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CIO Study - Findings and Recommendations

Strategic Leadership and Vision
Strategic Technology Planning and Governance
Strategic Investment
Conclusion

The convergence of telecommunications and computing technologies has profoundly changed the way people acquire and share information. The exponential growth of the Internet and other networks has altered the way we are educated, how we conduct our business, how we enjoy our leisure time, and how we obtain our health care. It is the proliferation of information technology throughout our society that makes the Information Age so significant.

The integration of Information Technology (IT) into teaching, learning, and research is a significant part of both the opportunity and the challenge that higher education faces in the Information Age. Donald Norris and Michael Dolence believe that these cultural and technological changes provide us with opportunities to create "environments where intellectual capacity, information and knowledge bases, methodologies and other valuables are made available to learners anywhere, anytime." Clearly, IT is an important tool in creating access to a learning environment that encourages interaction and collaboration and supports a student's ability to explore individual paths of learning. However, these new opportunities do not come without significant challenges. William F. Massey and Robert Zemsky argue, "IT will change teaching and learning profoundly, no matter what the response of traditional higher education institutions. Just as the development of the printing press forever changed the teaching enterprise. IT represents a fundamental change in the basic technology of teaching and learning.... If traditional colleges and universities do not exploit the new technologies, other non-traditional providers of education will be quick to do so."

It is clear that the primary driver of the Information Age transformation is the integration of historically disparate concepts and approaches into an interrelated environment that offers more value than the sum of its parts. Traditional distinctions and boundaries in technologies--access to information, demand for services, organizational structures and processes--are passe. Everything is becoming structurally integrated into networks that exchange information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions on a real-time basis.

Obviously, these technical and cultural changes are effecting how successful organizations compete in this dynamically changing period. Institutions must provide their students, employees, and entire organization with the environment, experiences, and skills for success in a transformed economy and culture. IT planning and management has moved from an independent tactical activity to an essential part of an organization's strategic processes. The demand and expectation level of internal and external customers for information requires organizations to plan and provide for IT services much as they do for basic utilities such as electricity, water, or heating and cooling. The expectation level has raised the bar on the demand for basic information services at a university to virtually an entitlement. In fact, in the Information Age, IT systems and services are often seen as the factor that distinguishes success from failure in an intensely competitive marketplace.

With the need for strategic integration, the trend among institutions of higher education is the combination of academic computing, administrative computing, and telecommunication organizations. Institutions have found that the traditional reasons for the separation of these units based on the needs of their customers no longer exist. Even the national professional organizations, which represented academic computing (EDUCOM) and administrative computing (CAUSE) have merged. In one of the final CAUSE newsletters it was noted:

"As technologies have converged, higher education institutions have recognized the overlapping of needs of the academy and administration for infrastructure, technology transfer, technology uniformity, professional development and support. Along with this has come unprecedented growth in demand for information technology resources. Recognizing the synergistic value of collaboration on and off campus, many have undergone formal restructuring or integration of governance, or created partnerships between their technology and other campus organizations."

In response to this changing environment, Chancellor John T. Montford began a strategic initiative to ensure that Texas Tech is positioned to take advantage of these opportunities and meet these challenges. Effective January 1, 2000, Chancellor Montford appointed Michael Phillips to the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Texas Tech University System. On January 19th the Chancellor charged him with the responsibility of leading a study and developing a written report to include recommendations in the following areas:

On March 2nd, Chancellor Montford appointed Sam Segran, Gary Wiggins, and Kay Whyburn to staff the core study group (CIO Design Team) along with the CIO.

The CIO Design Team approached its obligations under the Chancellor's charge utilizing a variety of different strategies. Within the Texas Tech community, the team broadly engaged students, faculty and staff in order to:

The team communicated the intent of the study and requested advice and counsel from all students, faculty, and staff at Texas Tech in a number of different ways:

A wealth of valuable information was shared by over 500 people in these interactions. The themes were very consistent, and they form the foundation for this report.

The team's external research efforts included analyzing how other universities are leveraging the convergence of information and technology, reviewing related public policy issues, discussing partnerships with the private sector, and reviewing how these new and emerging technologies have effected customers' expectations for information services and organizational strategic opportunities. This research included:

During the environmental assessment of Texas Tech's operations, it became obvious that significant improvement in the scope and quality of information technology services is needed. Based on input received from students, faculty, and staff the following observations consistently emerged:

The team believes these issues are a result of the lack of strategic leadership and vision, the lack of strategic technology planning and governance, and the lack of strategic investment. If Texas Tech is to take advantage of the opportunities of the Information Age and meet its challenges, these issues must be addressed.

Strategic Leadership and Vision

Texas Tech must implement a new IT governance structure. Chief Information Officers that report to their respective President should be appointed at the two institutions. The two CIOs should work closely together in planning and implementing interinstitutional initiatives, promoting collaboration, and monitoring enterprise-wide initiatives and operations. In addition to their routine interactions, the CIOs should meet at least monthly on a formal basis as the CIO Council. The two institutions should provide staffing to support the CIO Council's activities. The role of the Council should be primarily the strategic oversight of the three entities that comprise the Texas Tech University System. The recommended scope of the Council's responsibilities include:

At the institutional level, the CIO will be the focal point for ensuring that both centralized and decentralized services are woven together into an integrated environment. Without a focal point, it is unlikely that the necessary integration will occur. While the institutions do not need an IT "Dictator," it will be essential for the CIO to have the authority and responsibility to bring disparate and sometimes conflicting activities into strategic alignment. Therefore, we believe the CIO should be given sufficient organizational and budgetary authority in order to be held accountable for the information technology infrastructure and services of the institution.

Institutional IT resources would be organized around two conceptual service areas, Technology Services and Information Services. Customer access to all IT services will be available through an integrated "on ramp" and help-desk support system.

Technology Services would be oriented toward the technical aspects of the IT environment. Technology Services would provide institutional support for data operations, customer services, telecommunications, and technology assessment and support. Data Operations would include platform operations, production management, and data management. Customer Services would include desktop support, training, student labs, software support, and classroom support. Telecommunications would include domain management, electronic mail and directory services, remote access, cable plant management, distance education infrastructure services, and network security. Technology Assessment and Support would provide assessments of new and emerging technologies and provide consultation services, which would assist customers in implementing appropriate technology solutions.

Information Services would be focused on developing an integrated information environment at Texas Tech. The two primary areas of Information Services would be Information Systems and Information Management. Information Systems activities would include Intranet development, systems integration, and Web development. Information Management will provide data warehousing and data mining services to support informational needs in institutional research, decision support, performance measurement, and accountability.

The same basic organizational model is recommended for both institutions. However, TTU will provide the necessary operational support for shared services such as communication services, administrative information systems, and IT support for Texas Tech University System operations.

Strategic Technology Planning and Governance

Texas Tech needs a comprehensive technology planning process that strategically aligns IT with our organizational mission and goal. The planning process must be based on a broad customer-focused constituency developed throughout Texas Tech and with the private sector. The plan will serve as the basis for developing a shared understanding of our overall IT direction and priorities. Customer and technical governance councils must continuously update the plan through annual formal planning processes and ongoing oversight activities.

As a part of these processes, Texas Tech should develop stronger relationships with the private sector. Our focus should be on reducing the number of vendor relationships and increasing the number of strategic partnerships. We should create a Private Industry Council to leverage resources and relationships in developing our strategic direction, assessing new and emerging technologies, improving IT services for students, enhancing research, and raising our visibility.

It will also be critical to the success of our planning process to utilize governance councils and related task force activities to ensure the diversity of the Texas Tech community is engaged in these activities. In this regard, we recommend the creation of two councils, the IT Strategic Planning Council and the Technical Advisory Council.

The IT Strategic Planning Council will provide the leadership and guidance for planning, developing, and evaluating system wide IT initiatives. The Council will include the CIOs, and a cross section of students, faculty, and staff from each university. Each university President will appoint five members to serve on the Council. The Council will meet formally at least quarterly. The Council may appoint task forces as needed to develop, direct, and/or monitor an IT strategy. Task force membership will generally include technical staff and customers with expertise in the subject area.

The Technical Advisory Council will provide a vehicle to share information and foster collaboration among the information technology staff at Texas Tech. The Council will be responsible for providing technical and managerial expertise on IT issues such as development of policies and standards, technical solutions, recruitment and retention of staff, training, and operations. Council membership should include a broad variety of expertise to provide the necessary scope of technical support and leadership. Members will be appointed by the CIO Council. The Council will meet at least quarterly and will report to the CIO Council. The Council will be available to assist the IT Strategic Planning Council as necessary.

Texas Tech should move aggressively to form the Councils, which will be the foundation for our planning and governance activities. These collaborative and coordinated activities should begin as soon as possible in order for Texas Tech to develop strategies to meet the following strategic objectives:

In addition to meeting these strategic objectives, significant efforts should be made in order to implement the following priority recommendations:

The planning and governance processes must be continuously updated to reflect changing needs and environments. We must be accountable to our customers by focusing on their needs, including them in these processes, and developing benchmarks and other measurement criteria to evaluate our process in achieving Texas Tech's goals and objectives.

Strategic Investment

As the role of IT changes from a tactical to a strategic activity, the financing approach and methodologies must also change. Organizations must shift the orientation of their financial models from a series of ad hoc expenses to a coordinated investment strategy, which realizes the following:

In order for Texas Tech to be successful in the Information Age, organizational allocation of resources for IT at Texas Tech will need to grow both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of the total budget.

If we continue our current approach to funding IT investments, it will be difficult for Texas Tech to remain competitive with our peer institutions. Their current level of investment in information technology is substantially higher than ours, and experts expect the entire higher education community to be spending and doing more in the next few years. We are behind and facing a prospect of falling farther behind.

In order for Texas Tech to compete successfully with our peers and be responsive to the needs of our students, faculty, staff, and other customers we need to:

While it is true that we need to invest more in information technology, it is equally important that we invest wisely and leverage the resources we currently have. It is essential that decisions on IT spending be made with coordination and planning to maximize the utility of the resources we do have, and not be made haphazardly or in isolation.

Conclusion

The Information Age presents us with profound opportunities and daunting challenges for Texas Tech. We must change our historical approach to how we plan, provide, and use information technology in order to respond effectively to the changes that are occurring. We must institute sustained customer-focused strategic planning and governance processes. These processes must create a shared vision on the strategic role that information technology must play to secure our future.

The strategic integration of information and technology is fundamental to our mission and the achievement of our goals. It is necessary to prepare our students for the world in which they will live and work. It is necessary to empower our faculty and employees to be successful and effective in the work they do. It is necessary to keep Texas Tech current with the rest of the world. Information technology can be a foundation for Texas Tech to move forward--attracting high quality students, faculty, and staff, responding to the opportunities and challenges of the Information Age and creating an environment for excellence.

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