12/23/2008

11 am, N42-286, CSS Managers 

Agenda

• The Softphone release project needs your advice (othomas)
  I'd like to have a 15-minute conversation to solicit ideas on the best
  way / options for the softphone release project to move forward.

Jonathan Hunt will be calling in for the meeting.

 Jon called into the meeting.
1) Roundtable

• Jana
  • no hot items, quiet
  • quiet for VoIP transition but will go up in January
  • resource rates in Daptive - Anne will answer when roundtable gets to her.
  • On vacation tomorrow - ski, NH
• Kate
  • Number of people migrating to Office '07 is increasing; EHS is converting soon, training soon
  • Why slow adoption?  Some suggested UI and file converter not available in early days, approximately 6 months after.
• Anne
  • Daptive resource rates/types - hourly rate estimates across IS&T driven by SAIS need for preliminary project budgets
    • Completed by Cecilia and Daptive/finance teams; analysis of titles/job types across IS&T, but not well documented by group about how they agreed to resource types; norms and salaries averaged to come up with rates; Wilson would like managers to determine teams' rates; finance team would rather keep Cecilia's work; Anne's check determined that the two are a close approximation; since it is across IS&T - good project resource comparison
    • a few more updates left for Rob to do; Mark gave Rob % per month for people
    • In the future → how report team's capacity and allocation? Use 40 hour week/ 52 weeks/year
    • These will be used primarily to determine relative project sizes
    • Jana's question - when to count people toward VoIP project → she should speak with Elliot
    • January 15th - Project resources into Daptive for project managers; Janaury 7th - Wilson gets CSS information
    • Managers who need changes to resource type and rate should send information to Rob.
• Tim
  • PGP/HIDP Project
    • Went to TAP last week - one minor glitch but OK to go; support issues now addressed; last step is a review with VP Staff in mid-January (16th?); not a tool for all - just targeted release
    • What about those who want it?  But not in scope - Jon will talk to Tim
• Mark
  • not much people on vacation
  • IT information server is no longer for stock answers, only front product page.  It is down frequently, but we will live with it until Drupal is installed.  There is no other solution without time and money
• Jon
  • Software billing communication breakdown  - delayed billing since July.  Jon thanked Anne who has been working hard to correct this.
• Chris
  • DITR will be working with the NextSource Vendor Management tool for hiring and tracking contractors.  This is a pilot in conjunction with I&T-HR and Procurement.  Potential to save time and money.
  • All of the DITR consultants will be attending Richard Edelson's IAP training session for the domain container admins.
• Oliver
  • no major round table items
  • only accounts person on this week, so go easy on him.

Agenda Item:
 SoftPhone release

• Stuart is leading
• EyeBeam was the product in focus, but now more complicated now since started - multiple possible paths
  • Client looks very non-standard
  • Counterpath discontinues support in 8 months (EOL)
  • Replaced by Bria - enterprise client.
    • More standard than EyeBeam
    • Next version not out yet
    • Mac Client not yet and current version not Mac compatible
    • Costs more → $30-60 difference per average seat.
    • Small company but largest of soft phone companies
    • No Academic pricing/site license
  • Xlite = free client - personal SIP but not VOIP or Sylantro
  • EyeBeam = fee based - personal SIP / Sylantro; but going away
  • Bria = enterprise/fee - personal SIP/ Sylantro; but costs $
• Regroup / Options:

1. EyeBean does not make sense, since EOL and $, but no clear alternative - no commercial cross platform
2. different clients for different platforms
3. No Macs and go with PC
4. Open source client - 2 available, but both early in development

• • SIP communicator
  • SJ phone
• Softclient strategy piece versus software
  • Recommend Skype versus softphone
    • VoIP forwards to Skype phone
    • advantages = Skype works well with phone and private networks v. SIP clients - not home friendly
    • disadvantages = new hopping and calls routed then random networks
    • Skype controls route and has MIT data = similar to BlackBerry issue and subpoenas for data
  • gateway solution - bridge between Skype or similar commercial product and MIT VoIP - enterprise gateway product is fairly new
• Pressure from users for Softphone: key users via Theresa and Elliot (not many, but some)
• What is cost benefit of Softphone?
  • Release team would like to do survey of frequent travelers to determine needs, uses, and behaviors
    • Jon and Chris like survey
    • Anne - high level of analysis can be done
    • Oliver - other universities with VoIP have not really officially rolled out soft phone
    • Mark - limited client desired; is this a service; products are still immature; survey will help determine level of need of service; may want bridge strategy for short term while long term in progress
    • Jon - used to think SoftPhone was answer, but now thinks Skype may be better; agrees with Mark
    • Mark - lessons learned - set expectations for short term
    • Jon - $ burden to users for ST to help control
    • Anne - business case never done for this
    • Oliver - Business case for VoIP was done because it focused only on campus infrastructure, but it did not include the Softphone.
  • If users do it on their own it is problematic = it really cannot be done on their own due to SIP password/encryption.
• Long term = consensus was to do the survey
  • Send it to whom?  List of potential people from MIT travel office, Andrew Yu (international phones), Jana's data from ipass and international phone rentals

Final non-softphone question from Mark → What are the Daptive project information expectations?  Was the January 7th date communicated to managers?  In an email from Rob.