Summer 2022 Newsletter

Service Desk

Exciting changes are on their way for the CUIMC IT Service Desk! We are in the process of restructuring how calls are answered to reduce call wait times. Some staff will be dedicated to software installation and printer setups, while the rest handle all other calls. The Service Desk is frequently contacted to help troubleshoot issues that can be quickly resolved such as password reset – dividing the queue this way will allow us to reach those callers faster.

Leadership Changes

We are pleased to announce the promotion of several members of the IT team that have occurred over the last few months. These team members have all been functioning at a level far beyond their previous job description, demonstrating leadership, expertise, teamwork, and exceptional customer service.  

• Aaron Mendoza is being promoted to Director of Desktop Engineering and Support
• Charlie Corona is being promoted to Senior Cloud Architect
• Hristo Mihovski is being promoted to Chief Technology Manager
• Paulius Kutavicius is being promoted to Senior System Engineer
• Prasad Satavalli is being promoted to M365 Lead Engineer
• Shellianne Bowens-Ells is being promoted to Service Desk & ServiceNow Manager
• Tony Wu is being promoted to Senior Information Security Engineer

Aaron, Charlie, Hristo, Paulius, Prasad, Shellianne, and Tony are providing critical support for our IT operations and they have risen to the challenge of driving maturity through well-defined process. 

Please join us in congratulating them and recognizing their hard work and valuable contributions!

IT Intranet 2.0

Phase two of the CUIMC IT website revamp has nearly reached the soft launch and testing phase, which will kick off this month. We will unveil features such as a chat bot, cart functionality, updated catalog categories, a global search feature, an announcements page, and dedicated research section. The cart functionality will allow the addition of multiple items to facilitate bulk requests for things like onboarding and offboarding. You can look forward to the roll out of these updates this summer.

Please continue to submit any questions or concerns via cuimcitnewsletter@cumc.columbia.edu.

Medical Grade Network

Wi-Fi and access switch upgrades kicked off in various sites across the medical center, starting with the Wi-Fi in Tower 1 at 60 Haven Avenue, and Towers 2 and 3 at 100 Haven Avenue. Five hundred access points and thirty switches have already been ordered. The bulk of that equipment will be used to upgrade the 457 existing access points in the towers. The new advanced access points will provide a more robust Wi-Fi experience to everyone in these buildings – the process to upgrade the towers is expected to take approximately three months, depending on access and scheduling availability.

A webpage has gone live that provides an overview of the project, the upgrade schedule, and other important updates. For full details and ongoing updates please see: https://it.cuimc.columbia.edu/MGN.

Please submit questions or concerns regarding this upgrade to MGN-questions@cumc.columbia.edu.

Proposal vs. an Idea – What’s the Difference?

Proposals in this context are defined as special requests that are not already represented in our support pages.

The CUIMC IT Project Management Office (PMO) uses ServiceNow to collect and review proposals for technology-related projects. Anyone may turn in a proposal using the Submit an Idea form. Idea is the term used in ServiceNow to track proposals as they flow through the project management process.

A proposal can also be submitted for the following reasons:

• A department has a project for which they request assistance coordinating one or more of the following:
  • Third-party vendor agreement
  • Business Associates Agreement (BAA)
  • Software or hardware requirements
  • Hardware purchases (desktops, Aruba devices, etc.)
  • Integration with Epic
    • When submitting an request to implement a new software or software integration with Epic, please use the CUIMC IT PMO Request Document (Excel file), which has suggested information to include in the request and can be attached at the time of submission.
• Columbia has deliverables and responsibility in the success of a tri-institutional project (for example, Front Door to Care related software/hardware need).
• Projects that affect multiple business units or involve multiple sites/locations
• Projects that carry high risks (risks will be those involving sharing of data, integration of systems, projects that will incur a large expense, systems that will be on the network, etc.)
• Projects that involve services with multiple service dependencies
• Projects that involve multiple sites/locations
• Projects aligned with the organizational strategic vision

For information on what happens when you submit a proposal, please visit our Technology Project Proposals page.

Please contact Tina Sarantos via ts2808@cumc.columbia.edu with any questions.

Tips & Tricks

Hitting Ctrl + Shift + N brings up incognito mode on a Windows computer. On a Mac computer, it’s Control + Command + N. Incognito mode is useful when using a shared device where you don’t want your browser history remembered.

Hitting the Alt key + Tab will pull up a view of all windows you have open and allow you to toggle between them. To see all windows at one on a MAC, there are multiple ways:

1. Swipe up three fingers on the trackpad or a Magic Trackpad.
2. Double tap the surface of a Magic Mouse with two fingers.
3. Press the Mission Control (F3) key on a keyboard, the key may have three small squares on it