Newsletter (BCCS)

BCCS Pulse Newsletters

The Bureau of Communication and Computer Services (BCCS) is pleased to rollout its quarterly newsletter - BCCS Pulse. Please take a few minutes to find out what's going at BCCS and how we are working in tangent with the consolidated agencies to grow into a successful, service oriented, focused organization. We are interested in your feedback, so please feel free to contact the CMS BCCS Agency Relations Team with any ideas for content you may have in the future.

BCCS Pulse June 2008 (PDF, 543KB)

Contact Center Consolidation

How much money could the State of Illinois save by reducing the number of Contact Center phone systems statewide? What new efficiencies could be derived by having a shared services infrastructure while the administrative functions remain with the agencies? These questions and others like them are the business drivers behind a new project the Bureau of Communication and Computer Services (BCCS) has undertaken to implement an enterprise level state Contact Center phone system.

High Speed Access Improves EDI Initiative

The Electronic Documents of Illinois initiatives are just one of the Illinois State Library's programs dealing with electronic state documents.

Mobius Users

If individuals are experiencing accessibility problems with Mobius, please contact Mike Scott at 217-558-1215 or Lisa Riegel (Domain Owner) at 217-782-9432.

Wide-Area Network Utilization Monitoring Now Available

Wide-Area Network (WAN) Utilization Monitoring is now available to agencies via our SolarWinds Orion web interface.

Budget Planning FY10 Requests

Consolidated agencies will be receiving a communication from BCCS requesting your cooperation and collaboration in gathering specific business and budgetary information.

Catch the E-mail Bug this Summer!

Did you know that all Outlook users have mailbox size limits and for most people it is 90 megabytes? Have you ever received the disturbing message from the system telling you that you cannot send or receive messages, because you are over your mailbox size limit?

EKS, PBX, ACD, IVR Rates

On April 23, 2008, BCCS announced two new pricing models in effect for all new systems, including: Electronic Key System (EKS), Private Branch Exchange (PBX), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), and Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR).

Coming Soon...New State of Illinois Telephone Directory Application

The State of Illinois (SOI) Telephone Directory will migrate to a new and improved web-based application on August 1, 2008.

New Version of Entrust® Desktop Software

Entrust desktop software provides functionality for file encryption, digital signing, and secure email.

BCCS Pulse June 2008
Volume 2, Issue 1
Comments or Questions?
Email CMS.BCCS.AR@illinois.gov

Contact Center Consolidation

As telecommunications technology evolves, there are many opportunities to: 1) expand functionality; 2) improve disaster recovery capabilities; and 3) gain operational efficiencies. At an April 2, 2008 project kickoff meeting, BCCS Chief Operating Officer (COO), Lori Sorenson explained the major goals to all attendees. Among these goals are:

Virtualization of the state's business
Improved business continuity
Increased leveraging of agency human resources and legacy knowledge
Lowered operational costs
Improved rollout of new business applications
Simplification of IT and Telecom support pursuant to the IT rationalization mandate
Retained agency administrative autonomy
Deployment of a single cost-effective IP system
Integration of web application support
Logical distribution of functions

BCCS is currently engaged in establishing a baseline of current contact center systems and business drivers. Agencies are being interviewed to assess current and future business needs. Additionally, we are gathering data on what the current technology uses are and determining the future needs of the state. This effort will evolve into subsequent phases including: a high level system architecture design; a management model; and a rate structure. BCCS will then develop a strategy and timeline for procurement, implementation and ongoing management.

For further information about the Contact Center Centralization project, please contact BCCS COO, Lori Sorenson, at 217-557-6565 or Lori.Sorenson@illinois.gov.

High Speed Access Improves EDI Initiative

The Electronic Documents of Illinois initiatives are just one of the Illinois State Library's programs dealing with electronic state documents. The library worked closely on the development of several of these programs with the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

These programs are now moving away from the research and development phase into production. BCCS employees will soon support these programs on new servers, retiring aging hard drives and relieving graduate students of the workload.

These changes are evidence of the State Library's commitment to the long-term sustainability of the electronic documents and public access.

Information courtesy of the Secretary of State & State Librarian EDI Depositor May 2008 issue.

Mobius Users

If individuals are experiencing accessibility problems with Mobius, please contact Mike Scott at 217-558-1215 or Lisa Riegel (Domain Owner) at 217-782-9432.

Wide-Area Network Utilization Monitoring Now Available

Wide-Area Network (WAN) Utilization Monitoring is available to agencies via our SolarWinds Orion web interface. This interface gives users access to the following data:

Percent Utilization	Packet Loss
Bits Per Second	Interface Errors
Total Packets/Bytes Transferred	Interface Discards
Average Packets Per Second	Response Time
Network Availability	Router Memory Used and CPU Load

Agencies interested in acquiring access to this data should send a request to cms.bccs.icn.monitoring@illinois.gov. At this time an e-mail request, not an Enterprise Service Request (ESR), is the method for requesting access to the tool. Once the request is processed a username and password will be issued to the requesting Agency.

If you are currently utilizing this tool or plan to get access and would like BCCS Network Services to provide your Agency a session on how to navigate through the tool (how to use parameters to get correct statistics for peak usage) and how you can use the information in SolarWinds to benefit your Agency, please send an email to cms.bccs.icn.monitoring@illinois.gov.

Budget Planning FY10 Requests

As in prior years, in late summer or early fall, consolidated agencies will receive a communication from BCCS requesting cooperation and collaboration in gathering specific business and budgetary information. The information pertains to anticipated growth in your Agency's operations and maintenance costs, forecasted programs and projects, demands for planned and existing Enterprise IT services and other IT funding authorized for the current fiscal year (FY09), as well as, next fiscal year (FY10). The budget planning and forecasting process will be essentially the same as last year.

Remember to look at 2008 fiscal year (FY08) commitments when planning business and resource needs for this fiscal year. The information you submit will be utilized to synchronize the BCCS and Agency spending plans within the enacted budget and associated spending authority granted for this fiscal year (FY09). The information will also be used to synchronize and forecast BCCS and Agency budget submittals for fiscal year (FY10).

Catch the E-mail Bug this Summer!

Did you know that all Outlook users have mailbox size limits and for most people it is 90 megabytes? This quarter's topic is, "Mailbox Clean-up".

Have you ever received the disturbing message from the system telling you that you cannot send or receive messages, because you are over your mailbox size limit? Well, there are ways in which you can avoid getting those messages just when you have an Urgent e-mail that needs to get out!

Tips to Help You Manage Your Mail: Check your mailbox size. When in Outlook, click on TOOLS and select

MAILBOX CLEANUP. A dialogue box will appear and you will see the option to VIEW MAILBOX SIZE.

Run Mailbox Cleanup. When in Outlook, click on TOOLS and select MAILBOX CLEANUP. A dialogue box will appear and you will be able to run the different Mailbox Cleanup functions.

Turn on your auto-archive and personalize it. To determine whether your auto archive is turned on, click on the TOOLS drop down in Outlook and select OPTIONS. Select OTHER and you will see the auto-archive window. You can personalize from here.

Run the auto-archive when prompted. When you have this feature turned on, you will be prompted to auto-archive items meeting your criteria. Click YES when this window appears. Please call the CSC Service Desk at 217-524-4784 or 800-366-8768, if you are unsure about your AUTO-ARCHIVE configuration.

Archived e-mails are not accessible through web mail. When you remove your e-mails from your mailbox through AUTO ARCHIVE, they are copied to the archived.pst file and can't be accessed through the web. They can only be accessed through the Outlook client in Large Personal Folders.

Ensure that your AUTO ARCHIVE is configured to the correct location. Click on TOOLS and select OPTIONS. Select OTHER and select AUTO-ARCHIVE in the dialogue window. In the middle of the window MOVE OLD ITEMS should be selected and the path to the file is in the Exchange directory in the users Home Directory.

Sort your mail by size. When in selected e-mail folder, click on the SIZE column at the top of your e-mail list. This will sort your mail in ascending or descending order for deletion or archive purposes.

Stay tuned for the next quarterly BCCS Pulse for more news from your PIM team.

EKS, PBX, ACD, IVR Rates

Model One: Payment in full at the time of installation-

Agencies can choose to pay in full at the time of installation at a rate of vendor cost plus 20%. The 20% reflects the adjusted BCCS administrative fee which has recently been re-analyzed. The administrative fee includes the actual costs associated with contract management, customer service and technical support.

Model Two: Flexible initial payment and the balance financed over 60 months-

Agencies make an initial payment in any amount and finance the balance over 60 months based on a financing rate of 8%. The entire amount due must be paid by the agency, even in the event the equipment is removed prior to the 60 months. If the equipment can be reused, consideration will be given on a case by case basis.

Agencies are encouraged to work with their Customer Service Center (CSC) Representative to determine which model best meets their needs. Questions regarding the new rates or the affected telephony systems can be directed to BCCS Procurement Manager, Alex Jones at 217-557-8334 or Alex.Jones@illinois.gov.

Coming Soon...New State of Illinois Telephone Directory Application

The State of Illinois (SOI) Telephone Directory will migrate to a new and improved web-based application on August 1, 2008. BCCS provided Telecommunications Coordinators system requirements via the Telecommunications Bulletin (CSC 08-21) dated April 30, 2008, so that they could obtain the required Digital ID to access both the training registration form and custom application. Telecommunications Coordinators must register on line at wwwbeta.cms.portal.il.gov for one of the July 2008 SOI Directory training classes. Information on SOI training and the migration was announced in Bulletin 08-22, dated May 20, 2008. For the convenience of agency Telecommunications Coordinators, training will be conducted in both Chicago and Springfield to demonstrate the application's many enhanced features and more user friendly functionality.

The half-day classes will teach Coordinators how to:

add-change-delete People records
add-change-delete Business headings
add-change-delete Business listings
restructure/move Business listings
maintain Address lists
maintain Work Unit lists
globally change Address or Work unit of large groups of people
run reports
print Directory information

Through July 24, 2008, Telecommunications Coordinators may continue to make Directory updates using the MONIES database. All Directory information in MONIES as of midnight, July 24th will be migrated to the new SOI Directory. MONIES Directory will then be retired and the new SOI Directory will go live on August 1, 2008. If you have questions about the SOI Directory migration, please contact one of the SOI Directory instructors: Mick Rothman in Chicago at 312 814 2966 or Mick.Rothman@illinois.gov; Nancy Diefenback in Springfield at 217-782-950 or Nancy.Diefenback@illinois.gov.

The State of Illinois Telephone Directory is used by state employees conducting state business. It is also a vital source of information for private citizens and business organizations that need State services and/or provide services to State government. Additionally, the Directory's data is the sole source of information used by the State's Directory Assistance Operators. Maintaining the accuracy of the data will depend on the vigilance and dedication of Telecommunications Coordinators throughout the State.

New Version of Entrust® Desktop Software

For the past seven years, many employees have become familiar with the small golden key in their desktop task bar indicating that the Entrust Desktop Suite (EDS) is installed.

This software provides functionality for file encryption, digital signing, and secure email. Due to changes in the various flavors of Windows over the past few years (especially Windows Vista), the next generation of Entrust desktop software will have a slightly different look, along with a new name.

The new version is called Entrust Entelligence® Security Provider (ESP). Functionally, it will allow the same options as the previous package, but is designed to interoperate more closely with the Microsoft® operating system.

The current version (EDS) does not reach its end-of-life until December 2009, so the upgrade to ESP will be gradual. Expect to see the new version within this year. For more information or to answer any questions, please contact Mark Anderson at 217 558-4859 or Mark.Anderson@illinois.gov.