Smart Passwords for Colleague

Within the next few months, we will be implementing Smart Passwords for Colleague. Smart passwords will include both letters and numbers, and be at least eight characters long. We recommend you include random capital letters and some punctuation marks, too. You will receive plenty of notification and all the information you need when we take this step.

At the same time, Colleague passwords will begin to expire on a regular basis, and you will be required to change your password every six months. This is at the recommendation of our auditors and the Technology Advisory Committee.

Colleague Software Update Reports

Datatel releases Colleague software updates on a regular basis. They are essentially changes in programming or new programming added to the Colleague software to fix bugs or to add enhancements requested by users.

When we receive software updates, and a few are released every week, AIS evaluates each and every one to make sure it does not confliect with our existing processes and customized programming of our own.

First, we make it a practice to postpone installation of newly-release software updates for at least a month. This allows us to learn from the experience of other schools, as we can monitor responses to updates through the client forums.

Second, we batch up about a month's worth of software updates, review any implications for Saint Mary's College business processes and customizations, and install in a test account. At this time, members of the CORE team receive an email with details about the updates in test. (The CORE team represents most of the administrative departments on campus, and serves to advise AIS on administrative technology issues.) AIS will occasionally advise specific departments if there are significant updates in the works.

It is important to review the software update reports and to test out the changes in the test account and to compare the changes between the old programming in live and the new programming in test.

Finally, after two to four weeks, we install the same updates in our production account (also known as "live"), where it becomes part of our daily processing.

What is TechDoc Online?

Tech Doc Online is an online documentation of Datatel/Colleague delivered files and fields structure as well as screen information and rather cryptic information on subroutines. The great thing about Tech Doc Online is that you can get file information in fairly easy to understand format. It gives you an idea as to how the file relates to other files and a little about how Datatel has intended it to be used. When I was first using Colleague, I had a basic understanding of query language and database structures. What I didn't know was the verbs and the files and fields information. Once I found out about Tech Doc Online, I used it all the time. I looked at the primary file I needed and then from there, I branched out, looking at other files and fields that were connected. I found processes that we weren't even using and then found others who were using them.

2009 Silver Medal Winner - Educause Security Awareness Video

Have you ever lost a document by accident, virus or hard-drive crash? This video demonstrates this very scenario. An ounce of prevention, the saying goes.


Vanished Erased Gone

Hillary Luvshis & Matt Crescenzo
University of Delaware
Silver Winner

Discover why its important to always keep a back up of your files. Anything can happen, anytime! So always make sure to have a back up, or two.


For the full website: http://www.researchchannel.org/securityvideo2009

Do you have a clients.datatel.com login?

If you have a Datatel/Colleague question and you'd like to see if anyone in the wider Datatel community has encountered it, you can search the question on the Datatel User's Community Forums. You can access the forums via the clients.datatel.com website. It's a great way to get help and network. Something we don't always have a chance to do. Often, you can see what the common threads are, what upgrades colleges are looking into and what issues others are running into or have fixed. It's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.

2009 Security Awareness Combined Video & Poster Winner

Password security is always a big thing on everyone's mind. But it isn't always clear as to what makes a good secure password. The following video and poster gives a helpful hint.



From the 2009 Educause Security Awareness Video and Poster Contest

Securing your Computer Simply
Chris Wetzel

Ohio Northern University

Combined Entry Winner

Video

Poster

Picking a secure password doesn't have to be overly complicated. This video will show you a simple way to select one that is complex yet easy-to-remember.

For the full website: http://www.researchchannel.org/securityvideo2009

Informer on YouTube?

If you have a few minutes and are tired of watching cute kittens, you can get your daily fix of Informer on the new Entrinsik Informer Channel on YouTube. It can be seen at www.youtube.com/entrinsikinc Training is often very expensive and reading manuals are often difficult to decipher. Video training at your leisure is a cost-effective way to improve your skills. Have fun and let us know what you think.

Password security

It is important to have good security practices in times of identity theft, viruses and hackers. There are even groups and conferences for hackers. Take some basic steps to keep unwanted people out of the system.



1) Physical security: Do what you can do to physically secure your work area. Don't throw away papers or leave long on your desks, that contain sensitive information such as Social Security Numbers, Logins and Passwords. If you can't remember all your logins and passwords and must put them on a piece of paper, keep it in your wallet or purse and not in or on your desk. People tend to secure their purses and wallets fairly well. If you can, use a hint instead of the actual password.



2) Computer security: Log off. Make it a habit to log off of Colleague when it is not in use and please make sure you log off when you leave the office. Change your password often if you can. The most secure passwords are actually phrases converted into a single string. For example, if you like baseball, take the phrase "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" and then use the first letter of each word (and capitalizing and lower casing different letters) to make TMOttBG, now add some numbers TMOttBG86 and you now have a password that is resistant to a dictionary attack.



3) Question: The most insidious attack is the social hack (Think "Catch me if you can") where a con artist contacts an employee to get a piece of secure information and then repeats the scenario several times to different employees until they have all the information they need to secure a successful attack. We like to make people happy but question the type of information requested and if there might be a security breach if it is disseminated.

The future of Colleague User Interface

There has been some speculation about where Datatel intends to go with the User Interface with Colleague. Since the Datatel Users Group, it is apparent that Datatel intends to phase out the User Interface as we now know it. Currently, there are two interfaces available from Datatel: The User Interface Desktop, and the UI Web Interface. The Desktop version is the one we all currently love and use. The UI Web interface looks similar to the desktop version except users access it through a normal web browser. We have the green light to install the UI Web Server on a production server and we are in the process of deploying it.

What is in store for us in the future is UI 4.0, which is based on UI Web, but 4.0 is much more robust. In using UI 4.0, users will have to think about processing records in a slightly different way. The current versions of UI, both desktop and web, use the process model. What that means is that you select a process like NAE, and then you look a person up. UI 4.0 is not like that. It is person based. What this means is that a user would first select a person or a group of people and then use that list against a process or a number of processes. What is good about this model is that unless you have a record open on the screen, you don't lock all the others you have selected to work on. The other good thing is that you have a list of say potential graduates that you want to work on and you know who they all are. You create your list and then process them through whatever screens you need to and so it's easier to keep track of what you have done and who you still need to process.

So what does this mean? At some future date UI 4.0 will be delivered. So potentially, you could access Colleague through UI desktop, UI Web and UI 4.0 simultaneously. The word on the street is that about a year after 4.0's delivery, Datatel would most likely announce the cessation date of support for UI desktop which will give schools another year or so to use the UI Desktop before it stops being supported.

Names and Addresses

When entering an address, do not enter the city and state. Go straight to the Zip Code field, enter the zip code, and the city, state and county will be populated. Easy!!

The first name and last name fields are reserved for the individual's legal name. If the person has a nickname, enter it in the "Nickname" field on BIO.


Name changes should be forwarded to the Office of the Registrar for students, and to Human Resources for employees. These offices will verify the new name and take care of changing the individual's record.

Colleague Software Updates

A Software Update is a mini upgrade of the Colleague software. They include fixes of bugs, additional functionality that has been requested by users, new fields and files, new screens and new programming for existing screens and processes. Any Saint Mary's customizations to the Colleague software are reviewed when installing a Datatel-delivered software update. We try our best to catch the changes so our users are not negatively impacted.

We initially install the updates in our test environment, which is a copy of the actual database and environment, so that any changes created by the software update can be addressed prior to its installation in our live account. It's important that we review and test the areas affected by the software updates as best as we can so that the impact to our users will only be good ones.

The AIS blog is off and running

AIS is bringing up a new website, and a new blog at the same time. Our intent is to create multiple methods of communication with our constituents, with multiple forums for retrieving information. Feedback is requested.