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.