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What an exciting year we’ve had! As I’m writing this, we’ve just entered another hour or two of load-shedding, and I’m thankful for a reliable laptop on battery power.

In the centennial year of the University, a number of bold decisions were finalised to launch some of the largest renewal projects in the last two decades.

The successor systems for two core administrative applications, Student and Financial Management, were evaluated, selected and approved by the Rectorate by the end of November. Both  applications, to be implemented over the next two years, are modern and innovative in important aspects:

• The systems will be implemented in the cloud and developed and maintained by leading international vendors. This is a major change for the university, having developed and maintained the legacy applications in-house for more than 25 years.
• The platforms serving these applications will be located in the cloud, and not on campus like before. This will have a major impact on the nature of our work and will enable us to utilise resources in new ways to improve our services to the university.

As far as we’re aware, no other university in South Africa has migrated these applications to a cloud based platform yet.

The IT Division has been hard at work to improve the quality and sustainability of our services. In August, we submitted the two-year Quality Improvement Report to the institutional Quality Committee, which was accepted with acclaim. The report mentioned important improvement milestones, like the establishment of a new governance body for information and technology management, the Technology and Information Committee, as well as many organisational, infrastructure and service improvements.

Another major achievement for the year is the development and implementation of the ICT Partner Portal, a system to streamline and manage all work streams for ourselves and our partners, colleagues and clients. Since implementation in September, about 80% of the service processes in the IT Division has been defined and configured in the system, and more than 17000 incidents and requests were processed in three months. The system is designed to provide transparency to the workflow and completion of tasks to all process stakeholders – users or clients, service staff and management.

The year will also be remembered for the steep increase in cyber-attacks, especially phishing attempts. A dedicated cybersecurity function was established to deal with the rising threats, and to our dismay, we noticed a significant percentage of manpower being absorbed by this phenomenon.

We are also sad to see a number of colleagues leaving our team, some retiring and others to greener pastures. We wish all of them well, especially Callie van der Merwe and Thys de Wet, who spent their entire career at Stellenbosch University.

Lastly, a word of appreciation to prof Stan du Plessis, our new Chief Operating Officer, for the first full year of his leadership and support. We are inspired and eager to enter 2019 with renewed energy, after a short period of rest.

Best wishes for the festive season!

Attie Juyn

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Wat ʼn opwindende jaar het ons nie gehad nie! Terwyl ek hier skryf, het ons sopas nog ʼn uur of twee van beurtkrag betree en is ek dankbaar vir ʼn betroubare skootrekenaar met batterykrag.

Gedurende die Eeufeesjaar van die Universiteit is ʼn aantal moedige besluite gefinaliseer om van die grootste hernieuwingsprojekte van die laaste twee dekades te loods.

Die opvolgstelsels van die twee kern administratiewe toepassings, Studente en Finansiële Bestuur, is evalueer, gekies en einde November deur die Rektoraat goedgekeur. Beide hierdie toepassings, wat oor die volgende twee jaar implementeer word, is modern en innoverend om verskeie redes:

• Die stelsels sal in die wolk implementeer word  en deur toonaangewende internasionale verskaffers ontwikkel en onderhou word. Dis ʼn belangrike verandering vir die Universiteit wat die bestaande toepassings vir meer as 25 jaar intern ontwikkel en onderhou het.
• Die platforms wat hierdie toepassings bedien sal wolk- en nie meer kampusgebaseerd wees nie. Dit sal ʼn groot impak hê op die aard van ons werk en ons in staat stel om hulpbronne verskillend aan te wend en sodoende ons dienste aan die Universiteit te verbeter.

Sover ons kennis strek het geen Suid-Afrikaanse universiteit hierdie toepassings al voorheen na ʼn wolkgebaseerde platform migreer nie.

Die IT-afdeling het hard gewerk om die kwaliteit en volhoubaarheid van ons dienste te verbeter. Die tweejaarlikse kwaliteitverbeteringsverslag is in Augustus voorgelê aan die institusionele Kwaliteitskomitee, is positief ontvang en goedgekeur. Belangrike verbeteringsmylpale is in die verslag genoem, onder andere die vestiging van ʼn nuwe bestuursliggaam en tegnologiebestuur, die Tegnologie- en Informasiekomitee, sowel as verskeie organisatoriese, infrastruktuur- en diensverbeterings.

ʼn Verdere beduidende sukses in 2018 is die ontwikkeling en implementering van die ICT Partner Portal, ʼn stelsel wat ons werksvloei en wisselwerking met ons vennote, kollegas en kliënte vaartbelyn maak en bestuur. Ongeveer 80% van die IT-afdeling se diensprosesse is sedert die stelsel se implementering in September gedefinieer en -konfigureer en meer as 17000 insidente en versoeke is die afgelope drie maande verwerk. Die stelsel is ontwerp sodat daar deursigtigheid vir alle prosesaandeelhouers, kliënte, dienspersoneel en bestuur is ten opsigte van die werksvloei en voltooiing van take. 

Die jaar sal ook onthou word vir ʼn skerp toename in kuberaanvalle, veral strikroofpogings. ʼn Gespesialiseerde kubersekuriteitsfunksie is gevestig om die toename in bedreigings te hanteer. Dis egter onthutsend dat ʼn beduidende persentasie van ons mannekrag gevolglik ook deur hierdie verskynsel absorbeer word. 

Ons is ook hartseer dat ʼn paar van ons kollegas die span verlaat, sommige vir aftrede, ander vir groener weivelde. Ons wens hulle almal voorspoed toe, veral Callie van der Merwe en Thys de Wet wat hulle hele loopbaan by die Universiteit spandeer het.

Laastens wil ons ook vir prof Stan du Plessis, ons nuwe Uitvoerende Bedryfshoof, bedank vir die eerste volledige jaar van sy leierskap en ondersteuning. Ons is gretig en geïnspireerd om na ʼn kort rustyd 2019 aan te durf met nuwe energie.

Beste wense vir die feesgety!

Attie Juyn

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