Attendance List: Sam Averitt, Mardecia Bell, Hugh Devine, Pete Evans, Mike Freeman, Gwen Hazlehurst, Carl Malstrom, Betsy Mebane, Ron Melbourne, Harriet Mermes, Tom Miller, Mike O'Kane, Robin Pasquarello, Larry Robinson, Dan Steen, John Ulmschneider and Jennifer Van Horn

Guests: Gail Finch, John Klein, Sean Korb, Chris Mattingly, Valerie Mecca, Bill Padgett, Andy Raynor and Cheri Renninger

Welcome and Opening Remarks:

Steve Keto called the meeting to order at 8 a.m.

Approval of September 16, 1998 minutes:

Minutes were unanimously approved.

E-Mail Committee Presentation: Gwen Hazlehurst and Tom Karches

Hazlehurst and Karches, co-chairs of the e-mail technical committee, gave a follow-up presentation on campus-wide e-mail and calendaring. According to their report, in the September 16 University Standards Committee meeting, a recommendation was made to evaluate solutions to a campus-wide e-mail system. As a result, the e-mail technical committee was formed. Calendaring was evaluated because several units on campus desired the increased functionality present in integrated e-mail and calendaring systems and because there is a great desire to be able to effectively schedule meetings with people in various campus organizations. Per the Standard Administrative Computing (SAC) committee recommendation, the two e-mail technologies examined were IMAP-based mail systems and Novell's GroupWise mail system. The two calendaring systems evaluated were Netscape Calendar and GroupWise. Evaluation criteria for both e-mail and calendaring systems included full functionality across Macintosh, Windows and Unix desktop platforms; scalability; integration with campus directory service standards Kerberos and NDS; support for currently installed campus server platforms, support for existing industry standards (IMAP, SMTP, MIME and LDAP support in email systems; LDAP support in calendaring systems), cost of ownership, cost of implementation, secure access and remote access. Other criteria taken into consideration were the products' use by other state agencies, the products' integration with PeopleSoft and the products' strong address book functions. Due to the various protocol and format implementations in e-mail clients, the committee believes the recommended e-mail clients should be GroupWise and Netscape to facilitate ease in functions such as viewing attachments. Also, both IMAP and GroupWise email systems can be delivered by colleges, departments and central computing offices, allowing campus units to have as much or as little control of e-mail delivery as desired.

The committee also believes it is premature to recommend a campus-wide calendaring standard due to the lack of industry standards at present. Within the next 12 to 18 months, the committee expects industry standards will emerge and a decision may be easier to make at such time. The committee recommends that the University monitors the developments in industry regarding calendaring standards and that another evaluation occurs once standards have emerged. In the interim, however, the committee recommends a default calendar system for those units who are unable to wait 12 to 18 months to deploy a calendaring solution. These units should adhere to the default calendaring recommendation. The default calendar system will provide the ability to easily schedule meetings with people in various campus organizations. Also discussed were issues concerning email/calendaring integration, the products' strengths and weaknesses, implications of email/calendar combinations, cost of implementation and cost of ownership. In addition to Hazlehurst and Karches, other E-mail Technical Committee members include Mardecia Bell, Scott Dean, Andy Raynor, Joe Flowers, Sean Korb, Chris Mattingly, Evan Brown, Valeria Mecca, Gail Finch, John Klein, Cheri Renninger, Pete Evans and Julie Tilley. The full presentation can also be accessed via the Web at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/computing/adm_stds/comp.html.

As an informational item, Steve Keto advised committee members that they could view a GroupWise email/calendaring demonstration by Gwen Hazlehurst following the meeting.

Administrative Desktop Subcommittee Followup:

Bill Padgett presented handouts on the status of the administrative computing standards initiative. The handouts addressed an addendum to the Standards Committee Draft Report for Administrative Standards --File Formats and Application Support by Hal Meeks; and Proposed Additions to Hardware Purchasing Specifications for the Standards Administrative System by Everette Allen. Padgett asked the committee to review the handouts and to make suggestions or comments. Mike O'Kane gave a review of the proposal by Everette Allen. Pete Evans noted that the more specifics the standards are, the less participation there would be on campus. Multiple platforms would give campus users more choice, he said. Steve Keto said he and Charlie Kneifel would review the recommendations with alternatives and costs and present the recommendations to the Provost, George Worsley and to Chancellor Fox. Keto said the committee could further discuss this issue at the University Standards Committee meeting in January. Handouts are available via the Web at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/computing/adm_stds/index.html.

Betsy Mebane said that a better job of communicating concerns should take place so that faculty and staff will have an understanding before the committee goes through with further recommendations. She asked that information about the administrative computing standards initiative be placed on the Web.

Network Security Subcommittee Followup: Peter Evans

Subcommittee met to discuss a firewall. They installed a server and placed a firewall in the server. Guidelines and what comes from that effort would be determined later, he said.

Data and Data Access Standards: Mardecia Bell

The Committee met Oct. 28. Group members are very concerned about access to the PeopleSoft environment. They want to get format of data to look at department and college systems and integrate PeopleSoft into their systems. The group is working on a mechanism to give campus units limited access to the PeopleSoft environment so they can access interfaces to their departmental systems. Also reported that ACS and Human Resources implementation team will meet tomorrow to discuss how to roll PeopleSoft out to campus users and to discuss the minimum instructions and training users will need. An investigation is being made to interface employees into Remedy for the customer database.

User Authentication: Mardecia Bell

Reported that she along with Gwen Hazlehurst, Ron Melbourne and Charles Kneifel met to discuss user ID's and formats to use. Reported that a study done several years ago will be presented to the committee as a formal recommendation. The three have adopted the default format naming convention, which will be the user's first initial, middle initial and the first six characters of the user's last name. If two users have the same name, the second user's name will be followed by the number "2," until the user ID is unique. The group will make LAN Administrators aware of the format. Also reported that Information Technology has developed userid lookup facilities within NDS.

Ron Melbourne reported that the Mainframe is not conducive to the new userid. Therefore, existing mainframe userids will remain as they are. Bell reported that user ID's in Sybase will change in the future. All changes will be made at the college and/or unit level.

Communication: Sam Averitt and Jennifer Van Horn

Averitt announced that the implementation of the new General Administration Standards are proceeding and that an order list is being put together.

Van Horn announced that RFI's will be made available to vendors next week to do Category 6 work on the University Uniform Wiring Project. Also announced that the new administration academic billing system will be coming up in January for the December bills. Her unit is holding meetings with bookkeepers to explain bills, which will be more detailed.

Electronic Mail/Directory Services: Gwen Hazlehurst

Requested that committee members read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) concerning e-mail and calendaring, which are accessible via the Web at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/computing/adm_stds/comp.html.

PeopleSoft Implementation: Ron Melbourne

Announced that the PeopleSoft Accounts Receivables module in now online in the Controller's Office. Reported that there are three computer labs in the Avent Ferry Complex for PeopleSoft training and that PeopleSoft Human Resources training will be held in those labs beginning mid December. Also reported that a Human Resources system parallel will run in January and that the system should be in production by the end of January.

Steve Keto said Human Resources will go live with the parallel in February.

Other Items/Issues:

Charles Kneifel announced that a Technology Steering meeting will be held on Monday, Nov. 23, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the D.H. Hill Library. The General Administration announced last Friday at their Executive Council Meeting that Price Waterhouse Group would be consultants for the Information Technology Study. This meeting will be an opportunity for committee members to show the consultants the different between Research I institutions and non-Research I institutions. It also will provide an opportunity for members to discuss other issues within the UNC system, he said.

Carl Malstrom announced that the listserve to announce meetings has been established. He has place alias in listserves and requests committee members to make him aware of any alias changes.