Consolidating common services, developing common service
delivery tools and processes, and creating capacities to address UB
2020 academic and research goals.
Information technology is vital to
UB’s success in the 21stcentury. But for information
technology to be ready to respond, strategic changes had to be made
in the structure that served the university in
recentyears.
Most information technology innovations
occur at the departmental level, and as they are adopted throughout
campus an enterprise-wide support perspective is
appropriate. Our Information
Technology services and organizations needed to move in the
sameway. There were too many duplicate services
across departments, too many support options for faculty and
students,and too little available resources to respond to
needs.
In 2005, the Information Technology Strategic Transformation
subcommittee gathered necessary information from the campus. A
complete inventory of services, equipment and personnel was
collected. Leading practices from UB and other universities were
examined. Key UB constituent focus groups were held.
After analyzing their findings, the subcommittee provided key
deliverables:
- A set of guiding principles for the delivery of campus-wide IT
services
- A set of IT strategic objectives to achieve campus
priorities
- A service delivery model for providing IT services
- A governance structure for IT resources to ensure that campus
constituent desires are understood, that campus priorities are met
and that an environment favoring continuous improvement exists
- A preliminary technology investment plan for campus
systems— - specifying systems, expected costs, and
implementation time frames
- A white paper documenting the preliminary funding strategy and
allocation method for the service delivery model and IT
investments
- An initial cost/benefit analysis of the planned changes