IT as an Enabler for the Academic Enterprise

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IT as an Enabler for the Academic Enterprise

• Dr. Barbara A. White
• Chief Information Officer Associate Provost
• The University of Georgia
• barbwhit_at_uga.edu
• www.eits.uga.edu
• February 24, 2005

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I am a believer,..I am also held accountable
for the leadership, return-on-investment,
standards/policies, performance, security,
support, access, availability, reliability..remem
bering this is not an IT issue, but an issue for
the institution/organization Barbara A.
White CIO/Associate Provost
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...to achieve significant improvement in the
value of Information Technology at UGA, we need
to change the culture of how we manage our
institutional processes that involve
computing UGA Provosts IT Task
Force March 2003
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reality check.

• integration and information go hand in
  hand with customers demanding information about
  their accounts, their balances, their recent
  deposits, their retirement, etc. They want it
  over the phone, over the Internet and/or any
  combination independent of time, place, date, etc
  i.e., 24x7x365 anytime, any place by any device.

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Enterprise Resource Planning defined

• often thought of as a software solution
  that integrates information and business
  processes to enable information entered once into
  the system to be shared throughout the
  organizationand includes back-office functions
  such as order management, financial management,
  asset management and human resources management.
• range of functionality in recent years
  includes applications such as grants management,
  marketing automation, e-commerce, student systems
  and supply chain systems.

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ASSUMPTION the only way to ever get any
real savings from an accounting standpoint is to
have an integrated system,...supported, for
example, by a new generation of enterprise
integration application (EIA) products which
promise to speed work of linking applications,
and eliminate or reduce the need to develop
custom code.
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UGA Drivers of Change

• UGA Mission
• UGA Goals
• UGA Strategic Plan 2000-2010
• UGA Accreditation 2008
• Five-year Program Planning Process/Provost
• American Higher Educations three Revolutions
• UGA Priority projects
• UGA Strategic Directions

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and, .asking the RIGHT question

• Whom do you serve and what do they want to do?
• What are the core systems, services, and support
  provided?
• What is the best way to provide the services
• How do we know we are doing a good job?
• What is the best way to organize?

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• Key Success Factors
• Senior management support
• CIO at the table and reinforcing the process
• Collaborative attitude focused on institutional
  priorities
• Significant time commitment
• Active, functional decision-making structure
• Data driven decisions
• Communication, communication, communication
• Flexibility

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UGA GoalsReturn-on-Investment

• Improved business model
• Greater accountability, efficiency, and
  effectiveness
• Emphasis on accountability
• Internal controls for everything (e.g.,
  security, access,
• resource use)

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• I think any CIO knows the basic rules.align IT
  initiatives with university priorities, maintain
  an integrated, Web-enabled administrative (and
  academic) system, maintain a high-quality
  network, hire good people, and invest in staff
  development. But, how we go about our tasks sets
  us apart!
• Thomas Hausmann
• Bethany College

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Example of UGA Strategic Direction

• in order to provide our students with
  opportunities for success in the digital age, UGA
  must develop the highest level of information
  technology, access and support24 hours a day, 7
  days a week for students, faculty and staff

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5 Major Points.partnerships, collaboration

• Knowledgeable
• Reputable
• Flexible
• Responsive
• Prepared
• Bottomline Value-added and ROI
  performance metrics

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Knowledgeable

• Price.potential for tiered approach
• Turn-around
• Availability.fiscal year/acad calendar
• Volume..institutional size/user community
• Response time
• Compatibility
• Organizational contact hierarchy
• .NOT marketing hype

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Reputable

• take big picture and work from there
• straight forward with rationale for pricing,
  language and definitionsdone homework re
  customer needs, requirements and possible match
• realistic insight re contract interpretation,
  language, match to organizational business
  processes/procedures
• Inundated with advertisingvendor needs to focus
  on customer, culture, needs, requirements
• Importance of onsite visits.which gives
  indication of how available they will be when
  needed

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Flexible

• tied to this attribute are issues
  surrounding accounting, crediting accounts,
  invoicing, documentation.
• e.g..requirement for FAX of documentation
  re credit-to accounthave to balance books
  held accountable by institutions auditors.and
  ethics.required to meet controls
• proof of concept (e.g., loaner software)

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Responsive

• Scary words.transparent, blended, secure,
• 24x7 x 365 anywhere, any place, any context, any
  time by any device.requires vendor support,
  commitment, follow-thru , collaboration,
  cooperation
• user community expectation of campus licensing
  office.dont give a rip why or who is to
  blame, but lack of cooperation jeopardizes campus
  reputation when vendor ignores or is slow to
  respond
• Remember impact of culture and time required for
  campus to changein concert with innovators,
  early adopters for ROI
• all things to all people..BE CAREFUL! Do well
  what you do well while recognizing importance of
  competitiveness!

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Prepared

• business processes, contact personnel,
  clear language, competitive edge
• futurewhere are we headedwhere is
  Macromedia headed? What does higher education
  need to be planning for? strategic directions?
• changes in demographicsmatch between the
  age, familiarity, attitude of market sector in
  the on line market and the change in
  technology (e.g., high school graduates of
  1994)plus physical attributes (eye
  sight, key pad sizespecial needs)

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