Projects >> UF IT-Action Plan Implementation

Background

President Machen placed a major focus on improving University of Florida`s information technology (UF IT). The first stages of the President`s initiative were to approve the appointment of an Interim CIO and to move the reporting of all central IT organizations to the Senior Vice President for Administration. Following the appointment of an Interim CIO, President Machen and the Senior Vice President for Administration jointly charged two groups with developing an action plan to integrate IT at UF to operate under a single CIO and build a firm basis for further development, in short, to create UF IT: The IT Steering Group composed of seven vice presidents and the President of the Faculty Senate (To give guidance and direction to the change process and to assure the action plan aligns with and facilitates UF`s mission.) and the IT Action Plan (ITAP) Task Force (The charge of ITAP was to work with the Steering Group to develop a comprehensive restructuring plan to enhance and improve UF IT.)

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ITAP Summary

While a copy of the full report can be found at the UF-IT Action Plan Web Site, the recommendations from the ITAP report can be summarized as follows:

1. UF IT Governance Structure

Create a new IT Governance Structure for UF with the following four components:
• Unit IT Advisory/Coordination Committees.
• Topical Advisory Committees covering enterprise systems, academic technology, information security, and IT Infrastructure.
• IT Policy Council.
• IT Cabinet including at least seven vice presidents.
Note: The IT Policy Council and the IT Cabinet are new and not in the current IT advisory structure.


2. UF IT Community Engagement

Create a UF IT Engagement Structure that identifies all stakeholder groups, defines categories of and interval for engagement activities, provides and utilizes metrics for assessing the effectiveness.
• Implement the UF IT Engagement Structure immediately upon acceptance of the recommendation


3. UF IT Organizational Structure
• Create a UF IT organization that integrates all IT at UF.
• Create a reporting structure under a single CIO in which the CIO directly manages all core IT services.
• Organize core IT units under five groups: Academic Technology (Core IT Services and Support), University/Enterprise Systems (Enterprise Applications), Computing and Networking Services (Core Infrastructure), Information Security and Compliance, and Web Administration.
• Expand University/Enterprise Systems to include ERP and Business Intelligence.
• Create a new Information Security and Compliance division made of existing units.
• Create a dual report structure for the lead IT professionals in four Senior Vice President areas (HSC, IFAS, Central Administration and E&G) in which these leads report both to the SVP in the area and the UF CIO.


4. UF IT CORE Funding Model

Total annual expenditures for IT services at UF are $100M, split roughly 50-50 between core and distributed IT. Current revenue sources used to fund the `cost-to-continue` ongoing operations in core IT are not always recurring.
• Stabilize existing $14.2M as baseline funding for core IT ongoing operations.
• Provide $4M additional baseline funding to sponsor IT improvements and innovations.
• Locate responsibility to the proposed IT Cabinet for major IT projects and funding decisions.


5. UF IT Priority Projects

The section includes a list of priority projects submitted for consideration of the IT Steering Group. It is not inclusive of all high priority projects, and it is recommended that consideration for final decisions go through the proposed IT Governance structure. The projects include:
• Build a second off-site data center.
• Improve support for instruction.
• Improve support for enterprise systems.
• Improve IT Security and Compliance.

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Implementation Plan

On Februari 23, 2009 President Machen accepted the UF-IT Action Plan. Shortly thereafter work towards implementing the ITAP recommendations has started.
Current Status: (last updated: May 15, 2009)

• Information Security and Compliance

The creation of a single Information Security and Compliance group at the University of Florida (UF), reporting to the CIO, improving the university`s efforts to assess risk and protect its information and computing assets has begun. A one-page outline of the goals, objectives, deliverables, and timeline has been created.
• Governance of IT

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