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Campus Email Systems and Calendar Systems: a self assessment

Sarah Noell, ITD, Project CoordinatorHarry Nicholos, ITD, Technical co-chair

Cheri Renninger, RMIS, Technical co-chair

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Why are we here?• Discussions with Chancellor, Provost, and

Vice-chancellor for Finance and Business led to buy-in (mandate) to: – Do a comprehensive review of the email

systems and calendar systems running on campus.

• We need to improve our understanding of the university’s fiscal investments in IT.

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The bottom line . . .

• NC State is now more accountable for how we spend our IT dollars.

• The Legislature, Office of the President, and ITS are all looking more closely at how we spend (invest) our IT dollars.

• Finally, we need to do a self-assessment to make sure that we provide our customers with cost effective services that are highly functional and meet their requirements.

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Overarching goals of our charge

• To do a cost benefit assessment and analyze the way the university is offering email and calendar services on campus.– Through this assessment we hope to develop

a framework and process that can be applied to other areas that require similar evaluations.

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Overarching goals, cont’d

• Improve the method by which information and input is gathered by decision makers.

• Make recommendations to the administration concerning our business practices and suggest improvements and / or changes if needed.

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Current Thinking in this Area

• There is a growing movement in both business and government to look more closely at how IT dollars are invested.

• IT services have become core business services, thus decisions about them are more critical.– Greater interest in who is making the

decisions and how they are being assessed.

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Four Main Principles

• Layer 8 is an approach to answering these types of questions. It asks that we look at our IT investments and business practices and allows leadership to make informed decisions. In particular, it supports 4 main principles.– Accountability– Transparency– Governance– Process

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Accountability• Can we account for how the university spends

its IT dollars?• We anticipate that our resources will shrink.

– Are we using our resources as effectively as we can?– Are there changes and improvements we can make

that will benefit our customers and be efficient as well?

Do we need different IT investment strategies?

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Transparency

• Do we know how money is spent on IT investments?

Are our evaluation processes and decisions made in an open manner?

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Governance

• Governance addresses three questions: – What decisions must be made?– Who should make the decisions?– How will we monitor these decisions?

Do we have a process in place for IT decision making?

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Process• What plans and procedures can be

put in place to help do a self-assessment?

What do we want NC State to be and how do we get there?

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Proposed seven step process1. Identify project purpose, goals, and objectives

2. Inventory of supporting infrastructure

3. Benchmark

4. Requirements (essential and aspirational requirements)

5. Strategic plan: develop strategic options and alternatives

6. Select and implement chosen plan

7. Ongoing assessment

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Where are we now?

• At the beginning stages of this process. – Goals, objectives, and purpose have been

stated and we have been charged to move forward.

• Beginning to move forward on several fronts:– Inventory– Benchmarking– Requirements

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Campus input is crucial!

• Communication is essential throughout this process. – We value and want campus input.– We believe we have an opportunity to do

something positive for campus.

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Committee structure

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Coordinating Team

• Comprised of members of ITD and RMIS– Cheri Renninger– Craig Zimmer– Harry Nicholos– Larry Robinson– Sarah Noell– Tim Lowman

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Role of Customer Service sub-committee

• Identify key issues regarding email and calendar services.

• Identify key people to participate in focus groups.

• Help develop questions for a campus-wide customer survey.

• Encourage completion of inventory surveys.

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The Customer Service sub-committee

• Comprised of all major stakeholders on campus:– College IT Directors– University Budget Officers– Administrative staff and administrators (Staff Senate)– DELTA– Students from GSA and SGA– Faculty (FCTL or Faculty Senate)– NCSU Libraries

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Role of the Technical sub-committee

• To provide technical guidance as strategic plans are developed.– Help determine technical feasibility of the

proposed plans.– Help determine the costs associated with

proposed plans.– Ensure that dependencies are addressed.

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Technical sub-committee

• Comprised of – The email and calendar sub-committee of the

University IT Committee.– Other technical staff, as appropriate.

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Focus Groups

• Yes, there will be a lot!

• We will be asking questions about needs, wants, problems etc in two areas: calendar and email.

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Focus Groups

• Chancellor• Executive Officers• Extension Units• Research Council• Research Committees• College IT Directors• Faculty

– Teaching (include DE)– Research– Lecturers/adjunct– TLTR meetings– FCTL

• Students (traditional & distance)

• General & administrative staff

• Governance– Faculty Senate– Staff Senate– Student Senate & GSA– DDD meetings

• Help Desks• Open Forum

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Inventory of existing systems

• Identify campus systems that are participating in service delivery.

• Distribute survey (similar to one done in 2001) to College IT Directors and others on campus

• Surveys can be found at:http://www.ncsu.edu/campus-email-cal/Select either Calendaring survey or Email surveySend any additional questions to

• Calendar: tkl@ncsu.edu• Email: nlil@ncsu.edu

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Next steps

• Distribute inventory survey– Additional questions received by 3/15.– Survey distributed by 3/21.– Completed and returned by 4/1.

• Customer service sub-committee needs to meet.– Identify members.– Convene meeting.– Outline goals and objectives for this group.

• Focus groups will begin before end of spring semester.• Develop an online campus-wide customer survey.• Investigate peer institutions.

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Now we’d like to hear from y’all!

• Thanks for your time today; please continue to ask us questions and provide feedback.

• Keep informed via the web site

http://www.ncsu.edu/campus-email-cal/• We will be back in touch for a focus group with

this group.

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Resources you may find helpful

• IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Peter Weill & Jeanne W. Ross (2004)

• Government Accountability Office publications:Information Technology Management: A

Framework for Assessing & Improving Process Maturity

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04394g.pdfAccessible version:http://www.gao.gov/atext/d04478t.txt