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Friday August 2nd, 2013

OIT > IT Consolidation

Information Technology Workgroup

February 5, 2009

IT Workgroup Participants:
Kevin Ansel (Student Affairs), Mark Askren (AdCom Services), Bill Cohen (Computer Science), Liza Krassner (College of Health Sciences), Rhonda Louden (Education), Michelle Miller (Social Ecology), Sinqui Musto (Office of Research), Marie Perezcastaneda (NACS), Dana Roode (NACS), Deborah Sunday (Libraries)

Introduction

This document summarizes the conclusions of the Information Technology “Big Ideas” workgroup regarding opportunities to improve IT efficiencies and lower costs.  Increasing efficiencies will require compromise; individuals, work groups, and departments cannot all do things exactly the way they are accustomed; we cannot all have tools that are exactly what we want.  However, the end-result of increased sharing and coordination would be a highly effective campus approach to IT, more capable than what we enjoy today, and at lower unit cost.

Below are three “big ideas” for consideration, along with two additional areas of possible benefit.

1. Consolidate IT at UCI

Consolidate AdCom, NACS and all other IT groups in administrative areas into a single IT organization.  In addition to efficiently addressing central IT needs, provide commodity IT services to academic units through the new consolidated unit.  This will allow academic units to focus on the unique requirements of their respective schools.  Commodity services that could be provided include standardized desktop support, instructional lab management, application development, and Web site maintenance.

Because UCI is generally “lean” on overall IT resources, the consolidation would not immediately result in a large amount of direct cost savings.  However, the consolidation would:

In addition to AdCom Services and NACS, independent IT groups exist in the following units, among others: University Advancement, Office of Institutional Research, Office of Academic Affairs, Parking and Transportation Services, Document and Delivery Management, Office of Research, Graduate Division, Student Housing, Admissions, Office of the Registrar, Financial Aid, Student Affairs Technology, University Communications, Athletics, University Extension, and the UCI Libraries.

UCI’s IT units are highly collaborative with collaboration facilitated by mechanisms such as the School/Unit Computing Coordinator group and the Student Affairs Technology Team.  Nonetheless, there are clearly opportunities to improve IT operations for the campus in terms of both cost savings and improved service.

2. Implement IT Solutions to Reduce Non-IT Staff Workload

As campus staffing declines due to attrition or layoffs, the remaining staff will require IT solutions to manage an increasing workload.  Part of this is using existing electronic tools better (for example, taking full advantage of electronic scheduling by letting the software schedule meetings rather than administrative staff).  Additional applications need to be developed or expanded:

There is certainly additional opportunity to reduce workload through IT solutions.  A two or three person IT business analysis team should be assigned the task of interviewing departmental staff and recommending additional areas for development.  The goal would be to identify projects with relatively low development requirements and high return in workload reduction.  An example of this is the “rapid return” system implemented to scan graded exams and return them electronically through EEE rather than through staffed exam return rooms.  There may also be opportunities to expand the use of online training and documentation to improve the efficiency and timeliness of faculty and staff learning new tools and facilities.

3. IT Energy Costs

UCI spends millions of dollars on electricity each year with IT energy usage representing a significant fraction of the total expense.  Campus units need to be brought into the picture by informing them of their energy usage and providing incentives to cut back.

Further extend the 2009 campus Strategic Energy Plan by including the following actions in the IT component of a renewed campus energy savings campaign:

 

Additional Opportunities to Reduce IT Costs

4. Printing

We do not have a complete estimate of the total amount UCI spends on paper and printer supplies, but it appears to be several million dollars annually.  Greatly reduce printing by removing all campus requirements for paper forms by accepting everything electronically.  Expand the use of and consolidate document management systems that allow “virtual paper” to be easily shared and stored electronically.  The routing of paper in departments can also be completely replaced by routing .pdf files via email.  Duplex printing should be the default for all shared and individual printers on campus.

5. Software Licensing Fees, Drop-in Student Computing Labs

The campus spent between $1 and  $2 million on software licensing during 2007/2008.  Although it is unclear to what extent open-source alternatives exist for the range of commercial software packages used on campus, cost savings can be achieved by facilitating use of open-source.  This would require faculty, staff and students learning new software, with an initial training and lost productivity cost. 

Another approach to reducing license fees is making software available centrally through license managers, or through central Linux/Windows based “application servers.”  This can also reduce the need for drop-in student computing labs whose primary purpose is to provide access to commercial software.  The requirement for scheduled labs for class sessions would remain.