Unify IT in the Education Sector
The intersection of local insight and organizational excellence.
Many universities, colleges, and schools have service duplications, and these duplications increase waste. Lack of collaboration among IT units causes increased costs and reduced faith in the institution’s IT. Unifying IT requires accurate planning and efficient communication between participating organizations.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Individual institutions may fear losing autonomy. Some fear that sharing IT services will mean they are competing with other institutions to access services they need.
- Some organizations will block unification efforts because they are afraid of losing in-house or localized functionality.
- IT unification in education is not about centralizing IT around a single authority; it is about appropriately delivering services under a unified vision to the benefit of the institution’s financial health and academic wellbeing.
Impact and Result
- Convince key stakeholders that IT unification is in everyone’s best interest.
- Understanding the opportunity for IT unification extends beyond cost savings to greater harmony in a time of rapid change.
- Identify the best implementation plan based on their goals, needs, and services.
Workshop: Unify IT in the Education Sector
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Clarify Your Mandate
The Purpose
Conduct analysis and facilitate discussions to uncover how IT unification is best approached.
Key Benefits Achieved
A clearly defined approach and set of IT capabilities to begin IT unification.
Activities
Outputs
Create the mission and vision.
- Mission and vision statements
Identify the guiding principles.
- Guiding principles
Document the institutional context.
- List of high-priority capabilities
Identify high-priority capabilities.
- List of high-priority capabilities
Module 2: Describe Your Current State
The Purpose
Identify and define which IT services should be central to IT unification.
Key Benefits Achieved
A defined understanding of the priority services that need to be addressed to support unification.
Activities
Outputs
Gather and stack the services.
- Service categories
Compile a list of priority services.
- List of priority services
Establish common service descriptions.
- Service descriptions
Construct a limited IT service catalog.
- Limited service catalog
Module 3: Determine Your Future State
The Purpose
Discover how unification should be addressed based on the individual mandate of the institution.
Key Benefits Achieved
A calculated assessment of the benefits of unification and a future-state operating model to deliver those benefits.
Activities
Outputs
Assess the benefits of sharing and distributing priority services.
- Documented benefits of sharing or distributing services
Calculate the benefits of economies of scale.
- Costs of sharing
Identify your IT operating model.
- IT operating model
Module 4: Plan Your Roadmap
The Purpose
Identify an effective governance model, key initiatives, and a transition team to lead you to the desired state.
Key Benefits Achieved
A plan for your governance, working group, and roadmap to begin the reorganization towards unification.
Activities
Outputs
Document governance.
- Governance model
Determine the transition approach and team.
- Defined working group
Build a roadmap.
- Roadmap
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 10 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Clarify your mandate
- Call 1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
- Call 2: Create guiding principles, mission, and vision.
Guided Implementation 2: Describe your current state
- Call 1: Identify your high-priority capabilities and priority services.
- Call 2: Establish service descriptions.
Guided Implementation 3: Determine your future state
- Call 1: Assess the benefits of sharing or distributing services.
- Call 2: Calculate economies of scale.
- Call 3: Identify the operating model.
Guided Implementation 4: Plan your roadmap
- Call 1: Document governance.
- Call 2: Determine your transition approach and team.
- Call 3: Build a roadmap.
Contributors
- Rala Kathiresan, President and Chief Information Officer, BCNET
- Srinivas Gotety, Executive Director - Enterprise Applications & Digital Solutions, Millersville University
- Keith Halman, Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO, Texas Tech University System
- John Bass, Chief Operating Officer, Association of Educational Service Agencies
- Madalyn Romano, Assistant Director - Strategic Planning, Lower Hudson Regional Information Center
- Michael Milligan, Managing Director - Communication & Collaboration, University of Massachusetts
- Peter Mosinskis, Deputy Chief Information Officer, California State University Office of The Chancellor
- Gregory Smith, Chief Operating Officer, University of Waterloo
- Chris Rooney, Business Services Director, AESA