This message is to update you on the current activity related to the New CONNECTIONS Desktop PC Replacement Rollout for participating Voluntary Agencies in all regions except Region 4 (the Albany Region). Implementation Coordinators/LAN Administrators in Region 4 should disregard this correspondence as they have previously received this correspondence and the installation of Region 4's PC's began during the week of November 26th. Please Note: This correspondence also does not apply to Dial-In Voluntary/CIAB agencies. CIAB sites are not receiving new equipment.
You will find attached to this message an agreement form (Bailment Agreement) and an appendix that is required in order for CONNECTIONS replacement computer equipment to be installed in, and retained by, your agency. In order that installation can proceed on schedule for your agency we ask that this form be signed, notarized and returned by December 21, 2001 to the following address:
New York State
Office of Children and Family Services
CONNECTIONS Project - 15th Floor
Attn: Cindy Wheeler
52 Washington St.
Rensselaer, NY 12144-2796
Please note that the above referenced appendix attachment is a PDF file and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to open. Adobe Acrobat Reader was distributed to all LAN-Connected Desktop PC workstations on October 19th, so there should not be difficulties opening this attachment. If you have problems opening the attachment it is likely your PC did not receive the Adobe Package. Please contact the CONNECTIONS Help Desk (1-800-NYS-1323) to assist you with arranging for the Adobe Package to be distributed to your workstation or if you prefer, we can make arrangements to mail or fax you the appendix.
If you have questions about the Bailment Agreement/Appendix or you need to make arrangement to have the addendum mailed or faxed to you, please feel free to contact New York State CONNECTIONS Implementation Regional Office Staff (listed below):
Nancy O'Hara 518-486-5894
At this time a pilot of the New PC Replacement Rollout has been successfully completed in two districts, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. The project is moving forward, with installation of the new PC's in the Albany Region (Region 4) beginning the week of November 26th and concluding by December 7, 2001. The installation of the new PC's is scheduled to begin in the Syracuse Region (Region 3) and the Rochester Region (Region 2) on January 7, 2002. Districts/Agencies involved in the PC rollout will be contacted by the Office for Technology Command Center approximately two weeks prior to your scheduled implementation date. At that time, the OFT Command Center will send a follow-up letter to site contacts. This letter will contain instructions and stickers that will need to be placed on the computers that have been targeted for replacement. Note: the computers that are being replaced should match up with the information contained on your district/agency Desktop PC completed spreadsheets that you sent to David Kislowski. Additionally, if there have been changes to your site contact persons since you submitted your site spreadsheets, it is important that you call the OFT Command Center to provide them with the new names and telephone numbers.
From the pilot experience, we recommend that staff review the PC Quick Start Guide prior to installation of the new PC's, in order to insure a smooth installation and transition. The Quick Start Guide and several other preparatory reference materials are available both on the CONNECTIONS Intranet site (on the Desk/Job Aid Page) and within the Public Folders (Public Folders>All Public Folders>Statewide>CONNECTIONS>Desktop PC Replacement). Note: Due to the size of the Quick Start Guide, you may have difficulty opening the file. We recommend saving the file to a local drive or C:drive and then opening it from there or open it from the Intranet Site.
In addition to utilizing the Job Aid, one of the attachments below is a checklist for supervisors and caseworkers that may be used to help them prepare for the replacement of their PC. The two other attachments describe a modified procedure for migrating the Schedule + and Personal Address Book information onto the new CONNECTIONS Workstations. This procedure now provides a note that the user must contact their LAN Administrator if they receive an error message when trying to perform those import operations and an associated workaround for LAN Administrators to temporarily add the user to the Power Users group to complete those imports. These documents are posted in the Public Folders (Public Folders>All Public Folders>Statewide>CONNECTIONS>Desktop PC Replacement) and on the Intranet site.
Please note this important reminder: If you have stored any data (Word documents, spreadsheets, other materials) on your current CONNECTIONS workstation's C: drive that you wish to keep, you are responsible for copying these files to your new workstation's C: drive. Your data will not be copied to the new workstation for you. All data on the PC being replaced must be removed (copied) prior to installation. Once the new PC is installed, the old PC will be removed from the site.
If you have any questions related to the schedule of the rollout you may contact the Office for Technology Command Center at 1-800-603-0877. If there are any general questions related to this message you may contact the CONNECTIONS Communications Team.