innovative technology services
The Eduserv Chest Software Messenger 14th August 2008
Contents:
Eduserv Saves Institutions £700,000 on Microsoft Licences
Invitation to join Anti-Virus Software Focus Group
Chest Helpdesk
Like any other organisation, Eduserv occasionally needs to make internal changes in order to continually improve the service provided to
Eduserv is a not-for-profit organisation providing sustainable, shared services such as Chest Agreements and OpenAthens for universities and colleges. A new Helpdesk function has been established to cover non-technical enquiries on all of our services. The Chest Helpdesk no longer exists as a discrete entity and its functions have been assumed by the “Eduserv Help” team.
What does this mean for you?
Eduserv Help will be the visible front end for all the same enquiries you would have sent to the Chest Helpdesk. You’ll get the same answers to the same questions and the email address will continue to work. The only differences you should notice are that replies will come from the help@eduserv.org.uk address and that a ticket number in {brackets} has been added to the subject line. The ticket number, amongst other things, allows any reply to be automatically associated with the original query. Eduserv Help will provide you with a single point of contact for all of your non-technical enquiries regardless of the service it relates to.
If you have any questions about these changes, please drop a line to help@eduserv.org.uk.
Eduserv saves Institutions £700,000 on Microsoft Licences
The take up of the Eduserv Microsoft Campus Agreement since it started last November has been phenomenal – especially considering that many sites’ existing Microsoft Campus Agreements don’t come up for renewal until the late summer.
Based on the staff numbers of the sites already signed up, Chest will save these institutions over £700,000 during the term of the agreement. These savings are just on the preferential pricing obtained from Microsoft and don’t include reduced procurement costs and additional discounts obtained from the resellers as part of our tender exercise.
With the majority of sites’ Campus renewals due in the next six months, we expect to increase these savings to well in to seven figures.
For further details about the agreement please follow this link:
http://www.eduserv.org.uk/chest/agreements/software/existing/mscampus/overview
New update for Platform LSF 7
Platform LSF software is used to manage and accelerate batch workload processing for compute-and data-intensive applications in a High Performance Computing (HPC) environment.
Sites subscribing to Platform LSF are entitled to the latest update and will be contacted by the supplier with details. Platform LSF 7 Update 3 builds on previous Platform LSF 7 updates. This release covers a wide spectrum of functionality; for example, the administrator will have more granular control, users are given more control to schedule jobs and there are numerous scheduling and management enhancements including a new scheduler for short jobs. More details about the software and the update can be found on the Platform Website
For details of the Eduserv Agreement please view the overview of the Platform Agreement.
Invitation to join Anti-Virus Software Focus Group
Eduserv would like to invite you or your colleagues to join its Anti-Virus Software Focus Group.
The purpose of the Anti-Virus Focus Group will be to:
·
share experiences and best practice with regards to the use, management, implementation, and purchase of anti-virus software within the university community
·
provide a forum to discuss any issues or challenges (and potential solutions or work-arounds) concerning anti-virus software
·
impart Eduserv with guidance about the key issues relating to licensing terms and conditions of anti-virus software. This information will be used to inform our negotiations for new agreements and the renewal of existing agreements.
·
act as a “sounding board” for reviewing proposals from anti-virus suppliers
·
take a collective approach to leverage larger suppliers to negotiate with Eduserv with the whole academic sector in mind.
Whilst the group will look specifically at anti-virus software, it will take a pragmatic approach and discuss other software where there may be some overlap.
It is anticipated that the group will meet twice annually in a convenient location with the first meeting being autumn 2008. Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
To register your interest in joining the Anti-Virus Focus Group, or for more information, please contact Nicola Garwood at nicola.garwood@eduserv.org.uk. When logging interest, please provide the time of year or potential dates which would be most convenient to you for the first meeting.
ESRI (UK
The following invitation has been extended by ESRI
Get the most out of your ESRI licences
ESRI (UK) is delighted to be hosting an event on Thursday 18th September at the
Who should attend?
This event is for anyone who is using ESRI technology in the academic arena through the Eduserv agreement. It is relevant for administrators of the software, lecturers teaching with the software and researchers and students using the software. Topics to be covered will range from a round up of what's new at 9.3 and how to support teaching using ArcGIS.
When and Where?
The event will start with registrations at 10-10.30am and aim to finish at 4.30pm. The event will be held at the
Registration
This event is free to attend. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Registration is now available online at.
Click here to register
.
Who are ESRI (
ESRI (UK) is part of the global ESRI network. With the single, largest pool of GIS expertise in the
Your software wishes
If you would like Eduserv to investigate an agreement for software that would benefit your institution, why not make a wish? Wishes are the best way for you to tell us which products we should be negotiating for on your behalf.
If you would like to make a wish for a new products then please complete our online wishform:
http://www.eduserv.org.uk/chest/future_agreements/add_a_new_wish
To view the complete software wish list and wish for products on it see:
http://www.eduserv.org.uk/chest/future_agreements/wishes?productType=S
Recently added
Ansys - engineering simulation solutions
10 wishes - more interest required
Wish list review
Adding a resource to the Wish List is a simple but very valuable way for you to tell us about your software requirements. We regularly review the wish lists and prioritise the resources to be investigated for possible new agreements. Sometimes we have to remove products from the list; it could be that there hasn’t been enough interest from the community to justify proceeding, or that we cannot deliver real savings or improvements to the terms and conditions already on offer.
We have recently reviewed the wish list and have decided to remove the products listed below. If you have good reasons for keeping any of the products on the list then please contact us at chestwishes@eduserv.org.uk
Calopus
Cisco Security Agent
CommVault Simpana Systems
Community Analysis Package
Cubase VST
GeoShow 3D
inSORS
Norton System Works
Packeteer
PowerDVD 7.0
PowerTerm
QT Modeller
Remedy
Safeboot
Scientific Workplace
Seasolve
Sibelius
Sketchup
Softscan
Solid Converter
Speechi
Spy Sweeper
Tecplot
Virtuozzo
VisualQSM
Wise Package Studio