Information Technology Services’

(ITS) Strategic Plan

Sept. 2011

 

Background:

The ITS Mission& Vision Statements and Strategic plan are direct derivatives of and in full support of the SVSU Mission & Vision Statements, and the SVSU Strategic Plan.

Environment:

The information technology environment in higher education continues to change at a very rapid pace:

  • Higher education is in a more competitive market and as a result, expects technology projects completed in shorter time lines

  • The current consumer electronics fad has equipped students and staff with smart phones and slates (iPads) with minimal regard for data security and integrity. (Anyone remember the Palm Pilot?).

  • Demand for better wireless, cellular, and internet capacity continues to grow particularly with current trend to high definition video streaming and movie downloads.

  • Video classes, video meetings, and telephony have shifted to internet-based circuits placing a higher demand for network and internet reliability and quality of service.

  • The higher education technology market now offer a myriad of internet-based (a/k/a cloud) services as well as open source products.

  • Classroom technology, an experiment when Science East was constructed is now an expectation, even in conference rooms.

  • User expectation’s of unlimited email and unlimited data storage capacity and present challenging backup time and capacity issues.

  • Residential students are wholly dependent on the internet. The internet has replaced their apartment’s telephones, cable TV, and they expect it to be available, to be very responsive, and to have an unlimited capacity.

Strategic Plan Action Items:

Over the Next 3-5 years:

Academic and Administrative Applications:

The following group of action items are in direct support of current and future academic and business needs of the University.

1. New Content Management System

Action Items:

  1. ITS will support Web Communications Content Management System selection process and will support its installation
  2. ITS will support the content management policy change regarding direct content publication that speeds and simplifies content management.
  3. ITS will advocate for consideration of a policy review concerning not using the web site as a data archive. This may require the installation of a data archive similar to Deep Blue at the University of Michigan.
  4. ITS will advocate for consideration of separating the front facing/marketing web pages from the operational web pages. This could provide for a lighter, more nimble front facing web site.
  5. ITS will convert all internal forms on the SVSU web site to the Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW) system (see below).

 

2. Business Intelligence System

Action Items:

  1. ITS will coordinate the installation of Datatel’s DROA business intelligence system to support the Enrollment Management’s student analytics needs. This system will at the outset provide quantitative insight into student retention and various longitudinal analysis.
  2. ITS will provide for the ongoing support of the DROA system.

 

3. Colleague User Q Query Replacement

Action Items:

  1. ITS will complete the installation of the Informer user inquiry system
  2. ITS will lead the user training and consult in the user conversion of QueryBuilder queries into Informer queries.

 

4. Lecture Capture

Action Items:

  1. ITS will demo Lecture Capture to Nursing faculty
  2. ITS will support Nursing faculty decision making
  3. If funded, ITS will install and support the chosen Lecture Capture system.

 

5. Learning Management Systems

Action Items:

  1. Working closely with the Faculty Association, ITS will test and deploy the VSpace-based Course Evaluation system
  2. Deploy & Support the Media Gallery function
  3. Over the next 2-3 years ITS will consult with H&HS on the planning & development of the H&HS accreditation support system.

 

6. Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW)

Action Items:

  1. Continue the KEW implementation for Academic Affairs to address the Gen-Ed Committee, Grad Committee, and CAPC Committee to automate their processes to an electronic format
  2. Implement KEW forms for a number of ITS simple forms and processes
  3. Implement KEW forms, as time permits, for all the internal forms on the SVSU Website.
  4. Work with Unviersity management to determine when and if it would be appropriate to place major forms such as the HR Action form in KEW.

 

7. Analysis & Implementation of Internet-based (a/k/a cloud) systems

Action Items:

  1. Continue to explore and consult on the selection, installation, and support of internet-based systems to meet various departmental needs of the University
  2. Continue to assure that such systems meet the Universities policy on the use of such systems: http://www.svsu.edu/its/not-in-menu/policies/off-campus-admin-computing-resources.html

 

8. Expanded Use of Datatel Modules

Action Items:

  1. Continue to explore and consult on the use of existing or emerging Datatel modules to meet various departmental needs of the University and, on occasion, Datatel requirements for upgrades (e.g. decommissioning Querybuilder)
  2. Continue to customize Datatel modules and develop new functionality as necessary, to meet priorities established by University Vice Presidents

 

9. Document Imaging

Action Items:

  1. Continue to consult on imaging uses with customer departments
  2. Continue to install and support document imaging in customer departments
  3. Continue to provide user support and training

 

Infrastructure:

The following group of action items provide for the foundational technological infrastructure of the University. This encompasses the underlying network, network capacity, network services, security, and long range technology analysis. The two greatest long term infrastructure issues facing the University are: 1) life cycle funding of technology, and 2) the expectation of unlimited lifetime data storage.

10. Upgrade Network capacity and reliability

Action Items

  1. Continue to work with Facilities to install a fiber loop on campus to preclude outages caused by on campus fiber cuts
  2. Continue to upgrade the network to provide faster and more reliable services
  3. Continue to explore emerging technologies to improve wired and wireless services
  4. Install Active Directory

    1. Replace Netstorage for more user friendly M drive access
    2. Expand virtual services for specialized software needs by students and faculty

  5. Greatly expand data storage and retention options to meet the growing use of video in areas like COE Field Observations, Lecture Capture, etc. etc.

 

11. Life Cycle Funding for technology Infrastructure - Advocate for life cycle funding for existing and new technologies at SVSU including:

Action Items

  1. Networking components including wireless antennas
  2. Data Center
  3. Classrooms

 

12. Data Archiving

Action Items

  1. Explore & analyze data archive solutions that meet various departmental needs in a cost-effective manner; this can include making the documents/photos/media available to the Internet similar to the Deep Blue project at the University of Michigan
  2. Implement a data archiving solution

 

13. Data Retention

Action Items

  1. Continue to work with Administration and Business Affairs to adopt a reasonable and workable Records Retention Policy
  2. Expand the University Records retention policy into a data retention and data storage & disposal procedure; this requires a cultural change where, similar to federal entitlement programs, there is an expectation of unlimited lifetime data storage.

 

14. Title-III Grant Technology Administration

Action Items

  1. Consult with Ryder Center/Athletic Department staff on technology upgrades planed for the Ryder Center and Athletic complex.
  2. Install technology upgrade in the Ryder Center and Athletic complex
  3. Continue working on the regional collaboration elements of the grant in years 4 & 5

 

15. Disaster Recovery Planning/data center flexibility

Action Items

  1. Expanded usage of VMWare to improve system uptime thru fault tolerance and auto-failover
  2. Analyze converting Colleague to MS-SQL in 4 years (assumes DROA was purchased and is operational)
  3. Analyze moving Colleague under VMware in 4 years (which assumes converting to an MS-SQL database or running Unidata on Red Hat Linux).
  4. Continue to explore reciprocal data center agreements that would meet data security requirements

 

16. IT security

Action Items

  1. Ongoing user education for problems like phishing and other on-line scams
  2. Expand Incident handling plan
  3. Expand internal system scanning, alerts, and correcting

 

17. Kuali Evaluation - In 3 to 5 years.

Action Item

  1. When the Kuali student and HR/Payroll modules have been fully implemented in higher education entities, fully evaluate the system’s full functionality and ability to provide the complete set of business needs of a comprehensive university