Strategic Plan

University Technology Services Strategic Plan 2008-2010

PLAN 2008-2010 VISION: Innovation and Information

The Strategic Plan for University Technology Services for the period July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2010:

1. Provide a high-performance network characterized by:
   1. Support from the Senate Academic Computing Committee linking network quality of service with educational and research missions.
   2. Ubiquitous network access, with redundant core, distribution and outside plant for reliability.
   3. A data network migration path to 10/100/1000 (Gigabit network).
   4. Readiness for convergence of voice, data, video and specialty networks, tracking to a long-term goal of replacing the legacy voice network with an IP-PBX.
   5. Reliability, resourcefulness, relevance, readiness, and responsibility.
2. Support robust learning communities, environments and systems by promoting, implementing and maintaining systems that are highly functional, web-based, accessible and secure:
   1. Course management, learning management, and other educational systems.
   2. Library and information literacy support systems.
   3. Collaborative learning environments, file storage and other related systems.
   4. Content systems (text, images, music, art, video etc.) for use in teaching and learning.
3. Maintain strong enterprise systems characterized by:
   1. Providing and maintaining SunGard Banner and other systems used to support and manage the university enterprise, maintaining our Banner commitment through 2015.
   2. Supporting efficient, accurate data entry and maintenance, and well-defined data retrieval.
   3. Supporting changing processes with an emphasis on efficiency.
   4. Creating and maintaining technically current and secure integration and interfaces.
   5. Supporting client desktop and mobile computing tools, systems and technologies.
4. Facilitate university research by:
   1. Supporting increased reliance on high-throughput computing.
   2. Supporting increased reliance on high-bandwidth capability.
   3. Providing appropriate datacenter space.
   4. Achieving security standards mandated by granting agencies.
5. Establish a level of security, risk management and compliance that protects university information technology assets by:
   1. Emphasizing privacy and trust.
   2. Early identification of unusual or anomalous activity, weaknesses, vulnerabilities and threats.
   3. Promptly implementing appropriate response and mitigation measures.
   4. Supporting desktop and mobile technologies through awareness and security initiatives.
   5. Understanding the variety of devices that are connecting to the network and maintaining a flexible but managed perimeter.
   6. Knowing who is connecting to the network through strong identity management.
   7. Engaging in ongoing security & risk assessment.
   8. Providing security awareness messaging and programs.
   9. Providing nimble, agile and documented incident response.
   10. Implementing appropriate security tools.
   11. Implementing solutions that maintain university compliance with outside regulatory and other agencies.
6. Manage the datacenter environment with emphasis on:
   1. Minimizing energy costs and maximizing efficient practices to manage power and cooling.
   2. Strong change management practices.
   3. Space management practices with planned space design and consolidation.
   4. Controlled operations that support daily university functions and operations.
   5. Facility readiness and plans for facility disaster recovery.
   6. Strong software, telecom and asset management services.
7. Support the governance, organization and communication of University Technology Services by:
   1. Developing, partnering and working closely with advisory groups and developing strong relationships with the university community.
   2. Providing a variety of information technology tools and resources.
   3. Providing expert consultation for information technology projects, software purchases, vendor-provided solutions and any information technology initiative.
   4. Developing and implementing clear policies, standards and guidelines, with informational support programs.
   5. Providing clear and prompt internal and external communications about IT initiatives.
   6. Encouraging the professional growth, skill development and motivation of IT staff, both within UTS and in local support roles.
   7. Developing technology support structures that support university strategic initiatives.
   8. Funding information technology through wise stewardship, consideration of efficiency, vendor management, consolidation, process redesign, planned cyclical replacement, and ongoing evaluation of resources.

Annual Goals

Our Annual Goals, describing planned projects for the 07-08 academic year is available. Please send us your feedback or questions.

Annual Report

Our Annual Report, describing projects and service for last year is available. Please send us your feedback.

Message from the Assistant Vice President

We would like to help you be a successful user of information technology at Oakland University. We have many exciting projects planned for this year. If you would like to hear about those projects, please contact me, Theresa Rowe, at rowe@oakland.edu.

Theresa Rowe
Chief Information Officer, University Technology Services

UTS Leadership

Information about UTS Leadership is here.

Core Competencies

UTS information technology professionals will have a knowledge mix that is technical, organizational, educational and business in nature. Each individual must have a “technology orientation, a service orientation, a strategic orientation, and a change orientation.” (M. J. Earl & P. D. Vivian 1999) Every staff member is expected to accept responsibility for ethical actions, technical quality, customer service, security, system operation, and data integrity. Staff members are expected to create processes and environments that are agile, disciplined, defined, documented, repeatable, measurable, controllable, optimized, fair and equitable.