Moving Information Technology from Service Provider to Business Partner

1. Moving Information Technology from Service Provider to Business Partner Jill Yatesand Jennifer Vandever

2. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • SIUE is a public master’s degree granting university with approximately 14,000 students • Located approximately 25 minutes from downtown St. Louis, Missouri • Large College of Arts & Sciences with several professional schools (Business, Nursing, Engineering, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Education)

3. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • Part of a three-campus system with the other campuses located in Carbondale and Springfield • SIUE has large outreach program in East St. Louis, Illinois with one of the largest Head Start programs in the nation, among other programs

4. ITS @ SIUE • In 2008, ITS formed as a result of a merger between: • Academic Computing • Office of Information Technology • Telecommunications • New department moved into same Vice Chancellor line – Academic Affairs

5. ITS @ SIUE • In the beginning, there was a lot of history that had to be overcome • Each group had its own history, culture, common knowledge • Had to honor that and build new • As the three groups merged, a common “language” had to be developed • In the beginning, much confusion about what certain things meant to certain groups!

6. Alphabet Soup • Each of us has our own “language” within our specialization – sometimes we have the same acronyms with completely different meanings! • DNR, ROI, RPG, SAS/SaaS • When we start to work together, it’s important we remember that others do not have the same point of reference and may not know how to speak our “language”

7. Other Examples?

8. Developing the Organization • After merger: • Established leadership team and promoted managers • Developed a unit within ITS to support business processes • Examined and changed business processes

9. Leadership • CIO and each Director took ownership of services in area and learned how unit interacted with other parts of University • Worked with ITS employees to let go of the past – both internal and external issues • Met with each ITS employee to discuss values, fears, goals • Focused on the future

10. Scanning the Internal Environment • Building the new business unit within ITS: • Met with Business Officers to learn more about how ITS serves them and how ITS relies on them: • ITS as clients • Business Officers as clients • ITS as support for the systems that BO’s use

11. Building a Governance Structure • After meeting with stakeholders and research other governance models, developed new model • IT Executive Committee • Four Vice Chancellors and CIO • IT Steering Committee • Chairs of other governance committees • Constituent Committees • Faculty, Student, and Staff Senates • Stakeholder Committees • University Information systems, Academic Computing Council, etc.

12. Moving Forward • Utilizing governance and expanding where appropriate • Recognizing where we may have become complacent and “shaking things up" • There are still struggles - from struggle we find opportunity to improve “We have dealt with the surface issues (easy stuff) and now we are revealing and dealing with deeper issues (in it deep)”

13. Improving Service through Partnerships • Putting correct persons at "table" from beginning of project, construction, new system, ... • Knowing who the correct persons are

14. Next Steps: Measuring Success, Creating Leadership Culture • Continuous improvement • Revisit processes/systems • Metrics • Evaluating employees and systems