By Eleanor Lewis

Damian Doyle ‘99, B.S. Computer Science, ‘16 M.S Information Systems, says building trust and relationships are essential to his work every day at UMBC.

Doyle, assistant vice president of enterprise infrastructure in the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), is being recognized with Educause’s prestigious Rising Star award, “For demonstrating exemplary leadership in the implementation and deployment of information technology in support of the educational mission; for strong mentorship and promotion of diversity for those aspiring to the IT profession; for modeling collaborative partnerships within his institution and in the greater higher education community.”He’ll receive the award at the annual Educause Conference this week.

Like a number of DoIT staff, Doyle began his career as a student worker, and was hired full time after graduation (51 of DoIT’s 75 FT staff are UMBC alumni). Over time, he began taking on leadership roles in network service and security, technology to support classroom learning, and cloud services. Doyle’s collaborative, positive, and thoughtful approach extends beyond DoIT to his work across campus and beyond.

Doyle is a member of UMBC’s Center for Women in Information Technology (CWIT) internal board, and works closely with CWIT Scholars. He has developed an internship program for the scholars to receive hands-on experience in DoIT’s cybersecurity, UNIX infrastructure, and advanced networking teams. Doyle is also committed to working in shared governance and is currently president of the university’s Professional Staff Senate (PSS) and active with its University Steering Committee (USC). He is chair of the planning committee for Maryland’s First Lego League (FLL) and is one of the state head referees. He also coaches his son’s school FLL team.

“Damian has been a partner with the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) as an advocate for women and underrepresented students, educator, supervisor to CWIT students, and ally within the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,” says Erica D’Eramo, assistant director of CWIT. “He has promoted the opportunities for employment and technical experience in DoIT, and he participates in professional development exercises with new CWIT students and multiple networking opportunities throughout the year for all class years. We greatly appreciate his support of CWIT's mission and thoughtful collaborations for the past several years.”

DoIT Vice President and CIO Jack Suess, B.S. ‘81 mathematics, and M.S. ‘94, information systems operations analysis, says, “I am thrilled that the EDUCAUSE Awards Committee agreed that Damian's body of work was exceptional and that he was awarded the Rising Star Award. Damian’s technical and managerial leadership has not only advanced IT at UMBC; he’s taken that leadership and talent to work across campus and in the community, and he is seen as a national leader in the field, especially in the use of cloud technology.”

“I love building bridges,” Doyle explains. “I’m able to work with people on campus and learn what they are doing, then find and match technology to that, in order to help make their work better.

“IT staff see themselves as partners with the university community and so we’re committed to intentional customer service. It’s important to take time with people, to hear their viewpoints and understand their needs. If we’re going to change how we do something, it has to be because it’s of benefit, not just because it’s cool technology.

We’re at a point where you can’t teach and learn without technology, so we have to implement it in a way that serves the community.”

Doyle has also helped DoIT create a culture that is inclusive and welcoming too. Beyond his work with CWIT, Doyle says it’s been important for DoIT keep in mind the wide range of ways people from all backgrounds bring different perspectives on problems and solutions to their work. “I feel we have good values around this, but we want to make sure students understand and have that in an intentional way.” He says DoIT will continue to work on developing this area, and they are planning to launch some new initiatives this spring.

When he’s not at UMBC, Doyle takes time away from IT, playing ultimate frisbee and tennis, running, and biking. But he also loves science fiction and video games, which he often plays with his son, Leo, who shares his love of technology. Doyle, whose parents were part of UMBC’s first graduating class, now enjoys this time with Leo much like he did as a child when he and his father built computers together. He says he explains to his son that using technology and understanding how it works are two different things. That understanding has not only helped Doyle in his career, but has become part of a philosophy that has made a difference to the UMBC community as well.

In an interview with Educause Review, Doyle shared what keeps him inspired. “The people within higher education and their stories, passions, and dreams have a huge impact every day on my thinking and motivation. I’m continually impressed by the challenges many students have overcome to get where they are, and by the faculty, staff, and colleagues who are changing lives through their work, their research, and their commitment to education. The more people I talk with, learn from, and connect with, the more inspired I am to help them succeed and achieve their goals.”

“Thank you for the information. I’m really excited!”

When sophomore Jason Mendries (pictured at right) sent an August 8 thank-you response to UMBC Residential Life’s main email address after receiving his resident assistant housing contract, little did he know that the email would help create a milestone on campus.

Mendries’ email generated the millionth ticket in UMBC’s Request Tracker, or RT, support tracking solution. In 2009, UMBC’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) implemented RT, a free, web-based, open-source help desk solution developed by BestPractical Solutions. One of the benefits of RT is that the customizable software can be implemented in any department to support the help request process.

Collaborating on Solutions

Developing RT as a single user support ticketing system across a campus is a model that few, if any schools, seem to be using. However, Jack Suess, vice president of information technology and CIO, along with Joe Kirby, assistant vice president, realized RT’s potential to grow beyond a typical IT help desk and committed to finding collaborative ways to use it to support administrative and academic processes at UMBC. Now, most of the university has adopted it in some form.

While UMBC has used an IT support system in ways most schools haven't, Suess describes how the culture of quality service management has evolved and become an even more important driver.

"Ten years ago as we were preparing to go live with PeopleSoft SA, DoIT leaders such as John Fritz, Joe Kirby, and Mike Carlin convinced me that UMBC needed to think more holistically about support. When a problem occurs, students, faculty, and staff don't know if it is caused by technology or an inefficient business process, all they want is to report it, get help, and go on with their work. We cannot expect the community to understand how UMBC is organized to get support.

“This fundamental focus on the user’s perspective and support needs evolved over the next three years as SA went live,” adds Suess.

“Leaders such as Yvette Mozie-Ross, Ben Lowenthal, Connie Pierson, and Valerie Thomas all worked with Joe to move their support services over to RT, too. From there, John, Kevin Joseph, and Andrea Mocko developed the service management approach of using the campus’ Report Exchange (REX) data warehouse and created FAQ's to provide consistency and support self-service."

At UMBC, about 70 percent of RT tickets are now non-IT related. The system is helping to streamline everything from prospective student queries, hiring procedures, and travel requests to payroll management, exam scoring, and maintenance forms.

Mendrie’s email, for example, was sent to Wendy Crowe (pictured above), program management specialist in Residential Life. Residential Life has tied RT into its main reslife@umbc.edu address, so whenever someone sends an email, it creates a ticket. Crowe says it gives students a central location so they don’t have to search for where or who to go to for help. In addition, it gives Residential Life a process for distributing queries and a helpful record for tracking processes, especially when they need to keep written documentation of a request.

DoIT’s success with RT is just one example of its longstanding commitment to leverage technology, working in collaboration with the campus community. Kirby says, “Our RT implementation reflects DoIT’s understanding of UMBC’s mission and how the university functions on a day-to-day basis. We’re empowering users to find ways to improve how they serve their customers - whether it’s a student, faculty, or staff member.”

About 90 percent of DoIT’s optional RT customer satisfaction surveys show an excellent or good overall rating. Fritz, associate vice president of information technology, says, “Our model is definitely increasing the confidence users have in our support systems on campus.”

Creating Customer-focused Practices

Drew Belcher, assistant director for campus card and mail services, worked with DoIT to bring RT to UMBC’s Bursar’s Office, one of the busiest service centers on campus. When Belcher first started working in the office, there were long lines of walk-ins and the campus voice mail system only accepted 30 voicemails. By mid-day, students who called with questions couldn’t get through.

After working with DoIT to tie RT to its voice mail system (and asking students to provide their campus ID in the message), the Bursar’s Office was now receiving nearly 400 voicemails in a day; however, staff were better able to organize and disseminate queries based on the topic, respond to students’ needs faster, and capture data on the requests for analysis of their practices. The number of walk-ins and voice mails dropped as staff began a campaign to share information on how students can handle their accounts and get help on the Student Business Services website.

Now in Campus Card and Mail Services, Belcher and the staff used RT to create a paperless system and are improving how they track workflow for such processes as ID cards, departmental mailings, meal plans, and vending machine issues. “Using RT gives us the full picture of what’s happening in our department,” Belcher explains. “It helps us make better decisions on based on facts and numbers and decide where we need to put support in order to improve our systems.

“I’m always asking, how can we do our jobs in ways that help people navigate their path?” Belcher adds. “At the end of the day, it’s about customer service and how we can make people’s lives easier.”

The outcomes in IT support are just as impressive. With RT, DoIT’s Technology Support Center (TSC) has seen a 35-percent decrease in calls, and its overall rate of ticket increase has leveled off. “RT allows us to handle a large amount of work, delegate work effectively, and we’re getting more positive feedback,” says Mocko, TSC manager.

Building on Success

By expanding the UMBC knowledge base for all campus topics, DoIT also hopes to help users help themselves by looking up an answer on a “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) page, which can decrease ticket resolution time even more, says Fritz. At the TSC, student consultants are able to recommend FAQs as an acceptable initial resolution that the customer can accept or reject by reopening the ticket. Now, 50 to 60 percent of TSC tickets can be resolved immediately. It cut down on the amount of tickets staff need to respond to and provides users with a place to start when they need help in the future.

Beyond the ticketing process, DoIT integrated RT with REX to provide valuable analytics about the types of requests being made, including which departments are receiving the most help requests and who is submitting them. Ticket data can be stored securely using box, a cloud computing service, and Google groups allow multiple people in an office to see tickets, a resource that comes in handy if an employee is out for a day or more.

While RT is a success story, Fritz says DoIT continues to explore ways RT and the knowledge base can support the campus community, and they are looking for ways to build a more sustainable model with better functionality and improvements in server administration. In addition, they are developing satisfaction surveys specific to RT users across campus.

As more UMBC faculty and staff see RT being used successfully, they look for ways it can improve their own systems. Kirby says, “Every time I think we’ve found all of the ways we can use RT, someone on campus comes to me with a question about it and I say, ‘Well, let’s see.’”

More Info

• Learn more about RT at UMBC - Background | Submit a Ticket
• Visit UMBC's FAQ knowledge base - Background | Search/Browse
• “Beyond the Help Desk” by Joe Kirby and Laura Lefavor, Educause Review (August 5, 2013)

Andrew Gribben (pictured at right), Specialist in Undergraduate Admissions and Orientation, recently helped assist his colleagues in switching to Duo two-factor authentication as part of DoIT’s upcoming two-factor authentication requirement for faculty and staff with Peoplesoft access above “self-service” functions such as timesheets, etravel requests, etc.

Andrew demoed Duo during a staff meeting including having someone sign up in real time. He helped ease the transition to Duo by making himself available to walk staff through the sign-up process, as well as, answer any of their questions. When asked about what helped his group the most, Andrew says he targeted those who were skeptical or concerned before the rollout to the entire group. "This helped ensure a smoother process overall."

To help make sure your office’s rollout goes smoothly, Andrew and DoIT recommend the including the following to help your department’s rollout go smoothly:

• Demo Duo live to show not only how it works but how to sign up.

• Leverage the Duo FAQ collection to help users

• Send out email reminders encouraging users to sign up.

• Be available to offer 1 on 1 support to staff if necessary.

Once again, DoIT strongly encourages all faculty and staff to enable Duo 2FA now, but all employees with PeopleSoft access will be required to do so (staff by 12/31/18, faculty by 9/1/19). After these dates, DoIT will automatically enroll required employees into Duo. DoIT will also provide a “count-down” weekly reminder 90 days before the relevant deadline.

Click here to learn how to activate Duo today.

Additional information about Duo two-factor authentication is available in the FAQs.

If you have further questions, please contact the Technology Support Center by either submitting a support request at my.umbc.edu/help or calling (410) 455-3838.