Message from the Chief Information Officer
The University's clearly stated strategic direction for the next three years is to guarantee that it maintains relevance to society's needs and aspirations, that it focuses on student centred learning and targets areas of high impact research.
In order to guarantee that the University's ICT environment supports this stated strategic direction, the University has embarked on a 'shared services' journey towards a much broader University view of ICT. The primary objective has been to transform the University's ICT environment so that it is:
- Current and relevant in a rapidly emerging higher education setting;
- Agile, flexible and clearly aligned with the University's stated strategic directions;
- Closely aligned with and sensitive to teaching and research needs;
- As efficient and effective as possible given the resources available;
- Can be benchmarked internally and externally for service quality and cost and;
- Encompasses a whole of University view of ICT.
Given that a primary objective of the 'shared services' approach has been to ensure greater efficiency in the implementation of ICT across the University, the implementation phase has so far been focused on eliminating the duplication of 'commodity' services such as Email, Learning Management System, Help Desks, Backup Facilities, Data Centres, Directory Environments, etc. This will enable areas to direct their energy and resources on adding value to the University's core business.
The outcomes of implementing this new Curtin ICT 'shared services' model will be:
- Clearly aligned strategic focus for ICT within the University
- A well defined category of 'commodity services' none of which is duplicated without clearly justified business need.
- Improved efficiency in service delivery and cost effectiveness of the commodity ICT services.
- Consistency of processes and service reporting across all ICT areas
- Clear and accountable measures of ICT effectiveness and efficiency across all areas of the University.
- A governance framework covering all facets of ICT including risk management, expenditure and service delivery across the University.
- Transparent ICT costing which shows actual costs and is benchmarked internally and against national / international equivalent institutions.
Progress up to end June 2007
The Chief Information Officer was appointed in September 2006 and work commenced on the implementation of a University wide approach to ICT 'shared services'.
The approach to implementing the 'shared service' model has now been defined and there has been wide acceptance from staff and senior managers to the proposed change management approach. Feedback has been positive and staff are actively participating in a number of projects aimed at identifying duplicated commodity services, defining the organisational structure to take us forward and developing benchmarking methodologies.
In the absence of a consistent budget and reporting model it is difficult to confidently identify savings. However; indicative estimates to date suggest that by rationalising the duplication of servers, coordinating software purchases which were being duplicated and beginning the journey towards more cohesive Divisional structures, savings of the order of $2M have been achieved. These savings have remained with the areas and Divisions who achieved them.
The following Reviews have been commissioned so far and we have been careful to ensure key staff involvement in all of them. Review Project Briefs are available under Reviews and then Project Briefs and progress to date can be located under Progress Reports.
In due course Project Briefs will be developed for Reviews on:
- University Directories and Identity Management
- Web Server infrastructure
- Analysis of data centres
Structure
In keeping with the holistic approach to ICT across the University, the natural progression of the ICT 'shared service' initiative was to move towards providing a more cohesive ICT structure across the University.
After extensive consultation, a document outlining the proposed structure was referred to the University Policy and Management Committee and a structure referred to as "Curtin Information Technology Services" (CITS) was approved. The document can be found under CITS Structure.
A presentation outlining the proposed structure was delivered on 30 th May 2007 to all University ICT staff and the full address can be located at: ttp://dbs.ilectures.curtin.edu.au/lectopia/lectopia.lasso?ut=804
Regards
Des Thornton
Chief Information Officer
Curtin Information Technology Services (CITS)
