School of Medicine Information Services Who We Are

Who We Are

Desktop Support

The Information Services Desktop Support Team provides desktop support to School of Medicine faculty, staff, and students. Our LSP’s work as a group to provide premier first, second and third tier computing support through contract arrangements with departments, centers and institutes throughout school. Some tasks associated with the IS support plan include, but are not limited to:

Troubleshooting desktop computer hardware, software, network connectivity and printing.
Customizing basic desktop applications and aesthetics to provide an efficient computing environment specific to the end-user (shortcuts, menu's, disk/file organization).
Recommend and consult to keep standardization consistent throughout the School of Medicine.
Manage a hardware procurement and replacement schedule.
Install new computers (hardware, software and peripherals) including networking/connectivity.
Coordinate licensing compliance efforts.
Maintain equipment inventory including tracking hardware serial numbers, peripherals, PennNet connections and IP address assignments.
Participate in any renovation/relocation discussions for assigned group.
Maintain hardware and software with regular system and software updates.
Coordinate hardware repairs through specified repair vendors, including routine hardware maintenance.
Coordinate PennNet connections and IP address assignments for assigned group.
Track outstanding problems, resolving or escalating in appropriate time frame.

Our support team also works closely with ISC to maintain consistency with University standards, policies and practices. We also maintain relationships with the support teams for many of the other schools throughout the University to constantly strive toward improving our services through peer interaction, guidance and feedback.

For more information on how our services might benefit your group or for any questions regarding the SOM IS support model, you can contact us at asksomis@mail.med.upenn.edu.

Web Development

The Web Development group provides a number of Web development and design services for faculty, staff, and students within the School. The following services are provided for official SOM departments, institutes, and groups:

Web site hosting.
Web site design and maintenance.
Web application development (i.e., online forms and databases -- see below).

We also provide limited support for mail.med account holders who would like to set up a personal Web site.

Application Development

The Application Development group supports the academic, research and administrative needs of the School by developing web-enabled database applications and supporting the implementation of commercial applications. Projects include: SOMERA (proposal development and tracking), a paid-time-off system for monthly (exempt) staff, undergraduate medical admissions, student records, and online training. Project priorities are determined by the School’s IT Advisory Group, and at this time, must meet the requirement of having school-wide impact or relevance. The group consists of three project managers, nine programmers and two web designers.

Systems Administration

The Systems Administration Group provides highly available data services to the School. The Group deploys high-end redundant hardware systems and network infrastructure to operate the School's website and search engine, as well as providing database service to the School administration. Other services provided include:

School-wide calendaring.
Streaming-media services for academic and administrative departments.
Space management for the School’s Operations staff.
General file storage for faculty and staff.

The Group also supports the Application and Web Development Groups by providing stable and secure production platforms for their projects, as well as matching development platforms. The Group establishes initiatives to improve reliability and security for its own systems, and to deploy those initiatives out to other Departments and Offices as relevant. The Systems Administration Group uses Open-Source solutions whenever possible, such as GNU/Linux operating systems, the Apache and Tomcat web application servers and the MySQL database, as well as proprietary products from Microsoft, Oracle and other vendors. Most services run on Dell PowerEdge servers. The Group is led by a Manager/Webmaster and includes two Linux/Unix Administrators, two Windows Administrators, and an Oracle DBA.

Who We Are

Desktop Support

Web Development

Application Development

Systems Administration

Organizational Charts