TUG Statistics and Reports Group Meeting

Minutes

January 12, 2005– 9:00 - 12:00 a.m. – University of Guelph, room 200B

Present: Bill Halahan, Ron MacKinnon, Joanne Oud, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather

Minutes of November 10, 2004
The minutes of November 10, 2004 were approved with minor changes. They will be added to the TUG Statistics and Reports (TSR) area on the TUG staff web.
Business arising
1. Report to TUG staff
  Ron drafted this report in mid November and it was sent out November 19. We have received some positive comment arising from the report.
2. Cognos Technical Forum session proposals
  Gail’s proposals have not been accepted but she is considering doing the session on documentation for the Ontario user group.
3. Cuberunner
  This software has been installed and is now working. It is doing auto publishing and archiving to the web, which is what we wanted it for, and is saving time. The most recent upgrade has also been downloaded but it still has some problems.
2004/05 Expenditures to Date
All expenditures are as expected except for the Thoughtcorp invoice, which is different than we expected it to be. UG’s business manager will look into it and follow up. Aside from the Thoughtcorp invoice, the projected expenses for this fiscal year include a January and possibly an April Cognos user day.

To do: Ron and Linda will forward information to Guelph ’s business manager, who will look into the Thoughtcorp invoice.
2005/2006 Budget Proposal
Discussion of a draft budget for next fiscal year. Budget components will include:
1. Hardware: a new production server is needed. Estimates from Waterloo IST and Guelph for specs consistent with our current production server suggest a projected $6,500 expense.
2. Software: we will require an operating system upgrade to Windows 2003 (although this may come with the server). Cuberunner also has an annual maintenance fee.
3. Staff: Gail’s time next year is estimated at 70% (of 27 hrs) and Bill’s at 50%
4. Training: requests will be made for annual system admin training in Orlando , plus 4 user days. In addition, we will allow a contingency amount in the training budget in case training team members need to be replaced and the new members trained.
Total budget request is about the same as last year’s.

To do: Linda will revise the draft budget and submit for approval to the Steering Committee.
Report to the Steering Committee
Linda will meet with the Steering Committee January 19. The main agenda items will be budget expenditures for this year, proposed budget for next year, and an annual activity report. The activity report will elaborate on the TUG staff update sent in November, with stress on the value of training in Orlando and the work of the training team. In addition, Linda will offer group or individual overview sessions on Cognos to Steering Committee members who might want it.

To do: Linda will draft a point form report and send for comment. After it goes to the Steering Committee we will put it and our November report on the web.
Implementation of the Request Form and Database
Changes to routing have been made. Now that George is gone, Bill will be responsible for database maintenance. There is one bug left, which is minor. Therefore, we can move ahead with the implementation of the form. A message is ready to announce it.

To do:
- Gail and Linda will send message announcing the availability of the form/database.
- Linda will contact the Training Team to give them a demo in an upcoming meeting before we send the message out, since Team members are mentioned as contacts
- Linda, Ron and Joanne will arrange demos/information sessions at each institution for awareness of the form and request process
PowerPlay Cube archiving schedule changes
Now that Cuberunner has been implemented, it is easier to schedule cube builds at any time of the week. Therefore, Gail sent a message asking if changes were needed to reserves cubes. Laurier would like the schedule changed for theirs and Waterloo is checking into the need. Other cubes do not likely need changes to archiving schedules at this point.

To do: Gail and Bill will implement changes and change documentation on the web site to reflect the changes. UG will check to see if any changes are needed for the reserve cubes.
Upgrade to Cognos 7.3
Gail and Bill have made considerable progress. The upgrade has been loaded on the test server. There is a new release that fixes some bugs. There is one issue over continuously running processes that needs to be resolved (in progress). Other than that, we need to get people to work on the test server to make sure there are no major problems. After that happens, it will be ready to move to the production server. We will need to be sure that this is tied into an upgrade of desktop clients. Desired timeline is before the upcoming PowerPlay training so people can see the new version.

To do: Gail will send a reminder to the Training Team and selected other frequent Cognos users to look at the upgrade on the test server.
ARL E-Metric survey stats
There has been some discussion between UG and UW about how to get various TRELLIS statistics for the ARL E-Metrics survey. Some information is not available, and we have agreed to provide what is available and footnote what is not.

To do: UG and UW will arrange a meeting on problem issues and how to handle them.
Other business
- Review of drill-through capabilities: Gail will contact functional groups to set up meetings to review drill-through reports.
- ERM cube: Gail has created a cube from ERM data. Use data is in it for UW, but not for UG or WLU since Gail needs access to their tables. She has put in a request for this to the ERM group.
- UW Statistics collection infrastructure: Ron will arrange a March meeting at UW to discuss their non-TRELLIS statistics collection infrastructure. This consists of spreadsheets on a network drive that feed into a cube. Interested UG and WLU staff will attend.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be scheduled in late March, at Waterloo .

To do: Linda will send out possible meeting times.