InformationSystems & Services

Annual Report 2011-2012

‘Demonstrating value by delivering is key. For ISS, this means running trustworthy,

innovative, good value services. And in the past year, we have delivered a great deal.’

Steve WilliamsDirector of Information Systems and Services

The University remains academic-led. Our purpose and direction are captured clearly in Vision 2021, refreshed this year. Alongside, there are new commercial realities, to which the University, and all of us, must respond.

Society is changing too – always on, always connected, needing a response now. Social media and video will become more pervasive, in teaching and in spreading the word about the University. We see this in staff and students wanting to work on their choice of device, interact through their preferred social media channel and wanting (expecting!) systems to ‘just work’ as easily as Facebook.

Demonstrating value by delivering is key. For ISS, this means running trustworthy, innovative, good value services. And in the past year, we have delivered a great deal.

First, I must mention Project 2012. Developing from a clear vision of what was needed for a good student experience, I was really pleased to keep track of this programme as the different strands delivered. The joint working between educationalists, practicing academics and IT specialists was particularly noteworthy and has influenced governance and practice in other universities. ReCap, Blackboard, mobile apps, enhanced facilities, NESS and student email were significant projects; but, more importantly, they blend together in the eyes of our students to be part of the way they learn. Just as important as the systems developments, over twenty ISS people have been involved in Staff-Student Committees. There can be no clearer evidence of real commitment to understanding what students need and helping to deliver it. This programme continued a trend of student-focused developments over several years – and it was gratifying this year that the National Student Survey result for access to IT improved, and the equivalent rating in the International Student Barometer remained very high.

There was good delivery, too, in support of research. With data storage growing in importance (and data volumes growing exponentially!) the Research Data Service established itself this year. The iridium project is defining the right protocols for managing research data. There’s a promising dialogue with the Digital Institute to build cloud computing into our options. A major development for the management of research projects, MyProjects Proposals, went live this year; and it would be remiss not to mention the start of the REF preparation through the MyImpact system.

I’d like to pick out two developments which delivered simpler, more powerful processes across the University: Procure to Pay (P2P) has completely changed the way the University purchases goods and services, while simplifying and extending the reach of wireless networking has provided more places where ‘it just works’ for both staff and students.

The other dimension of change is in the regulatory framework. Troublingly, there appears to be the expectation on the University of providing more reporting, and an infinite capacity to be able to react to large changes. The UK Border Agency, HEFCE, UCAS, the Information Commissioner, copyright issues – each of these has required more work but, again, we have delivered. This really sharpens the focus on the University’s ability to respond, and hence on the flexibility of our reporting systems.

Turning to the governance and management of IT, this year saw the creation of the Digital Campus Steering Group, an appropriately high-level body to consider all significant systems developments. Within ISS, the focus on delivering the best possible service has led to customer service accreditations and plans for a new service management system. Major Incident Reviews have driven an open culture and reduced recurrence of problems. Sound project management processes have been developed – ready for wider adoption across the University.

Finally, the future direction of IT in the University came into sharp focus following the review carried out by KPMG. Executive Board approved the recommendations of their report and created the Digital Campus programme – take a look at ncl.ac.uk/digitalcampus

Looking forward, the rate of change will not slow down, either societally, across the University, or in our IT provision. The REF and the recruitment of students will be the University’s top priorities. The different workstreams in Digital Campus will deliver process improvements and new systems to support these areas and a great many more.

Our ability to keep delivering will be tested. Across the institution, we have the skills and the people to respond well to that test.

Steve WilliamsDirector of Information Systems and Services

Demonstrating value by delivering

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This is not a time for people who like steadiness or consistency. The University operates in a very different world from when I joined in 2008. Students pay a greater proportion of our salaries. We are now a recruiting university, not a selecting university. Impact is tracked and quantified. A change in mindset is called for, alongside changes in process.

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Technology to Support Learning and TeachingInformation Technology plays a significant role in the support of academic delivery and student learning. Throughout the year, ISS has worked closely with the University Teaching and Learning Steering Group and the Estate Support Service (ESS) to enhance the IT and audio visual (AV) facilities in a number of learning spaces across campus. Refurbished spaces include 10 teaching rooms in the Armstrong Building and Claremont Bridge, three of which have been upgraded to provide full high-definition widescreen projection facilities; and six key teaching clusters.

We have continued to improve the quality of AV services in over 65 of our supported venues. Enhancements include lectern upgrades, projector replacements and the reconfiguration of over 85 wireless microphone systems to ensure continued functioning ahead of the Digital Switchover (2012).

To assist with the quick resolution of problems for users who may be experiencing technical difficulties, our AV remote management system has been upgraded in over 75% of our supported teaching rooms. The system’s power management tools have also enabled us to increase our contribution to the University’s green agenda.

Over the last academic year we have continued our work with ESS to increase the provision of EU compliant induction loops to almost all supported large teaching rooms on campus. The service has also been expanded to include two

teaching clusters refurbished this summer.

Improving Digital LiteracyOver the last three years, ISS has worked closely with the Staff Development Unit to deliver a number of ‘hands-on’ Teaching Room Technology Workshops. Due to their popularity, the number of sessions increased in 2012 and specific courses are currently in development for ReCap, Turning Point, Net Support School and Interactive Technology.

Innovative Cluster SpacesTo enhance the student experience and improve access to IT facilities, we continue to invest heavily in upgrading our PC cluster spaces across campus.

Working closely with ESS, major improvements have been made to five key teaching clusters, including a new cluster in the Bedson Teaching Centre. These developments have increased the number of PCs available to students by 34.

Consultation took place with students and academic staff throughout the design of the new and refurbished spaces; all incorporate a mix of layouts to facilitate individual and group work, they are also fully equipped with the latest audio visual technology and Net Support School software.

A new social learning space has been created in the Agriculture Building. The space has been designed with input from the Agriculture students; it incorporates 9 PC workstations, a collaborative group working area and a

soft-seated social space.

Quick Access WorkstationsThe number of Quick Access PC stations across campus has increased from 46 to 60. The modern workstations enable quick access to online services such as email, timetabling and social media; they also help to ease the pressure on main cluster facilities during busy periods. The stations continue to be popular with students: 40,783 logins were received from 11,120 unique users between October

2011 and September 2012.

Capturing LearningDuring summer 2012 all existing ReCap-enabled venues were upgraded to run the new Panopto lecture capture system.

Key benefits of the new system for staff include the ability to start or stop a booked recording early, pause during the session and edit a completed recording. A new Blackboard plug-in has also been introduced to assist with the uploading of recordings to modules.

New features for students include the opportunity to add private notes to recordings and the ability to search PowerPoint slides for keywords.

Teaching and Learning

Mobile ApplicationsIn recognition of the increasing number of mobile devices brought onto campus, ISS has launched m.ncl.ac.uk a website optimised for mobile devices. Primarily aimed at students, the site offers a range of web applications which provide personalised, up-to-the-minute information on the device of your choice. Visitors are able to find the nearest available PC on campus, access their timetable, check print credits, search the library catalogue and contact staff. The site also provides a link to the official Newcastle University iPhone App, developed by the winner of the University’s Appathon competition – this has also been extremely popular with students.

Over the next 12 months we hope to work closely with schools, services and the Students’ Union to develop their

own add-ons.

NUVision Streaming ServiceIn December 2011, we launched the NUVision Streaming Service (nuvision.ncl.ac.uk) to provide staff with a simple way to search, upload and stream media files. Videos held on NUVision can be embedded in Blackboard and on other web sites in much the same way as media held on YouTube or Vimeo.

During the July 2012 congregations the NUVision streaming server broadcast the ceremonies live to graduates, their families and friends. Recordings of the 35 ceremonies have been accessed by a wide range of IT devices and viewed

over 15,000 times since July.

Student EngagementTo increase our understanding of student expectations we have undertaken a pilot to gather feedback from the Staff Student Committees (SSCs) of 10 academic schools. ISS staff have attended committee meetings from across the three faculties and utilised the feedback to identify common concerns and student priorities for the development of IT services.

As a direct result of SSC feedback we have made improvements to print credit notifications, increased 24 hour access to high performance PCs, reduced logon times to Quick Access workstations, installed new software, increased the number of available print stations and made improvements to our documentation.

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Managing Research DataThe management, verification and accessibility of research data is recognised as one of the most pressing challenges facing the higher education and research sectors. ISS is heavily involved in iridium, an institutional research data management project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) which began in October 2011, running for 18 months.

iridium represents a collaboration between ISS and the Digital Institute, the Library, Medical Sciences Education Development and Research & Enterprise Services. Broadly, its objectives are to determine current practice and future requirements, to draft an institutional research data management policy informed by the results and to support that policy by integrating data management tools and support into a pilot data management infrastructure.

Progress to date includes a thematic analysis of the wide range of uses of research data within the University, a draft research data management policy and a proof of concept research data catalogue. The project is currently concentrating on ‘people support’ in the form of training and guidance on good practice; guidance on local policy; and assistance in the use of RDM tools and systems.

All outputs will be available on the project web site: research.ncl.ac.uk/iridium

Research Data StorageThe effective storage of data poses a range of challenges to research organisations including long term archival and access requirements; legislative compliance; and capacity. Funding bodies also hold an expectation that research groups will ensure appropriate practical arrangements are in place to maintain the integrity and security of their data.

The ISS Research Data Warehouse service has been designed to free researchers from technical worries and provide secure, sustainable, high-capacity and cost effective data storage. Take up of the service has continued to increase steadily over the last academic year with over 60 research groups now taking advantage of the dedicated, purpose built infrastructure and enterprise class storage solutions. This will be expanded as part of the work around

infrastructure for Digital Campus.

Web Publishing ServiceInstalled as a pilot service during 2011, the Content Management System (CMS) provides a fast, resilient web publishing platform to University research groups, projects and conferences.

The service has grown considerably in the last year with an average of nine new sites placed into development each month. Regular training sessions are held to support new users and a range of easy to use web templates and plugins have been developed to enable simple integration with other University systems and popular social media tools. There are currently 40 live websites driven by the CMS with another 50 new research and conference sites in development.

Research and Collaboration

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New Blogging ServiceFollowing a successful pilot, a new University blogging service has been launched. The system is based on the popular WordPress blogging platform which was chosen for its intuitive, uncomplicated interface, making it easier for new users to begin blogging.

The service, available to all staff and students, currently hosts over 90 research, teaching and personal blogs and has almost 300 registered users.

Supporting ResearchMyImpact and MyProjects, the systems for collating staff research work and tracking projects, have seen further enhancements in the last 12 months (see page 14). The added functionality in MyImpact will assist the University to plan, collate and submit its entry into the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014.

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Improving Customer ServiceOur Service Delivery teams have been working with the Service Desk Institute (SDI), a leading IT Service Management organisation dedicated to promoting best practice for IT Service Desks, to improve customer service delivery and work towards the globally recognised SDI certification award. In the last year, all front line service staff took part in the SDI’s customer service training programme, with the aim of improving consistency in our first line customer support. Seventeen staff achieved Service Desk Analyst certification, with 14 at Higher Mastery Level.

Alongside this, we have introduced a customer satisfaction survey to help us understand the impact of service delivery improvements on customers’ perceptions of our first line support. As each service request is closed, a resolution email is sent to the customer inviting them to rate key aspects of our service. ISS handled a total of 68,274 contacts during the year 2011/12; in the first six months the survey received 1,603 responses with 84% of customers happy with the service they experienced.

During 2012 we worked closely with teams outside ISS to successfully transition first line support for key University services: NESS, ePortfolio, MyProjects and MyProjects Proposals to the IT Service Desk.

Process ImprovementsIn a drive to improve efficiency and effective use of resources, we have made a number of significant changes to the way we work behind the scenes. The Major IT Incident Management process was reviewed and re-launched in August 2011 and reviewed again in October 2012, introducing a number of enhancements: more detailed reporting; actions and recommendations logging and tracking; and the build-up of trend analysis and statistics. The additional data enables more accurate identification of service weakness areas and as a

result, allows us to prioritise remedial work more effectively.

IT for RegistrationISS worked with key stakeholders from Finance, Student Services and Accommodation to manage and successfully deliver the IT facilities required for the annual registration activity for the start of academic year. Equipment supplied and supported included 41 PCs, 11 printers, 9 payment card processing machines, 18 telephones and 9 Smartcard issuing stations.

Registration ran between 17 and 27 September, during which time around 8,000 students were seen by the combined team who helped with fees payment, accommodation, issue of Smartcards, advice and support.

As well as our usual connection clinics (which run all year), ISS provided additional support to over 700 students connecting to the University and wireless networks, including clinics aimed specifically at international students in Leazes Terrace Halls of Residence. In recent years there has been an increase in the use of mobile devices on campus, so for the first time this year we offered a mobile connection clinic in the Students’ Union Hub which ran daily throughout the Registration period and Freshers’ week.

Smart WorkingIn 2011, the Estate Support Service (ESS) began a pilot initiative to implement ‘smart’ working within their service, culminating in a full rollout and a move to new offices in August 2012. New working practices were underpinned by innovative usage of space combined with modern IT facilities as a pilot for the wider University.

Changes in IT delivery were a key factor in the success of the initiative, and ISS provided a range of services and support including upgraded PC hardware, flexible telephony and software application deployment and revised file storage arrangements.

Service Delivery

‘The collaboration between ISS and ESS was invaluable in the successful delivery of our relocation and smart working initiative.’

Clare Rogers Director of Estate Support Service

Estate Support Service (ESS) new ‘smart’ working offices.

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Information Security Management and TrainingISS has introduced a new information security training programme to help University employees protect important information from theft, loss, destruction and misuse. The training not only helps staff to identify and avoid the common mistakes that can lead to a serious data breach; it also demonstrates the University’s commitment to complying with the information security requirements of research councils and the Data Protection Act.

During 2012 over 500 employees from administrative and academic departments across the University received information security training. The workshop is also available through the Staff Development Unit.

Freedom of Information and Data ProtectionThe Freedom of Information Act allows people to request information about the University. Transparency of University spending and decision-making can help to increase understanding of, and engagement with, our core activities at a local and national level.

The Data Protection Act allows people to access information about themselves that is held by the University. It can help people to understand the services we provide and decisions we may make about them.

In the academic year 2011/12, the Governance section within ISS responded to 158 Freedom of Information requests and 18 subject access requests under the Data Protection Act.

Payment Card Industry Data Security StandardCompliance with PCI-DSS, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is required for all organisations that process credit and debit card payments. This year ISS gave support to the University’s Finance and Planning Department, assisting them to achieve and maintain compliance with PCI-DSS.

Compliance with this standard is not only critical to fulfilling the University’s vision of becoming a cashless campus, it also supports the introduction of new payment technologies such as contactless payment terminals. In addition, it demonstrates the University’s commitment to protecting customers from payment card fraud.

Project Management Process and ToolkitThe purpose of the ISS Project Management Office is to provide structure and support for all ISS project management activity alongside managing some of the University’s most complex IT projects.

A key development this year has been the formulation and implementation of the new ISS Project Management Process and Toolkit; the first step in introducing increased control and standardisation to ISS project activity.

Based loosely on the PRINCE2 methodology, the scalable process and corresponding documentation was created through collaboration with colleagues inside and outside ISS. There are currently a number of projects successfully applying elements of the Process and Toolkit, these include the high profile Smartcard Replacement Project and ReCap improvements.

The Process is also helping to improve project success beyond departmental boundaries with the documentation requested by colleagues in QuILT, the Newcastle Business School, the School of Computing Science and Newcastle Science City.

Improving CommunicationDelivering clear, consistent and timely service information to our customers is an on-going challenge. To help address this we have made a number of improvements to our primary dissemination channels.

During Summer 2012 a significant piece of work took place to redesign the ISS online presence. The new website is designed around our services and has a new, intuitive URL: www.ncl.ac.uk/itservice. Quick links on the homepage and dedicated landing pages for students, staff and University IT Technical staff enable quick identification of services which may be of interest. In addition, all online documentation is now stored in one, easy to search, IT Knowledge Base.

We are also engaging with our customers via social media: 2012 saw the introduction of our two departmental Twitter feeds and the IT Bytes Facebook page. The channels offer a great opportunity to link up with students and staff across the University, enabling us to deliver timely service information, tips, news and advice.

Governance

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Enhancements to Student Email

During summer 2012, ISS successfully migrated

undergraduate and taught postgraduate student email

to the Microsoft Office365 hosting service.

The web-based service offers an improved student

experience through greater functionality, a significant

increase in mail storage quota (to 25GB), support for

a wider range of web browsers, the convenience of

single sign on and the potential to retain mailboxes

post-graduation.

The deployment of Office365 has helped to avoid

significant capital expenditure and contributes to the

University’s sustainability theme - core to Vision 2021.

It also targets the cloud-based technology recommendation

present in the Digital Campus initiative. To date, over

20,000 mailboxes have been provisioned or migrated

to the new system.

Green IT

Smart use of IT continues to make a significant contribution

to the University’s Green Agenda.

Following on from the development of a Green ICT

Strategy in 2011, this year’s focus has turned to delivery,

concentrating on core areas such as the PC estate, data

centre consolidation and network equipment.

Better reporting

Newcastle is at the forefront of deploying next generation

monitoring and reporting tools designed to drive behavioural

change in the desktop estate.

ISS has been working in conjunction with the Sustainability

Office and the Netskills training and staff development

service to build energy reporting through the pilot of

Microsoft’s System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM).

The pilot has brought together Environmental Co-ordinators

and Computing Officers from across the University who are

using the reports to drive down energy usage and actively

manage IT power consumption.

Efficient Data Storage

The refurbishment of the Claremont Tower Data Centre

in 2011 delivered increased resilience, efficiency and the

capacity to accommodate servers from other University

units. Housing these servers in the main data centre frees up

space in Schools, removes maintenance costs and reduces

the environmental impact of additional server rooms.

A productive partnership with the School of Computing

Science has enabled the consolidation of the largest

academic data centre into the primary University facility. As

a result, the electricity usage of the School’s infrastructure

has dropped by £51,000 per annum. When capital savings

are included the project is expected to save the University

£352,000 over the next 5 years. The consolidation has also

released 130m2 of high quality office space for reuse by the

School and serves as an exemplar for future projects.

Effective Data Management

Launched in 2009, the Institutional Data Feed Service (IDFS)

ensures IT applications can access the data they need in an

accurate, timely, well-governed fashion.

IDFS has seen a particularly busy year supplying complex

data feeds to University developers working on large scale

projects such as the Evasys module evaluation pilot; web

service delivery; Smartcard and Chubb upgrade projects;

Hobsons CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and

KIS return (Key Information Set).

The service is also helping to improve overall data

quality through a feedback loop which aggregates and

communicates data quality issues back to their source.

Infrastructure and Sustainability

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Wireless and Network Enhancements

Internet connectivity is a fundamental requirement for almost

every aspect of University life. Over the last year there have

been a number of developments to our campus wireless

network services.

The ‘magpie’ staff and student wireless network was

retired in July 2012 and replaced with the consolidated

‘newcastle-university’ wireless service. Averages of over

2,000,000 connections a month were recorded between

August 2011 and July 2012 compared with just over

650,000 connections a month during the previous

academic year.

The ‘newcastle-uni-guest’ wireless service was formally

launched in December 2011, replacing the ‘raven’ service

to provide short term wireless Internet access to University

visitors and conference attendees. The connection process

has been simplified and visitor accounts can now be

created in a matter of moments by any pre-authorised

member of staff.

In autumn 2011, eduroam® at Newcastle completed its

transition from pilot to full-service. eduroam® enables staff

and students from participating institutions to simply use

their own Login Name and password to obtain secure

Internet connectivity across campus and around the world

when visiting other participating institutions.

The University receives its primary Internet connectivity via

its connection to Janet - the national education and research

network for the UK. Due to increasing demand for Internet

access and services, our bandwidth utilisation has grown

by around 40% year-on-year. To accommodate this growth,

in May 2012 the capacity of the University’s connection to

Janet doubled from 1Gbps to 2Gbps (Gigabits per second).

A further increase in bandwidth to 10Gbps is planned by

March 2013.

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Postgraduate Applications PortalMay 2012 saw the launch of the new Postgraduate

Applications portal. Teams from across ISS worked closely

with the Marketing Communications Directorate, Student

Progress Service and additional University-wide stakeholders

to redevelop the system and improve its compatibility with

the increasing variety of web browsers used by the 30,000+

applicants.

Benefits of the revised system include improved browser

compatibility; a reduction in the bandwidth required by each

applicant using the system; and greater flexibility in design

to better reflect the University’s overall web presence. During

the redevelopment, the opportunity was also taken to

improve the application process itself along with associated

documentation.

Since the go-live over 11,000 applicants have applied via the

new portal; latest applicant feedback shows 97% rating their

experience as good or very good, and support calls have

reduced by 43%.

UG e-AdmissionsThis year has seen the in-house development of a new

system to manage Undergraduate and PGCE admissions.

Currently in pilot phase, the new electronic system is based

on the same technology as the Student Information Gateway

(SIG) and handles admissions from application through to

registration.

The new system streamlines the admissions process, helping

to ensure a quality experience for each student prior to their

arrival at the University. Benefits include improved efficiency

in the offer making process, faster turnaround times,

reduced paper usage and better management information.

NESSOriginally developed in the University’s School of Computing

Science, NESS has been adopted by the University to

manage student marks, data and Exam Board processes.

In July 2011, Executive Board approved the transfer of

ownership of the system to ISS; consequently, a project has

been underway to make resilient the institutionally supported

features of NESS and extend its use as the corporate data

repository for student marks at a module and sub-module level.

The system has now been rolled out to the HaSS faculty with

additional functionality for delivering the Higher Education

Achievement Record and live access to component marks via

the Student Portal (S3P) and Staff Information Gateway (SIG).

MyProjects ProposalsThis year saw the final stages of development and University-

wide release of MyProjects Proposals. The system is

designed to enable the electronic submission of proposals

for the full range of externally funded University projects.

Created as a successor to the pFact Project Costing system

and providing a paperless replacement for the previous

manual ‘blue form’ proposal sign-off procedure, MyProjects

Proposals enables full costing and pricing of a proposal;

the completion of non-financial information through

dynamic questionnaires; and submission via electronic

sign-off and approval.

Since go-live in January 2012, nearly 700 proposal

submissions have been approved, with the system handling

over £100m worth of applications and as a result securing

almost £10m worth of awards.

MyImpactMyImpact is a system originally designed for the academic

community to manage their important research information,

publications and activities. Over the last year our key priority

has been to develop functionality in MyImpact to enable

the University to plan, collate and submit its entry into the

forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014.

In this period we have introduced REF Staff Administration

and Scenario Planning Functionality, two important tools to

assists decision-making regarding the composition of the

University’s REF submission.

The overall benefit of this added functionality is to provide the

University with tools to maximise its REF2014 grading and

resulting research income; it also enables the submission to

be carried out in a robust, well-managed fashion.

In addition to the REF work, ISS has also supported the

development of MyImpact to provide data on teaching

achievements with a view to providing academic staff with

a single system to record and manage their full range of

teaching and research activities.

Supporting the University’s Business

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Continuous ImprovementsCore SAP administrations systems, which are critical

to the day-to-day running of the University, have seen

further enhancements over the last year; these include the

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which

supports the University in recording and responding to

enquiries from prospective students and other business

partners; Business Warehouse reporting which gives staff

access to flexible business reporting and functionality to

prepare budgets and plans; and HR & Payroll, the systems

used to support a range of business processes in the

employee lifecycle from recruitment through to retirement.

It has been a busy year for delivering statutory changes

with major developments to student and staff HESA (Higher

Education Statistics Agency), development of the Higher

Education Achievement Report and the HMRC Real Time

Information project, in which the University acted as one of

the national pilot sites.

In addition, P2P the University-wide online solution developed

to streamline the purchasing and payment processes for goods

and services, completed a successful roll out in early 2012.

SAP and myWorkplace Portal TrainingAlmost 100 scheduled SAP and myWorkplace portal training

courses took place during 2012, with 315 attendees.

One-to-one training sessions also attracted 153 attendees

covering smaller issues which required specialist assistance.

The frequency of these sessions will increase in 2013

to assist with all areas of SAP and the portal, including

expenses and Student Information Gateway (SIG) systems.

In addition, visits have been offered to all schools, services

and institutes to encourage best practice and offer on-the-

spot help with SAP and portal issues.

Context sensitive help was also fully launched giving SAP

users a ‘2 click’ link directly to relevant training materials for

the task they were performing.

Facts and Figures

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• ISS look after over 1,300 PCs in computer cluster rooms

across campus; 426 are accessible 24 hours a day.

• The IT Service Desk handled over 68,200 contacts during

the year 2011/12.

• The ReCap service continues to be extremely popular; 7,827

recordings were made last year with more than 361,500

viewings.

• There are approximately 50,000 active email accounts on

University email systems. Around 3.2 million emails are

received each month. At peak times the mail systems deliver

over 1,200 messages a minute.

• Over 85% of all incoming email to the University is rejected

as spam.

• In 2010/11 over 6,000 unique mobile devices talked to the

University email service on any one day. This figure is now

almost 10,000.

• In the last academic year, Blackboard had over 25,000 active

users. The highest number of users in one day came to

10,075.

• Quick Access PC workstations received 40,783 logins from 11,120 unique users between October 2011 and

September 2012. This year we have increased the number of

stations from 46 to 60.

• In the last academic year, students printed over 10.5 million

sheets of paper. The average print job was six pages. Double

sided printing and the removal of header sheets is now

default for all ISS cluster room printers.

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Recurrent Net Expenditure 2011/12 (£10.8m)

Learning, Teaching and Research Support 14.5%

Governance 5%

Cluster Room Provision/Support 4%

Infrastructure Systems and Architecture 20.5%

Networks 4.5%

IT Service Desk 3.5%

Business Systems 27.5%

ISS Directorate 1%

Student Printing 3%

Lecture Room Support and Electronic Teaching 7%

Desktop Support/Service Delivery 11%

IT Service Desk Calls by User Type

Staff 57%

Students 28%

Role <1%

Other 15%

IT Service Desk Contact Method

Telephone 25%

Email 44%

Web form 6%

In person 19%

Other 6%

Comparison of Annual IT Service Desk Load IT Service Desk Calls Handled

*In person contact figures relate to the main ISS Service Desk and do not include all face-to-face queries to cluster room support help desks.

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Information Systems & Services Newcastle University

Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU

United Kingdom

www.ncl.ac.uk/itservice

We would like to thank the following for the use of their illustrative material: David Bell, John Donoghue, Mike Urwin, Simon Veit-Wilson

Details provided in this brochure are correct at the time of publication in December 2012 but may be subject to change.

© Newcastle University, 2012. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne trading as Newcastle University.