{"id":15009,"date":"2020-12-04T11:18:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T09:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/?p=15009"},"modified":"2020-12-04T11:26:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T09:26:18","slug":"exceptional-efforts-by-it-colleagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/2020\/12\/exceptional-efforts-by-it-colleagues\/","title":{"rendered":"[:en]Exceptional efforts by IT colleagues[:af]Uitsonderlike steun deur IT-personeel[:]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[:en]<\/p>\n<p>As we approach the end of a turbulent year caused by a global pandemic and shrinking economies, we are filled with gratitude and pride when we look back on what we achieved and prevented from happening this year. As we see many businesses failing, we recognise our vulnerabilities and exposure to business disruption. The fact that SU could not only maintain and continue its operations, but even accelerate its digitalisation strategy, is evidence of exceptional efforts by the IT colleagues of our university. Nobody foresaw what happened this year. Our response was remarkable, and successful.<\/p>\n<p>More specifically, the following IT-related interventions should be highlighted for the significant contribution to business continuity and support of general productivity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In March, immediate action by IT management in organising the necessary initiatives to upgrade and stabilise the IT infrastructure and services to support increased workload and data flow;<\/li>\n<li>Collaboration across functional borders to arrange new services like the provision of laptops to students, and continuously organise the provision of data bundles to qualifying students;<\/li>\n<li>Adjustments to administrative information systems to implement management decisions related to operational challenges;<\/li>\n<li>Initiatives to form new support structures to support staff and students working at home;<\/li>\n<li>Resilience and agility to continue with major projects and deliver on institutional requirements, without using the pandemic as an excuse;<\/li>\n<li>Finally, the general willingness to make sacrifices, collaborate and conform to new protocols and ways of working.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To all our partners and colleagues in IT and other functions of the university, we express our sincere gratitude for what we achieved together. We are now in a much better position to plan for known and unknown challenges that may occur on our journey to a digitalised society and university. How soon we\u2019ll get there, depends very much on this good start and our perseverance, maintaining quality standards and focus.<\/p>\n<p>Best wishes for the festive season, and I hope that all of us of will enjoy some rest to prepare for the next challenging year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Attie Juyn<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Senior Director: Information Technology<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>25 November 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[:af]<\/p>\n<p>Namate ons die einde van \u0149 onstuimige jaar nader, gekenmerk deur \u0149 w\u00eareldwye pandemie en kwynende ekonomie, kyk ons dankbaar en trots terug na wat ons bereik en voorkom het. Terwyl etlike besighede gesluit het of aansienlike verliese gely het, \u00a0is die Universiteit ook gekonfronteer deur ons eie swakplekke en blootstelling aan besigheidsontwrigting. Die feit dat die US nie net sy normale bedryf kon handhaaf en voortsit nie, maar selfs die strategie vir digitalisering kon versnel, weerspie\u00ebl die uitsonderlike diens van die Universiteit se IT-personeel. Niemand kon di\u00e9 jaar se gebeure voorsien nie. Ons reaksie was voortreflik en suksesvol.<\/p>\n<p>Die volgende IT-verwante ingrypings kan uitgelig word vir hulle beduidende bydrae tot besigheidskontinu\u00efteit en ondersteuning van algemene produktiwiteit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Onmiddellike aksie deur IT-bestuur in Maart om die noodsaaklike inisiatiewe in plek te sit vir die opgradering en stabilisering van die IT-infrastruktuur om sodoende die verhoogde werkslading en datavloei te kan ondersteun;<\/li>\n<li>Samewerking oor funksionele grense heen om nuwe dienste te verskaf, byvoorbeeld die verskaffing van skootrekenaars aan studente, sowel as databondels aan kwalifiserende studente;<\/li>\n<li>Aanpassings aan administratiewe inligtingstelsels om bestuursbesluite oor operasionele uitdagings te implementeer;<\/li>\n<li>Inisiatiewe om nuwe ondersteuningstrukture te vorm wat personeel en studente wat tuis werk te ondersteun;<\/li>\n<li>Aanpasbaarheid en buigsaamheid om voort te gaan met groot projekte en die aflewering daarvan volgens institusionele vereistes, sonder om die pandemie as \u0149 verskoning te gebruik;<\/li>\n<li>Laastens, die algemene bereidwilligheid om opofferings te maak, saam te werk en aan te pas by nuwe protokolle en werkwyses.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Aan al ons vennote en kollegas in IT en ander funksies van die Universiteit spreek ons ons opregte dank uit vir wat ons saam bereik het. Ons is tans in \u0149 veel beter posisie om te beplan vir bekende en onbekende uitdagings op ons pad na \u0149 digitale samelewing en Universiteit. Hoe vinnig ons dit gaan bereik hang grotendeels af van hierdie goeie begin, ons uithouvermo\u00eb, die behoud van kwaliteit-standaarde en fokus.<\/p>\n<p>Beste wense vir die jaarlikse feestyd, en ek hoop dat almal \u0149 ruskansie sal geniet en voorberei vir \u0149 nuwe uitdagende jaar.<\/p>\n<p><em>Attie Juyn<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Senior Direkteur: Informasietegnologie<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>25 November 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[:en] As we approach the end of a turbulent year caused by a global pandemic and shrinking economies, we are filled with gratitude and pride when we look back on what we achieved and prevented from happening this year. As we see many businesses failing, we recognise our vulnerabilities and exposure to business disruption. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3256],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 18:30:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15009"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15024,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions\/15024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}