Just a quick reminder to all that the Media Services office will be closed for the duration of Spring Break as our office is staffed primarily by student workers. Equipment checked out prior to the break is due back on Monday, March 30th. Any submissions for large format printing will be processed once the student staff is back following the customary three business day turn around.

If you have a need that must be addressed during the break, please contact Matt Dobosenski directly to set up an appointment.  If your need is less urgent, visit our Virtual Office online at http://mediaservices.gac.edu or email your need to mediaservices@gac.edu and we will address your need as soon as we can one staff returns.

Have a wonderful (and safe) Spring Break.

First off, Media Services is one of a few departments on campus that does not use the traditional Interdepartmental Invoice system in which an invoice is sent over to the department being charged and that department accepts the charge and provides an account number and sends a copy back to us and we submit that to the Finance Office for payment.  Instead, requests are made, with the Requester providing appropriate billing information regarding which department is charged.  Services are rendered, and billing is tracked internally using QuickBooks which is used to generate reports that are given to the Finance Office with money being transfered automatically, and PDF’s of Statements and Invoices being sent to the Budget officer or designated account manager on file.

Some things to know:

We have been provided very specific account numbers by the Finance Office that we are to charge departments (typically 00-department account number-71550, which is the object code for “Media Services”) and are only able to charge other accounts if they are Restricted (10-00000000-00000 or 90-00000000-00000) and the account number is provided at the time of request.

We use Quick Books to manage the internal accounts payable tasks that are necessary to do what we need to do.  We selected Quick Books because it it flexible enough to do what we need (multi-user, invoicing, statements and basic communication with customers like the ability to email PDFs of invoices and statements) without being overkill (especially in the cost department).  Because we use QuickBooks, it is important to know that emails of Invoices etc are sent through the QuickBooks email server, so depending on how closely you look, messages will appear to come from Instructional Media Services, but are actually sent from <qb-billpay-errors@billpay.ctcfe.quickbooks.com>.  These messages are not spam, nor are they fake.  When in doubt, feel free to contact us with questions.

Who receives the above emails is based on budget officer information that we receive from the Finance Office.  This information was just recently updated because we had been running on information that was several years old.  We understand that there are departments that have individuals that manage budgets for the budget officers, so in the event that the information we send out should be CC’d to someone else (most commonly the Department Administrative Assistant) or should just be sent to that person and not the budget officer, we will need to be contacted by the Budget Officer to indicate that is the case, and be provided with the information that needs to be corrected.  As people move from one position to the next, or leave and there are new hires, we are not given any information regarding these changes, and instead rely on updates from those who are aware of these changes (instead of just forwarding the emails to someone else, contact us and let us know about the change so we can correct this for future communications).

When in doubt, we are here to answer questions and take suggestions.  Thanks for your cooperation and feedback.

This coupled with some delays we are experiencing on media ordered (there have been a few big storms in parts of the country that are causing issues with transportation and distribution systems so items ordered well in advance are on back order) is creating a situation in which the usual three day turn around will not be possible in most cases.

We respectfully ask that requests are submitted as far in advance as possible, and that you can expect communication from our staff regarding your request and any delays you might expect in your request.

To submit large format printing requests, please do so on line using our VirtualOffice located at:

http://mediaservices.gac.edu

Thank you!

Long story short: you should access VirtualOffice by visiting http://mediaservices.gac.edu.

Here’s why:  VirtualOffice uses an encrypted connection to send web page data to you (and keep your information safe!)  In order to establish a secured connection without your web browser freaking out, the website has to be “something.gac.edu” and not “something.gustavus.edu.”  If you were to visit “https://mediaservices.gustavus.edu,” your web browser would complain, so we encourage you to come visit us on line at mediaservices.gac.edu

This year, we plan to set up a notification system which sends reservation confirmations and due date reminders to your Gustavus e-mail account. In addition, we are redesigning the check-out system to include a larger variety of our audio-visual equipment, but also to allow for more flexible organization. (For anyone interested, we’re setting up the system such that we track all of our assets in our office by location and barcode — pretty sweet!)

Finally, we are updating the large format printing form to accomodate our new printer and make it easier to select inks and media.  The new upload system will prevent your request from being lost if too many files are uploaded.  We will also be including a quick cost estimator in the near future.

Overall, we are pretty excited for all the changes we are making.  If you have any suggestions for our newest version, please let us know! Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

The current version Media Services VirtualOffice can be accessed at (version 6 will become accessible to the public mid August for Public Beta testing at this same address):

http://mediaservices.gac.edu

For the print and technology savvy here are the technical specifications: