OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIC PLAN, FY 2001-02

1. Executive Summary (Office of Information Technology)
   
   The Office of Information Technology is a new office, formed in September, 2000. Consequently, the Annual Report section of this Strategic Plan is very short. The Strategic Plan section is offered from a University perspective and includes numerous proposals affecting areas of USC that are not under the Office of IT's direct control or influence. The Strategic Plan therefore should be considered a draft work-in-progress that will continue to evolve as a core governance group and the IT leadership team provide needed refinements. If politics is defined as the art of the possible, we know that achievement of some of these strategies and the goals associated with them will not be possible in the short term - but each should be considered and either embraced, modified, or rejected with an accompanying rationale for the decision.
   
   The proposed strategies are:
   1. Develop IT organizational, governance, and communication strategies.
   2. Develop a coherent IT architecture and a solid foundation of IT infrastructure, informed by sound fiscal planning and practice.
   3. Articulate clear directions for use of information technology - including Library applications and the development of digital libraries -- in support of teaching, learning, and research - both within and beyond the physical boundaries of campuses.
   4. Develop clear priorities for the management and further development of USC's information assets.
   5. Review current practice, procedure, and policy regarding issues of security, privacy, and intellectual property and revise as necessary.
   6. Develop and incorporate the goals of an e-Agenda in support of the University's mission into all of our IT activities.

   
   To develop the kind of IT environment the USC community wants and needs, a number of diverse constituencies must meet on common ground. A portion of our common ground may be a core set of principles that help guide our planning, resource allocation, and decisions about practice and policy. These proposed principles are

   • fidelity to USC and its mission;
   • integrity, including practice of the tenets of the Carolinian Creed;
   • focus on customer service;
   • equity in resource distribution.

   
   This Strategic Plan has benefited immensely from the thought and effort invested by a broad cross-section of the University community during the creation of the SACS re-accreditation reports. Many of the ideas originating in SACS task forces are reflected here, and the SACS final report will continue to have life as a reference, guide, and blueprint for future planning and action. USC also is indebted to the University of Colorado and Indiana University for strategic IT planning concepts that have been used herein, with permission.
   
    

2. Annual Report
   
   The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is a new unit that did not have specific goals established for 2000-2001. The Office began operating on September 18, 2000.
   
   The primary activities of OIT during the first 100 days included
   • staffing, equipping, and developing practices and procedures for OIT;
   • individual consultations with all members of the Council of Academic Deans and the Administrative Council and numerous department chairs and unit heads;
   • site visits to all USC campuses;
   • reorganization of Computer Services (CS) leadership;
   • initiating realignment of clear CS priorities, with an emphasis on immediate improvement of network capacity, stability, and services;
   • developing working partnerships with the Library and DEIS;
   • participation in the SACS process;
   • participation in a CHE grant process;
   • development of vendor relationships;
   • outreach to external entities such as the State Office of Information Resources, SURA, granting agencies, other institutions of higher education, and local, regional, and state-wide IT interest groups;
   • advising and acting on behalf of senior administration as needed on matters of IT procedure, policy, and practice.

   
   OIT consists of a Vice President for Information Technology and CIO; an Assistant to the Vice President and CIO; and an Office Manager. The Director of Computer Services, Director of I2 Technologies, a part-time budget manager, and a special projects manager also report to OIT.
   
    

3. Strategic Plan.
   
    
   1. Develop IT Organizational, Governance, and Communication Strategies.
      
      An effective IT strategy will require clearly identifiable leadership, whose authority, accountability, and responsiveness to University needs are well-defined and broadly understood. This leadership will be best informed in its decisions through regular dialogue with students, faculty, and staff who will be affected most directly by evolving IT practices, procedures, and policies. Effective dialogue will require a clear communications strategy.
      
       
      1. Map and assess USC's allocation of IT resources and organizational constructs that have evolved to handle planning, operations, and development of policies and procedures. Identify redundancies, gaps in services and skills, inefficiencies, and best practices that are generalizable to other parts of the University. Take steps where appropriate to develop new organizational models that yield improved outcomes for student, faculty, and staff IT support.
      2. Identify and incorporate best-practice customer service approaches into all aspects of IT support for students, faculty, and staff. Customer service initiatives should be accompanied by performance measures against stated goals where practical and appropriate.
      3. Propose and inaugurate a governance body whose purpose will be to advise the Vice President for Information Technology and CIO on IT matters of importance to the University, to include advice regarding resource allocation, project priorities, and practices, procedures, and policies. The governance body will be broadly representative of student, faculty, and staff interests at all USC locations.
      4. Create an IT leadership team including representation from the Office of Information Technology, the Libraries, Distance Education and Instructional Support, and Computer Services. The IT leadership team will serve as a bridge between strategies developed through the governance process and the operational initiatives and resources that serve to convert strategies to actions.
      5. Identify multiple means - interpersonal, printed, and electronic - to improve communication among students, faculty, and staff and IT leaders about emerging IT issues and developments. Ensure that communication takes place reliably and predictably, that service baselines are established, and that visible customer feedback loops are established and used to improve services.
      6. Review current USC communications utilities, applications and technologies, review available vendor options, and identify a common set of communications priorities. A comprehensive review should include (but not be limited to) email, scheduling and calendaring, desktop and cellular telephones, pagers, and handheld and/or wireless devices.
      7. In cooperation with the Office of Public Affairs and University Publications, complete work on a redesigned USC web presence and improved web content management.
         
          
   2. Develop a coherent IT architecture and a solid foundation of IT infrastructure, informed by sound fiscal planning and practice.
      
      Information technology is now a fundamental of higher education - in classrooms, laboratories, offices, student housing, and remote locations that transcend the University's traditional, physical boundaries. A concise and clear outline of the current University IT architecture, and articulation of standards that inform architectural choices, are essential for defining a baseline that provides a context within which future enhancements in capacity, services, and support can be considered. With this description of standards and architecture as a starting point, USC can begin to articulate new goals and build a solid foundation of IT infrastructure that will help her achieve a position of state and regional leadership in instructional, research, and administrative applications of IT. Sound fiscal planning and practice will permit this infrastructure to be maintained and further developed in concert with the evolving needs of the institution.
      
       
      1. Develop a multi-year, University-wide master plan for IT similar to master plans that have been developed for physical facilities. Use predicted cycles of obsolescence to anticipate and plan for systematic depreciation and replacement of IT hardware and software assets - at the student, faculty, and staff desktop as well as at less publicly visible points of the infrastructure including, but not limited to, switches, routers, shared storage facilities, sites of enterprise and local applications and their servers, and transmissions facilities.
      2. Gather, analyze, and disseminate University-wide IT budget information to aid planning and provide baseline data for discussions about how to improve the allocation of IT resources and services.
      3. In collaboration with the Division of Human Resources, develop competitive strategies to improve recruitment, training, and retention of IT professionals. Where appropriate, propose changes in practice, procedure, or policy to the State Office of Human Resources to further these competitive strategies.
      4. In collaboration with the Division of Business and Finance, develop strategies to ensure that the University's aggregate purchasing volume is used to negotiate optimum pricing for IT procurements.
      5. Engage a team of faculty, students, staff, and external constituents in "technology watch" activities - that is, continuous efforts to ensure that USC's technology directions are consistent with emerging industry trends, and that USC is positioned not at the bleeding edge (except in unusual situations), but as a close follower to the leading edge in technological innovation in service of the mission.
         
          
   3. Articulate clear directions for use of information technology - including Library applications and the development of digital libraries -- in support of teaching, learning, and research - both within and beyond the physical boundaries of campuses.
      
      The core components of the University mission are teaching, learning, and research. USC's current resource allocation model provides highly distributed IT support for these core activities; in many instances, departments, schools, and colleges have locally controlled budgets, personnel, and facilities designed to provide optimum service for specific, targeted populations, or for specialized activities. These locally provided services and facilities are complemented by a set of centralized IT services and facilities, including:
      • voice video, and data communications;
      • distance learning and video conferencing consultation and systems;
      • software training, statistical analysis consultation, instructional design, help desks, and similar support activities;
      • fee-based service level agreements;
      • enterprise administrative applications (such as student information systems) that enable teaching, learning, and research;
      • enterprise academic applications such as Blackboard;
      • enterprise library applications such as online, full-text search and retrieval;
      • site licensing and preferred vendor negotiations.
        
         

      A distributed model for IT support, facilities, and services remains desirable for a contemporary research university. When a distributed model is well-designed and functions effectively, community needs that are held in common (such as the network backbone and coherent email) are met by centralized resources, while more localized needs (such as curricular or research support) are met by permanent or contract personnel or expert students who focus their efforts closest to the source of the demand for resources. Striking an optimum balance between complete distribution of resources and complete centralization of resources will be a perpetual challenge, and should be a source of healthy organizational tension that catalyzes ongoing discussions about how to distribute finite resources while avoiding the wasted money, time, and effort fostered by redundant staffing, applications systems, services, and equipment; incompatible standards and architectures; and competing priorities.
      
       

      1. In concert with the Deans or their designees, review the University's support models. Identify best practices that may be generalizable to larger populations. Identify risks and gaps. Identify opportunities to deploy resources more cost-effectively while maintaining or improving current support levels.
      2. In cooperation with the University Libraries at all campuses, examine options for improved electronic access to resources.
      3. In cooperation with Distance Education and Instructional Support (DEIS), examine options for improved instructional support and identify priorities for incorporating new teaching, learning, and distance education technologies.
      4. In collaboration with Computer Services, develop cooperative initiatives that improve support for students and faculty - both in "the commons" as well as at the departmental, course, or individual level.
      5. In cooperation with the Office of Research and research faculty, determine to what extent current research computing needs are being met - and determine whether opportunity and productivity costs are at an acceptable level. Depending upon outcomes of this review, propose alternative models for research computing support.
         
          
   4. Develop clear priorities for the management and further development of USC's information assets.
      
      Information itself is an irreplaceable strategic asset for the University and must be carefully managed. Good leadership, management, resource allocation, and decision-making in a $500-million per year higher education enterprise is far more difficult in the absence of high-quality information that is the product of reliable, timely, and accurate data, and powerful analytic tools thoughtfully applied to those data. USC must continue to invest in information systems that ensure data integrity, facilitate thorough analysis, and support teaching, learning, research, and community service through enabling efficient and effective business operations.
      1. In cooperation with the business offices most directly involved, review major legacy systems such as those that serve accounting, human resources, budget, payroll, student information, grant tracking and submission, and other operational and business needs of USC. Prioritize enhancement and/or replacement of those systems.
      2. Replace USC's telephone switch.
      3. Continue development of additional Data Warehouse functionality.
      4. Review USC's IT disaster recovery plans, procedures, and facilities.
      5. Identify targets of opportunity for increasing the ability of students, faculty, staff, external constituents, and vendors to conduct online business transactions with the University.
         
          
   5. Review current practice, procedure, and policy regarding issues of security, privacy, and intellectual property and revise as necessary.
      
      USC's policies and procedures must protect the security of the University's information technology resources and institutional data, safeguard personal privacy, and respect intellectual property rights. These policies and procedures must at the same time support two essential University values - access to information and freedom of discourse.
      1. Using results of internal and external security audits, revise and develop systematic approaches to computing and telecommunications security to ensure that the risk of unauthorized use of University resources is minimized and that appropriate security measures and tools are in place to prevent malicious hacking, viruses, and network-based attacks, as well as to prevent degradation or denial of resources (such as consuming all available bandwidth) by a user who has made a non-malicious mistake.
      2. In the context of federal and state requirements, review University practices, procedures, and policies regarding personal privacy in the use of computing and networking resources. Recommend and/or institute changes where appropriate to strengthen protection of personal privacy.
      3. In concert with the Provost's Office and the Office of General Counsel, examine IT's evolving role in providing incentives -- or disincentives -- to faculty and students engaged in the creation of intellectual property.
         
          
   6. Develop and incorporate the goals of an e-Agenda in support of the University's mission into all of our IT activities.
      
      Designating development of goals for an e-Agenda as a University strategy is, perhaps, a one-year anomaly. There has been a rapid, multi-cultural, cross-disciplinary shift across all economic sectors in our society toward active consideration of Web-enabled applications, hand-held computing and telecommunications devices (PDAs), and wireless networks as vehicles that may be used to support significant change in how we communicate, how we learn, how we teach, how we engage in research and scholarship, and how we conduct business. This shift in perceptions, expectations, and behaviors demands a separate acknowledgment, if only because of the speed and magnitude of the change. There are no specific, separately identifiable goals associated with this strategy; rather, the e-Agenda should be considered an overarching consideration in each of the strategies above.
      
       
4. Resource Requirements.
   
   The primary resource requirements for the Division of Information Technology are enumerated in the Computer Services Strategic Plan. The unmet resource requirements in that document exceed $9-million in one time and recurring costs. That estimate is conservative and excludes several key items (also unfunded) that are on the near horizon:
   • continued development of the data warehouse;
   • incremental network bandwidth increases, especially for regional campuses;
   • USC's Internet 2 connection;
   • broad-scale introduction of wireless technology;
   • safe, secure telecommunications closets;
   • network infrastructure improvements;
   • email consolidation and improvement;
   • purchase or development of an accounting, purchasing, HR, payroll system;
   • purchase or development of a student information system.
      

   The aggregate cost of these items is difficult to estimate without further analysis and a definition of what constitutes unmet need (e.g., some models include fully-loaded staff costs for existing staff who are assigned full-time to a project, some do not).
   
   A true University-wide estimate of latent IT needs at the department and unit level is even more elusive and it is probably folly to apply the WAG method in the absence of defined models for consistent estimates. It is reasonable to suggest, however, that Thomas Cooper Library and DEIS have an aggregate shortfall of at least $4-million in meeting existing needs for IT equipment, facilities, support, and software.