ISG Blog

As ISG migrates users to O365, a number of these users are being migrated to the E3 licence.  This is the licence that allows you to have the Office Products installed locally, rather than only having these available online (which is what the E1 licence offers).

As part of this migration, iSG needs to connect to each of the E3 machines to do the installation of the new software.  ISG have encountered issues when trying to connect to some machines as the power settings have been set to turn the machine off after a certain amount of time.  One really helpful thing iSG would like to ask our users to do, even if NOT going to the E3 licence is to take 3 minutes (maybe not even that) out of your day and follow the steps below.  This will be hugely beneficial to iSG but also to you for future updates that may need to happen with the ISG Rental machines.

Once logged in, go to "Start" and:

1. Select Control Panel
   
2. Then select Power Options
   
3. On left hand side of the window, click on "Change when the computer sleeps
   
4. A new window will appear and under the "Plugged in" column click the down arrow and select "Never"
   
5. Then just select "Save changes" and that is all iSG needs.  
   

Thanks for your help in helping us help you.  

Some things were made to last...

May the relaxation of this weekend be a lasting one. 

A walk down memory lane... or Sesame Street at least

Have a fantastic weekend.

I'm sure some of us can relate...

Wishing you an "easy" weekend everyone.  

Its been a couple of weeks, but the funnies are back...

Wishing a fantastic weekend.

Some things change with time.  I'm grateful that God's love, however, does not 

Enjoy the rest of this short week and the upcoming weekend

I guess Jacob was thinking of this coming Sunday!! Time to celebrate!!

May the reality of this season come alive again for you.

Enjoy connecting with friends and family this weekend.

There are some financial implications to centres with the implementation of Office 365 and as centres are finailising their budgets for the year, we thought we should explain this in detail.

So the easiest way to explain this is from the beginning of the New financial period (1 July) the following changes will occur:

• As we implement o365 we will be removing Microsoft Office 2010 from all desktops and laptops. Due to this, rental charges of desktops and laptops will drop by $5.00 (less $5.00 per device);
• Notes user charges will no longer be made against individual so this charge will also be stopped (less $4.50);
• As we start the new financial year we will start charging users for their o365 license of choice:
  • E1 (online only version) comes at a monthly charge of $6.50 and is the default for all staff (not officers);
  • E3 (fully installed version) comes at a monthly charge of $12.00. Officers have been automatically approved by TMB for this license. It is up to the centre manager/budget holder to decide which license all other staff should get and iSG will be requesting confirmation of this prior to the roll over.

So if we take the information above, the summarised version is, from the beginning of the new financial year:

• Centres will have $5.00 per device and $4.50 per user stopped;
• Centres will begin being charged for o365.
  • If users are given E1 licenses then this is $3.00 less per month, and
  • if on an E3 license then there will be a slight increase of $2.50 per user per month.

We hope this is helpful to those preparing their budgets.  

Wishing you a stress free weekend.

We are now entering the transition phase of the Office365 project.

Centre by centre will be moved from Notes to Office 365.  Again it's important to highlight that we are simply talking about emails and calendars in the main.  Storage of files is part of phase two, and all other Domino/Notes applications TSA currently use (eBoards, BiAS, SABS, Connected, etc) will continue to be accessed the same way as per normal.

Below is what has been organised and we list this to help you understand what process iSG is following:

BEFORE THE ROLLOUT:

1. Corps Officer/Centre Managers will be contacted by iSG with a list of all staff currently in our records for the site, and a full list of all rental machines being charged against your cost centre.
2. This information needs to be checked by the site (either by the Corps Officer/Centre Manager or a person of their choosing) and a response sent back to iSG.
3. Part of this process is also about confirming to iSG whether users are to have an E1 or E3 licence.  If no reply is received, users will be provided with an E1 licence by default.

 What are E1 and E3?

Grateful thanks to Hornby Family Store for sharing this first ;)

Enjoy the extra hour sleep this weekend.

Dear friends, 

As you should all be aware, there is a significant change on the horizon for The Salvation Army here in our territory.  I speak of course of the impending o365 rollout, where Notes will no longer be used for email and calendar entries, and instead Outlook will be the software of choice for our organisation to use moving forward.

As you can imagine this has meant a significant number of changes and is not by any stretch of the imagination a simple swap from Notes to O365.  This project has affected a number of processes and components of what ISG do on a day to day basis.

One of these is the implications it has had on our Lifecycle Replacement Process (LRP) on our rental system.  We are keen to get o365 rolled out to the territory before the end of this financial year, but for this to happen we have had to press "pause" on some of our regular projects like LRP.  This frees up resources in the team to focus on o365 and for us to get this out to the territory as soon as possible.

To this end, we need to inform the territory that we are holding off on doing our next LRP round until the new financial year.  Most of our machines are replaced well before they need to be, so iSG do not foresee any major problems with this.  If you are having issues with your machine that is hindering you from performing your work then iSG will look at these on a case by case basis.  If a replacement machine is required, this will most likely be a redeployed machine we currently have in stock and will not be a new machine.

For new staff, if replacing another staff, then we will simply transfer the existing machine to the new user.  For a brand new position we will work with each individual case to ensure the centres are not disadvantaged in any way, but we would request that you make iSG aware of the impending new position and its possible start date as soon as possible so that it gives us time to organise something for you.  You can do this even BEFORE you've started the interview process as we can organise a machine before the user is confirmed. 

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and will continue to work with you to ensure the mission is being achieved.

This is not a April 1st joke.  Change is on the horizon!  

In June last year IHQ made the announcement that all TSA territories would be moving away from using IBM Notes (Lotus Notes) to Office 365 worldwide.  Since then iSG have been working hard in getting all the information we need up to date, systems in place, training the iSG staff ready for this change, and organising the documentation for the rollout and preparing for the territorial training that will be happening.

Over the next few weeks we will be getting in touch with the budget holders at all centres to confirm who works at the site, what machines are currently in use there and what licences are to be given to whom. It will be vital that we get the responses as promptly as possible so that the rollout goes without a hitch.

Over the coming weeks we will be posting further blogs to keep you informed of what will be happening.

Stay tuned...

Have a blessed weekend.

from iSG Team

Well summer is officially over and hopefully it hasn't left a mark on you :).  However, the challenge is for you to leave your mark in the world.  Make it a positive one and have a blessed weekend.

Here's wishing you an "issues free" weekend.  God bless!

Name:  Alicia Smith

1. How long have you worked for TSA and what do you do (in a couple of short sentences)? This is only my first month here so I haven’t been here for very long! My role is SAMIS administrator, and so far, it’s been enjoyable and interesting, and I am sure it will continue.
2. Tell us a little about yourself. I was born and bred in Wellington and currently live in Tawa with my partner and cat. During my spare time I bake, attempt to play guitar (acoustic), and tame the garden. I have been in IT for most of my working life, but my very first job was working in the produce department at the very first Countdown in NZ.
3. What’s the last text you sent, or funniest one received in the last month? “it’s fine, I’m home now and she’s inside”
4. If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?  alert, alive, agreeable
5. For what are you most grateful today? The weather. Long live summer.

With the launch of the new "Supportal" we have had a relatively seamless transition and we note that tickets are still rolling in and requests and queries still being processed as per usual.

One of the queries we have had from users however is with regards ESCALATING tickets, so we would like to remind you today of the escalation process that you should follow. We hope you won't have to follow it, but there are times when we're busy with other matters and don't give you the attention you believe your problem requires.

In the first instance please call us on 04 802 6262. Whoever you speak to from Team iSG will be able to find your ticket and either help or direct you to the person who has been working on the issue with you. 

The next option is to login to Supportal and simply add a note in the ticket for technicians to be notified.  To do this in Supportal, select "Requests" (on top bar).  This will take you to the list of all your currently logged tickets.  Select the ticket in question and in the "Actions" button, select "Add Notes".  Enter the information you need iSG to know about, ensure the box with "Email this note to the technician" is ticked and "Add Note".  The technician will be notified and will be in touch as soon as they are able.

Should you have already tried that and still don't believe you're getting the attention your ticket deserves, then you should make contact with Michael Cabatbat or Andy Jones. Michael is the OpsIT Team Leader and is responsible for directing the team to the most pressing matter each day. He is the person who keeps an eye on the Supportal and chases the team when required. Andy is the Data Analysis Service Team Leader and is responsible for any SAMIS, iMIS or TechOne related issues.  If your concern relates to these aforementioned systems, then Andy is the person to call. For all other matters Michael will be able to assist.

Alternatively you can contact Peter Hennessey if Michael or Andy weren't available or you don't think they helped. 

Escalating to us is helpful as it gives us the opportunity to review our processes to ensure we're doing the best we can. So any escalation provides us with a chance to improve. 

Thank you for assisting us in helping you.

Wishing a relaxing and blessed weekend.

This week sees the whole iSG team together at THQ.

We will have some sessions together to ensure we are providing the best service possible to the territory and so at times we may be unavailable to assist you with your queries.  We will also have a number of areas where it will be business as usual with the team enabling the mission as best we can.

For any URGENT matters, feel free to contact our Ops IT Team leader, Michael Cabatbat and he will be ascertain who the best person to assist you with your query is, and when they will be able to assist.  For all other matters, simply log a ticket as per the usual process.

Thank you for your understanding as we work to ensure iSG continues to "enable the mission".