University Business - October 2011 - (Page 22)

VIEWPOINT Don’t Fear IT Assessment With the right resources and buy-in, it’s a project any IT department can accomplish. By Sondra Hedger Smith EW AMONG US ENJOY THE prospect of assessment, I think. It can feel like a lonely and diﬃcult endeavor. Some of us shy away after catching a glimpse of an inhospitable landscape pockmarked with huge data craters, thinking “I simply have too much work to do to get dragged into that!” Others navigate across the shifting sands and craggy outcrops of data collection and analysis with great trepidation. What if I get it wrong? Will I even know if I get it wrong? Most of us are compelled to assess at some level and just try to get through it as quickly as possible. Whew! Now back to my real work. But my experience gives me conﬁdence that assessment of the campus information technology organization doesn’t have to be feared or avoided, but rather, can and should be a meaningful and rewarding experience. Like any healthy organization, an IT division depends upon thoughtful assessment at multiple levels. Fortunately, technology makes accomplishing all kinds of assessment so much less onerous than in decades past. Furthermore, you need not be positioned at the top level of the organization to contribute in a meaningful way. But leadership often happens from the middle, and evaluation is an example. Truly, there is so much work to do you can start almost anywhere. Your boss will be glad you did. BENCHMARKING BEGINNINGS Benchmarks form the foundation of a comprehensive assessment plan—both external and internal. One of the most 22 | October 2011 F We discovered early on that some of our staf ng allocations varied dramatically from peer organizations. powerful tools for benchmarking IT externally is also among the simplest to use: the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service (CDS). In the spring of 2010, nearly 1,000 institutions contributed to this data repository. With resources like the CDS at your disposal, valuable information can be accessed with modest eﬀort and minimal expertise. A few years ago, EDUCAUSE leadership made a key decision to incorporate the Costs of Supporting Technology Services (COSTS) Project into the CDS. COSTS provided a framework to understand the IT organization through standardized formulas drawing heavily on budget, staﬃng, and equipment resource levels. Most importantly, CDS provided the ﬂexibility to gather a tremendous amount of data and ﬁlter an independently selected subset of institutions for true apples-to-apples comparisons among like institutions. Labor saved and errors averted through the seamless integration of COSTS into CDS and the resulting rich data analysis is well worth the price of basic EDUCAUSE membership for anyone interested in IT assessment. Here at St. Lawrence University (N.Y.), we began analyzing our IT organization in earnest externally via the CDS several years ago. We created three distinct groups of institutions, with some overlap among them, for comparative purposes. We’ve used our annual ﬁndings to make important strategic decisions. For example, we discovered early on that some of our staﬃng allocations varied dramatically from peer organizations. is raised important questions. Closer analysis led to developing a longterm staﬃng plan that reduced administrative overhead, re-positioned staﬀ and developed new position rationales aligned with an improved organizational structure. We have used external benchmarking to identify where resources were lacking, and unique strategies that were worth preserving, or where there was unmet potential ripe for growth. In the end, however, our external benchmarking analysis is only as good as their data—IT professionals at the other institutions with whom we compare Sondra Hedger Smith joined the St. Lawrence University (N.Y.) IT staﬀ in 2000 as a teacher and trainer. A 2009 Frye Leadership Institute Fellow, Smith has been active in EDUCAUSE and as a private consultant and co-founder of the New York Six (Liberal Arts Consortium) Technology Directors group. universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - October 2011

University Business - October 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Cloud Email
Tuition Setting
Campus CFO
Independent Outlook
End Note

University Business - October 2011