EDUCAUSE
2014 Top Ten IT Issues
Today’s Agenda
• Introduction to EDUCAUSE
• IT Issues History &
Methodology
• 2014 Top Ten IT Issues
• Selected Issues Reviewed
In-Depth
• Introduction to EDUCAUSE
Introduction to EDUCAUSE
Transforming higher education through
the use of information technology
About EDUCAUSE
• Mission: To advance higher education through information
technology
• Audience: Higher education IT, including those interested in
using IT
• Focus: Strategy, issues, management, best practices
• Organization: 501(c)3; membership organization
About EDUCAUSE
• Membership: 2,400 colleges, universities, and organizations
(40+ countries)
• Size:
– $18M (without grants)
– 90 employees
– 60,000 active members
• Outreach:
– 22 face-to-face events/year
– 10+ online events/year
About EDUCAUSE
EDUCAUSE helps people who lead, manage, and use technology to
make better decisions about
– Enterprise systems
– Strategic leadership
– Teaching and learning
– Cybersecurity
Visit us at
www.educause.edu.
• Top Ten IT Issues History & Methodology
14 Years of the IT Issues Top Ten List
Top Ten List Methodology Changes
• 2000-2011
– Web survey of EDUCAUSE primary representatives
– Survey responses about 30%
• 2012-2013
– Concerned about staleness
– IT Issues Panel formed and charged with choosing the panel
• 2014
– IT Issues Panelists wanted validation of issues
– Member survey chose and prioritized the final Top Ten list
• 2014 Top Ten IT Issues
2014 Top Ten IT Issues
2014 Top Ten IT Issues
1. Improving student outcomes through an institutional approach that strategically leverages
technology
2. Establish a partnership between IT and institutional leadership to develop a collective
understanding of what IT can deliver
3. Assisting faculty with the instructional integration of information technology
4. Developing an IT staffing and organizational model to accommodate the changing IT
environment and facilitate openness and agility
5. Using analytics to help drive critical institutional outcomes
6. Changing IT funding models to sustain core service, support innovation and facilitate growth
7. Addressing access demand and the wireless and device explosion
8. Sourcing technologies and services at scale to reduce costs (via cloud, greater centralization of
IT, cross‐institutional collaborations, and so forth)
9. Determining the role of online learning and developing a strategy for that role
10. Implementing risk management and information security practices to protect institutional IT
resources/data and respond to regulatory compliance mandates (tie)
10. Developing an enterprise IT architecture that can respond to changing conditions and new
opportunities (tie)
Sourcing technologies & services at scale to reduce costs (via
cloud, greater centralization of institutional IT services & system,
cross-institution collaborations, etc.
Sourcing Technologies & Services at Scale
In the Cloud Today
Institutions with at least
one core information
system in the cloud
Three or more in
the cloud
All core information
systems in the cloud
51%
13%
8%
2014 Cloud Technology Priorities
Source: Higher Education’s Top-10
Strategic Technologies for 2014,
Susan Grajek, ECAR, February 2014
IT Is Dependent on Institutional Practices

Financial practices are effective at over
50% of institutions



Leadership practices are effective at
fewer than 50% of institutions




financial management
budget planning
strategic planning
alignment among leadership
IT governance
Management practices are effective at
fewer than 25% of institutions



continuous improvement
data driven-decision making
business process optimization
Source: Assessing Your Fiscal Bandwidth: Current Practices for Measuring
IT Costs in Higher Education, Eden Dahlstrom, ECAR, May 2013
Sourcing Technologies & Services at Scale to Reduce
Costs--ADVICE
• Participate in the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service to
benchmark and establish baseline measures
• Consider business process reengineering (BPR)
• Capture BPR savings to support strategic objectives
• Understand the TCO of systems and processes in terms
that can be compared with cloud offerings
• Ensure the understanding and support of institutional
leaders
• Understand the strategic importance of institutional
information systems
Changing IT funding models to sustain core service,
support innovation, and facilitate growth
Funding IT Strategically
IT Expenditures by Institutional Mission
Research Other
4%
4%
Teaching and
Learning
39%
Administrative
53%
Source: EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey, 2013
IT Expenditures by Activity
Source: EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey, 2013
Current IT Financial Management Capabilities
Can calculate the
ROI or NPV of IT
projects
Can calculate
the TCO of IT
services
20%
18%
Source: Assessing Your Fiscal Bandwidth: Current Practices for Measuring IT Costs in Higher Education, Eden Dahlstrom, ECAR, May 2013
Changing IT Funding Models To Sustain Core Service,
Support Innovation, And Facilitate Growth--ADVICE
• Benchmark IT finances by participating in the EDUCAUSE
Core Data Service
• Ensure the institutional leadership is committed to
changing
• Create and maintain a service catalog
• Estimate the TCO (total cost of ownership) for each service
• Develop a plan to drive down the costs of commodity
services
• Identify services that can be sunset
• Integrate these foundation approaches into institutional IT
governance
Using analytics to help drive critical
institutional outcomes
Using Analytics to Support the Institution
Analytics Maturity Index
Interpreting your score:
Getting to the next step:
Note the scores for each of the analytics factors. Which ones are relatively weaker? Want to advance analytics at your institution? Take the
following steps.
Data/Reporting/Tools
Analytics Maturity Index
3
Work on collecting the right data to answer strategic questions.
Improve data cleanliness, accessibility, and quality.
Work on standardizing data to support comparisons inter-­ and intra-­institutionally.
Develop a course of action for obtaining and maintaining the right analytics tools for your institutional needs.
Ensure reports are in the right format to inform decisions.
Develop practices that make data collection and reporting repeatable.
Develop practices that eliminate, phase out, or update data and reports that are no longer valuable.
Your Results
GOVERNANCE/
INFRASTRUCTURE
6
Governance/Infrastructure
DATA/
REPORTING/
TOOLS
4
Develop security policies and practices that safeguard data for analytics.
Develop policies regarding access to institutional and individual data, including IRB policies.
Develop and maintain the capacity to store, manage, and analyze large volumes of data. Plan for future expansion.
Create policies that decrease or eliminate data protection or siloing by pockets of individuals.
Build on the number of IT professionals at your institution who have the right training to support analytics.
5
4
3
2
Investment
1
4
3.6
INVESTMENT
PROCESS
Demonstrate through examples that require few resources that analytics should be viewed as an investment, rather than an expense.
Invest in staffing and training before products and tools.
Make analytics duties a priority for those already trained in analytics.
COMPOSITE
Expertise
3
EXPERTISE
CULTURE
Build on the number of analysts currently available, and further the training of analysts already on staff.
Consider building the number of business professionals who have expertise in applied analytics.
Ensure analytics training includes the ability to present findings to the community that are understandable and that demonstrate value.
Culture
4
Interpreting your score:
Demonstrate to senior leaders, administration, and faculty the value of analytics through examples that address strategic questions.
Regularly take the pulse of the institutional community's willingness to use data to make decisions. Identify pockets of individuals who are
unconvinced (e.g., faculty, administrators) and target examples to questions or problems that directly affect them.
Process
4
GettingAnalytics
to the next step:
Source: ECAR
Maturity Index, 2012.
http://www.educause.edu/ecar/research-publications/ecar-analytics-maturity-index-higherNote the scores for each of the analytics factors. Which ones are relatively weaker? Want to advance analytics at your institution? Take the
education following steps.
Data/Reporting/Tools
3
Work on collecting the right data to answer strategic questions.
Build rapport and communication between IT and IR by holding regular meetings regarding questions and problems that can be addressed
by analytics through cooperative efforts.
Involve senior IR professionals in strategic decision-­making from the top down.
Develop a process for identifying the data needed to address key institutional outcomes.
Make the use of data part of the institution's strategic plan.
Develop processes for moving from what the data say to making changes and decisions.
Demonstrate with a series of high-­profile "wins" that analytics can lead to improved decision-­making.
Analytics Technology Priorities For 2014
✓
✓
✓
Source: Higher Education’s Top-10
Strategic Technologies for 2014,
Susan Grajek, ECAR, February 2014
Using Analytics To Help Drive Critical Institutional
Outcomes--ADVICE
• Begin with strategic priorities rather than data or tools
• Develop an analytics architecture
• Complete the ECAR Analytics Maturity Index for Higher
Education
• Ensure analytics outputs are built into ongoing processes
• Determine who needs to be trained in analytics
• Review the EDUCAUSE Top-Ten Strategic Technologies for
2014
TOP TEN IT ISSUES OF 2014
Establishing a partnership between IT leadership & institutional
leadership to develop a collective understanding of what information
technology can deliver
Institutional Partnerships
Institutions That Have…
CIO on the
president’s or
chancellor’s
cabinet
Alignment
among
institutional
leadership
Effective
IT
governance
51%
44%
32%
Source: Today’s Higher Education IT Workforce, Jacqueline Bichsel, ECAR, January 2014
Percent of IT Budget Spent on Research Mission
11%
9%
5%
6%
5%
1% 2%
CFO
VP Administration
CIO doesn't sit on Cabinet
Provost
President
CIO sits on Cabinet
Source: EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey, 2013
The Ability Gap for CIOs
100%
98%
97%
96%
95%
90%
80%
85%
85%
82%
78%
70%
60%
50%
Ability to manage
other relationships
within my institution
Ability to influence
others
% saying Important
Ability to negotiate
% Proficient
Understanding nonIT business
processes and
operations
Source: Today’s Higher Education IT Workforce, Jacqueline Bichsel, ECAR, January 2014
The Ability Gap for the IT Workforce
100%
Ability to manage other relationships
within my institution
Understanding non-IT business processes
and operations
100%
98%
95%
90%
90%
91%
86%
85%
85%
80%
80%
84%
78%
75%
70%
72%
77%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
CIOs
Non-CIO
managers
% saying Important
Non-managers
% Proficient
CIOs
Non-CIO
managers
% saying Important
Non-managers
% Proficient
Source: Today’s Higher Education IT Workforce, Jacqueline Bichsel, ECAR, January 2014
CIOs’ Participation in Institutional Decision-making
65%
62%
35%
26%
13%
10%
shaping institutional academic
directions
shaping institutional
administrative directions
Often/Almost always
regular executive discussions
about the IT implications of
institutional decisions
Rarely/Almost never
Source: Today’s Higher Education IT Workforce, Jacqueline Bichsel, ECAR, January 2014
Obstacles to CIOs’ Effectiveness
Institutional
leadership’s lack of
interest in (or
understanding of) IT
38%
Lack of clear,
consistent goals
for IT overall
26%
Lack of
cooperation among
colleagues outside
IT
24%
(Biggest obstacle was insufficient resources, cited by 1 in 2 CIOs)
Source: Today’s Higher Education IT Workforce, Jacqueline Bichsel, ECAR, January 2014
Establishing a Partnership Between IT Leadership and
Institutional Leadership--ADVICE
• Identify the institution’s champions for effective use of
information technology
• Help educate institutional leaders about the
contributions and costs of technology to help them rightsize their expectations
• Ensure the IT staff who are interacting most with
institutional leaders understand and support the IT
organization’s approaches and priorities
• Help institutional leaders ensure that IT leaders are
included in the strategic planning process and ongoing
institutional governance
TOP TEN IT ISSUES OF 2014
Establishing a partnership between IT leadership & institutional
leadership to develop a collective understanding of what information
technology can deliver
BOTTOM LINE:
Don’t assume institutional leaders know how information
technology can help them achieve their priorities. Meet
them more than halfway by understanding their lines of
business and priorities.
Questions?
• Learn more about the 2014 Top Ten IT Issues at:
• http://www.educause.edu/research-andpublications/research/top-10-it-issues
Thank you!
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•
•
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Joanna Lyn Grama, JD
EDUCAUSE
Director of DRA Operations, IT GRC and Cybersecurity Programs
jgrama@educause.edu