On an average day, Smith School students, faculty and staff
connect to
eSmith, a virtual office, about 500 times. Over the
Web they access e-mail, personal files, timesheets, financial
and statistical databases, and Web-based applications such as
Blackboard and Lotus iNotes, using a single, secure login. “It’s
like I’m sitting in my office in Van Munching Hall when I’m
in a hotel halfway around the world in China,” say the faculty
and staff members who regularly travel around the globe for
Smith’s international programs.
Since 2002, eSmith has been evolving into a comprehensive
gateway that allows the Smith community to navigate through
a network of public and private information, services, and business
functions of the Smith School and the University of Maryland.
“The internal portal at Smith is extremely progressive,” says
Holly Mann, director of technology at Smith. “No other business
school is offering the same level of access to tools for collaboration,
research and personal productivity.”
Smith students and faculty appreciate how they can easily
access Microsoft Windows applications while off-campus. “eSmith
allows users to run real Windows programs through their Web
browser,” says Ernie Soffronoff, Smith IT’s assistant director
for technical operations. In the past, you had to be on a computer
inside Van Munching Hall to access tools such as Lotus Notes,
Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, statistical applications,
financial and research databases, and news content from sources
like Dow Jones, Reuters, Hoovers, and Lexis/Nexis. “These kinds
of applications give flexibility to the faculty to use their
preferred tools no matter which campus they teach at, and gives
convenience to the students to be able to work anywhere at any
time,” says Soffronoff. Now, students at satellite campuses
can get the same level and quality of access to systems. Users
running applications over the Web can still access the printers
and disks on their local machines, a great convenience for many
people.
Lotus Sametime and Lotus QuickPlace are two collaboration
tools available via eSmith. Sametime is an instant messaging/video
conferencing application allowing real-time chats: typing,
audio or video depending on the user capabilities.
QuickPlace is a virtual team room where invited users can
post documents, chat, create a calendar, and conduct other
virtual communications.
The Blackboard course management system can also be accessed
via eSmith and has more than 5,200 registered users this semester,
240 course sites covering 447 sections, with an average of 45,000
hits a day. Blackboard is a popular teaching and learning environment,
featuring a robust setting for content management and sharing,
online assessments, student tracking, assignment and portfolio
management, and virtual collaboration.
To find out more about eSmith, visit
http://portal.rhsmith.umd.edu.
|
 Ro
Parra ’82, Dell’s senior vice president of Americas operations,
accepted the 2005 “Person of the Year Award” from the Smith
School's Logistics, Transportation and Supply Chain Management
Society (LTSCM Society) and the Supply Chain Club (SCC) on October
27, 2005, on behalf of Dell. The LTSCM Society and SCC traditionally
present the annual award to an individual who has made outstanding
contributions to the logistics, transportation and supply chain
management industry.
 |
|
Dell’s Ro
Parra '82, center, with Kathy Yon, second-year MBA
student, and undergraduates Anya Kroupnik and
Brittany Fichter. |
The 2005 award went to Dell in recognition
of its corporate-wide contribution—and the efforts not of a
single person, but many—to the field of global supply chain
and logistics management.
“Dell
continues to represent the state-of-the-art for supply chain
and logistics management resulting in optimal competitive advantage
and high financial performance for the company,” said William
DeWitt, Tyser Teaching Fellow of logistics, transportation and
supply chain management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
“On behalf of our very active student societies, I am pleased
to announce Dell as the winner of the person of the year award,
and without a doubt, as the world’s leading example of operational
efficiency and speed in a direct-to-customer business model.”
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