Future IT

How information technology will support students, staff, faculty, and researchers.

ToolsRealityContext

Context

The Decline & Fall of Traditional IT

Ideal IT

Who do you need?

How do you

measure success?

Reality

Maximize resources

Socialize change

Enable research innovation

Empower teaching and learning

Collaborate everywhere

Embrace client service

We have reached “the end of growth.” Our new normal is reduced government funding. Adapt information systems by leveraging of peers, partners, and externals.

• Externalize utility computing (hosted services)• Drive shared service initiatives across provinces and

Canada• On-premise cloud services opportunities

MaximizeResources

Demonstrate systems effectiveness in academic programs & services

Strengthen strategic focus on knowledge creation

To support an institution where change is inevitable, the underlying technology must be seamless, agile, and flexible. Create “one IT” where all information systems are truly integrated through effective socialization processes.

• Communities of interest• Change management process• Consistent culture• Project management process• IT stewardship model

SocializeChange

University-wide integrated planning needs IT at

the table for the simple reason that information

systems are integral to everything.

IT is part and parcel of research’s rich tapestry. A pervasive culture of research and scholarship depends on systemic integration of information services into the research mission of the institution.

• Research administration• Specific IT services for researchers (service catalog)• World class HPC data centre services• International, national, & provincial network services• Infinite data management

Enable Research

Innovation

Recruit the best researchers because of best IT

Support faculty & grad students to succeed

Signature areas of research demand IT

Tri-agency success depends on IT

Current teaching and learning technology is functional and administrative in nature. Improved learning outcomes are not the core goal of many ed-tech initiatives. What does the class of 2020 need? What is your 20/20 vision?

• Digitize the learning experience• More wireless, less paper• All services are mobile services• Integrate research technology into teaching• Expand digital resource breadth for all teachers &

learners

Empower Teaching

and Learning

Interdiginization: Two horses moving together each understanding & celebrating each other’s

culture & tradition

Learner-centred ecosystem driven by learning analytics

Information systems can facilitate and accelerate the collaboration process by delivering new and inventive ways of working together.

• Social media is as much about internal collaboration as it is about external marketing

• Islands of isolated technology rapidly become islands of obsolescence

• Collaboration transcends technology tools: requires integration of people, process, organization, and technology

CollaborateEverywhere

“We cannot have segments of our institution act as bystanders to our mission.”

IT is no longer about delivering technology with a service component, it is about delivering services with a technology component. Client expectations drive future information systems directions. • Measure and report• Focus on access vs. asset• Socialization processes frame all service delivery• IT stewardship

EmbraceClient

Service

Be diverse

Be sustainable

Service level agreements Trust

Tools

People Process Projects Technology Success

① Stewardship

② Planning

③ Leadership

④ Client Service

⑤ Process Excellence

⑥ Perspective

⑦ Innovation

① Stewardship

IT exists to realize the dreams and aspirations of its stakeholders

IT acts as a steward for the information systems resources of the institution

Stewardship is the engagement of key leaders across campus discussing IT issues and making campus-based decisions, not isolated IT decisions

Stakeholders make the decisions about IT, and IT implements those decisions

IT’s role is to facilitate decisions made by the stakeholders

WHO WHATWHERE

• Strategy• Governance• Enterprise portfolio• Policy

VPs, AVPs, Deans,Executive Directors

• Data centres• HPC: capability/capacity• Storage, networks• Researcher services

Researchers, Faculty, AVP-R, & Research Office

• Student labs• Learning management• Audio Visual• Classroom technology

Deans, Faculty, AVPs, Learning & Teaching Centre

Student, Finance, HR, Advancement, Facilities, Research Admin, & Systems

• Scheduling• Resource allocation• Project oversight• Prioritization

Information Systems Steering Committee

Educational Technology Advisory Committee

Research ComputingSteering Committee

Administrative Systems Operating Committee

Project Review Committee

Inform

New Projects Monitor

Priorities

Objectives

Working GroupsWorking GroupsWorking Groups

Working GroupsWorking GroupsWorking Groups

Working GroupsWorking GroupsWorking Groups

Fit

Utility

Balance

Rank Initiative

1 Project A

2 Project B

3 Project C

4 Project D

5 Project E

6 Project F

7 Project G

8 Project H

9 Project I

10 Project J

11 Project K

12 Project L

13 Project M

14 Project N

15 Project O

Base funded

Approved by

governance process

• Base funding of notional allocation• Recommended through working groups• Largest component of work underway at a given time

Project funded • One-time project funds• Example: Research Administration System fund

Fee for service • Client sponsored and funded

Ancillary funded • Ancillary department funded• Example: Housing System

Waitlist • Beyond capacity of functional units and IT at this point in time

② Planning

“Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” (Eisenhower)

Planning model collaboratively engages the entire university in setting a long-term vision with measurable progress steps

Builds a sustainable and renewable planning process that engages all IT services providers to the institution

Links IT long term strategy to annual planning to personal performance plans

Uses the institution’s strategic plan for the IT planning context

Vision

Strategy

Operations

Tactics

Fix

Fine tune strategy

Create personal improvements

Realign resources & schedules

Plan

STRATEGIC PLANNINGSTRATEGIC PLANNING

ANNUAL SERVICE PLAN

ANNUAL SERVICE PLAN

PERFORMANCE PLAN

PERFORMANCE PLAN

GOVERNANCEGOVERNANCE

Check

Annually evaluate strategic success

Annually evaluate strategic success

Measure goal progress quarterly

Measure goal progress quarterly

Assess personal achievements

Assess personal achievements

Do

DECISIONRECOMMENDATIONS

PROGRAMINITIATIVES

INTEGRATEDPROJECTS

ASSIGNEDTASKS

③ Leadership

• Execute the plan decisively

• Measure everything

Strategic thinking; operational excellence

• Enthusiasm for the future is the ultimate motivator

• Create opportunities and reward appropriately

“Optimism is a force multiplier” (Colin Powell)

• Set the goals• Provide all the

resources• Clear the obstacles• Get out of the way• Monitor

Delegate, don’t abdicate

④ Client Service

IT willcompete for its clients

Values• Leadership by example• Live the client service value

Culture• Past: technology with service component• Now: service with technology component• Pull vs. push

Discipline• Define expected behaviours• Measure performance• Build client assessment into appraisals

⑤ Process Excellence

All institutions manage systems with processes – knowingly or not. They may do them well or they may do them wretchedly, but they always do them. (~ Peter Drucker)

Apply organization-wide discipline to extract value from technology Processes applied by IT are equally applicable to functional unit

partners Re-engineering Benchmarking Project management

If you want to do something new, what are you going to stop doing?

ControlMechanisms

SteeringCommittee

Role

ProjectFlow

Portfolio assessment• Priorities• Risk• Strategic fit

Status reportingFiscal budgetRisk planScopeResource planScheduleQuality planCommunication planVendor management

Base budget Support resources

Benefit measures

Initiation Planning Execution Closure Asset Maintenance

Reject

Approval

ReviewCharter

Not Needed

Cancel

MonitorStatus

Approval

Not Successful

ContinueExecution

Accepted

ReviewDeliverabl

e

Not Accepted

Reject

ReviewPlan

Approval

Not Sufficient

PlanProject

Document

ImplementPlan

Revisions

Progress

ShutdownProject

Final Product

MaintainAsset

InitiateNext Phase

BenefitRealizatio

n

Support Work

New ProjectWork

Issue logChange control

Develop ProjectCharter

Needs

Document

⑥ Perspective

Universities are managed by a vast array of interwoven matrices

IT uniquely transcends the silos

What are the core competencies of central IT? What does the institution need you to be good at? What business do you want to be in? What do you centralize? Decentralize? Outsource?

Rationalization Empowering clients to move up the food chain

How do you assess core competencies?

Efficiency

Data centre

Econ

omie

s of

sca

le

Economies of scope

Collaboration

Web services

Knowledge

Enterprise architecture

Control

Identity management

⑦ Innovation

There are no silver bullets

Leverage unique perspective

Integrate people, process, projects, and technology

Cloudonomics

Infinite Data

Success

Time

Manufacturing is the New Agriculture

Research Development Commercialization

The Future is Now