as services are restored. Affected users will be notified directly as new information becomes available.

Faculty and staff are invited to attend the launch of Optimize Puget Sound today, November 15, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the garden level of Howarth Hall. Come enjoy some refreshments, tour Optimize Puget Sound headquarters, and learn more about what this exciting project will mean to the campus community.

We hope to see you there!

Joel Arakaki has been named the new client support manager for Technology Services. As part of his duties, Joel will manage the Technology Service Desk, where he has worked as a desktop support specialist since August 2010. Joel has also held the positions of helpdesk technician at the Annie Wright School in Tacoma and assistant language teacher for Seiho High School in Fukuoka, Japan. Joel is a 2006 graduate of Puget Sound, and during his studies at the university, he also worked as a helpdesk consultant and student manager.

Joel can be reached at 253.879.3940 or jarakaki@pugetsound.edu.

Congratulations, Joel!

Technology Services is pleased to announce the following updates as of November 1:

A new image for vDesk is in place that provides faster performance, integrated language functions, and more convenient printing, among other things. Users will now see printers near their current campus location automatically displayed in applications running on vDesk.

Consultants from MIS, Inc., are now on board full-time to support Optimize Puget Sound, a mission-critical project to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all university operations. MIS will assist with the implementation of integrated software solutions from Oracle over the next two years.