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Author: Division of Information

ServiceNow sessions on campus, March 4

Posted on by Division of Information

Information Technology Services is hosting representatives from ServiceNow on March 4 in the Unger Complex. Opportunities to learn more about ServiceNow, including a general overview session and a more focused conversation session, are provided below.

  • 11-11:55 a.m. – General overview of IT Service Management (ITSM) in ServiceNow for those interested in incident management, problem management, and enhancements (work orders). Join the session if you want to learn more about:
    • Incident management, problem management, request management, and enhancement management.
    • Ticketing system and work orders.
    • Compare and contrast tools used currently for ticketing and work orders.
  • 1-1:55 p.m. – This session is a more focused conversation with Q&A regarding our current implementation of ServiceNow (including processes discussed earlier and form management, workflow management, dashboards, reports) and areas for improved use. Join the session, if you have:
    • Business processes that are manual or paper-based, which could be automated.
    • Processes that occur in multiple systems that could be combined.
    • A need to measure how long a process takes or track the progress of a process.
    • A need to improve efficiencies.
    • A need for history or record-keeping around your processes.

The location for both sessions is Unger Complex, 146G or join the Zoom session.

ServiceNow is a cloud-based workflow software application shared among some members of One IT and K-State functional offices to manage incidents, problems, request fulfillment, asset management, change management, projects, and much more. For more information visit the ServiceNow website.

IT Update

Posted on by Division of Information


UpdatesPunxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and an early spring is predicted. Regardless of the weather, IT continues with AWS – MRP workstreams, updates to the infrastructure, readying the second floor of Hale, evaluating IT services and much more. The updates are organized by the strategic goals within the IT Strategic Plan.

The Deputy CIOs continue to rethink the organization of their respective units. The overarching organizational chart is available here.

Continue reading “IT Update” →

ITS receives 2019 E&I Cloud Leadership Award

Posted on by Division of Information

Information Technology (IT) is the recipient of the 2019 E&I Cloud Leadership Award for Hybrid IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)/PaaS (Platform as a Service). The award recognizes the work of IT staff for their achievements through the innovative use of cloud-first technology. K-State was chosen because of the extensive planning process, the complexity of the project, the hybrid approach to the cloud strategy, and the speed of implementation. There were over 100 applicants for the awards within six categories.

While the fire in Hale accelerated the timeline to move systems to the cloud, K-State was in the process of developing the IT Strategic Plan with a priority to modernize the IT infrastructure and move critical services to the cloud.
Continue reading “ITS receives 2019 E&I Cloud Leadership Award” →

Retirement reception honoring Jennifer Gehrt

Posted on by Division of Information

Information Technology Services will host a retirement reception honoring Jennifer Gehrt, associate director of the Information Systems office, from 3:30-5:00 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18, in Banquet Room A of the K-State Alumni Center. Formal remarks will be at 4 p.m.

For over 42 years, Gehrt has served the university with distinction. For 33 of those years, she held the positions of assistant director, associate director and director in the Division of Human Resources. From 2004-2008, she lead the Laser project team as project director. At the time, LASER (Legacy Application Systems Empowered Replacement), was the largest technology project undertaken to move from main-frame computing to more advanced web-based technologies.

Cards and letters of congratulations may be brought to the reception or sent to Kelly Moon at kmoon@ksu.edu or 2323 Anderson Avenue, 116 Unger Complex, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.

Cloud migrations successful

Posted on by Division of Information

Human Capital Services, the Division of Financial Services, the Office of Student Life and Information Technology Services (ITS) are pleased to announce the move of HRIS, FIS, and KSIS to the cloud and managed services was successful. K-State’s functional users of systems, the ITS staff, and our vendor partners spent hundreds of hours of planning, preparing, testing, and migrating the systems.

Jay Stephens, vice president for human capital services said, “This migration further disaster-proofs critical systems that help the university care for our employees and run day to day.  So many people touch HRIS every day, including our own payroll and resource center teams who rely on this system to make sure employees are paid accurately and on time.  We appreciate the partnership with ITS to make this happen”.

The ERP cloud migration and move to managed services is part of K-State’s ongoing efforts to modernize the IT infrastructure and implement a cloud-first strategy. ITS staff has been actively working on the migration since the summer of 2019. Over a year and a half of planning was required for the implementation.

The migration is one of the many reasons that K-State was the recipient of the E&I Cloud Award, resulting from a hybrid approach to a cloud strategy and the speed at which the planning and implementation occurred.

According to Fran Willbrant, associate vice president for financial services, “The move overall went extremely well thanks to the hard work of everyone involved.  I am confident that with the transition to the cloud-based infrastructure that our on campus information technology resources can now be more effectively deployed to help the campus improve services to our students, faculty, and staff”.

“The move of our largest systems to the cloud, allows K-State to scale up during peak performance times, optimizes the use of IT resources”, said Gary Pratt, chief information officer, and puts K-State in a better position for business continuity should a disaster occur on campus”.

To learn more about K-State’s move to a cloud-first strategy, view the  IT Strategic Plan.

Reminder about phishing scams

Posted on by Division of Information

Over the last few weeks, we have seen an increase in the number of phishing scams hitting K-State inboxes. A common scam offers a part-time job opportunity. This type of scam is enticing, especially since it is the end of the semester, and students might be looking for work. Other common scams are from an administrator with one question, “are you available” or a one liner, “hello”.

Students have fallen for the scam, sometimes more than once. ​This time of year, when students are the busiest is when scammers hit the hardest.

Please be careful and don’t respond to scams. How can you tell if an email is a scam?

  • Typos in the email and poor spelling, but this may not always be the case.
  • The urgency of the message –  “have to do this today,” “don’t delay,” “immediately,” etc.
  • The web address goes to a fake login page used to collect credentials.
  • Threatening nature of the wording or the promise of “cool cash” or easy money.
  • An already compromised K-State email account sends scams to another K-State email account (to help build credibility).
  • An email asking you to send a cash card such as an iTunes card either by sending the scammer specific numbers from the card or taking a picture of the card.

To see examples, please visit the K-State scams blog.  https://blogs.k-state.edu/scams/

If you are not sure about an email, please don’t respond.  Information Technology Services (ITS) can determine if an email is a scam. Send the questionable email to  abuse@ksu.edu. If it is a new scam, ITS post a notice on the scams blog to make the K-State community aware of the latest scams.

VPN transition extended to spring 2020

Posted on by Division of Information

GlobalProtect logoOn Nov. 14, the AnyConnect VPN was scheduled to be retired. For the last several months, K-Staters who use AnyConnect were asked to switch to GlobalProtect for their VPN needs. To allow VPN users more time to make the transition, the deadline has been extended to spring 2020.

VPN users are encouraged to switch to Global Protect now and not wait until spring 2020. GlobalProtect is currently available for both Mac and Windows platforms.

At this time, GlobalProtect is only available for use with laptops and desktops. If you install GlobalProtect now on your smartphone or tablet, you will get the error “GlobalProtect is not licensed for this feature or device” when you try to log in. GlobalProtect will be available for Linux computers, smartphones, and tablets during Spring 2020.

Installation instructions

If you have any questions, contact the IT Help Desk, 785-532-7722, email helpdesk@ksu.edu.

For more information about the VPN visit: https://www.k-state.edu/its/security/secure-data/vpn/

HRIS and KSIS scheduled downtime, Nov. 21 – 24

Posted on by Division of Information

As part of K-State’s ongoing effort to modernize our IT infrastructure and implement a cloud-first strategy, many of K-State’s systems are moving to the cloud. K-State’s Student Information System (KSIS) will be moving to the cloud, and the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), which is already in the cloud, will be moving to managed services. KSIS and HRIS will be unavailable beginning 7 p.m., Thurs., Nov. 21, and will be back online the evening of Sun., Nov. 24. DARS uAchieve also will be unavailable during this same timeframe. 

If you experience any issues after the downtime, call the IT Help Desk at 785-532-7722 or email  helpdesk@k-state.edu. To learn more about K-State’s move to a cloud-first strategy, view the  IT Strategic Plan.