Drivers of Change in Higher Ed
Common Solutions Group
The Future IT Organization
September 13, 2012
IT Drivers of Change
• Cloud Computing
– More viable services
– Widespread adoption in some areas
– Huge vendor investment
– Requires different skillsets
– Risks, both institutional and personal
IT Drivers of Change
• Consumerization of Technology
– Technology widely adopted by consumers
– Blurring personal and professional use
– Wide range of devices used to access enterprise
IT, BYOD
– Ability to bypass the IT organization
– Mobile payments
– Location-based services
– Software licensing challenges
IT Drivers of Change
• Personal Cloud
– More than just storage
– Glue that links devices, information, people, services
– Long term, could impact how individuals,
organizations, and services interact
– Challenges in separation of personal/professional life
• Identity Management
– Important for local services; critical for cloud services
– Right services to the right people at the right time
– Impact of activities outside of higher ed
IT Drivers of Change
• Migration from the PC as the most common
method of accessing IT
– Continued proliferation of smart devices and apps
– Application must support multiple form factors
– Ecosystem competition - Google vs. Amazon vs.
Microsoft vs. Apple vs. ?
IT Drivers of Change
• Widespread availability and value of large data
sets
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–
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Volume
Velocity
Variability
Variety
• High demand for skilled IT staff
– Increasing need for technology positions, supply can’t
match the growth
– Hiring challenges already exist, will get worse
IT Drivers of Change
• Business-driven IT
– Not IT for IT’s sake, but IT for business needs
– More than just enabling infrastructure
– Close development and alignment of IT with business
strategy
– Iterative development of IT and business process
• Success of disruptive technology - others believe
they can invent the next Google/Facebook, or at
least want to try
• Rate of change will continue to increase
IT Drivers of Change
• What other IT trends will impact the higher ed
IT organization of the future?
Drivers for Change in Higher
Education
Common Solutions Group
The Future IT Organization
September 13, 2012
Higher Education Challenges
• Growing criticism of higher ed
– Costs are too high, and growing rapidly
– Undergrad tuition subsidizes research activity
– Graduates are not ready for the workforce
– Limited learning occurs in the academic setting
– Tenure restricts faculty accountability
– Athletics too prominent, too powerful
Higher Education Challenges
• Most universities are under some form of
financial pressure
– Reduced state support
– Concerns about rising tuition and student debt
– Pressure to reduce expenses, improve efficiency
– Concern from the federal government about the
cost of student aid
– Increase enrollment (domestic, international)
– Increased competition for research funding
Higher Education Challenges
• Forbes says the higher education market most
likely to be disrupted in the short term…
– Rapidly increasing costs
– Significant government loans and grants
– Questions of efficacy and value
– Technology-enabled alternate delivery models
Higher Education Challenges
• Challenging situation for existing universities
– Many ratings related to increased cost
– Accreditation
– Faculty tenure
– Facilities investment
– Distributed nature
– Culture resistant to change
Higher Education Challenges
• Startups don't have these constraints, can
start from scratch
– Receive support from venture capitalists and
some states/governors
– Students are flocking to these alternatives
– Some faculty are starting their own companies
– Credit not based on credit hours/courses/degrees
Higher Education Challenges
• Some universities are responding (Coursera, edX)
• Alternatives are also gaining traction
– StraighterLine
– Western Governors University
– Excelsior College
– Udacity
What happens when universities start accepting
transfer credits from StraighterLine or MOOCs?
Higher Education Challenges
• What other drivers will drive change in higher
education?
Future of the IT Organization
September 13, 2012
A letter from campus leadership
Dear IT,
Please help us transform teaching and learning,
support unsurpassed success in winning research
grants, over-deliver on the commitments our
faculty make in their grant proposals, create an
incomparable campus experience through the
services we provide, achieve unparalleled
satisfaction among all we serve.
p.s.
Help us establish a global campus presence,
open new markets for our education offerings
through on-line delivery and conciliate the
varied idiosyncrasies of our world-class faculty.
p.s.s.
Please do this without new budget and in many
cases with budget cuts, supporting all we have
now and providing new, innovative services.
p.s.s.s.
Please make sure that we have defensible
analytics that support all of the decisions you
make, all of your funding requests and all of the
actions you take.
By the way…
Every morning when I look in the mirror, I feel
honored, humbled and thankful that I get to
work at an extraordinary university and I really
believe that we make a difference.
I think about…
•
•
•
•
Am I burning up my staff?
Are we as efficient as we can be?
Can we maintain quality as we are spread more thinly?
Are we taking enough time for professional
development?
• Does the current organization structure meet our
needs? – For how long?
• How can we create a more comprehensive view
outside IT?
• Why do most outside IT think this is easy?