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IT Strategic AlignmentThe Core of Strategic Planning
James Bradley, UT Arlington VP of IT & CIOErin Morgan, Director Strategy & Planning
Zinna Butcher, Communications Coordinator
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Why are you considering an IT assessment?
A. Align to institutional goals 595416B. Improve understanding of clients 595435C. Evaluate organizational effectiveness 595436 D. Precursor to strategic planning 595437 E. Develop IT improvement plan 595438
F. All of the above 595439 G. Other – None of the above 595460
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Purpose Statement
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University of Texas Arlington
Almost 40,000 Students2,200 FacultySeventh fastest growing public research institutionFifth most diverse university
Second largest member of The University of Texas SystemOne of six national universities named a “Next GenerationUniversity ”
o Broad online course and program offeringso Increased enrollment growtho Emerging research presence
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UT Arlington’s Purpose Conduct an inventory and assessment of all IT resources andstaff to achieve the following outcomes:
Develop a strategic plan grounded in university goals
Design an organization optimized for service delivery
Establish collaborative campus relationships
Align human resource capability with organizational needs
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Brainstorm & Discussion (6 minutes)
What are your reasons for conductingan assessment of your IT organization?
o Use notecards to quickly jot ideas
o Generate your purpose statement
o Write one statement on the whiteboard toshare with the room
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Shared Purpose Statement
Participant Feedback
• Determine gaps and redundancies in IT services• To communicate the mission and purpose of IT to the
organization• To enable better decision-making for project planning• Overarching goal of improving IT service with a focus on
diverse and distributed user base
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Assessment Teams
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UT Arlington Assessment Teams
System Mapping
Benchmarking
Customer
Experience
Process Design
Organization
Structure
Asset Mapping
Create holistic view ofthe organization
Identify and evaluateperformance to bestpractice
Focus groups and surveysassess perceptions andsatisfaction of customers
Evaluate process health
Map service deliverythrough the organizationstructure
Find mismatch of assetoperation, ownership,and maintenance
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Team Attributes & Benefits
Attribute Participants BenefitCross-Functional • Representative from
each IT team atvarious levels
• IT Stakeholders
Shared Ownership in theIT Improvement Journey
Inclusive • Academic Leadership• Administrative
Leadership & Staff• Distributed IT• Students
Amplified StakeholderVoices
Diverse • Cross-Functional IT• IT Stakeholders Enlarged Perspective,Limited Myopic View
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Assessment Team Composition
Systems Team (DNA forAll Other Teams)• 6 IT Representatives
Benchmarking• 6 IT Representatives• 1 External IT Representative• 1 Student Intern
Customer Experience• 8 IT Representatives• 6 Customer Representatives• 4 Student
Interns/Volunteers
Process Design• 6 IT Representatives• 1 Student Intern
Organization Structure• 6 IT Representatives
Asset Mapping• 5 IT Representatives• 2 Budget/Account
Representatives
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Have you participated in an ITassessment?
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Brainstorm & Discussion (7 minutes)
Are there missing assessment teams? Are there missing roles?
o Use notecards to quickly jot ideas
o Compare teams and roles
o Discuss and pick unique teams and/orroles to add to the whiteboard and sharewith the room
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Share Assessment Team Improvements
Participant Feedback
Missing roles:• Information Security• Human Resources• Library & Media Services• External Key Business Services• Faculty
• ResearchersMissing Teams:• Executive Steering Committee• Project Team
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Assessment Activities
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UT Arlington’s 8 Assessment Activities
1. Map the IT system from inputs, through transformationprocesses, to delivery of services and products to end-users
2. Benchmark against best-in-class IT organization3. Conduct surveys , analyze results, and provide
recommendations4. Conduct focus groups , analyze results, and provide
recommendations5. Analyze key IT business processes , evaluate the overall
effectiveness, while identifying improvements
6. Map ad-hoc decision-making case studies to theorganization structure7. Map processes to the organization structure8. Map assets (human and capital) to business requirements
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Sample Team Methodology & Output
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20Strategic Alignment
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Benchmarking Team Report
Benchmark Team Interview Protocol
Questions focused on the following areas:Context (history, challenges, key initiatives)Current state (competitive edge and areas for
improvement)Organizational structure (how well it enables ordisables)Strategic orientation (connection to strategy)
Big bets (what changes had the greatest impact)Measurement (how success is measured)
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Focus Group Methodology
Customer Experience Team Report
Focus group interviewsStandardized open-ended questions to minimize variabilityInformal conversational questions to explore unanticipatedresponses
11 focus groups conducted over 2.5weeks
98 people attended one hour sessionsFocus groups were scheduled as affinity groups (Deans,Chairs, etc.)
55 staff, 36 faculty, and 7 students attended52 women and 46 men
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Process Team Variance Analysis
Process Team Report
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VP IT & CIO
Client Services
Application Services
BusinessCollaboration
Desktop Services
Instructional Services
Service Desk
Statistical Services
EnterpriseInformation Services
ApplicationDevelopment
EnterpriseProduction Services
Enterprise BusinessIntelligence
EnterpriseApplication Services
Network &Telecommunications
Services
Network Services
Telecommunications
Office of the VP IT &CIO
Executive Support
Financials
Human Resources
Marketing &Communications
Procurement
Risk Management
Operations &Systems
Operations
Systems
Project ManagementOffice
Organization Team Analysis
24Insight: Some processes are designed to be highly transactional to limit perceived risk
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Sample Inputs to Strategic Plan
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TakeAction
Align IT toUniversityStrategy
StrategicPlanning
DevelopOperation
s Plan
ReviewMetrics
EngageFeedback
Loops
ImplementChanges
Who are we now?
How do we transform?
Who do we want to be?
S t r u c t u r e • Unresponsive to opportunities
• Inadequately meets Universityobjectives and complexities
• Silos slow service delivery
• Build nimble, customer-centricorganization and deploy missingelements of the IT organization
• Customer-facing, serviceorganization
• Engaged, collaborativecommunicator with ourUniversity
P r o c e s s
• Fails to collaborate with andlimited engagement of ITstakeholders
• Highly transactional and one-size-fits-all processes andsolutions
• Process immaturity and lowefficacy
• Lack of effective measurements
• Create collaborative governance• Develop flexible and
differentiated processes andstandards
• Enhance IT transparencythrough effective measures andreporting
• Broad, University-contributorwho delivers transformativepossibilities
• Provider of flexible, customer-centric standards
• Capable of telling our story withtransparency and clarity
S u p p o r t S y s t e m s
• Providers of unreliable system• Delivery of services over-
overburdens certain parts of theorganization
• Missing functions prevent usfrom providing for existing andemerging IT needs
• Fortify Tier I infrastructure• Leverage the cloud• Deliver systems that support a
Tier 1 research institute andpromotes student success
• Manager of highly-reliablesystems
• Provider of on-demand sourcingpartnerships capable of quicklymeeting University needs
• Engine that creates efficienciesthrough automation
P e o p
l e• Unresponsive, slow, and
resistant to change• Insular, inward-focused, and
limited awareness of new ITtrends
• Outdated or misaligned skillsets
• Say Yes!• Build strong academic
partnerships and national ITreputation
• Strengthen core skills andcompetencies
• Agile, nimble, and responsive tocustomer needs, adapting tochanges dynamically
• Partner with University units
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Brainstorm & Discussion (7 minutes)
Are there missing assessmentactivities?
o Use notecards to quickly jot ideas
o Compare activities
o Discuss and pick unique activities to addto the whiteboard and share with the room
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Share Additional Assessment Activities
Participant Feedback
• How well are we meeting customer needs• SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
Analyst• Skill Assessment
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Questions?
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ResourcesContact us for information about our consultant
partners for this projectSee our full assessment report athttp://www.uta.edu/oit/Integration_Report.pdf Connect with us:
Jim Bradley [email protected] Zinna Butcher [email protected] Erin Morgan [email protected]
Visit the Strategic Planning Constituent Group onThursday at 9:10am in Meeting Room W308A/BJoin the Strategic Planning Constituent Group athttp://www.educause.edu/discuss/all-discussion-groups
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