Drivers of Change in Higher Ed Common Solutions Group The Future IT Organization September 13, 2012.

Drivers of Change in Higher Ed

Common Solutions GroupThe Future IT Organization

September 13, 2012

IT Drivers of Change

• Cloud Computing– More viable services – Widespread adoption in some areas– Huge vendor investment– Requires different skillsets– Risks, both institutional and personal

IT Drivers of Change

• Consumerization of Technology– Technology widely adopted by consumers– Blurring personal and professional use– Wide range of devices used to access enterprise IT,

BYOD– Ability to bypass the IT organization– Mobile payments– Location-based services– Software licensing challenges

IT Drivers of Change

• Personal Cloud– More than just storage– Glue that links devices, information, people, services– Long term, could impact how individuals, organizations, and

services interact– Challenges in separation of personal/professional life

• Identity Management– Important for local services; critical for cloud services– Right services to the right people at the right time– Impact of activities outside of higher ed

IT Drivers of Change

• Migration from the PC as the most common method of accessing IT– Continued proliferation of smart devices and apps– Application must support multiple form factors– Ecosystem competition - Google vs. Amazon vs.

Microsoft vs. Apple vs. ?

IT Drivers of Change

• Widespread availability and value of large data sets– Volume – Velocity– Variability– Variety

• High demand for skilled IT staff– Increasing need for technology positions, supply can’t

match the growth– Hiring challenges already exist, will get worse

IT Drivers of Change

• Business-driven IT– Not IT for IT’s sake, but IT for business needs– More than just enabling infrastructure– Close development and alignment of IT with business

strategy– Iterative development of IT and business process

• Success of disruptive technology - others believe they can invent the next Google/Facebook, or at least want to try

• Rate of change will continue to increase

IT Drivers of Change

• What other IT trends will impact the higher ed IT organization of the future?

Drivers for Change in Higher Education

Common Solutions GroupThe Future IT Organization

September 13, 2012

Higher Education Challenges

• Growing criticism of higher ed– Costs are too high, and growing rapidly– Undergrad tuition subsidizes research activity– Graduates are not ready for the workforce– Limited learning occurs in the academic setting– Tenure restricts faculty accountability– Athletics too prominent, too powerful

Higher Education Challenges

• Most universities are under some form of financial pressure– Reduced state support– Concerns about rising tuition and student debt– Pressure to reduce expenses, improve efficiency– Concern from the federal government about the

cost of student aid– Increase enrollment (domestic, international)– Increased competition for research funding

Higher Education Challenges

• Forbes says the higher education market most likely to be disrupted in the short term…– Rapidly increasing costs– Significant government loans and grants– Questions of efficacy and value– Technology-enabled alternate delivery models

Higher Education Challenges

• Challenging situation for existing universities– Many ratings related to increased cost – Accreditation– Faculty tenure– Facilities investment–Distributed nature– Culture resistant to change

Higher Education Challenges

• Startups don't have these constraints, can start from scratch– Receive support from venture capitalists and

some states/governors– Students are flocking to these alternatives– Some faculty are starting their own companies– Credit not based on credit

hours/courses/degrees

Higher Education Challenges

• Some universities are responding (Coursera, edX)• Alternatives are also gaining traction– StraighterLine– Western Governors University– Excelsior College– Udacity

What happens when universities start accepting transfer credits from StraighterLine or MOOCs?

Higher Education Challenges

• What other drivers will drive change in higher education?

Future of the IT Organization

September 13, 2012

A letter from campus leadership

Dear IT,

Please help us transform teaching and learning, support unsurpassed success in winning research grants, over-deliver on the commitments our faculty make in their grant proposals, create an incomparable campus experience through the services we provide, achieve unparalleled satisfaction among all we serve.

p.s.

Help us establish a global campus presence, open new markets for our education offerings through on-line delivery and conciliate the varied idiosyncrasies of our world-class faculty.

p.s.s.

Please do this without new budget and in many cases with budget cuts, supporting all we have now and providing new, innovative services.

p.s.s.s.

Please make sure that we have defensible analytics that support all of the decisions you make, all of your funding requests and all of the actions you take.

By the way…

Every morning when I look in the mirror, I feel honored, humbled and thankful that I get to work at an extraordinary university and I really believe that we make a difference.

I think about…

• Am I burning up my staff?• Are we as efficient as we can be?• Can we maintain quality as we are spread more thinly?• Are we taking enough time for professional

development?• Does the current organization structure meet our

needs? – For how long?• How can we create a more comprehensive view outside

IT?• Why do most outside IT think this is easy?