Application Services

Overview

The Applications Services group provides a wide portfolio of services to all members of the Boston College community by developing, supporting, and delivering state of the art applications and infrastructure to support and further the mission and vision of Boston College.

Teams

  • Application Services
  • Decision Support
    • Applications and Business Intelligence
    • Data Architecture and Integration Services
    • Database Administration

Scope

  • Application Services – Designs, integrates, and implements a variety of computer applications in a complex environment using various development tools and platforms. Focuses on the main ERP application portfolio, which is made up of the Advancement, Facilities Management, Finance, Human Resources, and additional functionality in document management, job scheduling, reporting, and workflow.
  • Decision Support
    • Applications and Business Intelligence – this team supports the BC Data Warehouse, enterprise reporting, departmental applications, and enterprise tools that focus on information delivery.
    • Data Architecture and Integration Services delivers and designs data repositories, transports, and transformation techniques required of a decentralized application infrastructure.
    • Database Administration – Provides administration, maintenance, and monitoring of the database instances used by enterprise applications and departments in support of their business operation.

Contact

John Berardi, Director
617-552-1793

Business, Planning, and Project Services

Overview

The Business, Planning, and Project Services Office provides ITS Administrative, Financial, Human Resources, Project Management, and Strategic Planning services.

Teams

  • Administrative and Financial Services
  • ITS Human Resources
  • Project Management Office
  • Strategic Planning & Governance

Scope

  • Fiscal Management and Budget Functions – Develop, implement, and monitor financial controls and compliance; manage and control the capital and operating budget processes; prepare and provide financial reporting; perform financial analysis; monitor contracts and assist with business case funding development
  • Administrative Services Leadership and Operations – Develop and coordinate policies, procedures, standards, reports, and support for ITS business services; collaborate with central administration; resolve operational issues and problems; incorporate best practices and implement process improvements.
  • Human Resources Management  Provide support to ITS managers and staff for HR processes; including hiring, merit increases, new hire, and on-boarding activities.
  • Project Management – Develop and document policy, standards, guidelines, and procedures for ITS project management; recommend project management tools, develop templates, and adopt appropriate best practices; provide project management services and oversight for select projects.
  • Planning and Governance – Develop and document the ITS Strategic Plan and drive the strategic planning process; coordinate the ITS Annual Report effort; oversee the Project Portfolio Management process (PPM); develop and document policy, standards, guidelines, and procedures for ITS portfolio management and governance.
  • Vendor Management & Procurement Services – Develop and coordinate policies, procedures, standards, reports, and support for ITS vendor services; collaborate with university procurement; optimize and monitor vendor relationships and potential cost savings.

Contact

Tom Rezendes, Director
617-552-6962

IT Assurance

Overview

The Information Technology Assurance team provides University-wide leadership, vision, and strategy for information security, working to ensure the protection and integrity of the University’s information assets.

Team

  • Computer Security & Policy

Scope

  • Develop, implement, and monitor adherence to data security standards and practices.
  • Assist in the monitoring of state and federal regulations or laws governing data security.
  • Develop and implement privacy and security programs.
  • Design, implement, and monitor a comprehensive information security infrastructure that is consistent with industry standards and is reflective of University needs.
  • Build an information security-conscious culture at Boston College.
  • Oversee the implementation of operational controls relative to data security and assess their effectiveness.

Contact

David Escalante, Director
computer.security@bc.edu
617-552-6909

For after-hours issues, please contact the Operations Desk at 617-552-2386, and they can page the appropriate people.

Network Services

Overview

Network Services is responsible for the University’s core communications and network infrastructure. Network Services provides the Boston College community all telephone, data, internet connectivity, and cable plant services.

Teams

  • Data & Cable Television Services
  • Infrastructure Services
  • Network Systems
  • Voice Services

Scope

  • Engineer, build and maintain a robust, highly-reliable, and secure communications infrastructure. 
  • Research, evaluate, and implement new communications technologies such as VoIP and IPV6.
  • Provide exceptional customer service to the University community through consistent service availability and resolution of customer issues.

Contact

Joseph Harrington, Director
617-552-8034

Student & Academic Application Services (SAAS) 

Overview

Student & Academic Application Services (SAAS) provides the underlying structure and support for critical business processes in academic and student systems. SAAS adheres to a high standard in project management, process design, application development and integration, quality assurance, and systems management, in support of students, faculty, and staff.

Teams

  • Eagle Apps Systems 
  • Web Portal Systems
  • Production & Data Services

Scope

  • Employ best practices in the design, development, integration, and support of academic and student information systems.
  • Efficiently develop and implement web and mobile applications utilizing industry standard technologies.

Contact

Denis Walsh, Director
617-552-8510

Support Services

Overview

ITS Support Services promotes and fosters effective use of technology by Boston College faculty, staff, and students in learning, teaching, research, and university business.

Teams

  • Computing Support and Service Management
    • Help Center
    • Hardware Repair
    • Technology Training
    • Walk-In Help Desk
    • IT Service Management (ITSM)
  • IT Communications
  • Media Technology Services (MTS)
  • Research Services
  • Technology Consultation & Implementation
     

Scope

  • Computing Support and Service Management – Serves the ever-increasing technology support needs of faculty, staff, and students by providing system integration and technology support.
  • IT Communications – Works to continually improve the BC user computing experience by fostering partnerships within ITS and across the University, developing marketing and communications for the BC community.
  • Media Technology Services (MTS) – Provides the University community with a full range of audiovisual technology and media production support.  Some of the services offered include audio and video production, digital photography, graphic design, camera loans, classroom technology, event support, and film streaming.
  • Research Services – Provides resources, training and consultation for Research Computing, Data Collection tools, and Research Statistics. Our mission is to support academic research at Boston College and through collaboration with researchers understand the needs of the research community at Boston College.  
  • Technology Consultation & Implementation – Responsible for the overall management of the Technology Consultant team and the Boston College Computer Replacement Program (BCCR). Fosters business relationships with departments served to ensure that meaningful participation in technology planning occurs through an enhanced consultative relationship. Assures that faculty and staff technology support and deployment needs are met.

Contact

Michael Gallagher, Technology Director, IT Support Services
617-552-0815

Systems, Operations & Architecture Services

Overview

The mission of the Systems, Operations & Architecture Services group is to provide a robust, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable computing environment in support of all the academic and administrative computing needs of the Boston College user community. This team manages the infrastructure technologies and university services such as Active Directory, network activation, email services, and system backup, providing the foundation on which all technical services and applications across the University rely.

Teams

  • Collaboration Systems
  • Computer Operations
  • Application Administrator Team
  • Middleware Services
  • Production and Data Services
  • Systems Administration

Scope

  • Architecture Services – Advances the Application Architecture Environment to position Information Technology Services as a provider of an infrastructure and framework on which quality, reliable applications can be developed. Defines the standard set of tools, technologies, and frameworks used for application development.
  • Collaboration Systems - Implements and maintains technologies to facilitate communication and collaboration including email services, web-based file sharing, personal and group calendaring, and application virtualization.
  • Computer Operations - Utilizes various tools and resources for the monitoring of campus systems and applications, ensuring that unexpected problems or outages are reported promptly and services are restored as soon as possible.
  • Information Technology Consultants - Designs, implements, and manages a wide range of client management solutions in support of the broader technology initiatives of ITS; These include virus production for the campus, inventory manage of workstations, workstation image definition and workstation backup.
  • Middleware Services  Supports application infrastructure layer components and services; a critical part of the underlying architecture used by most University systems and applications. Builds and integrates new systems and ensures existing systems continue to run smoothly.
  • Production and Data Services - Provides administrative support to centralized Information Technology functions, including the management of scheduled processes, identity and access control, management of core university data and report distribution, system documentation, and metrics.
  • Systems Administration - Installs, maintains, and supports the operating system software and data storage environment for all University centralized servers. The group also does capacity planning for the data center as well as managing ITS's disaster recovery program.

Contact

Brian Bernier, Director
617-552-3079

Boston College has a well-developed, diverse and hybrid disaster recovery plan, which has matured over the last decade to include cloud based environments, failovers and remote recovery site methodologies. All of the production data, servers and applications on-site are replicated nightly, in total, to three separate large storage arrays; one in our central data center, another in a remote area of the Boston College campus and lastly to a remote recovery site in NY state. With these various backup and recovery methodologies in place Information Technologies Services can restore the University computing infrastructure, production servers, database and applications within 48 hours of an emergency declared outage.  Our disaster recovery methodologies are reviewed, augmented, enhanced and fully tested annually in the Disaster Recovery Exercise conducted in the Spring. The disaster recovery plan and methodology is audited each year by internal and outside auditors for compliance. 

Questions concerning the disaster recovery process? Contact Carl Stanek.

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