Does a university need a CIO

1
Does a university need a CIO?

• Professor Anthony C. Masi
• Interim Provost and CIO
• McGill University
• CANHEIT 2005 Keynote Address
• Montreal, 27 June 2005

Be courteous to others, please turn off all cell
phones and pagers
2
Topics

• potential roles of a CIO at a University
• changing expectations for the CIO
• IST in a University environment
• - principles
• - architecture
• - infrastructure
• - investment and prioritization
• IST governance and administration
• ERP and project management issues

3
The roles of a university CIO

• responsible for administrative systems, the
  network, the ERP, customer support, academic
  technology, the Library
• articulates the IST vision and set expectations
• organisational architect
• executive manager in charge of the delivery of
  services
• change manager
• transformations that produce coordinated
  transactions across functional boundaries
• new business processes

4
More roles of a university CIO

• ultimately responsible for the flow of
  information within the University
• defines the IST policy agenda
• responsible for the strategic alignment of IST
  goals and objectives with the overall university
  mission
• executive manager of the project portfolio to
  support administrative, teaching, and research
  initiatives

5
CIO profile business professional

• management skills in an area of the institution
  other than technology
• usually a power user
• not part of the embedded culture of IS/IT
  organisation
• depends on technical expertise of the IS/IT staff
  
• technically aware
• struggles to match technical infrastructures with
  the universitys business needs
• customer-centric

6
Expectations that university presidents have for
the CIO

• leadership and communication skills
• - transform vision into action
• - create an environment of shared understanding
• - secure the foundation for technological change
• ability to apply technology to meet needs
• - know where technology solutions fit business
  needs
• - knowledge of critical success factors
  competitive edge
• - partner in strategic and operational planning
• innovation
• - continuous improvement and enhancement of
  business
• practices with creative use of IS/IT in
  all parts of business
• Adapted from CIO profiles prepared by the
  Gartner Group

7
The changing roles of the CIO

• positioning information technology as the
  strategic underpinning for business success
• How the CIO role evolves depends on
• the extent to which the university perceives
  itself to be dependent on IST
• the credibility of the IST team when faced by
  senior administration at the university
• the relationship of the CIO directly with the
  President and relative to other senior
  administrators

8
IST in a university environment

• the power and presence of information systems and
  technology has grown
• but, the strategic importance of IST has not been
  increasing, rather there are some signs
  indicating that it is decreasing
• if everyone has access to the same technology,
  then technology itself can not be a competitive
  advantage
• IST appears to have become infrastructure
  technology

9
An IST quandary

• Either
• IST is only a cost now
• Information technology has increasingly become
  a simple factor of production a commodity
  input that is necessary for competitiveness, but
  insufficient for advantage
• Nicholas G. Carr, IT Doesnt Matter, Harvard
  Business Review
• Or
• IST represents untapped potential in business
  today, the edge of the wedge
• An inadequate IT infrastructure in higher
  education will result in a decline in the quality
  of students, faculty and research
• Jack McCredie, Does IT Matter to Higher
  Education?, Educause Review

10
Workforce, organisation, and spending

• source of differentiation
• empower employees to use and adapt the tools
  available to them
• questions
• how best to invest in technology
• how to use IST to improve the University teaching
  and research functions and the administrative
  processes
• IST spending
• may be cut and but a given level of
  functionality must be maintained
• aligning IS/IT
• university-wide strategic goals and objectives

11
Alignment with academic priorities

• clearly articulated campus vision and priorities
• linking planning with the budget
• IST plan and planning activities
• dynamically stable environment
• effective IST governance process
• effective IST strategic planning and documented
  objectives for initiatives
• involvement and communications with key
  constituents

12
McGills IST principles and objectives

• enable academic priorities
• ensure information integrity
• create a common view and one version of the
  truth
• promote consistent, flexible architectural
  integrity
• utilise industry standards to rapidly deploy new
  applications
• reuse gt buy gt build measure, improve,
  communicate, and be responsive
• manage IST as an investment benchmark

13
IST architecture at McGill

• core business processes at McGill and their
  inter-relationships
• information drives McGills core processes, so it
  must be integrated
• technical capabilities must be standardised
  university-wide in order to support IST
  efficiencies and facilitate process
  standardisation and integration at McGill
• many activities have to be standardised
  university-wide to support data integration at
  McGill
• technology choices guide and are guided by
  McGills approach to IST initiatives

14
IST infrastructure at McGill

• infrastructure services are critical to achieving
  McGills strategic objectives
• university-wide infrastructure services have to
  be implemented at McGill, requiring service-level
  agreements (SLAs)
• pricing infrastructure services at McGill
• McGills plans for keeping underlying
  technologies up to date
• outsourcing opportunities for infrastructure
  services

15
Investment and prioritisation

• strategically important process changes and/or
  enhancements at McGill
• consistency of the IST portfolio at McGill with
  the universitys strategic objectives
• relative importance of university-wide versus
  unit-level investments at McGill
• actual investment practices as a reflection their
  relative importance to McGills strategic
  objectives
• how much to spend?
• what to spend it on?
• how to reconcile the needs of different
  constituencies?

16
Process transformation

• To optimize IST value these processes must be
  combined to enable transformation
• Adapted from Metagroup Research

ITinfrastructureandarchitectureplanning
IST programand projectmanagement
University strategicplanning
17
Governance and administration

• avoid silos and create horizontal structures
• with whom people work is at least as important
  as to whom they report in a dynamic environment
• know when to redesign
• - new roles and relationships are catalysts for
• change and organisational transformation
  e.g., having the Libraries report to the Deputy
  Provost and Chief Information Officer

18
Governance and administration /2

• involve senior managers
• committees, approval processes, and performance
  reviews
• interlocking committee structures
• exception requests from the President are not
  technology issues, but strategic choices
• governance arrangement matrix

19
Governance and administration /3

• make choices
• highlight conflicting goals for debate
• avoid confusion, complexity, and mixed messages
• clarify the exception-handling process
• exceptions are learning opportunities
• serve as a release valve
• provide the right incentives
• assign ownership and accountability
• IST management steering committees
• EDSIC, SPARC, FIS and SIS specialists in
  Faculties

20
Governance and administration /4

• McGill units reporting to the Deputy Provost and
  CIO
• Network and Communications Services (NCS)
• Information Systems Resources (ISR)
• IST Customer Services (ICS)
• Instructional Multimedia Services (IMS)
• Planning and Institutional Analysis (PIA)
• Office of Academic Management
• Teaching and Learning Services (TLS)
• McGill Libraries

21
McGill ERP in context

• ERP SunGard-SCT Banner
• 10 year commitment to FIS, SIS, and HRIS
• developing operational data stores into a
  full-blown enterprise data warehouse (Planning)
• implementing workflow (HR, Faculties,
  appointments)
• imaging and document management (Archives)
• already implemented BSRs development and alumni
  tool
• privacy and security issues

22
McGill ERP in context /2

• McGills customisation of Banner web Minerva
• organisational charts and scenario builder for
  HRIS (Nakisa)
• SciQuest Higher Markets e-Procurement link to FIS
  (still need true provisioning software solution)
• real-time linking of LMS (now WebCT CE, but
  migrating to Vista) to SIS and eventually to
  library systems and services
• student and faculty recruitment and prospect
  management tool
• Using Luminis data integration suite (Documentum
  under consideration) to link the ERP to the
  Oracle Portal
• meta-directory solutions to identity management,
  authentication, and authorisation via nSure from
  Novell

23
McGill ERP in context /3

• SSO (single sign on)
• optical backbone network (CFI-funded, with
  chargeback)
• SAN (Hitachi three tiers) and backup (Veritas)
• Other licenses
• Oracle campus license
• Exchange and other Microsoft applications
• Elms
• McGill on-line course evaluation (MOLE) via
  Minerva and real time link to Banner SIS

24
McGills ERP implementation life cycle
ERP ProjectLaunch
Go-Live
Improvement
Stabilization
Business Performance
Time
McGill Fall2004 Adapted from a Working Council
for CIO Publication
25
The ERPs short-term promises

• stabilise processes and technology
• provide an environment where people can learn to
  use the new tools
• provide users with the time to translate the
  training they have received into action in a live
  environment
• deploy additional resources to the faculties and
  local administrative offices to assist in the
  transition

26
ERP is the beginning, not the end

• ERP implementation provides a stable transaction
  platform
• ability to leverage the ERP investment in new
  directions
• goal of standard processes and data

27
Some lessons learned

• "successful" and "painless" are not the same
  thing
• full-scale implementation of ERP could represent
  a total replacement of IST functions and
  processes
• using a determined and realistic approach,
  successful implementation is achievable

28
Beware of the data issues

• information systems evolve over time in response
  to the demands of the environment
• opportunities to expand an ERP solution or to
  provide targeted solutions for different
  constituencies must ensure that IST
  infrastructure does not drift from the effective
  ERP-imposed standards
• protect data standards and data integration
• departure from data standards introduces
  inefficiencies in communication and understanding
  as different units struggle to translate the
  information they obtain from elsewhere

29
The devil details and data

• battles over things that you never gave much
  thought to before, like units of measurement
• expect that more of those battles will be over
  data than over functionality (who is the trustee
  for citizenship for a student-employee, SIS or
  HRIS?)
• basic assumptions about what data mean may be
  challenged through the implementation
• differences in commonly used data may have
  historically been shielded by the existence of
  non-integrated applications
• develop an approach to resolving these issues and
  defining ownership of critical data elements

30
Management failures data warehousing and data
visibility

• technical
• poor usability and insufficient scalability lead
  to complex customisations
• standards setting and enforcement
• data integrity failures and the magnitude of
  legacy standards lead to dispersed standards
  ownership
• user absorption
• legacy report lock-in and an analytical skills
  gap lead to a querying bottleneck
• governance
• Inconsistent privacy controls and data-hording by
  Faculties and administrative units leads to
  uncoordinated usage

31
Obstacles to data warehousing and data visibility
Problem
Ambition
Data management practice
1. data inconsistencyreports vary by data source
and reporting tool
"Single version of the truth" for data across the
university
data standards life-cycle management
2. shallow data standard data available at
top-level only
in-depth standard data for key business drivers
3. restricted access data access restricted to a
handful of power users  
desktop access for data users in all offices of
the university 
redefined business data ownership model
4. data latency lag in obtaining accurate data 
more frequent refresh of data set
5. systems duplication siloed decision support
system
one decision support system based on data
warehouse
enterprise decision-support utility (business
intelligence solution)
Adapted from a Working Council for CIO
Publication
32
Know the needs and ERP is supposed to meet

• understand business processes before you begin
  altering them through ERP implementation
• get a set of pre-implementation process
  performance metrics in place before you begin
• know the current-state
• identify areas where process improvements can be
  undertaken immediately (morale boosters and early
  payback)

33
Difference between understanding it and liking it

• decision-making is sometimes a zero sum game with
  winners and losers
• have a fair and transparent process in place for
  making these decisions
• people need to understand how and why a decision
  has been made and, importantly, that it will be
  adhered to
• implementations get bogged down when the
  different constituencies stop believing that
  everyone is in it together
• they also get bogged down when project managers
  sometimes fail to make critical (and unpopular)
  decisions

34
Managing by project?

• Portal and data integration (new services)
• Databases, directories, and identity management
  (transparency and easy of use)
• infinite storage, backup, recovery, and BC/DR
  (business continuity and disaster recovery)
• Office enabling software solutions (support)
• Clientless ERP for end users (upgrades)
• Encapsulation and interfaces (filling the gaps)
• Learning management software (remembering the
  mission)
• Libraries catalogue updates, information
  management, search engines, academic integrity
  software (text matching and reference materials)

35
Conclusions

• enterprise-level technologies only offer a
  platform for business execution
• level of execution is dictated by people
• success in implementing information technologies
  that will enable people to maximise the
  application of talent in pursuit of goals
• IST availability and usage plays a role in the
  improvement and potential standardisation of
  individual and business unit performance
• implementation success is to be found at the
  project level
• contingencies will always force the
  modification of enterprise-level software
  packages learn to live with it

36
New question

• Given that a university really does need a CIO,
  what should that CIO do?
• Using the University of California, Berkeley
  approach as a model of the right things to
  consider, let me turn my attention to some final
  thoughts.

37
Ask and answer appropriate questions

• How can the groups reporting to the CIO
  participate in developing new research and
  learning paradigms based on the ongoing
  transformations of IST?
• Where and when should our campus be an innovator,
  early adopter, or follower in the IST
  environment?
• What are the critical issues for teaching,
  research, administration, and public service that
  IST can help address?
• What is the appropriate role for IST to play in
  transforming the teaching and learning processes?
  
• On what strategic IST initiatives should we focus
  over the next five years?

38
2. Articulate strategic vision

• Who are we? guiding principles
• Where are we now? stakeholders perspectives and
  environmental scan
• Where do we want to be? vision, objectives,
  goals
• How will we get there? initiatives and
  incremental operational improvements
• How will we know how we are doing? performance
  measures and benchmarking

39
Articulate strategic vision /2

• alignment with and support for university
  priorities
• accountable allocation of resources
• integration, inclusion, innovations, and ease of
  use
• security, stability, safety, and reliability
• ubiquity of basic standards
• excellence in conceptualisation and execution
• measuring up to best practices among peer
  institutions

40
3. Focus balancing act
41
4. Engage opportunities and challenges

• Teaching and learning
• support the activities that are at the heart of
  the universitys mission
• Research
• support all disciplines
• connect the campus with the world
• Security, reliability, access
• secure and reliable
• maintain the access required of an open
  university
• Funding, governance
• state-of-the-art services
• limited, or even shrinking, resources
• Expertise
• attract and retain dedicated professionals

42
5. Projections guiding actions

• ubiquitous campus data network will serve as a
  major tool supporting learning, research,
  outreach, management, and all forms of scholarly
  and personal communication
• students will increasingly own their own
  computers, but the University must provide a
  broad set of information resources freely
  available to all, including email, Internet
  access, web services, computing labs, and digital
  library materials
• computing to support sponsored research
  activities must come to be supported by grants
  and contracts and not funded through campus
  allocations

43
6. Continuing problems

• budgets are shrinking rapidly each year it is
  becoming more difficult to maintain the
  information systems currently in place and to
  find investment funds for new initiatives
• increasing attacks from hackers threaten both the
  stability of the campus information
  infrastructure and the privacy of sensitive
  personal and financial information stored on
  campus systems
• campus culture of decentralization leads to a
  fragmented environment with many inefficiencies
  and overlaps in the provision of important IST
  services

44
7. Strategic initiatives

• ubiquitous wireless data and voice services
• experiments using technology to transform the
  learning environment for undergraduates
• new infrastructure partnerships between the
  research community and university-wide IST
  providers
• enhanced security architecture to protect the IST
  environment and resources

45
Your turn

• Questions
• Comments
• Suggestions
• Criticisms
• Complaints