BeyondTrust-ServiceNow enhancement now live

As part of the effort to continually enhance the functionality and improve the value of ServiceNow and BeyondTrust to Emory, the IT Service Management Office (ITSMO) recently implemented the BeyondTrust-ServiceNow Integration. This integration will allow service desks and desktop support teams to improve service levels, centralize support processes, and strengthen compliance.

BeyondTrust is a remote desktop support platform and the enhancement allows BeyondTrust session data to be attached directly to incident tickets, greatly improving the metrics available for reporting in ServiceNow. BeyondTrust was formerly called Bomgar.

In terms of scale, the team granted ninety-nine desktop support personnel access to the new BeyondTrust session key to assist them with supporting their user communities. The participating groups so far are Advancement & Alumni Engagement, Campus Life, the Candler School of Theology, Emory College, the Goizueta Business School, the Law School, LITS Applications & Messaging, LITS ClassTech & Videography, LITS Client Services, LITS Executive Technology, LITS University Service Desk, Oxford College, the Rollins School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and Yerkes.

“Extending the capabilities of ServiceNow in ways that enhance the experience for our customers is always a pleasure and doing so by utilizing the BeyondTrust client extends that audience to include our technical fulfillers as well,” said Matt Hodgson, manager of ITSMO. “We’re pleased to offer this functionality, and grateful for all of the participants who worked so hard to see it realized.”

What is new in the ServiceNow Incident Form

For support team members currently using the BeyondTrust Enterprise appliance, the ServiceNow Incident now displays a new “BeyondTrust Session Key” button. This new button allows the initiation of a BeyondTrust session from the Incident. After the remote session is initiated from the ServiceNow Incident, the BeyondTrust application continues functioning as expected.

Once the BeyondTrust session is closed, the BeyondTrust chat session between the support team and the customer will post to the Incident ticket as a related list for later reference and review.

Additional references for the implementation can be found at:

  • KB06519 – BeyondTrust-ServiceNow Integration Training Guide
  • KB06507 – BeyondTrust-ServiceNow Integration Service Desk Reference Guide

Note – the user must be logged into the ITIL view to view these articles as these articles are not published to the Service Portal.

“As this integration took a lot of time and coordinated effort from various teams, it is always encouraging when we are able to come together and centralize an application and the associated support processes,” said Sharon Gregory, senior manager, LITS Technical Support Services. “Keep in mind, only support team members currently using the BeyondTrust Enterprise appliance will see the new “BeyondTrust Session Key” button in ServiceNow that allows the initiation of a BeyondTrust session from the Incident. A big thank you to everyone who made this “Go-Live” possible!”

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Rebroadcasts of final 2020 InfoForum and IT Briefing

logo for a lecture seriesThe final InfoForum and IT Briefing of 2020 were each held this month. The attendance numbers for these information sessions dramatically increased during the pandemic and we were pleased by the generosity of our presenters and the enthusiasm of our attendees.

If you missed either session in December, you can re-watch them below:

Previous Fall 2020 broadcasts include:

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Box to OneDrive Migration team launches crucial site for capturing workflows

One of the biggest challenges in the Box to OneDrive Migration effort is capturing workflows, which are the unique ways departments and individuals have incorporated Box into their business operations. Committed to protecting these workflows, the Box to OneDrive Migration Team created a survey to gather these workflows throughout the enterprise.

Announced in a communication to over 45,000 Box users on December 2, the team asks users to detail how they use Box in a survey found here. The form gives examples of typical workflows and provides a lot of space for users to describe their own uses. Said Jay Flanagan, manager of the Messaging Team, “This is a significant step in making sure none of the processes out there get broken by this migration. But we need everyone to participate.”

The communication also touched on the key questions of when the migration will happen and should departments migrate themselves. While the specific dates are still being hashed out, the team announced that a timeline will be published in the next two weeks and migrations will likely begin the last week of December. It is imperative that users act now to clean up their Box folders before the migration.

Regarding the question of self-migration, the short answer is “no.” There are several risks users face when going it alone, including lost permissions, duplicated data, and expected delays in data recovery given the large scope of the project.

Migration isn’t easy…but it must be done.

University users are also encouraged to ask questions of their Box to OneDrive (BOD) Champions, who are being trained to help provide answers. You can find the most recent list of BOD Champions here. If you do not have a BOD Champion or need a question answered more quickly, you can submit it here.

According to the team, “We appreciate your patience as this project moves forward. Stay tuned for the migration schedule in the coming weeks.”

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Emory team wins award at AWS re:invent virtual conference

A team representing Emory Cloud Services participated in an AWS-led computing competition and came away with honors in an event designed to test applicable knowledge in the field of cloud computing. The competition, called AWS GameDay, challenged teams to spend 4 hours solving extremely difficult cloud-related tasks for a mythical company called Unicorn Rentals.

Emory’s team consisted of Ramya Bommareddy, Zach Cox, Sergey Kamenetskiy, and Rohith Mandala. The team was called ET2 (Emory Technical Team) and won the “Lords and Ladies of the Questivus” award for solving the most challenges. They finished second in the overall competition.

Regarding the format, AWS instructed, “We are 100% hands-on, and you will be working extensively in the AWS Console. It is not a workshop; there are no step-by-step instructions. Be prepared to decide your own path forward with ambiguous directions. You may get frustrated and that is alright! Support staff will be available to assist you. Please come with an open mind to try new things. Our event is team-based, so you should arrive well-rested to communicate effectively, divide and conquer, and support your teammates.”

The team got off to a strong start when the first challenge involved New Relic (cloud-based software for tracking website performance) for which Rohith already had significant expertise. Each challenge required various levels of competency to complete, however in some cases they needed to learn new services on the fly. “The challenges opened my mind to new ways to architect solutions in AWS,” said Zach. “I found it fun and beneficial.”

This gamified challenge was offered by AWS for free as a lead in to this month’s AWS re:invent virtual conference. AWS plans to do a series of competitions that employ varying levels of complexity. “They offer different types of gameday experiences,” said Ramya. “It was fun (and a little stressful) but their facilitators would drop in to help us now and then.”

Paul Petersen and his ECS team are hoping to work with AWS to host a competition at Emory next year. For more information about the AWS GameDay offerings, go to https://aws.amazon.com/gameday/.

 

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Final Lift Every Voice Panel: Reconstruction Activism on December 10

Members of the Emory community and the general public are invited to the third and final panel in the Lift Every Voice 2020 Seminar Series entitled “Reconstruction Activism” on December 10th at 10 am. Attendees can register at http://emorylib.info/lift-dec for the online event.

Panelists include Dr. Francine Allen (Morehouse) and Dr. Marla Frederick (Emory University), as well as Emory Arts and Social Justice Fellow Garrett Turner and Former Rose Library Artist-in-Residence Charmaine Minniefield. It will be moderated by Jina DuVernay (Emory University). In addition to discussing the various forms that activism took during Reconstruction, panelists will also explore how activism for racial equality and justice in the current moment has been shaped by the past.

The Lift Every Voice Seminar Series is part of the Lifting Every Voice Tribute Series in honor of Pellom McDaniels III. For more information about Lifting Every Voice and other related events, please visit Lifting Every Voice: the Pellom McDaniels III 2020-2021 Tribute Series.

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LITS recent headlines and upcoming events

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Recent LITS headlines:

Upcoming LITS events:

(go HERE for more information for each event)

  • December 8 Virtual Professional Development Forum: 10:00 am – 11:00 pm, Zoom link
  • December 8InfoForum: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Zoom link
  • December 10Fox Center Seminar: “Reconstruction Activism,” 10:00 am – 11:00 am, Link
  • December 16LEAF Coffee Hour: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, Zoom link
  • December 17IT Briefing: 10:15 am – 12:00 pm, Zoom link
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Security training, Box removal updates and a crucial captioning conversation

Over 170 Emory employees tuned in for the November IT Briefing this week and were treated to important updates about mandatory cybersecurity training, Box to OneDrive migration updates, and possible solutions regarding the growing concerns about video captioning.

Derek Spransy led things off with a cybersecurity training update. With much of LITS having taken the initial round of training, the team has processed the vital feedback from around the division to prepare an updated version of the training that will go out to the Emory enterprise next month. The feedback was largely positive for the 30-minute training, narrated by Dawn Francis-Chewning, and the training module will soon be a requirement for both existing and future employees.

Next up was Jay Flanagan to talk about the Box to OneDrive migration. He let the audience know that they are finalizing an analysis of the data being migrated and will be moving the Project Management Office (PMO) as the pilot group. The Messaging team will then work with the vendors to publish a timeline for the remainder of the project. A key part of the project involves working with Box to OneDrive (BOD) Champions who have been identified in each area to help shepherd their respective communities through the migration. These BOD Champions will help “create a synchronicity across local support groups before, during and after the migration,” according to Jay.

Three ways you can help with the migration are:

  1. Clean up your unneeded Box files by the end of the year (in fact, the sooner the better)
  2. Begin new projects in the OneDrive environment versus Box
  3. Inform the Messaging Team about any unusual workflows that your areas employ around Box.

Lastly, Adam Newman and Steve Bransford from ECDS discussed the legal and ethical needs for providing captioning for all externally published video material at Emory as well as a new platform that ECDS is piloting which makes such captioned video content fully searchable. One surprising element of Adam’s presentation was that automatic captioning currently used by YouTube or Zoom do not rise to the legal standard of ADA-mandated captioning according to recent landmark legal cases on the matter. The two discussed various tools for captioning before Steve provided a demo of ECDS’s instance of Aviary, a platform that can make captioned videos fully searchable.

You can see all of these presentations and hear the dozens of questions that were answered by re-watching the November IT Briefing HERE.

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