This Thursday, July 15th, Webex will discontinue their Webex Meetings application. This is being done to promote migration to their newer application, Webex (formerly Webex Teams). Users may transition to the Webex application at any time. DoIT encourages anyone running the Webex Meetings application to upgrade before the scheduled July 15th date. 

Beginning on July 15th anyone running the Webex Meetings app will be prompted with an option to automatically install Webex and uninstall the old application. Users will be forced to complete the upgrade the next time they log out.

Alternatively you can upgrade now, we have a helpful FAQ to guide you through the process. Once you've installed Webex, you can uninstall Webex Meetings, and that's it! 

The Webex app offers all the same meeting capabilities and features that you are familiar with in the Meetings app but includes other helpful features including asynchronous chat/messaging and the optional integration of your campus phone number for inbound and outbound calling.

If you are already using the Webex app for your virtual meetings no action is required. If you have any questions or need support transitioning from Webex Meetings please contact our Technology Support Center. 

Ray Soellner

Director - DoIT

rays1@umbc.edu

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional student consultants to work during the fall semester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on Handshake to apply. (Search for DoIT Technology Support Center Student Consultant.) The application will be open until July 22, 2022.

We're specifically looking for students available to work during the following hours:

• Mondays 8 a.m. - 11 a.m.; 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Tuesdays 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
• Wednesdays 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.; 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Thursdays 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Fridays 8 a.m. - 10 a.m.

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.

This Saturday, July 2nd, from 12 noon until 12 a.m. the campus VoIP phone system will be upgraded to the latest software release. During this time the campus phone system and all related services will be operational with the exception of a few 30-60 second disruptions. Active calls should not be impacted during this work but some users may see their desk phone re-register to the phone servers while not in use. Webex phone users may need to log back into their phone services after the conclusion of the work. DoIT will be working with Police dispatch to maintain emergency calling services throughout the work. 

This work is being performed in order to maintain a modern, reliable and secure phone system for the UMBC campus and is part of our regular patching cycles. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this maintenance window please let us know. If you experience any prolonged issues with your phone please contact the DoIT Technology Support Center. 

Ray Soellner

Director of Telecommunications / DoIT

rays1@umbc.edu