We’re almost there. Workday@Simmons, the new source for human resource and payroll data, will go live on April 6th.

While new technology frequently comes with the promise of revolutionizing some aspect of your work or life, we think Workday really will change the employee experience at Simmons. We’re moving from a set of systems—which required you to visit multiple sites and remember different usernames and passwords—to a single location for most employee information.

On April 6th, you’ll be able to visit workday.simmons.edu, log in with your Simmons username and password, and access everything from time entry and approvals, to benefits enrollment, payslips and pay elections, time off requests, contact information, and much more.

This phase of the Workday project has been a significant undertaking and we couldn’t have reached this point without the collaboration and hard work of the Payroll, Talent and Human Capital Strategy, and Technology teams.

We look forward to unveiling Workday. In the meantime, you can access the project site to find out more about Workday. Prior to the launch, we’ll also make available a new support site, where you’ll find FAQs, videos, and step-by-step guides to using Workday.

The idea of the “paperless office” has been circulating for the last forty years. And while Simmons, like many workplaces, has drastically reduced the amount of printing we do, there will always be documents we need printed, and printed documents we need to scan so we have digital copies.

With this in mind, Simmons Technology has conducted an in-depth assessment of our aging on-campus fleet of printers and replaced them with new multi-function devices (MFDs) that will support the future printing, copying, and scanning needs of the College. Our team coordinated with each department to install the MFDs during March, and worked to make sure employees are able to print and know how to use the new devices.

The next step in this project will be to activate the ID card readers attached to all MFDs on campus. This effort will provide employee access to printers the same way the CampusPrint project provided networked, campuswide printing to students. ID card access allows you to send a print job and then release it at any printer on campus. This provides flexibility and a layer of security if you happen to print documents containing sensitive information. For example, if you need 50 printed, collated, and stapled packets for a meeting in the Kotzen Room, you can upload the job from your office computer, and then release it at the MFD nearest to Kotzen. Please note that while this feature will be available to all employees, if you have access to an office printer that does not require use of an ID card, you can continue to print there directly.

Because this is a significant change to how employees print, Technology will provide documentation and training. We will work with each department to determine your needs and provide customized training, if necessary.

Once the ID card readers are fully functional, Technology also will conduct quarterly reviews of the MFDs, verifying that each department has a device that meets its needs and continues to provide a long-term solution for printing, copying, and scanning.

When a computer hard drive fails, there aren’t any easy solutions that don’t involve a lot of stress, time, effort, and (worst of all) money.

Fortunately, with the widespread adoption of cloud-based backup tools, you can keep your most important data securely stored somewhere other than your computer’s hard drive.

Here are some tips for backing up your data. If you have specific questions about creating backups, or need help setting up a data backup plan, contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

• Simmons Network Drives are available to all students, faculty, and staff. You can use your personal drive (Y: drive) as backup storage for files you do not want to share. Faculty and staff can also use department drives(G: drives) for files that need to be shared within a department or school. These drives are the ideal location for files containing sensitive information.
• Chrome is the recommended web browser for everyone at Simmons. Whether you’re using it for work or at home, you can sign into Chrome to back up your bookmarks, web history, and more. Signing in means that this information will be available on any other device when you sign into Chrome there. It also creates an almost seamless transition between Chrome on your computer and the Chrome app on your mobile devices. One security warning: be sure not to sign in on public workstations that other people can access.
• Google Drive stores and syncs data continuously. If you install the Google Drive app on your computer, it will sync files to the cloud and to a folder on your hard drive. The files are accessible and editable (some of them online, using Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations) from any device with an Internet connection. Drive is an ideal space for storing data that you would not keep on your shared department drive (G: drive), which is the go-to spot for any files containing sensitive information, such as credit card and Social Security numbers.

Both Chrome and Google Drive are supported by Simmons Technology and our technicians can assist you in setting up and managing your data storage and backups.

Pilot Testing
Simmons Technology and the Library staff are currently testing the new phone system to ensure that both the infrastructure and phone features work as expected. The testing period also will provide an opportunity for our team to troubleshoot any problems encountered during installation of the new phones, and to verify that the new system will match and exceed the level of service provided by our current platform.

Get Your Calls on the Go
After the snow day (or five) we experienced this winter, we think everyone will appreciate the twinning feature available on the new phone system. Twinning allows you to forward calls from your office phone to a mobile phone or your home phone. Once activated for your extension, you can turn this service on and off at any time, making it a perfect solution when you’re traveling or working from home.

To find out more about the new phone system, please visit theproject website.

When School of Nursing and Health Sciences professor Karen Teeley prepares for each new semester, she draws on twenty-five years of nursing experience and more than twelve years of experience teaching blended courses. Recently, Professor Teeley has expanded her toolkit by adding a set of short, reusable introductory videos that help to engage new students.

The videos are created using Tegrity Campus, our fully automated lecture capture tool. Tegrity provides Simmons faculty with on-demand access to recording services for their courses. Faculty can capture lectures, demonstrations, guest speaker presentations, and other in-class elements for use by their current students and in future courses.

Recorded course content is typically associated with the so-calledflipped classroom (PDF), which many professors at Simmonsemploy to varying degrees. But even if you’re not ready or interested in repurposing your class time for non-lecture activities, capturing content can be a great way to make additional resources available for students or to address complex topics that don’t fit into a single lecture.

In fact, Simmons faculty have used Tegrity to record more than 260 hours of content which students have viewed 33,000 times. Recordings are initiated and shared via Simmons Moodle, enhancing online course content and providing students with additional resources outside of the classroom.

If you’d like to try using Tegrity to record videos for your courses, simply enable the Tegrity block in Simmons Moodle. From there, you can begin recording and sharing immediately. We’ve created brief introductions (PC and Mac) to help you through any technical challenges, and our Service Desk technicians are available to answer your questions.

What, exactly, is the Internet of Things? It’s a catchall term for the increasing connectivity between devices of all kinds. Find out more below.

Click for larger version.

If you’d like to further explore the Internet of Things, check out thisbrief yet thorough introduction from consulting firm McKinsey.

Simmons Technology continues the behind the scenes work necessary to installing the College’s new telephone system.

Pilot Testing
The project is proceeding on time and the next major step is to begin a pilot test in early March. This testing period will involve a small scale rollout of new equipment to the Technology department. Team members will provide feedback and assist in troubleshooting any issues that arise. The knowledge gained from the pilot will ensure a smoother deployment across campus later this spring.

Voicemail to Email
A new and exciting feature of the new telephone system will be its voicemail-to-email capabilities. You’ll be able to listen to voicemail on your phone and have it sent via email as an audio file. This feature provides access to your voicemail from anywhere you check your email, whether on your computer, phone, or tablet.

For more information about the new telephone system, please visit ourproject website.

Before the semester break, Technology kicked off a project to install a new telephone system, which will include a full overhaul of the existing phone infrastructure at Simmons.

Department Outreach
A major component of the project is the replacement of office telephones. When the project is complete, all employees will have access to a set of features that mirrors our current phone service and provides some additional upgrades, such as enhanced emergency notifications, mobile phone twinning, and a voice-activated campus directory. During February, Technology will also coordinate with administrative assistants in each department to ensure that we’re capturing the needs of employees who require advanced telephone functionality.

Voice-Activated Directory
As the project progresses, we’ll also be highlighting some new features that will be available after the transition. We’re very excited about the forthcoming voice-activated directory search and we think you will be too. This search tool provides a simple way to find phone numbers of colleagues and departments. Just pick up your phone, dial the directory extension, and say the name of the person or department you’re looking for. The system will automatically route your call to the correct extension. It’s that easy!

If you’re traveling abroad and need to attend a Simmons or external meeting via GoToMeeting, there are two easy ways to call in.

When You’re the Organizer
If you’re scheduling a meeting, and you know that you and/or some of the attendees will be abroad, you can easily add a long distance or toll-free number for those locations. This will give you access to start the meeting from your location or to add country-specific numbers for other attendees. The steps to add call-in numbers for other countries are outlined in the image to the right.

When You’re an Attendee
If you’ll be attending a meeting while outside the US, ask the meeting’s organizer to add phone numbers for that country to the meeting. They’ll have the option of adding a long distance and/or toll-free number.

If you need a number immediately and cannot access the GoToMeeting interface or reach the meeting organizer, call theService Desk (617-521-2222) and a technician can provide you with a dial-in number for your current location.

What does a canned meat brand name have to do with unwanted email? Do hackers solve computer problems or create them? When did # stop meaning pound ornumber?

The popular tech blog Gizmodo has the answers to these questions and more inThe Mysterious Origins of 21 Tech Terms. Of course, like anything you find online that claims to be definitive, there is room for debate on the etymology of many of the terms included in this article. At least, that’s what quite a few commenters seem to think. This might be one of the few times to break a cardinal rule of the Internet that needs no explanation: never read the comments.