OIT Technology Training: Certificate Program
The Office of Information Technology is pleased to announce two new IT training certificates. Microsoft Office and Inside.SMU training tracks will be offered May 2012 – March 2013. Instruction will be provided through demo and hands-on-sessions to accommodate a variety of learning styles with short yet powerful sessions.
Microsoft Office Certificate Courses
- Word Beginner OR Word Advanced
- Excel Beginner OR Excel Advanced
- Outlook Productivity
- Designing Engaging Content in PowerPoint
Inside.SMU Certificate Courses
- Inside.SMU & My Site
- Calendaring
- Document Library Management
- Managing Lists and Views
The class scheduled will be announced later this month. Each class will be offered multiple times throughout the year. We hope you’ll consider attending an individual class or complete the 4 sessions to receive the training certificate of your choice.
Go To Meeting Licensing...Coming Soon
OIT has received a number of requests for a webinar solution. In the next few weeks, we will be purchasing a number of licenses for Go To Meeting. These licenses will be available on a check in/check out basis for the SMU community. Go To Meeting allows you to schedule an online meeting supporting both web content and audio content. Additional details will be released once the licenses have been purchased.
Cellular Phone Justification Workflow For Regulatory Compliance
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that individuals meet certain criteria in order to receive a mobile device from SMU without being taxed. In order to ensure compliance with this regulation, a justification process is being implemented later this month which will ask employees to document the business purpose for the mobile device. Staff from the Controller’s Office, OIT, and the VP of Business and Finance have worked closely to define the process that will require an annual business purpose certification for all SMU provided cell phones.
Over the next few months, all employees with an SMU provided cell phone will receive an email. We'll begin with a pilot group in April and then expand to a larger audience. Employees will need to complete an online form for each mobile device that simply asks the following questions:
- Are you on call at times for work-related emergencies?
- Do you have a business need to conduct business outside of normal or scheduled working hours?
- Do you typically work in the field where alternative communication devices are not readily available?
- Other justification for the device if none of the other questions are applicable.
Once the employee submits the online form, an email will be sent to the Supervisor and/or Financial Officer for approval. Reminders will be sent periodically to ensure that all forms are completed in a timely manner. This process will be repeated annually and will also be required before any phone order is placed for a new subscriber. Individuals who receive reimbursement for cell phone expenses for personal cell phones will also be asked to complete the certification.
Microsoft License Change for Discounted Software
Microsoft has recently made a change to our campus license agreement affecting the software discounts for faculty, staff and students.
Faculty and Staff may still purchase select Microsoft products for home use at a significant discount. However, the Windows Operating System will no longer be available for purchase at the discounted rate. Media for Microsoft Office can still be purchased from the Computer Corner with a valid ID.
The License agreement offering Student discounts has been discontinued by Microsoft. Microsoft is encouraging usage of Office 365, their cloud based version of the office applications. The Operating System will not be available under any discounted pricing anymore.
The change in licensing went into effect on April 1. We apologize for the delayed notification but were unaware of the change until recently.