Information Technology Transformation

Phase I: Consolidate Services

Project Success

Over a dozen  consolidation projects have been substantially completed since their launch in 2007. Projects were selected according to their university priority, alignment with UB 2020 goals and feasibility/return on effort. 

The projects clustered on six themes: 

  • standardize workstation support
  • consolidate underlying technology that support UB’s operations
  • unify UB’s telephones
  • improve communication with customers and between technology support entities 
  • enable automation of key business processes
  • standardization of information reporting.

Here are some examples of outcomes from selected projects:

Project Outcome

Savings to UB

  

Workstations purchased through the UB 2020 workstation standardization program procurement and support costs

$2.1 million

  

More than 70 disparate phone systems have been decommissioned, along with more than 3,000 Centrex phone lines terminated.  More than 7000 people now use the same Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system at UB.

$700,000

  

iPrint reduced paper and toner consumable costs

$375,000

  

Server consolidations have turned off more than 50 campus print and file servers ,seven administrative e-mail servers and moved new student e-mail into the cloud: Google Apps for Education

$500,000

  

Deployed Energy Star-qualified devices and used “green” equipment recycling and disposal

$79,500

  

Enabled automation of appointment, procurement and recruitment business operations campus wide

Green processes, faster response

  

Established workstation and server patching and antivirus support campus wide

Priceless

  

Who benefits from consolidation projects?

  • Consolidation project expenditures are funded by the CIO, costs are eliminated  at department and school levels
  • IT professionals relieved of burden of local system administration could focus on school/department needs
  • Procurement and support savings for workstations are realized by departments and research projects
  • UB enjoys an easy-to-use, modern and effective phone system at minimal cost to departments
  • Collaboration among IT support personnel created a trusted environment for 21st-century technology innovation
  • Consolidation projects presented the opportunity for IT to advance to most current technological advancements, e.g. virtualization and blade architectures

What made this possible?

The following Core Principles principles were devised based on best practice that sets the appropriate climate for change.

  • Inclusive: openness was the hallmark of all project deliberations
  • Collaborative: participation in projects was solicited from all interested participants
  • Progressive: focus on 21st-century standards, advancements in technology
  • Secure: devise all implementation to be secure from the ground up

Project teams were encouraged to make tough choices and focus on establishing standards on behalf of all university stakeholders.