How one University shared information on their desktop management solution
I've been working with the University of Iowa for a few years and have had the pleasure of meeting some amazingly intelligent and successful people. Just a few of those people were among the Enterprise Client Management team, lead by Chris Blasen. Chris was recently featured in Windows IT Pro magazine discussing how after they decided to offer Systems Management Server (SMS) as a service, they overcame the challenge of spreading the word on campus and encouraging others to take advantage of it.
Since the article was released Chris has received Email from businesses and other Universities that reached out to compliment the site and ask for advice on building something similar. What the Iowa ECM team has done that is so radical is building out animated training that not just explains, it shows the user how SMS is configured and how it would be used. There is also thorough documentation to define how they setup the server and the process a department would use to get on board.
Their site is also a great resource if you have plans of building an SMS site with delegated permissions to University departmental IT pros. Iowa has really done a nice job building a delegation model that is reusable in a higher education environment. Feel free to contact me directly or leave a comment if you would like more information.
You can also see a video featuring the University of Iowa SMS project:
University of Iowa streamlines its system management (Windows Media, 5.6 MB)