Future IT
How information technology will support students, staff, faculty,
and researchers.
Context
Reality
Tools
Context
The Decline & Fall of Traditional IT
Ideal IT
Who do you need?
How do
you
measure
success?
Reality
Maximize resources
Embrace client
service
Socialize change
Collaborate
everywhere
Enable research
innovation
Empower teaching
and learning
Maximize
Resources
We have reached “the end of growth.” Our new normal is
reduced government funding. Adapt information systems
by leveraging of peers, partners, and externals.
• Externalize utility computing (hosted services)
• Drive shared service initiatives across provinces and
Canada
• On-premise cloud services opportunities
Demonstrate systems effectiveness in academic
programs & services
Strengthen strategic focus on knowledge
creation
Socialize
Change
To support an institution where change is inevitable, the
underlying technology must be seamless, agile, and
flexible. Create “one IT” where all information systems
are truly integrated through effective socialization
processes.
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Communities of interest
Change management process
Consistent culture
Project management process
IT stewardship model
University-wide integrated planning needs IT at
the table for the simple reason that information
systems are integral to everything.
Enable
Research
Innovation
IT is part and parcel of research’s rich tapestry. A
pervasive culture of research and scholarship depends on
systemic integration of information services into the
research mission of the institution.
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Research administration
Specific IT services for researchers (service catalog)
World class HPC data centre services
International, national, & provincial network services
Infinite data management
Recruit the best researchers because of best IT
Support faculty & grad students to succeed
Signature areas of research demand IT
Tri-agency success depends on IT
Empower
Teaching
and
Learning
Current teaching and learning technology is functional
and administrative in nature. Improved learning
outcomes are not the core goal of many ed-tech
initiatives. What does the class of 2020 need? What is
your 20/20 vision?
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Digitize the learning experience
More wireless, less paper
All services are mobile services
Integrate research technology into teaching
Expand digital resource breadth for all teachers &
learners
Interdiginization: Two horses moving together
each understanding & celebrating each other’s
culture & tradition
Learner-centred ecosystem driven by learning
analytics
Collaborate
Everywhere
Information systems can facilitate and accelerate the
collaboration process by delivering new and inventive
ways of working together.
• Social media is as much about internal collaboration
as it is about external marketing
• Islands of isolated technology rapidly become islands
of obsolescence
• Collaboration transcends technology tools: requires
integration of people, process, organization, and
technology
“We cannot have segments of our institution
act as bystanders to our mission.”
Embrace
Client
Service
IT is no longer about delivering technology with a service
component, it is about delivering services with a
technology component. Client expectations drive future
information systems directions.
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Measure and report
Focus on access vs. asset
Socialization processes frame all service delivery
IT stewardship
Be diverse
Be sustainable
Service level agreements Trust
Tools
People
Process
Projects
①
Stewardship
②
Planning
③
Leadership
④
Client Service
⑤
Process Excellence
⑥
Perspective
⑦
Innovation
Technology
Success
①
Stewardship

IT exists to realize the dreams and aspirations of its stakeholders

IT acts as a steward for the information systems resources of the institution

Stewardship is the engagement of key leaders across campus discussing IT
issues and making campus-based decisions, not isolated IT decisions

Stakeholders make the decisions about IT, and IT implements those
decisions

IT’s role is to facilitate decisions made by the stakeholders
WHO
WHERE
VPs, AVPs, Deans,
Executive Directors
WHAT
• Strategy
• Governance
• Enterprise portfolio
• Policy
Information Systems
Steering Committee
Deans, Faculty,
AVPs, Learning &
Teaching Centre
Working
Working
Working
Groups
Groups
Groups
Researchers,
Faculty, AVP-R, &
Research Office
Working
Working
Working
Groups
Groups
Groups
Student, Finance,
HR, Advancement,
Facilities, Research
Admin, & Systems
Working
Working
Working
Groups
Groups
Groups
• Student labs
• Learning management
• Audio Visual
• Classroom technology
Educational Technology
Advisory Committee
• Data centres
• HPC: capability/capacity
• Storage, networks
• Researcher services
Research Computing
Steering Committee
Priorities
Objectives
Administrative Systems
Operating Committee
Inform
New Projects
Project Review
Committee
Monitor
• Scheduling
• Resource allocation
• Project oversight
• Prioritization
Fit
Utility
Balance
Approved
by
governance
process
Rank
Initiative
1
Project A
2
Project B
3
Project C
4
Project D
5
Project E
6
Project F
7
Project G
8
Project H
9
Project I
10
Project J
11
Project K
12
Project L
13
Project M
14
Project N
15
Project O
Base funded
• Base funding of notional allocation
• Recommended through working groups
• Largest component of work underway at a given time
Project funded
• One-time project funds
• Example: Research Administration System fund
Ancillary funded
• Ancillary department funded
• Example: Housing System
Fee for service
• Client sponsored and funded
Waitlist
• Beyond capacity of functional units and IT at this point
in time
②
Planning

“Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” (Eisenhower)

Planning model collaboratively engages the entire university in setting a longterm vision with measurable progress steps

Builds a sustainable and renewable planning process that engages all IT services
providers to the institution

Links IT long term strategy to annual planning to personal performance plans

Uses the institution’s strategic plan for the IT planning context
Fix
Vision
Plan
GOVERNANCE
Do
Check
DECISION
RECOMMENDATIONS
Annually evaluate
strategic success
Strategy
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
PROGRAM
INITIATIVES
Measure goal
progress quarterly
Operations
ANNUAL SERVICE
PLAN
INTEGRATED
PROJECTS
Assess personal
achievements
Tactics
PERFORMANCE
PLAN
ASSIGNED
TASKS
③
Strategic thinking;
operational excellence
• Execute the plan
decisively
• Measure everything
Leadership
“Optimism is a force
multiplier” (Colin Powell)
Delegate, don’t abdicate
• Enthusiasm for the
future is the ultimate
motivator
• Create opportunities
and reward
appropriately
• Set the goals
• Provide all the
resources
• Clear the obstacles
• Get out of the way
• Monitor
④
IT will
compete for its clients
Client Service
Values
• Leadership by example
• Live the client service value
Culture
• Past: technology with service component
• Now: service with technology component
• Pull vs. push
Discipline
• Define expected behaviours
• Measure performance
• Build client assessment into appraisals
⑤
Process Excellence

All institutions manage systems with processes – knowingly or not. They
may do them well or they may do them wretchedly, but they always do
them. (~ Peter Drucker)

Apply organization-wide discipline to extract value from technology

Processes applied by IT are equally applicable to functional unit
partners

Re-engineering

Benchmarking

Project management

If you want to do something new, what are you going to stop doing?
Initiation
Planning
Execution
Closure
Asset Maintenance
Revisions
Project
Flow
Needs
Develop
Project
Charter
Plan
Project
Implement
Plan
Shutdown
Project
Document
Document
Progress
Final Product
Maintain
Asset
Support Work
Approval
Steering
Committee
Role
Review
Charter
Not Needed
Reject
Control
Mechanisms
Portfolio assessment
• Priorities
• Risk
• Strategic fit
Approval
Review
Plan
Not Sufficient
Reject
Approval
Monitor
Status
Not Successful
Cancel
Status reporting
Fiscal budget
Risk plan
Scope
Resource plan
Schedule
Quality plan
Communication plan
Vendor management
Review
Deliverable
Not Accepted
Continue
Execution
Accepted
Benefit
Realization
New Project
Work
Initiate
Next Phase
Base budget
Support resources
Benefit measures
Issue log
Change control
⑥
Perspective

Universities are managed by a vast array of interwoven matrices

IT uniquely transcends the silos

What are the core competencies of central IT?

What does the institution need you to be good at?

What business do you want to be in?

What do you centralize? Decentralize? Outsource?

Rationalization

Empowering clients to move up the food chain
How do you assess core competencies?
Economies of scale

Efficiency
Control
Data centre
Identity management
Collaboration
Knowledge
Web services
Enterprise architecture
Economies of scope
⑦
Innovation

There are no silver bullets

Leverage unique perspective

Integrate people, process, projects, and technology
Cloudonomics
Infinite Data
Manufacturing is the New Agriculture
Success
Time
Research
Development
Commercialization
The Future is Now