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Agenda Overview for Higher Education, 2015Published: 7 January 2015

Analyst(s): Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Terri-Lynn B. Thayer, Glenda Morgan

IT in general, and the CIO in particular, are now key components in makinga higher education institution more competitive through a digital edition of itsmission. Our research agenda will provide strategic insight and tacticalguidance for CIOs to help achieve the needed institutional changes.

AnalysisFigure 1. Higher Education Agenda Overview

DIY = do it yourself

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

Higher education CIOs are increasingly pressured to participate in, and even drive, the digitalization(that is going beyond mere digitization) of education — creating a "digital edition" of the institution.

Innovation is imperative, and Gartner tools — such as "Digital Education Moments" flowing from ourdigital business research — are key resources to envision the digitalized future. However, in 2015, itwill not be enough to just build visions; CIOs need to start executing on them, deliveringexperiments, pilots and even real services. At the same time, CIOs have the responsibilities of"keeping the lights on," making sure existing services evolve through new technologies andsourcing strategies. A bimodal approach is necessary to achieve this, along with the creative use ofnew vendors, services and technologies to find the time and create the agility that plays a centralpart in digitalizing the institution.

The Gartner higher education agenda always originates in the mission of the institution, and howtechnology can enable that mission. Mission first, then technology. However, at the same time,technology is also driving change in many ways, but it must always be related to the institution'smission and how it impacts the institution's business model and — ultimately — the wholeeducation ecosystem. A key challenge for higher education CIOs is to balance this push-pull oftechnology and act as a solid supplier of institutionally aligned technology services and the leaderthat brings technology-enabled innovation opportunities to the attention of the institution'sleadership.

Some institutions will embrace the changes that are necessary to survive and thrive in this newhigher education reality. Others will fight or ignore them — and fail. The CIO will play a key role indetermining whether the institution can address the many competing and conflicting demandsplaced on it. Gartner's higher education research agenda for 2015 is designed to offer the CIOstrategic insight and tactical guidance regarding the ongoing transformation of higher education.

Key Issues■ How is IT changing the global education ecosystem and impacting the future workforce in

society?

■ How can IT effectively support the main missions of the institution — education and research?

■ How can IT effectively support an institution's administration and infrastructure?

How is IT changing the global education ecosystem and impacting the futureworkforce in society?

This Key Issue addresses the continually blurring boundaries and increased interdependencies ofthe rapidly expanding education ecosystem. It focuses on providing insight into the macrolevelforces impacting the institution, and the social, cultural, economic and political environments inwhich the institution operates. The overarching goal of this Key Issue is to provide CIOs and theirpeers with the tools they need to deal with the enablers, as well as the disrupters, of theirinstitutions' strategies and operations.

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Planned Research

Gartner's higher education research agenda will continue to leverage our unique breadth ofexpertise and global outlook to support CIOs and other institutional leaders in understanding andidentifying opportunities and threats in this new situation. The focus this year is to continue to addto the toolset that enables collaborative, agile strategic planning and dynamic management ofoutcomes through services. Some examples of our planned research: the Top 10 EducationBusiness trends and Strategic Technologies for 2016, identifying context for institutional planning; atoolkit for building a higher education service portfolio, including a high-level service catalog to beused for governance as well as sourcing decisions; research on how to use the strategic technologymap to tell a compelling story that inspires change. We will also continue to publish the highereducation cut of the global Gartner CIO Agenda Survey.

How can IT effectively support the main missions of the institution — education andresearch?

IT not only is a key enabler of how the institution executes its main missions, education andresearch, but it has reached a level where we need to talk about a "digitalization of education" toadvance the execution of the main missions. The CIO must be able to translate the needs of theinstitution into dependable and innovative services that not only support, but also increasinglyimpact, the institution's strategy for delivery on the mission. This Key Issue uses the context of theeducation ecosystem's bigger picture, and drills down to the concrete institutional level to enablethe CIO to leverage or exploit the institution's particular drivers and inhibitors. The CIO needs tohelp the institution move from mere digitization to digitalization of the institutional execution of themain missions. The CIO's role is no longer just being a caretaker for systems and infrastructure; it isa role for enabling new competitive institutional business (operational) models.

Planned Research

Our 2015 research will focus on the changes in the learning platform ecosystem, the sometimescontested impact of massive open online courses (MOOCs), and how this impacts the institution'ssourcing of learning technology. The increasing use and importance of data in education will becovered through learning analytics and adaptive learning, dealing with pedagogy and privacyimpact. Key deliverables will be the Hype Cycle for Education, 2015; Cool Vendors in Education,2015; Predicts 2016: Education, and a Market Guide for learning management systems (LMSs).

How can IT effectively support an institution's administration and infrastructure?

The traditional role of the CIO to support administration and infrastructure remains critical. Cost-effective, dependable IT services are always foundational for the trust the CIO needs to gain a seatat the executive table. However, this focus on rock-solid IT services must be balanced withinnovative and agile solutions for transformation resulting in a bimodal approach. The digitalbusiness economy will require CIOs to become business leaders who can guide the institution inadopting new business models and deal with mounting consumer demands for service andaccountability. This will require that CIOs modernize the administrative systems — choosing theright solutions and vendors to meet different, often contradictory, demands for cost-effectiveness,

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security and availability. This will likely mandate new sourcing strategies and new roles for the CIOand IT. There will be a fundamental shift for the IT organization from developer, implementer andmaintainer to negotiator, broker, and integrator. But even in the traditional realm of the CIO, thechallenge is to think new and move beyond the traditional systems and infrastructure to leveragethe larger education ecosystem.

Planned Research

In this research area, we will continue to cover key applications that have a great specificity tohigher education, such as student information systems (SISs) and CRM. There will also be a focuson the strategic importance of the information these systems contain, leading to the important issueof institutional analytics with practical advice for leveraging this data to address key problems suchas student recruitment and retention.

An important research area will be how sourcing strategies will develop in the era of digitaleducation. What will be the importance of cloud, trusted brokers and vendor management? A yearlyanchor point for this research is the IT Market Clock for Higher Education, which gives a big pictureoverview of important new IT productivity options, as well as advice on when to divest old systemsand services. Market Guides for SIS and CRM will be published to support the planning anddecision making for these two especially important application areas.

Previous Representative and Foundational Research

How is IT changing the global education ecosystem and impacting the future workforce insociety?

"The Expanding Education Ecosystem: A World of Choice"

"Visual Strategic Planning Using the Gartner Higher Education 'Business Model' Scenarios andCorresponding Strategic Technology Maps"

"Toolkit: Workshop for Building a Strategic Technology Map to Support Your Future University"

"Predictions for the Higher Education 'Business Model' Landscape in 2025 and Beyond Will HelpCIOs Plan Now"

"Top 10 Business Trends and Strategic Technologies Impacting Education in 2015"

"2014 CIO Agenda: An Education Perspective"

How can IT effectively support the main missions of the institution — education andresearch?

"Hype Cycle for Education, 2014"

"IT Market Clock for Higher Education, 2014"

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"Top 10 Strategic Technologies Impacting Education in 2015"

"Cool Vendors in Education, 2014"

"Building Learning Stacks for an Evolving Learning Environment"

How can IT effectively support an institution's administration and infrastructure?

"IT Market Clock for Higher Education, 2014"

"Achieve a 360-Degree Student View With CRM in Higher Education"

"The Coming of Age for CRM in Higher Education"

"Best Practices for Supporting ERP/Business Applications in the Cloud"

"CIOs Should Clarify Roles and Responsibilities of IT for Cloud Applications in Higher Education"

"Gaining Competitive Advantage in the Education Ecosystem Requires Going Beyond MereInfrastructure to Exostructure"

Related PrioritiesKey Initiatives address significant business opportunities and threats, and typically have definedobjectives, substantial financial implications, and high organizational visibility. They are normallyimplemented by a designated team with clear roles and responsibilities, as well as definedperformance objectives.

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Table 1. Related Priorities for Higher Education

Key Initiative Focus

IT Governance IT governance is the set of processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT inenabling an organization to achieve its goals.

IT Strategic Planning Strategic planning is the process of translating the enterprise's vision and mission into howresources, including IT's capabilities, are deployed to generate maximum value forstakeholders.

InnovationManagement

Successful innovation must combine creativity with process to transform novel ideas intobusiness value. Innovation management requires a clear strategy, a business focus and adefined process model.

Enterprise ApplicationSuites and ERP

Enterprise application suites and ERP improve business processes and information usage byintegrating functions such as finance, order management and purchasing into a set ofinterconnected modules.

Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities areprovided as a service to customers, using Internet technologies.

Vendor Management Vendor management is the discipline of managing, administering and guiding vendors in anorganized way to drive the right behaviors (product or service elements) to IT or businessoutcomes.

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

Suggested Next Steps

Higher education CIOs and IT leaders:

■ Challenge your current processes and practices for affordability and sustainability, and startexamining in which areas working collaboratively across traditional boundaries may improveyour chances to succeed in the education ecosystem.

■ If you are revising or are about to refresh your IT strategic plans, reach out to Gartner educationanalysts for a critical review of the draft and to hear about experiences that we are hearingabout in other areas.

■ Consider using Gartner Toolkits and analysts for collaborative workshops that engage seniorexecutives and faculty in collaborative strategic planning or innovation sessions.

■ Reserve a spot at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, as well as Gartner Summit conferences, whichoffer education-specific content, analyst access and networking opportunities to discussdifferent aspects of the education ecosystem.

■ Reach out to Gartner education analysts for assistance during the technology selectionprocess, including review of RFPs, contracts and implementation strategies.

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Related Agendas

K-12 Education

Agenda Manager Profile

Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Ph.D. in chemistry, is a research VP and agenda manager for Gartner'seducation research. His research is mainly in higher education governance, strategy and emergingtrends. The methodologies for strategic planning and frameworks for governance are especiallyfocused on stakeholder communications, and are also used in several other sectors with a highpercentage of knowledge workers or end users with large and complex consumption of IT-relatedservices. Such organizations include R&D organizations, public-sector organizations, and primaryand secondary education institutions. Based in Europe, he has a special interest in European highereducation issues, such as the Bologna Process.

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