Handout 4

Northwest Educational

Technology System

Jointly governing & managing a shared telecommunications infrastructure & support for member colleges

Annual Report Fiscal Year 2018

NETS

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Table of Contents Page

Mission Statement 3

Web Page Address & Contact Information 3

NETS Executive Committee 3

NETS Staff 4

NETS Network Site Locations 4

NETS WAN Infrastructure 5

NETS FY17 Year End Fiscal Report 7

NETS Accomplishments Brief 8

Near Term Improvement Efforts 12

Far Term Improvement Efforts 12

NETS Usage Levels 13

Vyopta Analytics 15

NETS LNM Endpoint Replacement Plan 20

User Technical Support & Maintenance Record 22

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NETS Mission Statement: The Northwest Educational Technology System, NETS, is a coalition of northwestern Minnesota institutions of higher education who employ technology to foster cooperation, communication, efficiency & access. Members utilize NETS to meet their own mission objectives & facilitate access between public resources & users. NETS infrastructure & policies are in place to expand opportunities through resource sharing between member institutions, to access distant resources & to form partnerships with other public & private entities.

NETS Executive Committee: The NETS Executive Committee establishes NETS budget, priorities & policies. Bemidji State University Karen Snorek, Vice President for Finance and Administration Minnesota State Community & Technical College Dan Knudson, CIO Minnesota State University Moorhead Dan Heckaman, CIO

NETS Executive Committee Chairman Northland Community Technical College Stacey Hron, CIO University of Minnesota, Crookston Jeff Sperling, Director TSS NETS Director Mike Hanson

NETS Northwest Educational Technology BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY, MINNESOTA STATE COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE, MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERSITY MOORHEAD, NORTHLAND COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE, NORTHWEST TECHNICAL COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, CROOKSTON NETS Office: University of Minnesota, 2900 University Ave, Crookston, Crookston, MN 56716 (218) 281-8405 /8406/8407 mhanson@umn.edu, winte497@crk.umn.edu, http://nets.crk.umn.edu/

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NETS Staff: NETS Director Mike Hanson NETS Scheduler/Technician Chris Winter

NETS Network Site Locations: Bemidji State University

Leech Lake Tribal College Minnesota State Community & Technical College

Fergus Falls Detroit Lakes Moorhead Wadena

Minnesota State University Moorhead Northland Community & Technical College

East Grand Forks Thief River Falls Roseau City Center

Northwest Technical College

Perham Office University of Minnesota, Crookston

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NETS WAN Infrastructure: NETS members’ digital access is provided through a regional ring with several access paths to the Twin Cities. This provides a level of network redundancy in the event of circuit failures. NETS funds regional circuits that to connect to MN.IT, Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota hubs. The state’s MN.IT Services office is the primary contractor of WAN circuits for NETS with a regional telco providing the link to NCTC East Grand Forks campus.

Learning Network of Minnesota: This model is common to the 6 regional Higher Ed networks, of which one is NETS. The WAN and video conferencing that serves public higher educational campuses is an aggregate of circuits and shared hardware/software funded by the regional Higher Ed networks, Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota. Minnesota State

NETS

NEAT

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SHOT

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and the University of Minnesota play a critical role in funding and supporting hub hardware and core access to the region and state. The regional networks fund the “last mile” portion of the WAN circuit & subsidize some statewide circuit costs as well as funding and supporting shared core hardware and software.

Regional network consortiums also provide shared technical support for specific applications. Video conferencing and streaming are the major applications for which technical support is provided. Together this statewide WAN network is referred to as the Learning Network of Minnesota, LNM. The Learning Network of Minnesota Board, co-chaired by the CIOs of Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota, oversees the 6 regional Higher Ed networks. Minnesota State is the fiscal agent.

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NETS Region Year End Report - FY18

NETS Region Year End Fiscal Report

FY17 FY18

Revenue

Member Contribution $ 66,970.00 $ 66,970.00

Legislative Appropriation $ 669,700.00 $ 669,700.00

Other Income (Service Reimbursements) $ 1,773.52 $ 1,012.66

Other Income (Interest) $ - $ -

Total Revenue $ 738,443.52 $ 737,682.66

Expenses

Personnel and Support $ 190,636.00 $ 193,636.00

Non-Personnel and Support $ 12,300.00 $ 12,300.00

WAN Connectivity $ 377,303.30 $ 368,383.19

Network Video $ 41,067.00 $ 41,067.00

Video Equipment Maintenance $ 23,125.10 $ 25,764.00

Video Infrastructure Maintenance $ 22,058.35 $ 24,379.02

Contracted Video Infrastructure (Acano) $ 18,315.00 $ -

Video Equipment Purchases $ 92,500.00 $ 33,398.00

Video Infrastructure Purchases $ 12,325.45

Kaltura (or Common Application) $ 25,000.00 $ 25,000.00

Other Applications $ 3,209.44 $ 2,689.50

Other Equipment Purchases $ - $ -

Total Expenses $ 805,514.19 $ 738,942.16

Total Revenue Minus Expenses $ (67,070.67) $ (1,259.50)

End of Year Carry Forward

Grant Funds and Match $ (68,844.19) $ (2,272.16)

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Total Other Income $ 1,773.52 $ 1,012.66

Previous FY Non-Grant/Match Reserve Funds $ 409,565.87 $ 342,495.20

Total Carry Forward $ 342,495.20 $ 341,235.70

The NETS Executive Committee set a NETS Reserve Fund balance minimum at $200,000.00, FY18 allocation from the NETS Reserve Fund is expected to be $9,572.16 with an end of year NETS Reserve Fund balance of $333,935.70. Of the total NETS expenditures of $746,242.16, 55% was spent on the WAN/Video circuits that provide the access or all digital networking applications of member campuses.

NETS Accomplishments Brief:

Applications & Services: Data for this report was run May 10, 2018. Numbers do not include activity scheduled after this date through June 30, 2018. NETS provides the regional or “last mile” network component, as well as portions of the state WAN that joins with Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota circuits to complete the digital WAN access for member institutions. In addition, NETS provides infrastructure and technical support for video applications, video recording and video streaming, media management and coordinates NETS funded circuit contracts and maintenance. NETS also contributes $25,000 a year to the Minnesota Media Management System, (MMMS/Kaltura). MMMS is jointly funded and operated by Minnesota State, the University of Minnesota, and the 6 regional networks. MMMS allows Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota faculty/staff to create, upload, stream and manage their video recording files.

Immersive rooms: Six, member purchased, immersive video rooms are in operation in NETS, (3 at NCTC, 2 at MState and 1

at MSUM). All immersive rooms in NETS register to the state’s MN.IT call manager and are integrated into the core LNM equipment and software and share the same access as all other LNM video facilities. NCTC’s and MState’s immersive rooms

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are primarily used for courses and meetings between their campuses. To date shared courses with North Hennepin CC are the main application for MSUM’s immersive facility.

Desktop/mobile conferencing offers access convenience for users to meet as well as a vehicle to add remote enrollment into existing traditional classes, video conference classes or on line course supplements, as well office hours. There are a wide variety of products available for desktop to desktop. NETS & the LNM focus on products and services that integrate into core infrastructure, so that they benefit from the bridging, recording, streaming, automation and management resources that exist today. Integration into the core maximizes access options and service choices for users. User friendliness, simplicity, plus leveraging existing solutions are key requirements.

o CMS (Acano) FY18 reported usage to date is down by -8% from FY17 with 726 hours and 324 bookings. o Telepresence WebEx FY18 reported usage to date is down by -35% from FY17 with 886 hours and 555 bookings. o Jabber FY18 reported usage to date is down by -71% from FY17 with 2 hours and 1 booking.

o Skype FY18 reported usage to date is down by -100% from FY17 with 0 hours and 0 bookings.

o Total reported FY187 desktop application usage to date is 1,614 hours, a -26% decrease from FY17.

While lifecycle replacement continues to be a challenge, some progress has been made. Video facility upgrades occurred at

the following locations, 2 at MState, 2 at NCTC and 2 at UMC. This was done at both institution and NETS expense. Repositioning units from these facilities was used to upgrade endpoints at NCTC locations.

Streaming & recording abilities are provided for NETS members. All video facilities can be recorded and streamed.

o Since MediaSpace was brought on line, NETS facilitated streaming for applications other than recording video courses has

dropped off markedly. Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota users now have the ability to create, upload & manage their own videos themselves and are opting for this. Remaining streaming activity facilitated by NETS is almost exclusively recording of video conference taught courses, (357 Kaltura media entries were played 840 times).

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o The Minnesota Media Management System, (MMMS/Kaltura) gives members the ability to create & upload video files to a server that encodes and streams their video. Members do not incur a cost or technical management responsibilities to use this. Several NETS member campuses operate their own Kaltura Management Consoles. Many Minnesota State staff & faculty have and use Kaltura Media Spaces under the MMMS project. Media Space allows Minnesota State users to record video from their desktop and upload and manage their own video files for streaming. Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota have integrated MMM/Kaltura into D2L and Moodle.

NETS members recorded 12,448 hours of NETS facilitated endpoint video application use this fiscal year, to date. Down 6%

from last year. (Data Run Date: 5/10/18. Summer FY18 data not yet available.)

Credit applications make up 58% of total activity, down from 61% in FY17.

Video meetings made up 42% of NETS total hourly use, up from 39% in FY17.

NETS operates a network operations center to support users. During the academic year, the network operations center is staffed 12x5 with an on call technician assigned to cover support outside of this window providing support on evenings & weekends.

Collaboration & Communication:

The six Higher Ed Regional Networks, Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota work in close collaboration to leverage each other’s’ resources. The collaborative efforts and the shared infrastructure is called the Learning Network of Minnesota. These entities are interdependent for WAN access and video related services. The aggregated resources hold down costs and increases access for all.

All higher education bridging, content recording servers, VCS licenses, Cisco desktop video, and management software are

aggregated into a single resource located mostly at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This enables economies of scale that hold down costs for all.

The streaming/media management Minnesota Media Management System, MMMS, project is jointly funded by the 6

regional network consortiums, Minnesota State and the U of M. Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota technical resources have been heavily utilized in this project. All entities are represented on the MMMS Advisory Committee.

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NETS is currently collaborating with the LNM and the six Higher Ed Regional Network Directors in an effort to define a Service

Level Agreement that will serve as a starting point for the regions. The SLA will then be modified to meet the planning, operational and responsibility needs of each individual region.

NETS meets formally, informally and frequently with the following entities:

NETS Executive Committee The Learning Network of Minnesota Board Minnesota Higher Education Regional Network Directors & MN.IT. MN.IT Services Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota IT departments Minnesota Media Management System Advisory Committee

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Near Term Improvement Efforts:

Areas of Focus:

Expanded WebRTC based facilities.

Cisco CMS (Acano) future role. Lifecycle replacement.

Far Term Improvement Issues:

The items below represent major issues for NETS.

The challenges for NETS are primarily fiscal challenges. Reductions in NETS legislative funding and anticipated increased Immersive costs continue to be an issue.

Keeping core equipment and licensing capacity current to accommodate desktop, mobile and immersive applications. This

will be a greater challenge as grant funded maintenance contracts end.

Lifecycle replacement for user endpoints and future costs for Cisco maintenance contracts for immersive related equipment when grant funded contracts expire.

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NETS Usage Levels: Videoconferencing

NETS accumulated 12,448 endpoint hours of videoconferencing use during FY18 compared to 13,225 in FY17, a -6% decrease from FY17. Credit applications made up 58% of the FY18 activity down from 61% in FY17. (Data run as of 5/10/18).

BSUFY17

BSUFY18

LLTCFY17

LLTCFY18

MStateFY17

MStateFY18

MSUMFY17

MSUMFY18

NCTCFY17

NCTCFY18

NTCFY17

NTCFY18

UMCFY17

UMCFY18

NETSNOCFY17

NETSNOCFY18

Hours 0 254 274 56 15 4722 4188 1747 979 6068 6344 41 277 174 249 163 122

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NETS FY17/18 Hours by Institution

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NETS accumulated 4,829 hours of Immersive endpoint videoconferencing use during FY18 compared to 5,297 in FY17, a -9% decrease from FY17. NCTC’s and MState’s immersive rooms are primarily used for courses and meetings between their campuses. To date shared courses with North Hennepin CC are the main application for MSUM’s immersive facility. (Data run as of 5/10/18).

896

1109

1,277

856

944

333

874

1081

916

1157

390

293

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600

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1000

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NETS Immersive Room FY17/18 Usage Hours

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Vyopta Analytics: In addition to normal monitoring of connections NETS is now using Vyopta real-time analytics to send alerts to NETS staff if bridge and endpoint packet loss is over 5%. NETS staff also use TMS in monitoring mode to monitor active videoconferences in an effort to identify and minimize connection issues should they arise.

Vyopta snapshot of the Learning Network of Minnesota MCU Peak Capacity.

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Real-time TMS monitoring mode snapshot of the Northland Microcomputer Maintenance course. NETS endpoint analytics for FY18

BSU Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

NET-BSU-AIRC127 SX80 $17,900 178 265.42 0 0

NET-BSU-D306 EX90 $12,870 4 3.78 0 0

NET-BSU-GLN C40 $18,070 4 5.24 0 0

BSU Total 274.44

LLTC Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

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NET-LLTC-110 SX80 $17,900 44 15.29 0 0

LLTC Total 15.29

MState Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

NET-MState-DL-A101B SX10 $3,990 23 26.41 1 0

NET-MState-DL-C107 Edge 95MXP $15,470 208 307.17 0 2

NET-MState-DL-C108 SX80 $17,900 455 637.57 2 0

NET-MState-DL-PORT Edge 95MXP $15,470 41 42.02 0 0

NET-FF-EX60PORT EX60 $8,970 6 5.96 0 0

FergusFalls Rm L146 IX5000 $299,000 781 1109.47 11 0

NET-MState-FF-L105 Edge 95MXP $15,470 19 14.91 0 0

NET-MState-FF-L109 Edge 95MXP $15,470 5 1.84 0 0

NET-MState-FF-PORT Edge 95MXP $15,470 41 26.36 0 1

NET-MState-FF-PORT SX10 $3,990 48 48.37 1 1

NET-MState-FF-S436 C40 $18,070 1 1.10 0 0

NET-MState-FF-S436 SX20 $11,900 65 37.72 2 0

NET-MState-MHD-A113 Edge 95MXP $15,470 31 26.87 0 0

NET-MState-MHD-A113 SX20 $11,900 48 62.05 0 0

Moorhead Rm B131 IX5000 $299,000 571 855.74 7 0

NET-Mstate-MHD-C126 SX80 $17,900 237 323.53 0 2

NET-MState-MHD-Port Edge 95MXP $15,470 14 16.31 2 2

NET-MState-MHD-Port SX10 $3,990 25 21.37 0 0

NET-MState-WD-N21 SX80 $17,900 135 192.57 0 0

NET-MState-WD-N26 SX80 $17,900 298 399.15 1 0

NET-MState-WD-S38 Edge 95MXP $15,470 4 2.71 0 0

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NET-MState-WDNA-S38 SX10 $3,990 25 29.13 0 0

MState Total 4188.33

MSUM Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

MSUM-Moorhead-Rm-HA210 CTS TX9200 $339,000 236 333.39 4 0

NET-MSUM-CB105 SX80 $17,900 88 94.42 0 0

NET-MSUM-CMUE Edge 95MXP $15,470 6 6.90 0 0

NET-MSUM-LIB109 Edge 95MXP $15,470 53 123.33 0 0

NET-MSUM-LIB109 SX10 $3,990 22 24.46 0 0

NET-MSUM-LO03 Edge 95MXP $15,470 81 183.07 0 0

NET-MSUM-LO03 SX20 $11,900 98 200.76 1 0

NET-MSUM-Mobile 880MXP 0 0 0.00 0 0

NET-MSUM-OW201 Edge 95MXP $15,470 16 4.79 0 0

NET-MSUM-Port2 Edge 95MXP $15,470 12 7.81 0 0

MSUM Total 978.93

NCTC Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

Northland CTC East Grand Forks Rm 149

CTS TX9200 $339,000 670 1081.13 15 0

NET-NCTC-EGF-248 EX60 $8,970 3 0.01 0 0

NET-NCTC-EGF-290C C40 $18,070 362 482.45 0 0

NET-NCTC-EGF-292 SX80 $17,900 540 776.07 0 0

NET-NCTC-EGF-301 SX20 $11,900 407 441.04 2 0

NET-NCTC-ROSEAU SX80 $17,900 123 259.41 0 0

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NET-NCTC-TRF-461B SX20 $11,900 304 422.09 1 0

Northland CTC Thief River Falls Rm 601 CTS TX9200 $339,000 716 1157.42 9 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-662 C40 $18,070 466 497.62 1 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-735 SX80 $17,900 590 801.31 2 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-AVAC10 C40 $18,070 8 5.83 0 0

Northland CTC Thief River Falls AC15 CTS TX9200 $339,000 300 292.66 31 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-AVAC27 SX80 $17,900 22 8.02 0 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-AVAC28 C40 $18,070 15 2.90 0 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-AVAC9 Edge 95MXP $15,470 10 3.72 0 0

NET-NCTC-TRF-AVAC16 SX20 $11,900 106 112.68 0 0

NCTC Total 6344.36

NTC Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

NET-NTC-319 SX80 $17,900 37 33.08 0 0

NET-NTC-PER-122 Edge 95MXP $15,470 1 0.31 0 0

NET-NTC-PER-122 SX10 $3,990 22 243.13 0 0

NTC Total 276.52

UMC Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

NET-UMN-C-DH101 SX80 $17,900 48 23.93 3 0

NET-UMN-C-K105 C40 $18,070 5 1.82 0 0

NET-UMN-C-K105 SX10 $3,990 112 89.80 3 0

NET-UMN-C-K116-3 C40 $18,070 7 2.78 0 0

NET-UMN-C-Port SX10 $3,990 32 27.53 0 0

NET-UMN-C-S308-1 C40 $18,070 218 70.71 2 3

NET-UMN-C-SCH SX10 $3,990 28 32.34 2 0

UMC Total 248.91

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NETS NOC Endpoint Model List Price Total Calls Total Hrs

Call Issues

Quality Issues

NET-UMN-C-NOC5 Edge 95MXP $15,470 21 9.46 0 0

NET-UMN-C-NOC5 C40 $18,070 182 75.75 2 0

NET-UMN-C-NOC6 C40 $15,470 73 10.56 0 6

NET-UMN-C-NOC6 C40 $18,070 86 25.85 1 0

NET-UMN-C-NOC7 Edge 95MXP $15,470 0 0.00 0 0

NOC Total 121.62

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NETS LNM Endpoint Replacement Plan: The Learning Network of Minnesota requested the six regional networks to produce a common endpoint replacement template. This NETS Endpoint replacement plan is subject to approval by the NETS Executive Committee each fiscal year of the plan. The video facility upgrades in this report include both institution and NETS expense. Future upgrades may also be at institution expense, NETS expense or a combination of institution & NETS expense.

Replacement Cost by Fiscal Year-College Total Units by Type

As of 7/1/17

FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20+ Total Type # Endpoints Academic Admin Maint #

NETS $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 Cisco TelePresence EX60 2 1 1 0

Bemidji State University $21,312 $0 $0 $0 $21,312 Cisco TelePresence EX90 1 1 1

Leech Lake Tribal College $21,312 $0 $0 $0 $21,312 Cisco TelePresence SX10 9 9 9

Minnesota State CTC $27,180 $23,652 $2,303 $13,590 $91,602 Cisco TelePresence SX20 6 2 4 6

Minnesota State University Moorhead $0 $7,884 $2,303 $0 $10,278

Cisco TelePresence SX80 13 13 13

Northland CTC $32,450 $0 $6,667 $13,590 $57,020 Cisco TelePresence IX5200 2 2 2

Northwest Technical College $21,312 $2,394 $0 $0 $23,706 Cisco TelePresence TX9200 4 4 0

UM Crookston $16,674 $2,394 $6,667 $0 $26,952 TANDBERG 880 Legacy 0 0 0

TANDBERG 880MXP 0 0 0

TOTAL $140,240 $36,324 $17,940 $27,180 $252,182 TANDBERG Edge 95MXP 9 4 5 0

TANDBERG Codec C40 8 4 4 0

# of Replacements by Fiscal Year-College

FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 Total

NETS 0 0 0 0 0

Bemidji State University 2 0 0 0 2 Total 54

Leech Lake Tribal College 1 0 0 0 1

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Minnesota State CTC 2 6 1 1 11 Minnesota State University Moorhead 0 2 1 0 3

Northland CTC 2 0 1 1 5

Northwest Technical College 2 1 0 0 3

UM Crookston 2 1 1 0 5

TOTAL 11 10 4 2 30

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User Technical Support: The NETS office is staffed for user support 12x5 with on call technicians available outside this window. NETS tracks technical support/help calls to the NETS network operations center requesting assistance. These are available in real time on the NETS webpage. Help calls are calls from users asking for technical assistance during an event. Maintenance events are call generated efforts, preemptive or reactionary, to fix site or network issues that are not immediately disrupting user activity.

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The largest area of trouble log entries are site issues, of 109 site issues the most frequent entries were to assist users operating their video conferencing room hardware, inadvertent disconnections, or users in the wrong room. Of the total trouble log entries for assistance, 91% were resolved the day of the entry. NETS had a total of 2 open TAC cases in FY18 with the longest open for 59 days and the shortest of 18 days.

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FY18 NETS Trouble Log

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Maintenance events are call generated efforts, preemptive or reactionary, to fix site or network issues that are not immediately disrupting user activity. Similar to help calls, most maintenance calls are site related with room equipment. This would be items like equipment turned off, monitors set to improper inputs, audio equipment turned down or cables unplugged. Actual broken equipment is rare.

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FY18 NETS Maintenance Log