Q: How did you decide on the technology for the Board of Trustees solution?

A: In 2007 we were tasked with developing a solution to meet the increasing administrative and Board needs for timely, secure document sharing and pre-meeting collaboration. The process being used was complicated by the difficulty in disseminating large documents electronically across multiple email systems with different filtering and rules.

Given the visibility and criticality of the need, we decided to leverage our collaboration with Microsoft to deliver a secure, collaborative workspace to support these needs. SharePoint’s document management capabilities and collaborative workspaces provided the foundation needed to deliver a state-of-the-art solution for the Board of Trustees.

Q: Is the Board of Trustees site live today? Did you pilot the site before go-live?

A: Yes, the Board of Trustees site was officially launched in March 2008, when we held our first board meeting off the new site.

To facilitate this launch, the site was piloted to a select group of Trustees and administrators over the summer and fall of 2007. We kicked off the pilot with overview sessions offered to 30-40 key administrative staff from areas that are heavily involved in Board meeting material production. These included assistants to the Deans and Vice Presidents and key staff in Administration and Finance, Communications, and Advancement. Our goal was to introduce them to the site, get their suggestions for improving the functionality, and get their buy-in for the process. The early exposure and buy-in was critical to our success.

Early in the pilot, we also reached out directly to the Vice Presidents. They all were very supportive, even enthusiastic. This is especially true for the Vice Presidents critical to Board material production – the Sr. Vice President and General Counsel, the Sr. Vice President for Administration and Finance and CFO, the Sr. Vice President for Institutional Resources, and the Sr. Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of the Medical Center and Strong Health. We were also fortunate to have a few staunch Trustee supporters in the pilot group, including the Chairman of the Board.

The success of the pilot and official launch was due in large part to the strong collaboration between the executive members of the President’s staff and the University Information Technology resources.

Q: What types of board documents are available on the Board of Trustees site?

A: Document libraries were created for BOT Committees, BOT Bylaws, the University Charter, BOT Policies, and Financials. Any existing documents were then uploaded to the site under these document libraries. The Board of Trustee site has been designed to accomodate easy navigation and presentation of the most common requests for information which include:

• Board Directory
• Past Meetings
• Meetings & Events
• Financials
• Links to Board Resources (ie:Bylaws, Charter, Policies)
• Committee Materials
• General Board Materials and Resources
• Board Materials and agenda for upcoming meetings, itemized by day of meeting
• Administration of Site Permissions

Q: Is there any additional cost to use the Board of Trustees site?

A: Although there was an initial investment required to build the Board of Trustees site, there is no additional cost to use the site. Also, there is no incremental annual cost for the product.

Q: What are some of the key features provided on the Board of Trustees site?

A: Some of the key features provided include document management, collaborative workspaces, search capability, support by the University Communications office for Board & Committee materials, and the ability to maintain biographic information about members of the board.

Q: Was the Board of Trustees site customized? Are these customizations available for use by other higher education institutions?

A: Yes, the Board of Trustees site has been customized to use a design template that was built specifically for Board of Trustees sites. The University of Rochester also designed custom web parts to deliver functionality, such as the Board Directory.

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with other higher education institutions that are developing similar solutions to support the needs of their communities. If you are interested in joining a user group or in learning more about this specific solution, please contact Jackie King or Lynn Rapone.

Q: Does any of the functionality provided on the Board of Trustees site require special plug-ins? If yes, have these caused any issues or concerns?

A: All customizations on the Board of Trustees site use native functionality.

Q: Does the Board of Trustees site make it easier for the Board Secretary to distribute a board book? If yes, please describe.

A: Yes, currently board materials are created and saved as PDF documents. This common document format allows us to provide materials electronically which helps deliver cost savings on printing and editorial labor while supporting our "Go Green" initiative. During the design phase, emphasis was placed on creating navigation and content areas that accomodate the experience of the trustee. Locating and accessing documents is easy and fast.

Q: Is the Board of Trustees site implemented as a standalone application or a shared one? If shared, are there multiple instances of the site or a single instance?

A: The Board of Trustees site is implemented as a standalone application in a shared environment. There is only a single instance.

Q: How many environments/instances support the Trustee application?

A: The Board of Trustees site exists in two environments/instances – Test and Production.

Q: What are the expectations of uptime and availability for the Board of Trustees site?

A: The Board of Trustees site comes with an expectation of 90% uptime and 24x7x365 availability.

Q: What security measures are in place for the Board of Trustees site?

A: Users must authenticate with a username and password. Upon entering the site, a disclaimer reminding the user to logout and protect the documents they view and download is displayed.

Q: What was the initial reaction to the Board of Trustees site?

A: The Board of Trustees site was very well received. We attribute the success of this project to:

• The strong collaboration between University Information Technology resources and the executive members of the President’s staff
• A productive vendor partnership
• The University’s commitment to sustainability
• A solution that supports ease of use, 24x7 availability of materials, and quick turnaround on updates

Q: How did you train the users of the Board of Trustees site?

A: We took several steps to train our new users.

• We worked side by side with our board members, introducing them to the process of uploading material and creating document libraries.
• We prepared electronic quick reference guides for internal staff and Trustee assistants and posted them on the site under HELP.
• We hosted a 3-day training session which was customized to the needs of University staff.
• We made people available on site at the March meeting to answer questions about the site.
   Staff is also available on an ongoing basis to train new users and provide support to all users.

Q: Do Board of Trustees members bring computers to the meetings?

A: Not typically. A hard copy of the board book is provided to those board members who do not bring computers to the meetings. Over time, we hope that fewer hard copy board books will be distributed. We have noticed more trustees are using mobile devices as a result we have updated our site to better accomodate mobile devices such as IPADS and other tablets.

Q: How have your support experiences been? Have prior problems fallen into any broad categories?

A: When the Board of Trustees site was initially rolled out, we experienced several authentication-related issues. Logging into the Board of Trustees site requires that the user have an account in the University Active Directory. Since most of the board members are external to the University, a certain amount of pre-work was needed to set all members up with Active Directory accounts.

Once the accounts were established, it also was necessary to work with the board members and their administrators, at times on a one-on-one basis, to clarify how the username/password needed to be provided. All Active Directory accounts are preceded by a domain name, such as “ur\test, ” and this added some complexity to the process.

Q: Who maintains the user information for the Board of Trustees site?

A: The Board of Trustees site has been set up with two main groups of users – Trustees and Trustee Assistants. University Information Technology works with the Board Secretary to ensure that these access groups are updated as Board membership changes.

We would also recommend that a standard format be used, where possible, for the usernames and passwords created to support this effort. This can greatly expedite both setup of accounts and the resolution of issues.