THIS POSTER SESSION WAS PRESENTED AT THE 1995 CAUSE ANNUAL CONFERENCE. IT IS PART OF THE ONLINE PROCEEDINGS OF THAT CONFERENCE. PERMISSION TO COPY OR DISSEMINATE ALL OR PART OF THIS MATERIAL IS GRANTED PROVIDED THAT THE COPIES ARE NOT MADE OR DISTRIBUTED FOR COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGE. TO COPY OR DISSEMINATE OTHERWISE, OR TO REPUBLISH IN ANY FORM, REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR AND CAUSE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: CAUSE, 4840 PEARL EAST CIRCLE, SUITE 302E, BOULDER, CO 80301; 303-449-4430; E-MAIL INFO@CAUSE.COLORADO.EDU. MANAGING OPERATIONS, PLANNING AND RESOURCES THROUGH COMS Praveen Mogili and Bill Smith Engineering Computing, University Of South Florida Tampa FL 33620 USA November 30, 1995 ABSTRACT This paper presents an implementation of a comprehensive operations and management system (COMS) developed at University of South Florida to support user services, operations and planning in a rapidly growing academic computing environment. COMS is being used in various locations on the campus for computer laboratory management, help desk operation and automation, resource management, computer library operation and statistical analysis of resource usage trends. COMS is built on top of a centralized database which stores all the users, resources and the usage data collected daily from computer labs with a user friendly Motif Graphical User Interface (GUI). Campus wide ID card is integrated into the system to improve the speed and accuracy of transactions through magnetic stripe readers. Resources data along with the usage data collected from the labs and the results from statistical analysis are used for inventory control, planning, scheduling and budget allocation for computer resources. A hyper text help system is embedded into COMS in the form of frequently asked questions to aid lab assistants in answering questions from students. INTRODUCTION COMS employs a TQM strategy in a typical campus computing environment by automating computer services like: * Computer lab operations * User account management * Computer resource management * System backups * Help desk operation and by providing useful quantitative information related to resource usage in the form of reports and charts. During the development process issues related to user services are identified and addressed in COMS. Some of them are as follows: * How to deliver faster service in the labs? * How to keep track of the resource usage? * How to assist students using the labs with problems? * How to schedule a computer lab for classes in a busy location? * What system operations can be decentralized? * How to aid system operators in their duties? * What kind of quantitative information is needed? * Where do we need to put more money, time and effort? SYSTEM DESCRIPTION This system originally developed only for laboratory usage has grown into a comprehensive management system to include other areas like resource management and computer library operation to automate many of the system personnel functions. The current system performs several functions and is being used by lab assistants, system operators, system managers and upper level management. Lab assistants use it to check in/out resources at a particular location, to issue computer accounts and to help students with frequently asked questions. System operators use it to maintain computer resources, perform system backups and restores, manage user accounts, check out computer media, manuals and to schedule computer labs for classes. System managers use the system to administer and maintain the database, to manage inventory, to spot trends in resource usage and to identify future equipment requirements. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION The whole system is a collection of software modules consisting of a client module, a server module and DBMS. COMS follows a client-server model, with a server running on a machine with Data Base Management System (DBMS) and a client which runs on the same or different machine(s). Server accesses the relational database as it receives requests from clients for any database operations like add, delete, update and select on tables in the database. Database has 20 tables with information related to users(last name, first name, SS No., college etc.,), resource usage, resources, items, locations, departments, colleges, classes and groups. COMS users interact with the client module, which is a GUI written in C using X11 and Motif libraries. The server module acts as a back-end program for the client module and interacts with the DBMS. Server module is written in C with embedded SQL, Client-Server communication is achieved through RPC library routines. Initial population of tables was done partly by utilities and partly by entering data manually through the front end programs. Database updates are done by several users from different locations. Usage tables are updated whenever a student enters/leaves any computer lab, this is done by reading the student ID card with the magnetic stripe reader and can be as quick as 2 seconds. System operators update resources, items, groups, locations, departments and colleges tables as needed using the client modules. Student information is down loaded from the mainframe (IBM3090/CICS) system and is filtered/updated automatically once a month or whenever there is new data. Resource usage sorted by colleges, departments, groups and items are generated for every location and stored in summary tables during the night. This information is retrieved in the form of bar/pie charts and reports. Frequently asked questions are added to the help database by system managers/administrators as needed. CONCLUSIONS COMS system was initially in operation in the College of Engineering, and has subsequently been implemented in the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and Academic Computing with our regional campuses showing an interest in joining the system. With the integration of campus wide student ID card information into COMS, time spent in entering/leaving the labs has been reduced to as short as 2 seconds. Students can get computer accounts from different locations by swiping the campus wide student ID card with in an hour. Answers to frequently asked questions are available via the hyper text help facility. This has enabled lab assistants to be more effective in helping our users and reduced the start-up time for new hires. Addition of expert rules to the help system and linking it to the World Wide Web (WWW) will make it directly accessible to students. Resource usage information, seats and software available at different locations is provided on the WWW in the form of XY graphs and tables. Inventory information for all CPU's are entered into the machines table giving us instant access to comprehensive information about our computer assets. Maintenance personnel are notified of down equipment in a more timely manner and daily reports of down equipment are available. Library information stored in the database include data on user manuals, tapes, CD-ROM and other computer media. Users may scan the database by title or do a keyword search. Many types of textual reports may be requested from the libraries. Typical management questions that may be answered by COMS include: * How many hours of computer lab time did students from the geology department use in the last 90 days? * What was the usage of workstations vs. PC's last semester? * How many 486 PC' are located in the engineering building? * What questions were most frequently asked of lab assistants? * Which computer labs have open lab seats right now? With COMS, the University of South Florida has been able to speed the deliver of services to authorized users, improve accuracy and provide detailed ad-hoc management reports to management.