Planning and Policy :: Reports and Initiatives :: ITS Reorganization
HSU Restructures Info Technology Services
HSU’s Information Technology Services Group, which provides campus-wide computing and communications services, is being reorganized to bolster team work and improve customer service.
The reorganization consolidates ITS into a three-team from a four-team structure, eliminating vacancies to preserve the employment of existing staff, according to Anna Kircher, Chief Information Officer. “Budget realities left us no other choice but to reduce our overall FTE,” Kircher said. “Of course, vacancies rarely occur in convenient places, so we’re redeploying several staff to fill in where there are functional gaps.”
The restructuring constitutes a net reduction equivalent to 4.5 full-time employees. “While deciding how to achieve that, we also stayed focused on building teamwork and improving customer service,” Kircher emphasized.
The new three-team structure comprises:
- Instructional Technology Systems and Services – learning management systems, the Courseware Development Center, the Faculty Technology Solution Center, video conferencing, and media production
- Desktop Systems and Services – hardware and software in general access computing labs, the Help Desk, smart classrooms, media equipment distribution, and technology integration
- Central Systems and Services – email, web services, maintenance and development, plus technical user support for core University systems like Banner, server management, telecommunications, and network services
Kircher explained, “We looked for natural synergies, where working together could eliminate redundancies and provide natural cross-training and greater staff depth, resulting in more than one person knowing how to do a crucial task. For example, we can meet their respective needs for technical depth and customer relations skills by combining Help Desk and the general access labs teams, or take advantage of the overlapping roles in ensuring network security by combining the network services and server management teams.”
The three team leaders will all be selected through national searches that will be announced in the next two weeks, aimed at bringing them on board in January, 2007. The reorganization will take effect when they arrive.
In the meantime, each ITS job description will be updated to reflect the new structure, including an additional component under “Essential Job Functions” that speaks to teamwork, collaboration, customer service, and professionalism.
Kircher said the reorganization also provides clear focus for three important existing initiatives:
- Information Security – “We need to educate the campus about risks, develop policies, conduct an assessment, and move forward on reducing or eliminating the risks and liabilities the assessment reveals. We will hire an Information Security Officer, whose recruitment will coincide with that of the three team leaders.”
- Communication and Outreach – The ITS web site requires significant updating, and there is a need to provide the campus with user-friendly service guides and self-help materials. “We’re going to do a much better job of letting the campus know who we are and what we’re doing,” Kircher said. To that end, two positions will be relocated from an existing team to her office.
- Policy and Planning – A third team position will shift to her office to ensure that key structure building proceeds expeditiously. “It’s a truism across America in the 21st century that we are all so busy with the immediacy of day-to-day tasks that we never get around to taking care of some of the key structure-building work of our organizations,” she noted. The Policy and Planning component will ensure that ITS Disaster Recovery and Security Plans are up to date, that policies are complete, current, and well distributed, net fiscal resources are efficiently coordinated and analyzed, and that contracts and licenses are properly managed and centralized.
“Bringing these three roles into the center of the organization will both provide them better focus and visibility, while also taking these tasks off the otherwise busy plates of the individual team leaders, so that they can focus on customer service and project management,” Kircher said.
For details, contact Ms. Kircher at 826-3815 or anna.kircher@humboldt.edu.
An organization chart showing an overview of the new structure is also available.
