This blog describes resources designed to help IT leaders develop a next generation technology strategy.
The 2018 focus for the EDUCAUSE Enterprise IT Program is on preparing the institution for next generation enterprise IT. You can read about our plan for the year here. As we prepare new resources for this topic, we will publish them on the Enterprise IT Program web page.
In our first set of content for the year, we look at the importance of developing a technology strategy that firmly anchors the work of IT within institutional mission and goals, with a highlight on the role of data governance and the need for cross-enterprise communication and collaboration.
Next generation enterprise IT is characterized by a movement away from modular transactional systems toward an environment made up of multiple interconnected systems, bringing with it new technology requirements. The IT ecosystem is shifting to one that includes a mix of cloud and on-premise solutions and services, all of which generate data that are critical to the institution, both for short-term decision-making and long-term planning and prediction. As the institution's need for this critical information increases, data integration, data management, and data governance are increasingly in the forefront of enterprise IT. A technology strategy that addresses the increasing importance of data while also aligning IT work with institutional mission and goals is an important step in preparing the institution for taking advantage of the data-related benefits of next generation enterprise IT.
This evolution of enterprise IT thinking can be seen as an opportunity for IT to act as a strategic partner within the institution, going beyond the delivery of technologies and services to the integration of technology throughout the institution, adding value in a direct relationship with mission and goals. This work requires that IT staff develop a deeper understanding of business-unit needs and institutional culture in order to position the technology strategy to fully support and enable those institutional goals.
The Enterprise IT Program has compiled resources that can help you take advantage of that opportunity. A new web page devoted to developing a technology strategy that supports institutional mission and goals provides access to a curated set of relevant materials, including research studies, working group papers, benchmarking information, and recent articles from leaders within the EDUCAUSE community. Because the work of building technology strategy goes far beyond the IT department, you will also find links to resources from other professional associations such as NACUBO (the National Association of College and University Business Officers) and AIR (the Association for Institutional Research). The new resources also include case studies that describe how IT leaders at University of the Pacific and Pomona College are developing technology strategy for their institutions.
We hope you find these new resources helpful. Send us your questions and your suggestions by contacting [email protected]
If you have a story to tell about your own institution's work in the area of next generation enterprise IT, or if you have suggestions or questions about the Enterprise IT Program, please contact Betsy Tippens Reinitz at [email protected].
Betsy Tippens Reinitz is the director of the Enterprise IT Program for EDUCAUSE.
© 2018 Betsy Tippens Reinitz. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.