IS Services

Service Audience

Information Services supports the use of technology for administrative purposes on campus. Our service audience consists of campus administrators including department heads and their immediate support staff if required. Assistance is also provided to faculty, staff, and students as they require access to administrative systems.

Major System Support

CSM's legacy computer systems now used for historical reporting only, consist of the Financial Reporting System (FRS), the Student Information System (SIS), the Human Resources System (HRS.)  All systems have now been converted to the Banner integrated software suite which is fully supported by IS.

Information Services' highest priority is to ensure secure data storage, reliable production processing, and the highest levels of customer service obtainable with available resources.  All of these require numerous operating policies and procedures which IS attempts to develop and follow as closely as possible to those accepted by industry as "best practices."

Information Services applies program updates, regulatory changes, and enhancements to major systems' software as provided by the vendor or as developed internally, and relies on system owners and users to test and confirm these changes produce correct results. Information Services also carries out system-owner authorized access to these systems, and monitors that access, by CSM personnel. (See the procedure on security to request access.)

Other system support

Information Services also provides regular maintenance, updates, and enhancements to several other standalone, "auxiliary" systems. These include fixed assets accounting, Physical Plant Word Order Processing, telephone billing, ADS (applicant data system) file transfer and printing, COFRS transaction processing and transfer, housing/dormitory services billing, warehouse inventory management, research proposal tracking, and research services billing.  Every attempt is being made to eliminate these shadow systems and provide the needed functionality through Banner--either as delivered or as supplemented locally.

Personal Computer Support

Support for personal computers running one of the Windows operating systems and selected application software (see policy on Supported Software and Services) consists of the following services:

• initial consultation prior to purchase
• purchasing/ordering assistance
• system set-up and installation (including network installation)
• brief individual initial software training
• user manuals on selected software packages
• problem debugging and vendor interface on difficult problems
• help desk services
• Network Support
• Email and "Groupware" Support (MS Exchange)
• MS-SQL server and IIS

Information Services maintains a Windows network supporting over 770 administrative computers.  Information Services provides routine maintenance, account and security administration. Training in the form of initial user consultation, seminars, user manuals, and videos, is available. Assistance is also provided for problem determination and resolution when problems occur.

The Computing Center is responsible for the overall campus backbone network and wiring, Information Services works to coordinate administrative user requests for network connections. Once a network connection is provided, Information Services will install the PC on the network and provide initial training in network use.

New System Development

Information Services attempts to devote some of its resources to new system development and implementation. An example of this service is implementation of the Human Resources System, and newer versions of the Student and Financial Systems.