News

IT Update

Sep 2, 2016

Posted in: IT

By Gareth Griffiths 

IT Support System

In July 2016, 24 new Work Orders were received into Track-IT. Of these, 19 are now closed (79% completion rate). Overall we closed 24 Work Orders in the month. There are currently 50 open Work Orders. Do not forget to email support@gdins.org for any new IT-related requests. In the event that an email cannot be sent for any reason, you can also call any member of the IT Team, who will log the support Work Order for you.

Virtual Machine

Work is completed on the second VMWare host. This allows for extra resiliency and flexibility in managing the Virtual Machines in operation by the Institute. Thus, in the event of a failed computer, the system will automatically run them on the backup host meaning no downtime.

Video Conferencing

We are installing new equipment and software in five locations across the province to enable the use of video conferencing. These locations are Head Office, Saskatoon Dumont Technical Institute training facility, Prince Albert, Regina, and La Loche. This involves the installation of some video conferencing cameras, TVs and new computers in these locations as and when needed.

The software being used is called ‘join.me’ and it allows up to 10 video feeds, and 250 audio participants. It will also work on almost any device and be able to integrate with Outlook for scheduling meetings. Other features include window sharing, the ability to pass mouse control or presenter role to another participant, and interactive whiteboards on iPads. Do watch this space for further updates. Information and training sessions will follow soon.

Website

Overall, there were 20,413 Page Views over 5,940 sessions (35% of these were new visitors) in July 2016. The website homepage saw 3,954 Page views (3,259 Unique Page views). Some highlights of activity are as follows: 15% of visitors to the home page, 30% clicked on What We Offer, 11% went to the job posting page, and 11% went to the Contact Us page on the Institute website (www.gdins.org).

Social Media Summary

Following are some brief stats from our Social Media channels in July 2016.

Facebook: Total number of people liking the page grew by 82 to 1,616. Total Engagements (number of links clicked, likes, or comments) in this month was 1,983 over nine posts. Total reach of posts (number of people that saw a post in their feed) was 33,806 with 54,261 impressions (number of times a Gabriel Dumont Institute page appeared in another person’s news feeds). The most popular post was the “National Métis War Veterans Memorial has been engraved….”, reaching 4,635 people with 663 post clicks and 407 likes, comments, and shares.

Twitter: 86 tweets earned 44,600 impressions. There were 36 new followers in the month, 37 mentions, and 1,424 Profile visits. The top tweet was “Bannock cooks on an open fire at Back to Batoche,” earning 2,718 impressions. Top mention was the “Here’s an article Russ Fayant and I wrote” (Andrea Sterzuk) with 61 engagements. Top media tweet was “Back to Batoche Days, the largest Métis Festival…” with 2,701 impressions. We currently have 800 followers.

IT Northern Adventure

We have just returned from a trip up north to the La Loche facility. This was phase 1 of the installation of 23 new desktops, eight new laptops, a Smart TV, video conferencing suite, and 40 Chromebooks. These machines are part of the La Loche renewal investment and will assist in the delivery of the new La Loche Adult Basic Education Level 4 program, as well as for the other programs onsite.

We are currently testing using the Chromebooks in an Enterprise setup, meaning that all apps will be controlled and synchronized to the device. A second trip is scheduled in September to continue this work.

Closing Thought

Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer. Bartender says “Sorry we don’t serve noble gases here.” Helium doesn’t react.

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