Ask IT Leadership - March 2024

In addition to questions already answered at the IT Town Hall on February 13, the SLT has responded to additional questions, below.

A lot of DSPs didn’t know about this town hall until Debbie’s email today - when was this sent out originally? As I don’t see any previous emails about it.

The invite was sent to staff on January 17 from the cio@yale.edu email address, with a follow-up email on January 26 with the meeting agenda. If you are not receiving these invites, please let your supervisor know, and Debbie Michelson will work with them to ensure our distribution lists are current. If you were unable to attend, you can view the recording.

What was the Bulldog Computer in a prior slide?

Bulldog Computer is the branding for our next generation of managed workstations. This project is an initiative of the Endpoint Engineering team, whose objectives include creating tools and processes that provide greater flexibility and a more robust managed device offering. You can visit the Flexible Computing at Yale webpage to learn more about this project and this service offering.

Is HR pursuing talent available to us in the form of long-term contractors? Early career is awesome! We’ve got good talent. We have some good talent here working as contractors, too.

This was previously answered in our November article last year.

Biometrics seems to be a huge mistake. I can’t reset my fingerprints or iris; we all know every database eventually gets hacked. If we require these sorts of things, what extra steps are being taken to safeguard our extremely personal data?

Thank you for raising a question on this topic. Yale takes the privacy of the Yale community very seriously. Therefore, the implementation of biometric security solutions would only include those that do not require storing biometric data. We will likely rely on device-level biometrics that never leave your personal device and make this a requirement only for people who regularly handle high-risk data.

There are various individuals who are fully remote and are being told they need to move to hybrid work starting this summer. This is especially problematic for those hired for a fully remote position to have the rug pulled from under them. Can you share the reasoning behind this move to hybrid work when the industry is moving towards remote work, not away from remote work? Also, what will happen to those who are out of state remote as part of this change? 

The transition from fully remote to hybrid for some roles can present challenges and concerns for individuals hired for positions initially designated as remote. However, as many have pointed out, certain aspects of collaboration, innovation, and team dynamics are better facilitated through in-person interactions. With our hybrid model, we are trying to balance the flexibility and autonomy of remote work and the benefits of face-to-face collaboration. Though work models continue to be determined by the university, IT remains committed to assessing remote and hybrid work arrangements based on competitive market requirements. Each year, the ITS Senior Leadership Team reviews each job family’s remote work eligibility, informed by competitive market data and the Yale community’s evolving IT delivery and support needs. Ultimately, these decisions are made with the organization’s long-term health in mind. We encourage you to discuss your options with your manager, SLT member, or department’s Human Resources Generalist.

How can we help SLT better manage and plan these projects/goals to eliminate a false sense of urgency due to poor planning? It is having a direct impact on morale.

As IT practitioners, we have an essential role in helping advance Yale’s mission. More recently, we have had greater demands placed on us and tremendous pressure for us to perform and excel. As a service organization, we naturally want to say “yes” to all the requests we receive, but we must prioritize, use our discretion, and outline what is realistic and achievable. That means everyone working together. We should review projects closely, estimate projects at a top level, discern which individual tasks could lead to success, and raise a hand when additional support is needed. These everyday actions are the ones that matter the most and will lead us to deliver successful outcomes for the university.

Why was the decision to eliminate the Adobe Request a Signature feature from the Yale Adobe Enterprise license for the University, not announced and an alternative provided? YSM still has the feature so why is the University staff not allowed to add it to the Yale Enterprise license - even with a COA? The IT Helpdesk suggests de-installing the Yale Adobe Enterprise license and purchasing/installing a standalone Adobe Pro license to get the Request a Signature feature for each colleague that needs it. Was this the solution that was planned when the decision was made not to offer it to university colleagues?

Adobe offered two signature tools with varied functionality, Adobe Sign and Echo Sign, to the YSM and the Law School. Adobe Sign is enterprise-managed and provides more visibility into legal processes, while Echo Sign does not. Therefore, if an individual initiated or stored a signed legal document using Echo Sign left the university, there would be no way for Yale to retrieve that document. In recent months, Adobe discontinued Echo Sign without proactively informing us. Our Help Desk team supported this unexpected change by informing impacted users and affected units to remove their current licenses and purchase a standalone solution, such as Adobe Sign, if needed. This recommendation limits potential risks to YSM, the Law School, and other units at Yale.