Smith College
IT Strategic Plan
May 2011
Goldstein & Associates
2
Table of Contents
  Context
  Vision and Principles
  Strategic Opportunities
  IT Governance
  Organizational Implications
  Financial Implications
  Critical Success Factors
3
Context
4
Introduction
  Smith College recognizes that technology has become an essential enabler of its
institutional goals and strategies. Faculty, students and staff depend on technology to
facilitate communications and collaborations, organize and distribute information and
support the basic services of the institution.
  The college anticipates the importance of technology will continue to grow. After a
period of constraint, Smith is moving from a strategy of maintaining the technology it has
to one that more aggressively expands its capabilities and extends its use.
  While the college’s educational technology has kept pace with that of other institutions, in
other areas there is growing unmet need. Aspects of the wired network must be
upgraded, the data center is nearing its capacity and the wireless network has only
recently been expanded to cover the majority of campus. Significant unmet needs exist
in administrative computing and the college lacks an organizational and technological
infrastructure to support management reporting and analytical decision-making.
Technological change is presenting new opportunities to engage critical constituents
including alumnae and prospective students.
  All of these needs exist within a context of rapid technological change that is altering how
organizations deploy and manage technology.
5
Project Goals and Methodology
  To help develop its information technology strategy, Smith retained higher
education consultants Phil Goldstein, Mary Beth Baker and Harvey Blustain. The
consultants’ charge was to
  Help develop a vision for the future of Smith technology;
  Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current technology;
  Understand Smith’s existing and emerging technology needs in the context of its
institutional plan (Design for Learning);
  Analyze opportunities to extend IT collaborations within the Five Colleges; and
  Recommend strategies and initiatives to help Smith achieve its long-term
technology goals.
6
Project Goals and Methodology
  Smith established a strong foundation for its IT plan through a series of internal and
external assessments and the engagement of a working group of Trustees.
  The consultancy built on this work with the following additional activities:
  Extensive interviews with academic and administrative leaders;
  Meetings with ITS leaders;
  Focus groups with faculty and students;
  Interviews with Five College IT directors and the leadership of Five Colleges, Inc;
  Meeting with the Trustee Working Group; and
  Day-long planning retreat with members of the Senior Administrators, faculty and
other administrative leaders.
7
Organization of the Document
  This document recommends a set of IT strategies and initiatives for Smith’s
consideration.
  It begins with a summary vision and set of guiding principles for technology.
  The next section outlines ten strategic opportunities. It includes a set of
initiatives that Smith needs to undertake to achieve the goals and benefits
associated with each strategic opportunity. A timeline for phasing the
implementation of initiatives is also included.
  The following section recommends an IT governance structure to oversee the
implementation of the strategic plan and improve annual priority setting for
technology.
  The document also summarizes the organizational implications of the IT strategy
and presents a framework for dividing departmental and central responsibility
for technology management.
  The final section summarizes the resources required to implement the plan.
8
Vision and Principles
9
Vision
  The effective use of technology and information is vital to Smith’s strategic
directions and institutional goals. Technology will continue to enrich Smith’s
educational offerings, provide students and faculty access to a global network of
collaborators and augment place-based learning. It will provide new avenues for
engaging diverse stakeholders including prospective students, alumnae, and the
community at large.
  Technology at Smith will embrace best practices and never lag in the ability to
meet reasonable expectations for technology. In most areas, it will stay near the
leading edge* of technology adoption. Smith will be among the early majority of
adopters of proven technology. The college will seek to be innovative in areas that
support effective pedagogy and scholarship. It will sustain a technology
infrastructure that is secure, reliable, and sufficiently robust.
*Organizations at or near the leading edge of technology adoption are those that seek to be among the early majority of
adopters of technology. They tend to follow behind the innovators and early adopters of a technology. Being near the leading
edge suggests that Smith will adopt technology that is proven but not necessarily broadly used within its peer group.
Guiding Principles

Foster innovation and take risks in the application of technology in faculty research
and effective pedagogy. In all other areas, be a close follower in technology
adoption.

Use technology to enhance place- based education and ensure that place does
not become a competitive disadvantage.

Create opportunities for students to develop a technology fluency and aptitude that
will serve them throughout their lives.

Invest in technology that facilitates individual and institutional collaborations both
within the Five Colleges and beyond.

Use technology to enable faculty, students and staff to work effectively anytime,
from any place and with any device.

Apply proven technologies in innovative ways to improve and sustain constituent
engagement and effective administrative services and campus operations.

Use technology to support efficient and effective administrative services and data
driven decision-making.
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11
Strategic Opportunities
12
Overview
  Smith’s IT plan includes ten strategic opportunities that contribute to one or more
aspects of Smith’s vision. The strategic opportunities are interrelated and include
actions that support multiple outcomes. For example, adoption of cloud
computing solutions is called out as its own strategic opportunity. It is also a
tactic that ultimately will enable the realization of other strategies including
enhanced mobility, improved disaster recovery and potentially others. Likewise,
Five College collaboration is both a strategic opportunity and an enabling
tactic of multiple goals. The diagram on following page illustrates the
interrelatedness of the strategic opportunities and their support to the vision.
  Each opportunity requires the implementation of multiple initiatives over a three
to five year time horizon. Many of the initiatives listed within a given strategy are
actually supportive of multiple goals. While cloud computing and five college
collaboration are identified as strategic opportunities, they are also tactics that
will enable multiple strategies. The detailed plan provides a complete
description of each opportunity, its supporting initiatives, projected timeline and
expected outcomes.
Linking Vision and Strategic Opportunities
•
•
•
•
Instructional
Technologies
Digital Asset
Management
Cloud
Collaboration
Sourcing
Reliable IT
Infrastructure
Constituent
Engagement
5 College
Collaborations
Enhance faculty,
student and staff
mobility
•
Teaching
and
Research
Excellence
•
Smith
without
Boundaries
•
•
Agile and
Reliable IT
Operational
Excellence
•
•
Business
Intelligence
Administrative
Technologies
Enhance web
self-service
Strategic Opportunity: Accelerate Adoption
of Effective Learning Technologies, as
appropriate
14
Description of the Opportunity
Through targeted investments in infrastructure, support staff and faculty led projects, this
initiative will accelerate the use of technology in Smith’s courses. It includes expansion of
the number of technology enabled learning spaces (in and outside of traditional
classrooms), creating mechanisms to support faculty adoption of effective uses of
technology in courses, the development of processes to assess the impact of technology
on learning outcomes and increased development of hybrid and online courses in
collaboration with the Five College collaboration.
Goals
•  Enhance learning experience inside and outside the physical classroom;
•  Better position Smith students to engage in Five College collaborations;
•  Provide Smith students the opportunity to use technology in ways already familiar to them
and to experience the technologies that will be prominent in their future careers;
•  Become a leader and innovator in technology that improves effective pedagogy.
Accelerate Adoption of Effective
Learning Technologies - Key Initiatives
Initiative
Description
Create a biannual
instructional
technology
showcase.
Some Smith faculty have already integrated technology into the
learning experience, other faculty are experimenting and still others are
unclear on how to leverage technology to enhance the learning
experience. To educate faculty on how new and emerging
technologies can improve their teaching and the student’s learning
experience Smith should host a bi-annual conference. The objective of
the conference is to allow faculty to demonstrate how they have
deployed technology in the classroom, share lessons learned, and
provide a forum for discussion.
Add instructional It is expected that Smith faculty will more readily adopt and integrate
designers.
technology into their teaching program if provided access to one-onone, real time resources that can provide support tailored to their
specific needs. Additional instructional designers (experienced faculty/
mentors or highly trained support) should be added in alignment with
the faculty appetite for adoption and the availability of technologyenabled classrooms. This additional capacity will help support students
in the classroom experience as well as their engagement with hybrid
and online coursework.
15
Accelerate Adoption of Effective Learning
Technologies - Key Initiatives
Initiative
Description
Continue to
assess utilization
and pedagogical
impact of
deployed
learning
technologies.
For each technology, a process should be implemented to evaluate the
impact of technology on the learning experience. For example, as cited
in Ad Hoc Committee report on Educational Technology, preliminary
data from two courses suggests lecture capture software is useful to
Smith students. A formal assessment should be completed of the
utilization of the software to determine how extensive the lecture capture
software should be implemented on campus. Similar assessments can be
done of the impact of high-resolution video/web conferencing
capabilities, mobile applications, etc. As technologies prove to
strengthen the learning experience, the software and required
infrastructure requirements (e.g., bandwidth) should be made available
in more classrooms.
Build more online or hybrid
courses to
support sharing
courses across
Five Colleges.
One of the high priority opportunities for collaboration with the Five
Colleges is course sharing. In collaboration with the Five Colleges, Smith
should inventory and prioritize the courses that are good candidates for
on-line and/or hybrid learning. Based on the priority and desired timeline
for implementation additional resources (hardware, software and human
resources) may be necessary to support the build out of the courses.
16
Accelerate Adoption of Effective
Learning Technologies - Key Initiatives
Initiative
Description
Create
additional
collaboration
learning spaces
and provide
necessary
resources to
support
increased
multi-media
collaborative
projects.
As the number of faculty members who integrate technology into the
learning experience increases Smith may need to increase the number
of non-traditional learning spaces for student to accommodate
increased need for student collaborations. Such spaces will be
designed especially for student project meetings and work sessions.
Each room will be equipped with standard media equipment, office
furnishings, and movable furniture to enable flexible arrangements to
suit a variety of needs.
Spaces refer not only to classroom space but public spaces,
conference rooms, student lounges, etc. The Master Plan for the
Libraries envisions the creation of expanded numbers of technology
rich, flexible spaces within the library. This initiative should support
efforts to realize this vision as well.
As the opportunities increase for collaboration, students will also require
more hands-on support for working with applying and integrating multimedia technologies into their coursework.
17
Accelerate Adoption of Effective Learning
Technologies – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
The adoption of learning technologies is well underway at Smith. The phasing
strategy illustrated on the next page positions the college to more fully leverage
current models of integrated teaching with the goal of accelerating the integration
of technology into more courses, as appropriate. In year 1 the goals is to create
opportunities for faculty to share their models with other faculty and also to provide
dedicated resources who can provide more personal attention to individual faculty
members as they explore new delivery models. In years 2012 and beyond, as the
pedagogy is proven to benefit from the integration of technology and as faculty
adoption increases, the focus of this strategic opportunity is to expand the
infrastructure and support resources.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Improved learning experience both inside and outside the classroom;
•  Increased number of faculty integrating technology into the learning experience;
•  Increased use of multi-media and other technologies by students in their
coursework;
•  Increased opportunities for Five College Collaborations.
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19
Accelerate Adoption of Effective
Learning Technologies - Phases
1
2
3
4
5
Add instructional designers.
Continue to assess utilization and pedagogical
impact of deployed learning technologies.
Build more on-line or hybrid courses to support
sharing courses across Five Colleges (begin
with pilots, e.g., physics and math).
Create additional collaboration learning
spaces and provide necessary resources to
support increased multi-media collaborative
projects.
Pilots
Pilots
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
Create a bi-annual instructional technology
showcase
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Implement a
Digital Repository/Digital Asset
Management Solution
20
Description of the Opportunity
Digital asset management (DAM) consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the
ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of assets. Digital
photographs, animations, videos and music are samples of media assets.
Digital asset management systems include software and hardware systems that aid in the
process of digital asset management.
Smith’s unique academic assets are increasingly digital. However, data, images and other
artifacts are stored in stand-alone databases that are difficult to access. This initiative builds on
work begun under the leadership of the library. It provides digital preservation services for
scholarly resources, helping to ensure their integrity, authenticity, and usability over time. The
initiative also includes establishing the protocols for organizing content, tools to facilitate
integrating content into course materials and policies to govern access to content. The
initiatives associated with this strategy will require the close collaboration of the libraries, ITS, the
faculty and the museum.
Goals
•  Provide holistic and consistent approach to digital asset preservation across the college
(Museum, Library, Sciences, etc;
•  Make digital resources more accessible to faculty and students for integration into coursework;
•  Create alignment with student expectation for quick access to information;
•  Provide the opportunity for Smith students to experience the technologies that will be
prominent in their chosen careers.
Implement a Digital Repository/
Digital Asset Management Solution Key Initiatives
21
Initiative
Description
Develop strategy
for the use of a
digital asset
management
system (including
researching
current practices
at peer and other
institutions).
The uses and solutions for digital asset management (DAM) systems are
continuing to evolve. DAM, at its most basic level uses technology to organize
resources, enables users to discover them and owners to track them. At its
most advanced level, a DAM system can transform the way an institution
manages digitization and handles access to the digital assets. It is important to
develop a strategy that covers the complete continuum from creation to
delivery: storing the digital objects and their related data; supporting on-line
searches; enabling users to retrieve the appropriate version of a particular
digital resource depending upon their interest and/or access level; keeping
track of rights restrictions; and limiting access to verified users.
Deeper analysis and research of how peer institutions are using digital asset
management systems will help Smith shape its own approach and strategy. It
is necessary to understand current uses, policy implications, implementation
challenges and future applications in institutions including peer colleges,
libraries and museums. Research into the commercial marketplace about
existing and future solutions will assist the effort to identify the appropriate
timing for implementation. Using information about available solutions in the
external marketplace and current uses in peer institutions will help frame a
discussion to determine the best strategy for Smith, to test interest for a Five
College collaboration and to develop a timeline for implementation.
Implement a Digital Repository/
Digital Asset Management Solution Key Initiatives
22
Initiative
Description
Continue policy
work.
A number of policy and process decisions are required to protect intellectual
property rights before implementation of a DAM. Decisions must be made in
areas including rights and licensing, privacy, fair use, metadata standards,
frameworks and formats, access rights, storage and dissemination of data.
Organize the
project team.
Identify the project sponsor, project manager and technical lead that will be
dedicated to the project. A detailed project plan for completing the
evaluation and selection of a solution and implementation partner should be
developed by the project manager.
Evaluate
alternatives and
select best
technology
solution.
Develop a detailed set of functional requirements for a DAM system and
conduct a rigorous evaluation of the commercial marketplace. Through an
RFI/RFP process, invite vendors to demonstrate the products, discuss migration,
integration and implementation approaches and to answer end-user
questions. Based on these sessions select the solution that best aligns with the
College’s strategy.
Select
Implementation
partner.
Once Smith has identified a solution the campus will be ready to identify
implementation partner requirements, prepare and issue an RFP for an
implementation partner, and ultimately select a partner.
Implement a Digital Repository/
Digital Asset Management Solution –
Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
As illustrated on the next page, the recommended phasing strategy for this
strategic opportunity is to use the next year to more fully understand how peer
institutions (including museums and libraries) are using DAM systems and to develop
an overall strategy (or white paper) for how Smith should approach the
implementation of a DAM. The white paper can be used to facilitate dialogue on
campus and with the Five Colleges to determine what the approach will be for
Smith. In year 2 Smith will organize its project team, select a solution and
implementation partner, if necessary. The expectation is that implementation of a
DAM solution would begin in 2013.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Promotes greater utilization of Smith’s unique digital assets;
•  Increased student and faculty satisfaction with ease and access to digital assets.
23
Implement a Digital Repository/
Digital Asset Management Solution Phases
1
2
3
4
5
6
Develop strategy for the use of a digital
asset management system
Continue policy work
Organize the project team
Evaluate alternatives and select best
technology solution
Evaluate alternatives and select
Implementation partner
Begin implementation
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
24
Strategic Opportunity: Implement a
Business Intelligence Solution
Description of the Opportunity
Smith lacks the technology, organizational capacity and management processes to
adequately support data driven decision-making. This strategic opportunity will replace
the college’s shadow databases and ad-hoc reports with an integrated data warehouse
and tool set for analysis. The projects completed will improve data governance, train
staff to be better data analysts and through a phased deployment, introduce the
technology Smith requires to support operational reporting, longitudinal analysis,
predictive modeling and other forms of advanced analytics.
Goals
•  Create dashboard indicators across multiple units to inform decision-making;
•  Standardize data definitions across applications;
•  Create standard reporting templates;
•  Create standards and policies for access and use of data;
•  Reduce risk of data loss from shadow reporting systems (BAR) that are difficult to
support;
•  Improve strategic outcomes through the advanced use of data to design enrollment
management, fundraising and constituent engagement strategies.
25
Implement a Business Intelligence
Solution - Key Initiatives
26
Initiative
Description
Prepare the
college for the
implementation
of a BI Strategy.
An overall project sponsor and project manager must be identified to oversee
and ensure the success of the implementation. The project sponsor will be
accountable for the success of the project, ensure availability of necessary
resources, serve as the voice of the project to the college community, and
support the project manager. The day-to-day project manager will report
directly to the Project Sponsor and will be responsible for the development of
detailed project, staffing and communications plans. Additional project
resources will be required including technical staff to support the technical
architecture/design, infrastructure and performance of the solution, business
analysts to assist with data definitions, BI design, etc.
Confirm BI
phasing strategy
for development
of data
warehouse and
migration of BAR
reports to
Cognos/ODS.
IA recommends that Smith pursue the following phasing strategy for
implementation of a business intelligence solution:
•  Phase one: Enrollment Services – (Admissions and Financial Aid);
•  Phase Two: Registration Outcomes;
•  Phase Three: Advancement.
Before implementing this phasing strategy Smith should confirm the data
needs of each area, including an identification of the data elements that
require definition. For those units not included in Phase 1 a prioritization should
be completed of which BAR reports should be migrated to Cognos/ODS.
Implement a Business Intelligence
Solution -Key Initiatives
27
Initiative
Description
Develop
common data
definitions across
the college.
To ensure consistency and reliability of data and analyses the college must
develop a common set of data definitions. Representatives from key
administrative areas should be convened to identify critical data elements
and agree on definition of the data, sources for storing and capturing the
data and for confidential data ensure agreement on access and use rights.
In conjunction with confirming the appropriate phasing strategy, Smith must
evaluate whether to implement a custom-developed solution, or implement
an off-the-shelf-solution. Armed with a proposed phasing strategy and desired
solution, Smith will also be ready to identify implementation partner
requirements, prepare and issue an RFP for an implementation partner, and
ultimately select a partner.
Review and
select best
technology
solution and
implementation
partner.
Hire additional
technical staff
and analysts.
Based on the selected solution Smith must develop a staffing model to support
implementation of the solution and long-term maintenance of the solution.
Complete first
build/
deployment in
Enrollment
Services.
It is expected that the deployment of a BI solution will occur over the next
three to five years with the first deployment targeted for completion in 2012.
Implement a Business Intelligence
Solution – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
It is expected that the deployment of a BI solution will occur over the next three to
five years with the first deployment targeted for completion in 2012. However there
are a number of initiatives that must be undertaken to prepare the college for the
implementation of a solution. These activities include establishing the project team,
confirming the phasing strategy for both implementation of the BI solution and for
migrating reports to ODS/Cognos and selecting a solution. As illustrated in the Gantt
chart on the following page, it is recommended that Smith take the next year to
complete these preparatory steps and begin a phased deployment in 2012. It is
expected that to complete the deployment of a data warehouse solution will take
a minimum of three years.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Improved decision-making;
•  Increased focus on data analysis versus report production;
•  Ability to analyze strategic data both from a longitudinal perspective within a
business unit and to analyze interrelationships between applications (e.g.,
Admissions and Enrollment);
28
29
Implement a Business Intelligence
Solution - Phases
1
2
3
4
Prepare the college for the
implementation of a BI Strategy
Confirm BI phasing strategy proposed by
Incisive Analytics (IA)
Develop common data definitions across
the college
Review and select best technology
solution and implementation partner
Hire additional technical staff and
5 analysts
Complete first build/deployment in
6 Enrollment Services
Build out additional phases of the data
7 warehouse
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Enhance the
Effectiveness of Administrative
Technology
Description of the Opportunity
Administrative processes do not take full advantage of Banner and other already
implemented technologies. Capabilities are under-utilized, available functionality is
not completely deployed and processes have not been tailored to take full
advantage of software features. Significant complementary software applications
do not easily share data with Banner.
This strategic opportunity takes a three part approach to enhance Smith’s
administrative operations through technology. The first set of initiatives focuses on
optimizing the use of Banner. The second better integrates complementary
technologies with Banner to create a single institutional data set that will serve as
the foundation for business intelligence. The third part extends administrative
systems’ capabilities through deployment of additional technologies and a
repositioning of the skills within administrative computing.
Goals
•  Improve the efficiency of administrative processes by fully utilizing Banner;
•  Improve the accuracy of data by automating the migration of data from
complementary systems to Banner;
•  Maximize the return on investment in Banner by fully deploying all modules;
•  Broaden the utilization of Banner to all administrative, academic and student
support areas; and
•  Address short-comings in Banner capabilities through additional software solutions
and Smith developed enhancements.
30
Enhance the Effectiveness of
Administrative Technology – Key
Initiatives
31
Initiative
Description
Assess the
current utilization
of Banner.
Continue to engage SunGard Higher Education to review the college’s use of
Banner in key administrative areas including Development, Alumnae Affairs,
Enrollment services and finance and human resources. Leverage the findings
from these reviews to define focused improvement projects to deploy new
Banner capabilities, modify business processes or analyze options to fill gaps in
Banner capabilities.
Implement
Banner
integration and
improvement
Projects.
Prioritize and implement focused improvement projects after completing
baseline assessment of Banner utilization in core areas. In addition, develop
interfaces to automate the movement of data from third-party systems to
Banner particularly in development and alumnae relations. It may be possible
to stagger some implementation work with the on-going baseline assessment.
Depending on the number and scale of improvement projects being
implemented, the college may require a dedicated project manager and
additional SunGard assistance.
Clean-up Banner
data.
Analyze the use of existing Banner data fields and establish college-wide
standards for their definition and use. This initiative is critical to improve the
use of Banner, to enhance the accuracy of management reports and to
prepare for the implementation of a data warehouse. Implementation
requires creating standard data definitions, the establishing of on-going data
governance process and inspection and adjustment of legacy data to
correct for inaccuracies and inconsistencies.
Enhance the Effectiveness of
Administrative Technology – Key
Initiatives
32
Initiative
Description
Analyze the use
of shadow
systems across
the college.
Several areas of the college use shadow databases to store information
outside of the Banner system. These databases exist to compensate for shortcomings in Banner capabilities or because the department was unaware that
a desired capability exists in Banner. Examples include tracking databases in
student affairs and shadow financial records kept by faculty to compensate
for difficult to use Banner reports and queries. ITS should work systematically
with each division of the college to identify areas where shadow systems are
being used in lieu of Banner. Where capabilities exist in Banner to meet the
division’s need, the shadow system should be retired and users trained in the
Banner capability. If Banner can’t meet the division’s need, efforts should be
made to develop or deploy a complementary system to meet the
requirement.
Strategically reposition the
Administrative
Computing team
in ITS.
In the next two to three years, the Banner software will undergo a major
technology shift. This shift will require the applications development staff to
become more facile with web development tools. At the same time, the
college requires the administrative computing team to broaden its skill sets to
support the integration and in some cases the maintenance of an increasing
number of non-Banner web-based software applications. As part of this
strategic opportunity, ITS should develop and implement an organizational
development and restructuring strategy for the administrative technology
team.
Enhance the Effectiveness of
Administrative Technology – Key
Initiatives
33
Initiative
Description
Perform a
structured
assessment of
staff members’
technology and
analytical skills.
Staff technology skills and analytical capabilities vary greatly. As the College
upgrades technology in key administrative areas or pursues initiatives to
improve the utilization of technology, it must also invest in training and
professional development for staff. The business intelligence initiative in
particular requires staff to learn new tools, deepen their knowledge of
institutional data and develop analytical skills. Formal and information
assessment of current and required staff skills should be performed as a
routine part of technology deployments and resources invested in training to
close significant gaps.
Enhance the Effectiveness of
Administrative Technology – Phasing
and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
As the timeline on the following page illustrates, the initiatives tied to this strategy
may be phased in over three or more years. Depending on the scope of the
Banner integration and improvement projects, Smith may elect to stage their
implementation over the first 12 to 24 months. The transformation of the
administrative computing organization will be phased in over at least two years and
require a combination of retraining of existing staff and strategic new hires. Finally,
work on the data clean-up should be synchronized with the timeline for business
intelligence. Like the Banner improvements, data clean-up work can be staged by
data area (e.g., enrollment data).
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Improved effectiveness and efficiency of administrative processes in strategically
important areas;
•  Improved accuracy of data to support reporting and analysis;
•  Reduced effort to manage shadow systems and move data between systems;
•  Delays investment in a replacement system for 5-10 years.
34
35
Enhance the Effectiveness of
Administrative Technology – Phasing
1
2
3
Assess the Current Utilization of Banner
Implement Banner Improvement Project
Banner data clean up
Re-position the Administrative Technology
4 Team
5 Analyze the use of shadow systems
December
Sept
June
March
2013 December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Enhance Web
Self-Service
36
Description of the Opportunity
Smith delivers many of its services to prospective students, students, faculty and staff via the
web. This enables many of these services to be delivered as self-service, eliminating the
need to visit an office during normal business hours. This degree of anytime, anywhere selfservice has become a minimum expectation of college constituents.
This strategic opportunity extends and expands the college’s web self-services. Initial
opportunities to extend self-service include both major support processes such as
electronic billing, admission application submission and review, and financial aid award
notifications as well as to support minor administrative processes such as conference
enrollments for student clubs and organizations. The opportunity includes the exploration of
the pros and cons of implementing a portal to help constituents organize web-based
services and information.
Goals
•  Enable a steadily increasing number of services to faculty, students and staff to be
delivered via web-based self-service.
•  Selectively complement web-based services with customized mobile applications.
•  Facilitate greater mobility and extended hours of service through web based self-service.
Enhance Web Self-service - Key Initiatives
37
Initiative
Description
Identify priorities
for added web
self service
This initiative leverages the Banner process and technology assessments
referred to in strategic opportunity number 2 to identify an initial set of
priorities. Additional priorities should be identified annually by the Committee
on Administrative Technology (CAT) through a call for project proposals to
administrative areas. This annual effort should be informed by periodic market
reviews conducted by ITS to ascertain what new mobile and self-service
capabilities are being made available by the college’s software vendors.
Extend the
capacity to
develop web
and mobile
applications
As part of its long-term organizational strategy, ITS will re-align the skills in its
administrative computing team to increase its capacity to develop web and
mobile applications. This change is necessitated by a shift in Banner
technology and the growing need at the college for small web or mobile
applications. There is likely to be more demand for web and mobile
applications than can be supported by the existing positions in ITS. To expand
its capacity, the college will retain relationships with third party development
firms that can absorb spikes in workload.
Analyze the
need for a
college portal
and develop a
strategy for
adoption, as
appropriate.
Many institutions have implemented college-specific portals to organize their
on-line services and information for students, faculty and staff. Increasingly,
this technology is being eclipsed by mobile applications and technology
users’ preference to organize their on-line lives in applications such as
Facebook or iGoogle. Currently a portal is considered one mechanism to
increase use of Banner, especially by the faculty, and may be considered a
bridge strategy to future technology. In this initiative, the college will analyze
and determine the the need for a conventional portal solution.
Enhance Web Self-service – Phasing
and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
The addition of web and mobile applications to facilitate greater self-service will be
a continuous process. Each year, the college’s IT governance groups will solicit and
recommend project priorities for ITS and its vendor partners to implement. Likewise,
the organizational transformation to deepen ITS capacity to develop web
applications will be phased in over the first three years of the IT plan. The
assessment of need for a college portal will be undertaken in the second half of the
planning horizon. This timing enables resources to remain focused on other priorities
and to allow time for further developments in portal technology.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Increased student and faculty satisfaction with services;
•  Increased percentage of services that can be transacted from anywhere and at
any time.
38
39
Enhance Web Self-service - Phasing
1
Identify and implement priority selfservice development projects.
Extend capacity to develop web and
2 mobile applications
Evaluate the need for a traditional
3 portal.
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Improve
Constituent Engagement
Description of the Opportunity
Social networking and similar highly interactive web-based technologies are
transforming the way organizations and individuals communicate and collaborate.
These technologies present Smith with new methods to connect key constituencies
including alumnae, parents, students, Five College students and faculty, and
perspective students, to the college and one another. It creates new avenues to
bring the digital content and events of the college to these varied constituents.
This strategic opportunity creates the capacity to explore and deploy multi-media,
social networking and other interactive web technologies to enable constituents to
access existing campus resources (e.g., JStor), lectures, short courses, etc.
Additionally it considers how CRM* solutions can be used to support more
sophisticated communication and outreach to alumni and prospective students.
Goals
•  Create additional expertise in digital media and their potential application.
•  Leverage the college’s technology infrastructure to make its assets more readily
accessible to its constituents.
•  Implement the use of social media, mobile applications and other forms of
interactive, web-based applications in strategic areas such as alumnae relations,
development and admissions.
40
Improve Constituent Engagement Key Initiatives
Initiative
Description
Develop a
strategy for
technology
enabled
constituent
engagement.
There are many potential experiments that Smith could undertake using technology
to enhance constituent engagement. The college should begin by quickly
researching best practices in higher education and other industries. In particular,
work going on with social media and multi-media in development and admissions at
other institutions can be a source of ideas for similar projects at Smith. Likewise,
vendors are designing applications to be used in conjunction with social networking
and mobile devices that represent a potential source of innovation for Smith. From
this effort, develop a strategy for how to approach constituent engagement and
reach agreement on who are the constituents, the criteria to use to prioritize projects
and what mechanisms are required to manage electronic outreach. Smith should
then identify and prioritize a series of pilot projects and/or full deployments of
solutions to enhance engagement.
Assess Collegewide staffing
requirements to
support
research,
deployment
and use of
digital media.
Digital media (including social media, mobility and interactive web technology) is a
growing area of specialization. Professionals with a combination of marketing,
technology and project management skills are emerging in organizations to bring
new expertise and skills to develop strategies to leverage these technologies. These
individuals are skilled at partnering across the organization to identify new
opportunities to use technology creatively. Smith has some of these skills resident in
multiple organizations. In the future, the College is likely to need additional staff,
deeper expertise and enhanced mechanisms to coordinate initiatives among units
pursuing digital media initiatives.
41
Improve Constituent Engagement Key Initiatives
Initiative
Description
Implement
technologies to
enhance
engagement
The implementation of new technologies to enhance constituent
engagement will likely take many forms. Some may require the
development of new applications. Others may be accomplished
through partnership with third parties and still others may be
accomplished through new uses of existing technologies (e.g.,
Facebook). As such, the college will have opportunities to pursue
multiple smaller projects rather than a single, large implementation.
Deploy a CRM*
solution
Constituent relationship management software working in tandem with
Banner and the college’s future business intelligence solution enables
more sophisticated outreach and communication. This initiative
includes developing a conceptual design for how Smith would utilize
CRM capabilities, developing a definition of functional requirements,
selecting a technology and executing its implementation. CRM may
be an area for future Five College collaboration to economize on the
costs of acquiring and operating the technology.
* CRM solutions include software tools for customer relationship management that enable an
organization to manage interactions with current and prospective students, alumnae, donors, etc.
42
Improve Constituent Engagement –
Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
Smith will likely pursue elements of this strategic opportunity every year for the life of
this IT plan. In the plan’s first year, the focus should be on making a strategic hire
with expertise in digital media, researching best practices and devising a tactical
plan for particular constituent engagement projects. Starting in year 2, the college
will begin to complete discrete projects to deploy or utilize, mobile, social
networking and other technologies. In the final two to three years of the plan, the
college can plan and deploy a CRM solution.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Improved constituent satisfaction with the college;
•  Increased penetration of college communications to their desired audience;
•  Increased stakeholder participation in college events, activities and initiatives;
and
•  Increased revenue from new channels for donor outreach and engagement.
43
44
Improve Constituent Engagement Phasing
Develop tactical plan for constituent
engagement
1
Assess College-wide staffing requirements
2 for digital media initiatives
Deploy technologies to enhance
engagement
3
4
Plan and deploy a CRM solution
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
March
June
2013 2012 December
Sept
June
2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Support Five
College Academic Collaborations
Description of the Opportunity
The college’s strategic plan anticipates expanded academic collaborations among the
Five Colleges. In the next five years, Smith is likely to engage with other Five College
institutions to share faculty appointments and courses. Greater academic collaboration
will increase the number of students and faculty who require physical and virtual access to
the resources of each of the Five Colleges.
This strategic opportunity outlines several collaborative initiatives that Smith should
champion to use technology to make the student and faculty experience seamless across
the Five Colleges. Unlike the other strategies in this plan, Smith can’t execute these
initiatives without the support and resources of the other four institutions and Five Colleges,
Inc. These are areas in which it is in Smith’s interest to take a leadership role within the Five
Colleges including providing staff, financial support and a willingness to compromise on
technology and process design decisions in support of its larger strategic objectives.
Additionally it is expected that the Five Colleges will contribute to scanning the
environment for new technologies and identifying their potential applications.
Goals
•  Make it easier for faculty and students to access resources throughout the Five Colleges.
•  Position Smith technology to support Five College initiatives to share faculty appointments
and courses.
•  Reduce the time and effort required for a student to gain access to the electronic and
place based resources of Smith.
•  Make it easier for students to discover opportunities to take courses across the Five
Colleges and to register for the courses that they select.
45
Support Five College Academic
Collaborations - Key Initiatives
46
Initiative
Description
Upgrade identity
and access
management
capabilities.
Identity management is the technology and associated processes that Smith
uses to define, provide and rescind access to its technology and digital
resources to members of the Smith community, visitors, guests and other
stakeholders. It is also the means through which Smith students and faculty
can gain access to the resources of other institutions without requiring
separate log ins or passwords (federated identity management). This initiative
expands existing identity management solutions to create a mature set of
provisioning processes and the ability to offer single sign on to Smith
technologies. It supports the completion of the pilot phase (already
underway) and the full scale implementation of federated identity
management within the Five Colleges.
Support Five
College efforts to
facilitate course
registration.
While some improvements have been made to aid students’ ability to find
and register for courses across the Five Colleges, greater integration of
information and processes are possible. Smith will play a leading role in Five
College efforts to harmonize registration processes and policies and use
technology to make it easier for students to select courses offered on-line or
at another college.
Support Five College Academic
Collaborations - Key Initiatives
47
Initiative
Description
Improve student
technology
support
processes.
As the movement of students among the Five Colleges increases, the need to
coordinate technology support services will also increase. Smith should
continue to work with the IT organizations at the four other institutions to
provide reciprocal access to help desk and walk-in center services. Where
possible the Five Colleges should standardize technologies in use by students,
and implement practices that enable support to be delivered at a distance.
Assess and
deploy an
Interoperable
One Card
Solution (Two
phases: software
now, hardware
later).
Greater interoperability of one card technology would make it easier for
students and faculty to access buildings and services at each of the Five
Colleges. However, one card technologies are not currently compatible
across card reader solutions. Smith should continue to engage with the Five
College’s to assess opportunities either to make their respective one-card
solutions more interoperable or plan a migration to a common one-card
solution as card reader hardware nears the end of life. In addition, Smith
should work collaboratively with the Five Colleges to analyze the processes by
which cards are provided to students taking courses away from their home
campus to reduce the time required to obtain building access.
Migrate to a
Common
Learning
Management
System (LMS).
As the number of cross registrations and shared courses among the Five
Colleges increases, the fact that institutions maintain multiple learning
management systems will become increasingly inefficient and cumbersome.
Smith should provide leadership within the Five Colleges to move to a single,
shared LMS for all in-person, on-line and hybrid courses. Migration to a new
LMS must be in alignment with ramp up of new online/hybrid courses.
Support Five College Academic
Collaborations – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
The pace at which Smith pursues these initiatives will be dependent on the interests
and priorities of the other Five Colleges. Momentum is already building for
improved, federated identity management. Completing this initiative should be a
top priority. Work to streamline processes, policies and technology to facilitate
student registrations should also receive early attention. More costly and complex
changes such as a common one card and learning management system should
be phased in when readiness is higher and the need for such solutions is dictated
by the academic strategies of the Five Colleges.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Increased student and faculty satisfaction with services across the Five Colleges;
•  Increased numbers of students cross-registering for courses; and
•  Reduced elapsed time to receive access to campus services for students and
faculty from other colleges.
48
49
Support Five College Academic
Collaborations - Phasing
Upgrade identity and resource access
1 management
Support Five College efforts to improve
course registration
2
Improve student technology support
processes
3
Assess and deploy an interoperable one
card solution (Software now, hardware
4 later)
Migrate to a common learning
management system
5
December
Sept
June
March
2013 December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Enhance Faculty,
Student and Staff Mobility
Description of the Opportunity
Smith faculty and students are increasingly mobile on and off-campus (including Five
Colleges). Providing students, faculty and staff the ability to work effectively at anytime
and from anywhere is becoming a baseline expectation of the campus community. This
initiative deploys the technologies and support services required by a mobile population.
The position of a digital media specialist will assist in supporting the increased demand for
web and mobile applications.
Goals
•  Enable staff, students and faculty to work anytime, anywhere with whomever they want
in a secure environment;
•  Provide self-service and after hours technology support;
•  Provide capacity to develop and deploy mobile applications.
50
Enhance Faculty, Student and Staff
Mobility - Key Initiatives
51
Initiative
Description
Plan and finance
a regular renewal
and replacement
program for the
campus wired
and wireless
networks.
An upgrade to the wireless network was recently completed and will not need
replacement for some time, However, aspects of the wired network need
upgrading. The college should anticipate that both will require additional
investment in capacity and redundancy as network utilization and
importance grow. Smith should be proactive in development a financial plan
for how and when it will fund future upgrades to its network. The plan should
include financial support for investments not only in new hardware but
possibly upgrades in client devices, network infrastructure, updated
management tools, and training.
Pilot and if
successful
implement virtual
student labs and
virtual desktops.
Recently Smith agreed to jointly test and evaluate a proof-of-concept model
for a shared virtual computing laboratory through the Collaborative Virtual
Computing Laboratory (LabSTOR*)—led by Allegheny college, Harvey Mudd
college, Middlebury college, and Occidental college. Participation in this pilot
will enable IT staff to develop experience with virtual labs and determine
whether the solution or an alternative should be deployed on campus. Smith
should remain focused on experimenting with the virtual labs with the goal of
exploring virtual desktops in the next 12-18 months.
* LabSTOR is a collaborative project focused on building a shared virtual computing laboratory that allows
member campuses to make software applications remotely available to their students and faculty. The project
seeks to reduce the need to invest in departmental computing infrastructure, and also intends to help reduce
costs in configuring and maintaining complex software images for installation in departmental computing labs.
Enhance Faculty, Student and Staff
Mobility - Key Initiatives
52
Initiative
Description
Implement tools
(knowledge
bases, remote
desktop
management)
to improve selfservice and
expand after
hours support
services.
Currently the ITS website contains some information on how end-users can
trouble shoot problems. The current support model is primarily a dispatch
service requiring personal interaction. Tools are available to increase the
extent to which end users can self-support and trouble shoot their
questions. Such self-service tools are particularly valuable in off peak
hours. Smith should evaluate the existing toolset and identify the best
opportunities to implement more self-service/remote service.
Implementation of new tools will require staff training and resetting enduser expectations for which issues they are capable of trouble-shooting
and solving versus those which require Help Desk support.
Enhance Faculty, Student and Staff
Mobility - Key Initiatives
53
Initiative
Description
Develop a
mobile
applications
strategy.
The world of technology has shifted from a wired, desktop based environment
to one that is increasingly mobile and wireless. As such institutions are defining
new ways to interact with alumnae, prospective students, current students,
donors, etc. Smith should be proactive and develop a mobile strategy that
includes developing an understanding of end-user needs, creating potential
use cases (or finding existing applications), and defining the platform that will
best suit end-users and is in alignment with its technical architecture. Some
questions to consider in the development of a mobile strategy include:
• What are the needs of the mobile student, faculty and staff?
• What mobile devices will you support?
• How will you prioritize which mobile projects you undertake?
• How will you track and manage changing technologies?
The work of students and faculty is becoming more collaborative. As the need
for collaboration increases, a concomitant investment is necessary in
collaboration tools to support the endeavors of faculty and students.
Collaboration tools (virtual desktop, file sharing, video sharing, etc) are
required to help participants keep up with an array of people, tasks,
documents, and deadlines. ETS, in conjunction with a handful of progressive
faculty and students, should work together to identify, test and implement a
suite of collaboration tools that will be supported by the college versus those
that end-users will self-select and support.
Implement
expanded suite
of collaboration
tools for faculty,
students and
staff.
Enhance Faculty, Student and Staff
Mobility – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
The implementation of mobile applications will be a continuous process. With the
recent upgrades to the network infrastructure Smith should first focus on how best to
leverage existing and emerging tools to take advantage of the wireless
capabilities. Skills and experience developed through the use of new tools and
through participation in the LabSTOR can later be applied to the development of a
more comprehensive mobile strategy for the college.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Confidence that Smith will keep pace with changes in networking technology;
•  Availability of technologies that enable students, faculty and staff to securely
access their data and software applications via the internet;
•  Access to self-service and after hours technology support;
•  Increased productivity through improved ability to collaborate with classmates
and colleagues.
54
55
Enhance Faculty, Student and Staff
Mobility – Phases
Plan and finance a regular renewal and
replacement program for the campus
1 wired and wireless networks.
Pilot and if successful implement virtual
2 student labs and virtual desktops.
Implement tools to improve self-service
and remote support and expand after
3 hours support services.
Develop a mobile applications strategy.
4
Implement expanded suite of
collaboration tools for faculty, students
5 and staff.
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Source
Technology to Collaborations and the
Cloud
56
Description of the Opportunity
The alternatives to self-operating technologies and support services are growing more
numerous and mature. Smith is already engaged in some IT collaborations within the Five
Colleges. In addition, the college has turned to third parties to host some applications such
as the content management system.
This strategic opportunity positions Smith to source more technologies to commercial
providers and other higher education collaborations. It enables Smith to systematically
review and determine the optimal sourcing strategy for each major technology and support
service. It lays the technical and policy groundwork to expand use of cloud computing.
Technologically it relies on initiatives highlighted in other strategic opportunities including the
continued upgrading of the wired and wireless network and identity management. It also
includes initiatives to mature the organization’s capability to evaluate, select and manage
more varied sourcing strategies.
Goals
•  Establish repeatable, objective processes to weigh the pros and cons of cloud and
collaborative services.
•  Reduce the cost of providing commodity technologies.
•  Improve the ability to prevent and recover from departmental disasters by sourcing
technologies to third parties.
•  Gain access to new skill sets and speed the adoption of new technology.
Source Technologies to Collaborations
and the Cloud - Key Initiatives
57
Initiative
Description
Identify cloud
and
collaboration
opportunities
ITS will annually review with TSC a list of candidate technologies and services
that have the potential to be sourced to the cloud or collaborations. The list will
be developed using a number of criteria including the cost and performance
of the existing service, the availability of alternative solutions and the risk of
switching. From this list, the TSC will work with ITS to identify one or more
opportunities that warrant deeper analysis and/or pilot implementations.
Based on the experience of other institutions and corporations, the initial
candidate services for cloud or collaborations should include email, calendar,
personal productivity applications, file storage, desktop back-up and help desk
services (especially after hours). ITS should continue to regularly scan the
marketplace and monitor higher education’s experience with the cloud to
augment this list.
Prepare
policies and
procurement
practices for
cloud and
collaborations
The college will undertake a focused initiative to review its information security,
procurement and contracting polices and processes to align them with the
specialized issues and risks inherent in moving data and technology services to
third parties. Policies should be developed to guide how and when individual
departments, faculty or staff can elect to use a cloud service. ITS should begin
to develop a more detailed understanding of the cost of providing its major
services as a basis of comparison to cloud and collaborative solutions. Finally,
standard evaluation check-lists should be developed to guide analysis of the
pros and cons of cloud and collaborative solutions. ITS and purchasing should
work jointly to develop skills in negotiating and managing cloud based vendors.
Source Technologies to Collaborations
and the Cloud - Key Initiatives
58
Initiative
Description
Sustain the
technology
infrastructure to
facilitate cloud
and
collaborative
solutions.
Smith’s first priority should be to continue to invest in the reliability, availability
and performance of its wired and wireless network. The robustness and
reliability of the network is essential to many strategic opportunities including
cloud services. Likewise, the college will require a strong set of identity
management policies and technologies to manage access to cloud,
collaborative and on-campus services.
Source Technologies to the Cloud and
Collaborations – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
Work will begin with an initial set of activities to assess current cloud sourcing options
and develop the policy and procurement infrastructure to support cloud and
collaboration sourcing. Once this initial assessment is complete, the college will
likely be evaluating cloud and collaborative opportunities as part of every
technology sourcing and adoption decision.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Reduce cost of deploying or sustaining technologies or services.
•  Increased capacity to deploy new technologies.
•  Greater ability to focus college resources on strategic services.
59
60
Source Technologies to the Cloud
and Collaborations – Phasing
Identify cloud and collaboration
1 opportunities
Prepare policies and procurement
practices for collaborations and cloud
sourcing
2
Sustain required network and identity
management infrastructure (on-going)
3
December
Sept
June
March
2013 December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
Strategic Opportunity: Maintain a reliable
IT infrastructure and Improve Capacity to
Prevent or Recover from Disaster
Description of the Opportunity
This initiative commits the College to annually assess the condition of its infrastructure and
make investments to enable its on-going renewal and replacement. A reliable
infrastructure with sufficient capacity to meet current and future demands is foundational
to all of Smith’s strategic technology opportunities. It is critical that Smith maintain a
network with adequate capacity and redundancy to provide access to critical
technologies on and off campus. Computing hardware and software must be kept up to
date and continue to be replaced at regular intervals.
Major Smith technologies are vulnerable to prolonged (hours or days) outages in the
event of a disaster in the primary data center. In addition, the college faces increasingly
complex information security threats. This initiative expands formal disaster recovery
planning and implements strategies to reduce the time required to recover from disaster.
It also expands current information security capabilities and practices which will become
important as Smith adopts more web and mobile technologies.
Goals
•  Create greater capability to continue operations in the event of a disaster that limits
access to the physical campus;
•  Provide back-up of information and documents if the original is destroyed;
•  Reduce risk of prolonged system outages;
•  Provide dedicated expertise to assess and manage information security risk.
61
Improve Capacity to Prevent or Recover
from Disaster - Key Initiatives
62
Initiative
Description
Regularly renew
and replace the
core
infrastructure
Update Business
Continuity/
Disaster
Recovery Plan.
Develop multi-year plans to invest in the maintenance and modernization of
the campus network, server, desktop and classroom hardware and the data
center infrastructure. Annually assess the state of the infrastructure and adjust
plans as necessary.
The current business continuity plan is outdated. Smith must undergo a
process to evaluate what level of risk is acceptable if a serious incident occurs
which prevents the college from continuing normal operations any day at any
time. Such an event may be the result of flood, explosion, computer
malfunction, accident, grievous act, etc. To refresh the existing plan an
inventory of major systems should be completed and a determination made
of the required recovery times for each in the event of a disaster.
Develop a plan
for securing new
data center
space in
collaboration
with another
institution or a
public or private
cloud.
In the short-term Smith should focus on how it can extend the life of the existing
data center rather than building a new data center on campus. To create
improved capacity to recover from a loss of the primary data center and
relieve some of the demand for power, cooling and space, Smith should
evaluate options for moving critical systems such as Email and Moodle to the
cloud. In the long term, and with an understanding of specific data center
requirements, Smith should evaluate a broader set of options for transitioning
of servers, applications, etc to: 1) An outsourced vendor; 2) Public or private
cloud service; 3) Five College Collaboration; or 4) Another institution.
Improve Capacity to Prevent or Recover
from Disaster - Key Initiatives
63
Initiative
Description
Create a
dedicated
position for
information
security (could
be a shared
position within
the Five
Colleges)
focused on
security policy,
risk assessment,
communications
and training and
monitoring
developments in
technology and
regulations.
The information security officer typically resides in the IT organization and
usually possesses technology expertise, emphasis tends to be placed on the
technological interventions that can help improve computer and network
security. However the scope of responsibilities is much larger and includes
security strategy, policy development and enforcement. A sample of the
scope of responsibilities of a security officer includes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive written “information security
program”;
Develop a culture of security-awareness for students, faculty, and staff including the
delivery of training sessions;
Perform risk assessments that identify and locate information assets vulnerabilities;
Update information security policies and procedures;
Implement security technologies designed to prevent, detect, and deter security
incidents;
Coordinate with other IT staff in the areas of user identification and authentication,
user account management, user privileges, configuration management, event and
activity logging and monitoring, and other technical best practices;
Coordinate with process owners for business continuity planning and disaster recovery;
Work with the college’s data stewards to establish appropriate safeguards, etc.
Smith should evaluate the depth of its needs in information security and
determine whether this individual could be a shared resource for the Five
College Collaboration.
Improve Capacity to Prevent or Recover
from Disaster – Phasing and Benefits
Phasing Strategy
This strategic opportunity requires immediate attention and resources should be
devoted to these three initiatives as soon as possible. As illustrated on the following
page it is expected that in the next nine months these three activities can be
completed with the right attention and resource.
Benefits
This strategic opportunity offers Smith the following benefits:
•  Reduced risk to business operations in the event of a prolonged system outage;
•  Guaranteed availability of stand-by systems;
•  Improved information security including awareness by the Smith community of
their responsibility for information security in terms of technology applications,
physical paper and digital assets.
64
65
Improve Capacity to Prevent or Recover
from Disaster - Phases
1
2
Regularly renew and replace the core
infrastructure
Update Business Continuity/Disaster
Recovery Plan
Develop a plan for securing new data
center space in collaboration with
another institution or a public or private
3 cloud.
Create a dedicated position for
information security (could be a shared
4 position within the Five Colleges)
On-going
December
Sept
June
March
2013
December
Sept
March
December
Sept
June
June
2012 2011 March
Initiatives
66
IT Governance
67
Introduction
  Effective IT governance is critical to the implementation of the college’s IT plan.
IT governance is needed to monitor and adjust strategies, establish annual
priorities, lead efforts to change culture and practice in concert with technology
change, and spur continuous exploration of new developments in technology.
  There are a relatively small number of options for structuring IT governance. Smith
already has the structural elements (ITCC, CET, Banner Committee) common to
most institutions’ IT governance. However, the roles of existing groups need to be
clarified, groups’ memberships adjusted and committees’ activity intensified.
  In addition, Smith should complement its core IT governance committees with
groups organized to lead particular initiatives or bring together communities of
technology stakeholders.
68
Components of IT Governance
  We recommend Smith convene three core IT governance committees*. These
committees will be complemented by ad-hoc project teams and informal
communities of interest.
  Core IT Governance Committees – The focal point for IT governance will be the
Technology Steering Committee; supported by two subcommittees: 1) Committee
on Educational Technology; and 2) Committee on Administrative Technology.
These committees will recommend or establish IT priorities, monitor the
implementation of the strategic plan and provide sponsorship for major technology
initiatives.
  Initiative Teams – Ad-hoc groups will be appointed to sponsor, coordinate or
support discrete projects or initiatives. Their membership, charge and duration is
determined on a case by case basis. Initiative teams are accountable to one or
more core committees.
  Communities of Interest – Communities of Interest will be regular, informal gatherings
of IT and non-IT professionals, faculty and students with an interest in a particular
technology or technology topic. Communities are sounding boards for IT decisions,
may identify new technology opportunities and share best practices.
*Committees represent all aspects of Smith including the Alumnae Association.
69
Components of IT Governance
Provide input and ideas
Technology
Steering
Committee
Committee
on
Educational
Technology
Initiative
Team: Digital
Repository
Committee
on
Administrative
Technology
Initiative
Team:
Business
Intelligence
Align IT with Institutional Priorities
Communities of
Interest:
Data Analysts
Communities of
Interest:
Technology
Innovations
Coordinate IT
& Process Change
Communities of
Interest:
Technology
Providers
Provide input and ideas
Governance
Advisory
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Core IT Governance Committees
  IT governance will be carried out by three standing committees. Responsibilities of each
committee are introduced below and further described in the pages that follow.
Technology Steering
(TSC)
•  Focus on all areas of technology;
•  Oversee implementation of the IT plan;
•  Recommend annual investment priorities, policies and changes to
IT services to Senior Administrators and the Committee on Mission
and Priorities.
Committee on
Educational Technology
(CET)
•  Focus on technology related to teaching, learning, and research;
•  Align educational technology strategy with effective pedagogy,
faculty interest and student expectations;
•  Recommend priorities for investment;
•  Sponsor initiatives to expand the use of technology in education.
Committee on
Administrative
Technology (CAT)
•  Focus on technology related to administrative services, campus
operations and the effective use of data to support decisionmaking;
•  Recommend priorities for investment and identify opportunities for
collaboration across administrative areas;
•  Sponsor initiatives to improve efficiency and effectiveness through
the use of technology.
•  Solicit appropriate input from faculty regarding their administrative
technology requirements.
Technology Steering Committee
(TSC)
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  The TSC guides and advises senior-level IT decision-making at the college. In collaboration
with the Executive Director of ITS it recommends IT priorities, policies and strategies to the
college’s executive leadership (Senior Administrators) and the Committee on Mission and
Priorities.
  The TSC is co-chaired by the Provost and Dean of the Faculty and the Vice President for
Finance and Administration. The Executive Director for Information Technology supports
the co-chairs in the development of meeting agendas and analyses to frame committee
discussions and decisions. The co-chairs appoint the members of the committee in
consultation with the Executive Director for Information Technology.
  TSC members should include all of the current members of ITCC. In addition, the
Committee should include two additional faculty representatives and the Dean of
Students or her designee. The chairs of the committees on Educational Technology and
Administrative Technology are standing members of the TSC.
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Technology Steering Committee (TSC)
Charge
Technology
Steering
Committee
•  Senior
governance
group for
technology;
•  Co-chaired by the
Provost and the VP
for Finance and
Administration;
•  Meets at least
quarterly.
•  Recommend annual technology
investment priorities.
•  Monitor and modify the IT
strategic plan (annually).
•  Evaluate and recommend
changes to IT policies.
•  With sub-committees, solicit
and prioritize project proposals
for new innovations or uses of
educational or administrative
technology (annually).
•  Review and recommend
significant changes to IT service
levels.
•  Monitor the balance of central
and departmental responsibilities
for technology.
•  Work in conjunction with ITS to
sustain the required capacity,
security and recoverability of the
college’s technology
infrastructure.
•  Review and recommend the
retirement of technologies and
services.
•  Review analyses and
recommend Five College IT
collaborations (as needed).
•  Review analyses and
recommend decisions to
source IT services to the cloud
or collaborations.
Committee on Educational Technology
(CET)
  The Committee on Educational Technology advises the Technology Steering
Committee and ITS on policies, strategies and services related to the effective use of
technology in teaching, learning and research.
  The members of the CET should be appointed by the Provost in consultation with
Faculty Council and the Director for Educational Technology. Its members should
include faculty representatives from each of the three academic divisions, the
directors of CATS, the Library and the Sherrerd Center. Membership will have routine
consultation with the Centers for Global Studies, Environment, Ecological Design and
Sustainability, and Community Collaborations.
  CET should be co-chaired by the Director of Educational Technology and a faculty
member appointed by the Provost, in consultation with Faculty Council.
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Committee on Educational Technology
Committee on
Educational
Technology
•  Primary advisory
body for
educational
technology.
•  Co-chaired by
the Director of
Educational
Technology and
an appointed
faculty member;
•  Meets at least
twice a semester.
Charge
•  Recommend annual investment
priorities to further the effective
use of educational technologies.
•  Allocate annual innovation
grants to faculty to explore new
technologies or new applications
of educational technologies.
•  Sponsor a bi-annual series of
faculty demonstrations of uses of
educational technologies.
•  Monitor and recommend
strategies to sustain the
technology in classroom and
non-classroom based learning
spaces.
•  Request and review the
results of analyses of
outcomes associated with
particular learning
technologies (as-needed).
•  Advise ITS on changes to
technologies or services that
impact teaching, learning
and research.
Committee on Administrative Technology
(CAT)
  CAT is the college’s primary advisory committee for the application of technology
to improve (and support) campus services, operations, management and data
driven decision-making.
  CAT serves as the senior governance committee for cross-organizational
administrative technologies (e.g., Banner and business intelligence). In this role,
CAT will make appropriate recommendations to the Technology Steering
Committee regarding changes in policy, annual project priorities, changes in
service, and other issues that will have enterprise-wide impact.
  CAT’s members will be appointed by the Vice President for Finance and
Administration in consultation with Senior Administrators, the Executive Director for
ITS and the Director for Administrative Technology. CAT will be co-chaired by the
Director for Administrative Technology and an administrative leader appointed by
the Provost and VP for Finance and Administration.
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Committee on Administrative
Technology
Committee on
Administrative
Technology
•  Primary advisory
committee for
information
technology.
•  Co-chaired by the
Director of
Administrative
Technology and the
appointed
administrative leader;
•  Meets at least 6 times
per year.
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Charge
•  Recommend annual investment
priorities.
•  Prioritize and award annual
innovation grants for the use of
technology to improve
administrative services.
•  Coordinate the management of
enterprise administrative
applications.
•  Prioritize Banner and non-Banner
ITS development projects.
•  Resolve cross-module and crossorganizational issues that impact
the use of enterprise applications
including data definitions.
•  Provide executive
sponsorship for initiatives to
encourage the adoption of
new and existing
technologies, to revise
business processes to
leverage technology and to
measure process
improvements.
•  Recommend policy
changes that impact the
use of administrative
technologies.
•  Identify emerging needs or
potential applications of
new technology that are
shared across the college.
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Initiative Teams
  Initiative teams are formed to provide coordination and sponsorship for complex
technology implementations with broad college impact. They support
implementation project teams or IT staff charged with implementing a particular
technology. They provide project-based governance, formulate process and
policy changes related to a complex technology deployment and provide a
forum for significant operational decisions that affect multiple areas of the
college.
  Initiative teams are appointed by the co-chairs of the Technology Steering
Committee and the Executive Director of ITS. Initiative teams exist for a finite
duration and are provided with a unique charge and scope of authority.
78
Initiative Teams
  To support the immediate project priorities in the strategic plan, Smith should
continue the work of the BI steering committee as its first initiative team. In the
future, Smith will form initiative teams for additional strategic opportunities such
as digital repository design and implementation and constituent engagement
related projects such as the deployment of a constituent relationship
management solution.
Charge for BI Initiative Team
•  Finalize technology strategy to support BI initiative (build vs. buy).
Business
Intelligence
Initiative Team
•  Recommend a consulting firm to partner with Smith to implement
BI.
•  Coordinate efforts to clean up legacy data and convert existing
reports (with sponsorship from CAT).
•  Approve proposed revisions to data definitions (with support as
needed from CAT).
•  Resolve issues as requested by day to day project leaders.
•  Monitor implementation progress.
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Communities of Interest
  Communities of interest complement core governance committees and initiativespecific teams by bringing together stakeholders with common interests in particular
areas or uses of technology.
  Communities of interests share best practices within the institution, build technology
skills and competencies among staff with similar roles, help design improvements to
technologies and services and look over the horizon to monitor emerging needs and
technology innovations.
  Communities of interest will be created and hosted by ITS in consultation with the
Technology Steering Committee. The composition of committees, meeting
frequency and method of communication (on-line, in-person) will vary.
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Communities of Interest
  To support the implementation of the strategic plan, three communities of
interest should be established (table below).
  The Executive Director of ITS will conduct an annual review of the communities
and report to the Technology Steering committee which communities will
continue, which will be retired and which new ones formed.
Community
Focus
Data Analysts
•  Share information about the BI implementation.
•  Receive training on analytical tools and techniques.
•  Discuss challenges and opportunities to implement data
driven decision-making.
Technology Innovations
•  Cross-organizational group of faculty, students and staff to
discuss the implications of new technologies for the
college.
Technology Providers
•  ITS and non-ITS staff who support users of technology to
discuss challenges, best practices and continuous
improvements of IT support services.
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Organizational
Implications
This section describes the the experiences and
skill sets required in ITS and departmental IT
groups to implement the strategic initiatives.
82
Organizational Implications
  To achieve its IT vision, Smith requires the efforts of its own faculty and staff
in combination with outsourced service providers, Five College
collaborations for staff and services, project-based consultants and
contract employees. This mix of internal and external resources provides
the greatest breadth of skills and the maximum organizational agility.
  To optimize the productivity of its own IT staff, Smith must manage its
college-wide IT resources holistically. Achieving the IT strategy requires
Smith:
1.  To invest in new positions and competencies inside and out of ITS; and
2.  To clarify the division of responsibilities between ITS and departmental IT
staff and re-position ITS units to support new technologies and services,
as appropriate.
  This section summarizes the new positions, opportunities for re-positioning
the skills and focus of existing positions and a framework for balancing ITS
and departmental IT staff responsibilities.
Investments in New Positions and
Competencies
83
  The plan challenges ITS to significantly re-orient its skills and services. As services
are sourced externally the College will require fewer positions focused on
operating technology. At the same time, the plan calls for the addition of new
consultative skill sets and positions to support the improved use of technology in
instruction and operations.
  College-wide, Smith needs to clarify and pro-actively manage the division of
responsibilities between ITS and departmental technology staff. Departments
such as the Science Center continue to require dedicated staff to support
unique technologies. Administrative departments require business analysts with
technology skills to help configure Banner and other administrative technologies
to work in concert with business processes. Departments also require access to
staff with the skills to build ad-hoc reports and queries to leverage the new
business intelligence infrastructure. As services and technologies evolve, college
leaders need to continue to work collaboratively to manage the focus of
departmental staff and avoid duplicating services that are or should be offered
by ITS.
  The table on the following page summarizes the projected new positions and the
strategic opportunities they support. Not all positions are required immediately.
The priorities for investment in new staff and the timing of new hires follows the
overall timeline for implementing the IT plan.
Investments in New Positions and
Competencies
84
Position
Strategic Opportunity
Comments
Business Analytics*
Lead (1 position)
•  Business Intelligence and Data
Warehousing
•  Likely position within Institutional Research
Data warehouse
technical team (2
to 3 positions)
•  Business Intelligence and Data
Warehousing
•  Includes data architect, cube/report
development expert and technical position to
extract and load data into warehouse.
Digital Media
Specialist (1
position)
•  Improve constituent engagement
•  Enhance student, faculty and staff
mobility
•  Enhance effectiveness of
administrative technologies
•  Additional expertise in web, social media and
mobile applications.
•  Position will focus on identifying opportunities
to apply these technologies at Smith, scan for
new technologies and coordinate projects to
deploy digital media.
•  Position could report jointly to ITS and
Communications and External Relations or
Development.
• Excludes any additional positions required to expand Institutional Research services or back-fill the time of the Director
to support business intelligence implementation.
Investments in New Positions and
Competencies
85
Position
Strategic Opportunity
Comments
Instructional
Designers (1-3
positions)
•  Enhance and expand the use of
educational technology
•  Additional positions create the ability to
provide more one on one consultation with
faculty, support increased use of video and
other media in coursework and prepare hybrid
and on-line courses for Five College
collaborations.
Information
Security (1
position)
•  Enhance ability to prevent and
recover from disaster and manage
information security risks.
•  Complexities of information security
increasingly require a dedicated resource.
•  Potential to share position with Five Colleges.
Project
Management (1-2
positions)
•  Adoption of standard project
management methodology and
tools;
•  Improved ability to manage
project deadlines and risk
•  Efficient allocation of resources to
projects
•  Will need project management to manage
the implementation of the strategic plan as
well as to lead implementation of several of
the initiatives;
•  Depending on the resource requirements and
phasing strategies for each initiative an
experienced project manager can manage
multiple projects at a time.
Additional Implications of Strategy
for ITS Services
86
  The administrative computing group will need to further restructure and expand its skills
and services.
  The group needs the capacity to extend its focus beyond Banner to include the
integration, and at times, the operation and maintenance of other commercial
software applications.
  Application developers will require more web and mobile application development
skills to support the coming technology change in Banner and to meet expanded
college demand for web applications.
  Administrative computing needs additional analyst capacity to work collaboratively
with departments to analyze processes, define technology requirements, and select the
best technology solution.
  ITS also requires an expanded project management capacity.
  The strategic plan calls for multiple, complex technology and process change projects.
Often, there will be multiple significant projects taking place at the same time.
Managing these projects requires more standard project management methods and
dedicated project management staff.
Additional Implications of Strategy
for ITS Services
  ITS also requires an expanded project management capacity. (cont’d)
  ITS should establish a project management office (PMO). The PMO would select
and train staff in a standard project management methodology and provide
project management services to projects of moderate to large scale.
  The size of the PMO can begin with one staff member supplemented by consultants
as needed.
  Building PMO capacity is also an area for potential Five College collaboration and
inquiries should be made to ascertain if Smith could share this capability with one or
more of the other colleges.
  Finally, incorporating remote diagnostic and repair tools, knowledge bases and selfhelp mechanisms into IT support would free-up some staff capacity. This capacity
could be utilized to expand technology support for events, create additional project
capacity and potentially support other new services.
87
Implications of Strategy on
Departmental IT Staffing
  Smith will continue to require staff with technology skills outside of the ITS organization.
  CATS should continue to support specialized technologies used by Science Center
faculty. ITS should continue to provide and support the common (college-wide)
technologies used by Science faculty and staff.
  Administrative areas with extensive data analytical requirements such as
Development and Alumnae Relations, Dean of the Faculty and the Dean of the
college should have analyst staff to develop ad-hoc reports and analyses.
  Administrative areas with shared responsibility (with ITS) for enterprise systems (e.g.,
Moodle, Banner) will require business analysts with IT skills to help manage the
configuration of these systems and to facilitate the alignment of business processes
with system functionality.
  In some cases, these staff will also have report writing and analytical
responsibilities.
  Offices requiring business analysts include Dean of the college, Finance and
Administration, Development and Alumnae Relations, and College Relations.
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89
Clarify IT Roles and Responsibilities
  Departmental IT staff should be additive, not duplicative of ITS services.
  Administrative areas and the Science Center need to work with ITS
annually to review the division of responsibilities and confirm that central
services continue to meet departmental needs. This process should be
overseen by the Technology Steering Committee.
  As departmental IT groups pilot new services that demonstrate benefit for
the entire college, support for the solution should be migrated to ITS.
  The tables on the following pages presents a model for assigning
responsibility for major technology functions.
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Clarify IT Roles and Responsibilities
Technology/
Service
General IT
Support
ITS
Departmental
Analysts or IT Support
Staff
Technology Users
•  Support all commonly used
technologies (e.g., network,
email, computers (hardware
and common software like
Office) and servers.
•  Support unique/highly
specialized software
applications used by a
single area of the college.
•  Leverage self-help
tools to troubleshoot
problems.
•  Provide data storage, back-up
services.
•  Support unique hardware
used by a single area of the
college.
•  Manage relationships with third
party providers of infrastructure
and software.
•  Maintain or source hardware
•  Develop ad-hoc and
that stores data and provides
standard queries and
analytical tools.
reports in the analyst’s area
of data expertise.
•  Create and maintain programs
Analysis &
Reporting
and interfaces to move data
into reporting warehouses.
•  Define technical requirements
for tools.
•  Provide help desk services.
•  Develop complex reports.
•  Define functional
requirements for
analytical tools.
•  Maintain data
definitions.
•  Support functional leaders in
•  Define business logic –
the development of the
rules for what data is
business logic that defines
moved into the
which fields are included in
warehouse.
a report or analysis.
•  Perform simple
queries.
•  Perform analysis.
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Clarify IT Roles and Responsibilities
Technology/
Service
ITS
Departmental
Analysts or IT
Support Staff
Technology Users
•  Implement patches and
upgrades.
•  Manage application setup and configuration.
•  Define business
processes and policies.
•  Triage support questions – •  Research new
help desk.
functionality in existing
applications.
•  Develop and maintain
interfaces.
•  Develop and maintain
modifications and
complementary
applications (including
mobile applications).
Application
Development and
•  Support/participate in
Support
research of new
technology.
•  Manage vendor
relationships – report
problems, coordinate
troubleshooting of issues.
•  Track vendor technical
direction and alert
functional areas to new
possibilities.
•  Research new
technologies and
emerging solutions.
•  Support troubleshooting
– respond to application
questions submitted to
the ITS help desk.
•  Work with ITS and
vendors to help
troubleshoot software
issues.
•  Test new functionality
and changes to systems.
•  Develop functional
requirements for new
capabilities.
•  Participate in testing
and troubleshooting.
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Clarify IT Roles and Responsibilities
Technology/
Service
ITS
Departmental
Analysts or IT
Support Staff
Technology
Users
College
Relations
Web Site
Management
•  Provide or
arrange for the
infrastructure to
support the
college websites.
•  Define technical
requirements for
web content
management
tools.
•  Sometimes make
the content
updates.
•  Provide material
for content
updates.
•  Sometimes make
the content
updates.
•  Define the look
and feel of web
site.
•  Maintain
templates for
web sites.
•  Establish
processes for
updating
content.
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Financial Implications
94
Overview
  These strategies require Smith to substantially increase its
investment in technology. Smith currently allocates
approximately 4.2% of its total operating budget to technology.
  In FY11, the core ITS base budget was $7,169, 848 or 3.8% of
the college’s total operating budget.
  Including CATS and departmental purchases, the college
allocated approximately 4.2% of its total operating budget to
technology.
  High-level estimates suggest that Smith may need to increase its
annual operating expenditures for technology by more than
50% over five years to support new technologies and
approximately 8 to 10 additional staff. In addition, the college
should expect one-time expenditures of a similar magnitude.
While some redistribution of resources is possible, most of this
requires new investment.
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Financial Estimates – Incremental
Investments
Item
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Total
Staffing
$305,900
$756,344
$1,008,535
$1,059,637
$1,086,128
$4,216,543
Infrastructure
$500,000
$910,000
$1,048,000
$488,000
$488,000
$3,434,000
$1,375,000
$925,000
$1,600,000
$1,200,000
$1,050,000
$6,150,000
$600,000
$550,000
$350,000
$250,000
$250,000
$2,000,000
Software solutions/
Cloud Services
Implementation
Support,
Communication and
Training'
Sub-total
$2,780,900 $3,141,344 $4,006,535 $2,997,637 $2,874,128 $15,800,543
Additional data center
capacity
TBD
Contingency (15%)
$417,135
Total Estimate
TBD
$471,202
TBD
$600,980
TBD
$449,645
TBD
$431,119
TBD
$2,370,081
$3,198,035 $3,612,545 $4,607,515 $3,447,282 $3,305,247 $18,170,624
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Critical Success Factors
97
Critical Success Factors
  This plan represents a robust set of activities for Smith to
implement over the next three years. To be successful there
are a number of critical factors that must be in place to
ensure the College’s success in implementing the strategies
outlined in this plan.
  First, leadership must review the ten strategic opportunities and
confirm the priorities and phasing for implementation. Not all of
the initiatives can be nor should they be implemented at once.
Campus leadership must review the initiatives and prioritize them
in alignment with the overall goals of the College.
  For each initiative, Smith must identify dedicated resources to
support the implementation. Such resources include project
management expertise as well as functional and IT staff. In some
cases functional staff time may require backfilling so they can
truly dedicate their attention to project tasks. Project costs
should also be refined to ensure a complete accounting of
expected investment requirements.
98
Critical Success Factors
  Successful implementation of new technology requires a partnership
between functional owners and IT and unified leadership to guide
the campus through the cultural change that will naturally occur as
a result of the adoption of new technologies and new ways of
working at Smith. The IT Governance committees will play a crucial
role in monitoring project progress and be willing to adjust priorities
and timelines as needed and in light of the rate of absorption of
change and adoption of technology by the campus community.
  Given the magnitude of change it is critically important that routine
and transparent communication be made to the campus regarding
the goals of the strategic plan and the progress made on the
implementation of each initiative.
99
Critical Success Factors
  Training will be critical to ensure the adoption of new
technologies as they are implemented into the work place.
Training should be offered both in person and online to
accommodate the various learning styles of staff and faculty
alike. Training is also necessary in project management for the
individuals identified to lead project teams. Such training,
coupled with the adoption of standard project management
tools will ensure that Smith project team leads develop the
core competencies required to lead multiple projects over the
next three years.