It’s Saturday morning, and the day starts with a communal breakfast. A full English breakfast with bacon, eggs and the whole shebang. There’s plenty for everyone, all cooked by the project manager, who reviews the day’s battle plan to the sound of chewing. Another long, intense working day in the IT systems machine room.

2020.11.02 | Anders Hylander

[Translate to English:]

This is how a working weekend for AU IT and AU Finance and Estates Projects and Development usually starts, when it’s time to update and maintain the university's more than 600 different systems and services – the so-called AU Service windows. Most of us are probably familiar with them from the mails with headings like ‘IT maintenance week this weekend’.

But this time, unfortunately, there won’t be a full English breakfast for AU’s IT warriors when they perform the 30th service window since 2013 on the 14 -15 November. Covid-19 is to blame – as for so much else. So most of the staff who will be involved in the work will have to stay home – together, but separately! 

Henrik René Poulsen is an IT consultant in AU IT with special responsibility for the financial management system, Navision. When the service window in November starts, he will know precisely what specific tasks he will have to perform in the time he has at his disposal, while most other employees at AU will be enjoying a well-deserved weekend.

"The service windows are planned several months in advance, so that virtually every byte is coordinated - and there’s a plan for who does what at what times. That’s the key to success. The windows are also always on weekends, because we have to temporarily interrupt people's access to the systems we need to update. So we try to find the least disruptive times we can," said Poulsen.

On his to-do list for the service window in November, he has a number of standard updates for Navision, which is the system behind all financial transactions at Aarhus University. And even though it's an intense and busy workday – on a weekend, no less – it's not "all bad, he explained:

"Of course, it's best when we can meet physically, and Peter Blankholm (IT project manager, ed.) has made breakfast for all of us. That makes it easier to get fired up about our shared goal of finishing all the updates we have planned. But we can still get fired up, even when we’re not together physically. So it’s actually a pretty pleasant working day. Even though it’s always on a weekend.”

With a smile, he added that he and his colleagues have proposed that their project manager deliver the food to all of their home offices for the next service window. But he hasn’t replied yet.

Close collaboration with financial management colleagues

The service windows are timed and coordinated in close collaboration with colleagues from other units at the organisation. Poulsen has daily contact and collaboration with the finance unit, for whom Navision is the digital backbone of making sure that AU’s financial management runs as smoothly as possible.

"Decisions about what updates we need to prioritise in the service window in relation to the system I work with are taken in close dialogue with my colleagues from Economics and Management. So I have a very close, good collaboration with my colleagues in that unit,” Poulsen said.

In addition to AU Finance and Estates Projects and Development, AU HR and AU Student Administration and Services are closely involved in the service windows. A number of student workers also contribute, for example to providing an important user perspective when the degree programme-oriented systems are updated.

30 service windows since 2013

Peter Blankholm, an IT project manager, has been involved in all 30 service windows. He remembers clearly how it was in the beginning.

"During the first service windows, we slept in shifts in sleeping bags in the offices, because we worked in shifts. This was necessary in order to create the right technical circumstances for the updates in the server rooms where we worked. It was fun, but we don’t do that any more, because our server room is much more robust today."

In addition to coordinating the process, Blankholm also usually provides a lavish breakfast to the employees who are involved.

"We work extremely hard on the weekends with service windows. Several of us work around the clock. A nice breakfast, I think, is a suitable pat on the back for my colleagues who spend their weekend working their behinds off to keep AU'S IT systems in tiptop condition."

Both Poulsen and Peter Blankholm look forward to getting past the pandemic – hopefully soon –and to a return to our daily routines on campus.

"Everything – co-ordination, communication and collegial sociality – it's all just a little more difficult when we're not together," concluded Blankholm.

Facts about IT service windows:

• About 30 employees – primarily from AU IT – but also from Finance and Estates Projects and Development, HR, Student Administration and Services and Facility management spend four weekends on the AU service windows every year.
• In addition, they spend many mornings, evenings and nights on minor updates of the systems.
• The IT service windows are announced in the organisation up to six years in advance, and can always be seen at www.serviceinfo.au.dk along with the other service windows and emergency service disruptions.
• On weekends with service windows, there may often be no or limited access to AU’s IT systems for users, who include students, employees and partners.
• The weekend of 14-15 November will be the 30th time an IT service window is performed at AU since 2013, when service windows were introduced to AU.

About the series:

In this series of articles, University Director Arnold Boon highlights important operational tasks being carried out in various corners of the administration. The aim of the series is to give administrative employees insight into what kinds of task administrative employees perform, and to highlight some of the tasks that are performed behind the scenes.