Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Media Production
Service-Oriented Disc Duplication at Penn State
11/29/2007
Customer service in higher education comes in a multitude of offerings, from grand and glorious, such as student lifecycle initiatives involving complex six-figure CRM software, to small, narrow and--well--round, such as providing disc duplication services where a dime will buy a student all the data that can fit on a blank CD.Pennsylvania State University's Entrepreneurial Services addresses the latter category. According to system administrator Jeff Badger, the four-person team fills in gaps in the IT services provided to the university, and it does so on a cost-recovery basis. Currently, services take three forms. First, through an online site called The Computer Store, Penn State sells hardware, software, peripherals and accessories at academic prices, available to every member of the campus community. Second, the group provides long distance and cellphone programs. Third, it offers Web and media design services.
CD duplication fits into that third category. With two dozen campuses spread around the state, a student enrollment of 85,600 and a full-time faculty and staff totaling 22,500, it's easy to see why the school duplicates a quarter of a million CDs and DVDs a year.
"We'll burn 10 or 15 for a small class," said Badger, "400 for a conference, 30,000 for a back to school event." That includes requests from a campus sorority or fraternity that wants to make club materials available, professors who want to distribute course materials and an on campus gathering of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Each summer, the team produces 30,000 CDs for ResCom, the Penn State Housing's residential computing program, which provides people living on campus with access to the Internet. The disc includes the Firefox Web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and Symantec AntiVirus. These are handed out to all students for free at the beginning of the school year to help get first-year residents connected.
As part of its Computer Store operations, the group also duplicates licensed software. As Badger explained, "We negotiate software contracts with Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, SAS--all those companies that educators want to be a part of. They don't send copies of Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite. They send us a master and then we've got to duplicate that and keep track of sales and monitor the condition of the contract--and in many cases keep track of keys and licenses." The advantage, of course, is that the school can offer commonly used software at a reduced price.
Recommended Reading
- California Community Colleges Partner with Waterfall Mobile on Statewide Emergency Notification Coverage
The Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC) has awarded a statewide emergency alert notification contract to Waterfall Mobile. The contract establishes Waterfall's AlertU as an approved technology through the official non-profit foundation for the California Community College (CCC) system office. Through this partnership, individual colleges may directly implement emergency communication services, eliminating lengthy technology evaluation and RFP processes.
- King's College and ASU Add e2Campus for Improved Emergency Notifications
King's College and Arizona State University have switched to Omnilert's e2Campus for emergency notification. Omnilert also has introduced a new program called the ENS Conversion Service that allows schools to bulk upload data from their previous emergency notification system into e2Campus at no charge.
- Saint Joseph Builds Out Wireless Network in Multi-year Upgrade
Saint Joseph's University has begun deploying a Meru Networks wireless local area network across its Philadelphia campus as part of a multi-year effort to bring wireless coverage to every building on campus.
- Vista Ramp Up Is Happening Now, Study Says
Organizations may have been slow to adopt Microsoft Windows Vista, but expect that to change by late 2008 to 2009, according to a Forrester Research report by Benjamin Gray et al., published last week.
- Talisma Launches New Version of CRM with Built-in Application Management
Talisma Corp. announced version 8.0 of its constituent relationship management (CRM) application for higher education. The new release includes application management, a revamped user interface, two-way text messaging, personalized Web portals, and an ADA-compliant Web client, among other enhancements.
- Bringing Composers into Classrooms Through Skype
Two Pennsylvania teaching colleagues with an interest in music and technology are bringing remote experts into classrooms at almost no cost, using Skype's free videoconferencing technology.
