CFAES and Ohio State’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) are collaborating on an IT Services Review and Planning initiative that will help the college make future IT budget and staffing decisions in the context of the college’s strategic objectives in teaching, research and extension. The result of this collaborative effort will help us to:
- Define the types of IT services needed to propel the college toward its strategic goals in teaching, research and extension
- Prioritize critical infrastructure and IT security/compliance risks that need to be addressed
- Explore options to optimize the delivery of IT services
- Develop a three- to five-year IT roadmap and investment plan
OCIO will work closely with Graham Cochran, Matt DeVore, other CFAES leaders, IT staff, and key stakeholders to understand the college’s current IT services and infrastructure. Together we will explore what is working well and where there might be opportunities for improvement. We will also discuss the college’s vision and goals with respect to teaching, research and extension and identify strategies the college could pursue that would strengthen its IT capabilities in specific areas in to achieve those goals. We also plan to engage an outside company to provide an external perspective that is important for reviews like this.
The IT Services Review and Planning initiative will kick off in March 2017. The review team will gather specific information about the current IT environment and interview key stakeholders about current and future IT needs in research, teaching and extension. The team will also review feedback from individual faculty and staff submitted via an online “suggestion box.” The information gathering process will take approximately four to six weeks to complete and the team’s progress will be tracked on a public web site.
The timing for this review aligns well with other CFAES reviews that are helping to support decisions about direction, resources that chairs, unit leaders and the new dean will use, and overall strategic planning for the college. The timing also aligns well with the University IT Strategy efforts underway across Ohio State. IT leaders from the largest colleges and VP units including CFAES have identified seven investment areas that all IT leaders feel are important to co-invest in – areas such as Mobile First, Empowering Teaching Innovation, Advancing Research, and Developing Talent. The roadmap and investment plan developed as a result of the CFAES IT Services Review will take into account these larger IT initiatives. Click here for more information on the University IT Strategy.
Questions about the review can be directed to Matt DeVore (devore.38@osu.edu) or Graham Cochran (cochran.99@osu.edu).