‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌
 
 
January 2021 - Happy New Year!
 
 
 
Distinguished Employee Leadership and Team Award (DELTA)


The award annually recognizes System Offices employees and project teams for their exceptional accomplishments, service and dedication to the University of Illinois System. Employees will be awarded with a commemorative trophy, certificate, and a monetary award at an awards ceremony. DELTA nominations must be submitted no later than Friday, February 12, 2021.

In the last 5 years of the program, 30+ AITS employees have received the DELTA award for their individual or project work but we still have so many incredible teams and individuals to recognize!  Keep in mind that if you're doing the legwork of submitting a DELTA award nomination, you can submit the same nomination for the AITS Excellence Awards since requirements for both awards are similar.

Further details on this program, including eligibility information, nomination procedures, and a link to the online nomination application, can be found by visiting the DELTA page on the System Human Resource Services website . If you have any questions about the DELTA program, or need assistance submitting a nomination, please send inquiries and comments to DeltaAward@uillinois.edu.

 
 
 
 
 
Cybersecurity Training

 

On Tuesday, January 19, 2021 you’ll receive your first cybersecurity training opportunity. Watch for an email from noreply@illinois.edu, with the subject line, You have been assigned cybersecurity training. When you get that email, click the link in it to complete your assigned training. You’ll get a reminder about two weeks later if you haven’t completed the training by then. The training should take about 20 minutes to complete.

There will be a total of four different training opportunities throughout the spring, and you’ll have about four weeks to complete each one. Each month will feature a new topic and assigned training. The last training opportunity will end in mid-May.

Please reach out to securitytraining@uillinois.edu with any questions or feedback.

 

 
 
 
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Training Pilot


At the last AITS Quarterly Business Meeting in Decemeber 2020, Justin Lacy of System HR Services chatted about the upcoming DEI Training that will be piloted for small groups of AITS employees. Training topics will include (but are not limited to): power and privilege, microagressions, stereotypes, and many more. If you are interested in being in the DEI pilot group, please reach out to Suzi McLain or Christina Worthington by January 20, 2021.

To learn more about the DEI cirrculum being offered by System HR Services, please visit their SHRS Training Program website.

 
 
 
 
 
TeamDynamix Update


AITS and Technology Services begin the final preparations for TeamDynamix (TDX) implementation. A new go-live date has been set for Thursday, February 25, 2021. It is still encouraged to create tickets in the TDX Sandbox and watch the training videos. Directions for accessing both can be found on the TeamDynamix Forum on the AITS Community Forum Team.

 
 
 
 
 
Recognizing AITS Employees


If you'd like to recognize a colleague for doing great work, use our High Fives & Fist Bumps tool! Recognition from our customers can be submitted to our Recognition Team at aitsrecognitionprgm@uillinois.edu. Think that someone you work with is beyond excellent? Take it one step further and nominate them for the AITS Excellence Award!

 
 
Happy Customers
 

​Amanda [Hemming],

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that you did an amazing job presenting at today’s iBuy forms webinar. You presented the information in a clear, confident manner, and provided the perfect amount of background information for why the changes were occurring. You also navigated the change management elements very skillfully. A few people who attended already commented to me that they thought the webinar was great.  I know this project has been challenging, but please know that we greatly appreciate all of your contributions on this project and beyond. We are very fortunate to have you on the team.

-Recognized by Aaron Rosenthal of UIC Purchasing

________________
 

​​​Wanted to take a moment and say thank you [Cheri Gorrell, Dave Kittell, Lynn Phillips and Sonya Shipley] for your support on the AFSCME PopSel implementation as well as the countless STRL’s, JINC’s, and InHouse Mod’s it took to implement 9 different contracts in the same pay period. The third week of August is always a hectic and nervous time for our team, but your expertise and leadership made all the difference. These changes led to a few thousand happy employees, and just as importantly, happy unions. Thank you for everything! 

 

-Recognized by Adam Austin and Sam Willits-Rosten, Illinois HR

________________

​Dear Amanda [Hemming],

You were recognized at our BSS Stewardship meeting for your outstanding work on the recent e-Pro iBuy/Source-to-Pay project on the new iBuy forms to be released December 21, 2020.  A virtual fist bump Amanda!!

Thank you for your positive and can-do attitude, flexibility, and teamwork while working with various customers and adjusting to the everchanging deadlines.  Even with all of these potential roadblocks, you persevered, maintained focus, and got the job done.  Also, congratulations on your recent successful webinars!! On behalf of the Stewardship and Management Teams in BSS, we applaud your efforts, and we look forward to working with you more in 2021.

 Enjoy this holiday season Amanda.  Thank you again!

 -Recognized by Tyler Tanaka of University of Illinois System Office of Business Services, Solutions and Support

________________
 
 
 
High Fives & Fist Bumps
 

​Mike Keck has helped the AITS CFIM team a ton lately, and that is not unusual!  Thank you Mike, for making our jobs easier!  Thanks for teaching me about implicit links and helping us ensure our roles were correct for accessing the view you created which gives us the information we need from EAS, which made us much more efficient at what we do.  Your help was also very timely - it just so happens we ran into a problem with Net ID assignments immediately after you helped us up our game, so we are so thankful for the added work efficiency especially at this time!  And thanks, too, for taking the time to repeat that training session you forgot to record for me, when I could not be there the first time around.  Your efforts do not go unnoticed!

-Recognized by Sonya Shipley
 
 
 
 
TAM Team Recognition Program

AITS's Technical Application Management (TAM) leadership members have initiated a recognition program within in their team! This program was developed to recognize team members for the hard work that is done day-in and day-out. Each month, two team members will be recognized as the TAM Employees of the Month for their excellence in tasks, projects, and daily work.

Want to implement a recognition program within your team but not sure how? The AITS Recognition Team is happy to host a brainstorming session to discuss ideas and possible implementation!

TAM Employee of the Month - October

​Cheri Gorrell
 
Cheri has stepped in the past seven months and played a key role in managing several critical projects for TAM HR. She successfully led the implementation of the leave modifications for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and continues to work closely with HR in regards to FFCRA to stay apprised of the next steps. In addition, Cheri has been instrumental in leading ITPC-0626 Exempt Civil Service Vacation and Sick Leave Standardization. She identified a significant issue with this project and brought it to light in the very early stages. She worked with several analysts and HR representatives to flush out the issue and identify options for resolution. Cheri has also been asked to lead the Fall Banner Upgrade, Calendar Year End Upgrade, UIUC Housing Minimum Wage Increases, Minimum Wage Increases and has taken on several small projects for web applications that she has not worked on in the past. She has done all of this without reservation and continues to welcome new projects. Cheri has gone above and beyond to support the University of Illinois System. She is well respected by our clients, always does excellent work and has an ingrained desire to provide great customer service.
 
TAM Employee of the Month - November
 
​Keith Waltermire
 
Keith has once again led the Student Team through an upgrade of our Banner production system and all of the functionality therein. Keith has developed and executed a concise Student Banner upgrade methodology that guides the Student team through the upgrade process in a well orchestrated method. Keith manages the team, develops the plan, interacts with all student stakeholders, and coordinates all the activities with the process to make the process successful. Keith has to react to late Ellucian deliverables (Faculty Self Service, WebTailor, CR/NC Mod) and coordinate modification redevelopment and testing to keep up with Ellucian support standards; as well as keep campus stakeholders communicated with and satisfied with pertinent information for the upgrade. Keith manages all these aspects in a manner that exudes confidence in the status and preparedness. He then executes the deployment plan and handles any issues in a confident and professional manner (a late transcript mod); communicating and executing any corrective measures to insure that Campus needs are met for production status. The Campuses and the Student Team rely upon Keith's leadership and guidance through the process to deliver an effective, production ready system.
 
TAM Employees of the Month - December
 
​Entire TAM Team!

We have accomplished a tremendous amount of work in 2020 – a year in which no one could have ever imagined the circumstances we would be living or working in.  But you all have handled it with grace and confidence and managed to keep on keeping on through all of the challenges that have been thrown at you!  Whether you were involved in a large ITPC project for our clients, or had to react to an urgent Covid-related request, or you were doing what we do best – keeping this University running for the students, faculty and staff, you were definitely a Rockstar!!  And that’s how we are going to end the year!!
 
 
 
 
 
Training Opportunities


Web Intelligence Training

1/20 - Web Intelligence: Reporting Basics
ONLINE | 9:00 - 11:30 AM  [Register here]
This course demonstrates how to use the Web Intelligence report editor to create custom reports and analyses. Topics include: creating basic reports, filters, sorting, calculations, breaks, and file formats.

Coffee Breaks

1/15 - Simple HTML Validation for Accessibility
ONLINE | 3:00 - 3:30 PM hosted by Mark McCarthy
Learn how to do simple HTML validation for accessibility in 2-3 steps! Valid and conforming HTML is the cornerstone of web accessibility, and vitally important to every user. Come find out about the tools used to perform this validation, how browsers trick you into thinking everything’s fine, and more!


Decision Support General Report Assistance

1-on-1 Report Assistance
AITS offers training sessions and 1-on-1 report assistance with our data experts. To register or to see the complete schedule, please visit the Training Registration Application. If a session is full, please click the Wait List link to be added to our wait list.

 
 
 
 
 
Deployment/Rollout Activities


1/14 – Apply Microsoft critical patches to production servers
1/19 – UIS Classes Begin (High registration activity/Banner activity)
1/20 – Migrate chigz6 to new PowerMax storage array
1/22 – UIC 10th Day Census (Campus reliant on EDW snapshots and REPTPROB availability)
1/22– Illinois Contract (iCS) chictcontent server upgrade
1/24 – SharePoint maintenance - on-premise platform
1/25 – UIUC Classes Begin (High registration activity/Banner activity)