The Computer Services department at a university developed a 3-year strategic plan to address growing frustrations and meet expanding needs. The plan aims to improve communication, deliver reliable services, invest in staff training, acquire new resources, and increase campus-wide IT proficiency. Key goals include achieving predictability in issue response, enhancing collaboration between departments, adopting best practices like ITIL, and establishing centralized infrastructure.

1. Computer Services Strategic Plan 2009 - 2012

3. By providing advice and assistance in the selection and use of information technologies

4. By developing custom IT solutions to meet institutional needs

5. By investigating new and innovative ways to utilize information technology to solve the problems and meet the opportunities presented to the campus Mission

6. Vision “ To be a key partner contributing to the success of the entire campus community by serving as a trusted source of information, advice, and assistance, and by providing effective, timely, reliable, and sustainable information technology services, and to be seen as a leader in the effective use of information technology by our colleagues at other educational institutions. We will utilize appropriate technologies to contribute positively to the student experience, and to help all of our clients to achieve their goals, whether those goals are related to teaching, learning, research, or administration”

7. Guiding Principles Delivering exemplary customer service is the driving motivation behind all of our guiding principles. The principles stated below are all facets of this single purpose: Respect for our clients and our co-workers, including students, faculty, and staff alike. Professionalism in our dealings with our clients and co-workers. Prudent handling of information ensuring that appropriate levels of access, security, and confidentiality are maintained Sustainability of the services we offer our clients Efficient use of resources , including the judicious use of funds, to design and deliver the services we provide

8. Guiding Principles An open-minded approach to finding solutions to problems or meeting opportunities. Open and effective communication with our clients. IT proficiency for our clients so that they will have the skills and knowledge they require to meet their goals

10. In recent years Computer Services has found it to be increasingly difficult to meet the growing needs and expectations of the campus community.

11. This struggle has lead to a number of undesirable outcomes: frustration on the part of our clients when we cannot deliver what they require, frustration on the part of our staff at the ever-growing workload, and other departments taking on IT roles and responsibilities which were traditionally within the domain of Computer Services, to name a few.

12. The time has come to address these issues, and the support of senior management has created an environment which is conducive to progressive change.

14. The President

15. Representatives of campus academic and administrative units

16. Computer Services' management and staff

17. Students

18. Other educational institutions

20. Goals and Objectives

22. Objective: Develop and implement an “evergreening” program for hardware renewal

23. Objective: Develop and implement new trouble ticket procedures

24. Objective: Establish a campus IT governance and standards framework

26. Objective: Develop new contact methods

27. Objective: Develop and implement an interactive web site for communcation with our clients

28. Objective: Re-design our public-facing web site into a more effective communication channel

29. Objective: Develop clear and accurate user-focused documentation and documentation standards for locally developed systems

30. Objective: Develop a closer relationship with other departments heavily involved in IT

32. Objective: Utilize virtualization to consolidate servers and increase resiliency

33. Objective: Identify and elimination “single points of failure”

34. Objective: Deliver services using the web and other open technologies

35. Objective: Design and implement centralized storage facilities

36. Objective: Develop and distribute guidelines and procedures for ensuring information integrity and security

38. Objective: Keep up to date with trends in technology

39. Objective: Increase one-on-one time between our staff and campus clients

40. Objective: Identify relevant industry groups and support staff involvement

42. Objective: Take a more entrepreneurial approach to service delivery

43. Objective: Make better use of available student resources

45. Objective: Participate in the development of IT proficiency standards for the campus

46. Objective: Devote staff time to the preparation and delivery of IT training

47. Thanks for your time and attention A copy of our full strategic plan can be found at https://my.cs.upei.ca