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Campus Email Systems and Calendar Systems: a self assessment. Sarah Noell, ITD, Project Coordinator Harry Nicholos, ITD, Technical co-chair Cheri Renninger, RMIS, Technical co-chair. Why are we here?.
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Campus Email Systems and Calendar Systems: a self assessment Sarah Noell, ITD, Project Coordinator Harry Nicholos, ITD, Technical co-chair Cheri Renninger, RMIS, Technical co-chair
Why are we here? • Discussions with Chancellor, Provost, and Vice-chancellor for Finance and Business led to buy-in (mandate) to: • Do a comprehensive review of the email systems and calendar systems running on campus. • We need to improve our understanding of the university’s fiscal investments in IT.
The bottom line . . . • NC State is now more accountable for how we spend our IT dollars. • The Legislature, Office of the President, and ITS are all looking more closely at how we spend (invest) our IT dollars. • Finally, we need to do a self-assessment to make sure that we provide our customers with cost effective services that are highly functional and meet their requirements.
Overarching goals of our charge • To do a cost benefit assessment and analyze the way the university is offering email and calendar services on campus. • Through this assessment we hope to develop a framework and process that can be applied to other areas that require similar evaluations.
Overarching goals, cont’d • Improve the method by which information and input is gathered by decision makers. • Make recommendations to the administration concerning our business practices and suggest improvements and / or changes if needed.
Current Thinking in this Area • There is a growing movement in both business and government to look more closely at how IT dollars are invested. • IT services have become core business services, thus decisions about them are more critical. • Greater interest in who is making the decisions and how they are being assessed.
Four Main Principles • Layer 8 is an approach to answering these types of questions. It asks that we look at our IT investments and business practices and allows leadership to make informed decisions. In particular, it supports 4 main principles. • Accountability • Transparency • Governance • Process
Accountability • Can we account for how the university spends its IT dollars? • We anticipate that our resources will shrink. • Are we using our resources as effectively as we can? • Are there changes and improvements we can make that will benefit our customers and be efficient as well? Do we need different IT investment strategies?
Transparency • Do we know how money is spent on IT investments? Are our evaluation processes and decisions made in an open manner?
Governance • Governance addresses three questions: • What decisions must be made? • Who should make the decisions? • How will we monitor these decisions? Do we have a process in place for IT decision making?
Process • What plans and procedures can be put in place to help do a self-assessment? What do we want NC State to be and how do we get there?
Proposed seven step process • Identify project purpose, goals, and objectives • Inventory of supporting infrastructure • Benchmark • Requirements (essential and aspirational requirements) • Strategic plan: develop strategic options and alternatives • Select and implement chosen plan • Ongoing assessment
Where are we now? • At the beginning stages of this process. • Goals, objectives, and purpose have been stated and we have been charged to move forward. • Beginning to move forward on several fronts: • Inventory • Benchmarking • Requirements
Campus input is crucial! • Communication is essential throughout this process. • We value and want campus input. • We believe we have an opportunity to do something positive for campus.
Coordinating Team • Comprised of members of ITD and RMIS • Cheri Renninger • Craig Zimmer • Harry Nicholos • Larry Robinson • Sarah Noell • Tim Lowman
Role of Customer Service sub-committee • Identify key issues regarding email and calendar services. • Identify key people to participate in focus groups. • Help develop questions for a campus-wide customer survey. • Encourage completion of inventory surveys.
The Customer Service sub-committee • Comprised of all major stakeholders on campus: • College IT Directors • University Budget Officers • Administrative staff and administrators (Staff Senate) • DELTA • Students from GSA and SGA • Faculty (FCTL or Faculty Senate) • NCSU Libraries
Role of the Technical sub-committee • To provide technical guidance as strategic plans are developed. • Help determine technical feasibility of the proposed plans. • Help determine the costs associated with proposed plans. • Ensure that dependencies are addressed.
Technical sub-committee • Comprised of • The email and calendar sub-committee of the University IT Committee. • Other technical staff, as appropriate.
Focus Groups • Yes, there will be a lot! • We will be asking questions about needs, wants, problems etc in two areas: calendar and email.
Chancellor Executive Officers Extension Units Research Council Research Committees College IT Directors Faculty Teaching (include DE) Research Lecturers/adjunct TLTR meetings FCTL Students (traditional & distance) General & administrative staff Governance Faculty Senate Staff Senate Student Senate & GSA DDD meetings Help Desks Open Forum Focus Groups
Inventory of existing systems • Identify campus systems that are participating in service delivery. • Distribute survey (similar to one done in 2001) to College IT Directors and others on campus • Surveys can be found at: http://www.ncsu.edu/campus-email-cal/ Select either Calendaring survey or Email survey Send any additional questions to • Calendar: tkl@ncsu.edu • Email: nlil@ncsu.edu
Next steps • Distribute inventory survey • Additional questions received by 3/15. • Survey distributed by 3/21. • Completed and returned by 4/1. • Customer service sub-committee needs to meet. • Identify members. • Convene meeting. • Outline goals and objectives for this group. • Focus groups will begin before end of spring semester. • Develop an online campus-wide customer survey. • Investigate peer institutions.
Now we’d like to hear from y’all! • Thanks for your time today; please continue to ask us questions and provide feedback. • Keep informed via the web site http://www.ncsu.edu/campus-email-cal/ • We will be back in touch for a focus group with this group.
Resources you may find helpful • IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Peter Weill & Jeanne W. Ross (2004) • Government Accountability Office publications: Information Technology Management: A Framework for Assessing & Improving Process Maturity http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04394g.pdf Accessible version: http://www.gao.gov/atext/d04478t.txt