IT Strategic Planning Many Paths, One Destination

IT Strategic Planning

Many Paths, One Destination

Copyright © 2007 by Debra Allison, Karen Goldstein, Bruce Maas and Mark WalbertThis work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

IT Strategic PlanningMany Paths, One

Destination

Presenters

Debra AllisonDeputy CIO

Dr. Karen Goldstein Vice President for Business & Finance

Bruce Maas Chief Information Officer

Dr. Mark WalbertAssociate Vice President, Academic IT

Presentation Objectives

• Compare and contrast four very different institutions and their successful approaches to IT strategic planning

• Share our “lessons learned” and provide information you can use

At a Glance – Miami University

Enrollment 20,562Undergraduates 19,308Masters & Doctoral 1,254

Faculty & Staff 5,314

College & Schools 7

Programs:Undergrad 126Masters Programs 54Doctoral Programs 12

At a Glance – Miami University

• Public university founded in 1809

• Two regional campuses

• European Center in Luxembourg

• Emphasizes student-faculty partnerships in learning & research

• One of the “Public Ivies”

At a Glance – Davidson College

Enrollment 1,700(Undergraduate)

Faculty & Staff 75038 central IT staff

Operating revenues (FY 2007) $106,743,007

Endowment $489,460,503(as of 6/30/07)

At a Glance – Davidson College

• Small, private liberal arts college

• Founded in 1837 as a Presbyterian institution

• Main campus on 450 acres with 109 acres campus on Lake Norman, 3 miles away

• Ninth in ranking of national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report

• Division 1 athletics

At a Glance – UW-MilwaukeeEnrollment 29,200

Undergraduate 24,400Masters & Doctoral 4,800

Faculty & Staff 3,455IT staff 125IT student staff 200

Schools & Colleges 12

Programs:Undergraduate 84Masters 48Doctoral 24

At a Glance – UW-Milwaukee

• Has its roots in Wisconsin State College (1880)

• Major expansion of campus footprint underway

• Over 70 scholarly centers engaged in research

• Access to Success initiative to support students

• IT services nationally recognized (InfoWorld 100 Award, 2007 Best of Web)

At a Glance – Illinois State

Enrollment 20,261Undergraduate 17,842Masters & Doctoral 2,419

Faculty & Staff 3,341

Schools & Colleges 6

Programs: Undergraduate 67Masters 40Doctoral 8

At a Glance – Illinois State

• First public university in Illinois

• Top producer of K-12 of teachers nationally

• 7,204 students in on-campus housing

IT Strategic Planning @ Miami

• First-ever IT strategic plan completed in 2004

• Starting point was scathing set of 104 recommendations by consultant

• Loosely constructed institutional plan existing but was not “best practice” material


• Drivers:– Inadequate funding & staffing, which led

to..– Dissatisfaction with IT, which led to…– Creation of VP of IT, which led to…– Key sponsor for the Initiative – President

• Outcome:– $3.2 million added to our budget– 35 projects identified (Tactical Plan)


ITSP Process• External consultant

• Steering Team composed of “broad thinkers”

• At start, gave each a baseball cap to symbolize “putting on their University-wide hats”

• Minimized time required by Steering Team

• Transparency, communication, project management

• Annual renewals

IT Strategic Planning @Davidson

• Vague institution-wide plan driven by capital campaign

• 2004 arrival of CFO committed to SP reinforced by faculty/staff IT complaints

• ITS began SP process June 2004; included a SWOT exercise with customer survey

2005 completion of strategic plan and total reorganization of ITS

• Emphasis on service in every area

• More organized financial & operational management

• Getting IT staff out into the community

• Greatly enhanced communication


Project Process

• All members of ITS involved in process

• Draft plan reviewed by:– Academic computing committee– Joint committee and Information Technology– CFO’s staff– Many academic department chairs– Student groups– President – approved in February 2005

• Plan is reviewed and revised annually with all relevant groups


Strategic Plan Results• Community assessment: “ITS provides us the

support and services we need.”

• Recentralization of desktop replacements in ITS for better support and financial savings

• Approval for many Capital IT projects– Campuswide wireless service– Additional storage-area network for disaster recovery and

better every day storage– Review and revision of data warehouse for better

reporting– Telecommunications improvements


IT Strategic Planning @UWM

Context/Drivers• 2001: Blackwell Consulting study – few

changes

• Ad hoc planning & unclear strategic focus

• May 2004: appointment of interim CIO committed to strategic planning

• July 2004: New Chancellor

• July 2004: Provost initiates internal IT Review

• 2004-05: Chancellor’s vision with focus on– Research expansion– Access to Success


Final recommendations from IT Review• Three themes

– Need for IT project prioritization process– No IT growth; focus on training/development– Balance “utility” requirements with new needs

• Nine Recommendations► Prioritization of IT projects & expenditures► Matching staff to areas of greatest need► Potential to outsource printing services► Staff training/development ► Governance► Organizational structure ► Customer Service► Centralized vs. decentralized ► Equipment

replacement


Outcomes• Initial focus is building trust and modeling

behavior:– Developing mission, vision, values– Emphasizing customer service– Reorganizing and downsizing/reallocating– Implementing core service teams– Developing soft skills– Investing in training– Emphasizing communication

Without trust, the best planning is ineffective.

Our approach• Addressed each issue in a public, open way

• Incorporated Gartner/EDUCAUSE best practices

• Engaged faculty & students, with compensation

• Created architect positions/hired chief process architect

• Took lead in business process re-engineering efforts

• Deployed major enterprise systems

• Hired permanent CIO on Chancellor’s leadership team


IT Strategic Planning @ Illinois State

• Educating Illinois campus strategic plan in place

• Educating Illinois called for ITSP – but not the VPs

• Brand new governance body– Campus Technology Policy & Planning Council– Tech Council charge did not originate from

President’s Cabinet

• Charge to create ITSP did not originate from President’s Cabinet

• IT organization is decentralized

Current IT Organization @Illinois State

• All stakeholders were part of Tech Council… but not all of stakeholders wanted a campuswide ITSP

• External environmental analysis raised awareness… but it remained focused primarily on lack of funding

• Was (and still is) widespread dissatisfaction with lack of an established, transparent decision-making process


• Participation, participation, participation…

• Communicate, communicate, communicate…

• Learning about IT best practices and about IT at our benchmark schools– No prior comparison of data on IT costs or services

at benchmark schools– Thank goodness for EDUCAUSE Core Data survey

• Project sponsor must be president or a unified President’s Cabinet


Lessons Learned

• IT is important to everyone; plan & encourage high participation

• Communication builds trust

• Campus familiarity with strategic planning will necessitate certain approaches

• Understand strategic planning “best practices”

• Ask “What’s still missing?”

IT Strategic Planning:Many Paths, One

Destinationmuohio.edu Debra Allison, [email protected]

davidson.eduDr. Karen Goldstein, [email protected]

uwm.eduBruce Maas, [email protected]

illinoisstate.eduDr. Mark Walbert, [email protected]

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IT Strategic Planning Many Paths, One Destination