Dear Members of the University Community,
I am once again delighted to present the University of Maine System’s 2023 State of IT Report, focusing on key initiatives that aim to transform and elevate the core technology services and capabilities serving the community. In this year’s report, we continue to highlight projects that showcase our commitment to innovation and improvement, including the following examples:
Repaving MaineStreet: Now in its 2nd year, the Repaving MaineStreet project is fully underway. This $16.5M project represents a significant investment aimed at reengineering our current MaineStreet environment utilized by all University of Maine System students, faculty, and staff to improve operational efficiency and reliability and promote student success and access to academic opportunities across the University of Maine System. This effort is comprised of migrating core Finance and HR functionality into cloud-enabled tools while re-designing the current SIS to take fuller advantage of native functionality and eliminate code-based functional barriers. This past year saw functional teams representing all administrative areas from each campus coming together to analyze and collaboratively develop the specifications for the new cloud environments and participate in initial functional reviews of the new platform. Additional collaboration has continued for SIS stakeholders as recommendations and enhancements have been reviewed to serve as the foundation for the development of a complete SIS reimplementation project.
Multifactor Authentication (MFA): The expansion of MFA availability to members of the University community was a key focus of the past year. This critical initiative will help the University to continue to combat and address ever-evolving cybersecurity risks by promoting secure, authenticated access to core enterprise data systems. New federal requirements also now mandate MFA activation for access to key data elements across multiple enterprise systems. Through targeted enrollment campaigns, the UMS has achieved 100% compliance for certain user populations and will continue to expand the availability of this service in the coming year.
Managed Print Services: 2023 brought a new Managed Print Services program to the University of Maine System. Partnering with Xerox, a total of 640 new high-capacity multifunction devices were deployed across all UMS campuses. Each device offers expanded access to high-throughput color-capable devices with advanced functionality, supporting on-demand print release from any device located on any campus. Refinements in the automated billing and cost recovery mechanism will occur in 2024.
As we reflect on the achievements of these initiatives and others, we recognize the pivotal role played by the collaborative efforts between the UMS:IT team and our esteemed University colleagues. To help better understand how we may continue to improve upon these partnerships, we have initiated a process to collect feedback from the community through an annual UMS:IT Services Customer Survey, with the initial results collected in 2023 available in this report. Future reports will focus on the results of targeted improvement efforts based on your feedback.
We are excited to continue to advance critical initiatives in 2024, shaping a technological environment that supports the success of our entire community.
Thank you for your continued support and engagement.
David Demers