Question: One UConn's University Information Technology Services (UITS) Develops a Five-Year Strategic Plan

The University of Connecticut was founded in 1881 under the name Storrs Agricultural School. As the name implies, the school was originally focused solely on agricultural studies. In 1893, the school became part of the national land-grant college program, which provided land and funding to one college in each state whose focus was on teaching practical skills in agriculture, engineering, military arts, and science. Over the years, the school's name changed three more times-finally becoming the University of Connecticut in 1939-while its programs expanded into areas such as social work, law, and nursing. Today, UConn, as the school is commonly called, has more than 18,000 undergraduate students at its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, as well as 4,500 students who take classes at five smaller campuses across the state. Another 8,200 UConn students are pursuing graduate-level degrees in dentistry, education, law, medicine, and pharmacy, among others.

The 200 employees who work for the University Information Technology Services (UITS) division at UConn are responsible for deploying, managing, and maintaining IT systems and services-including classroom applications, data management, desktop and software support, email, file services, high-performance computing, mobile applications, and Web services as well as the university's entire data network and telecommunications infrastructure. The primary mission of UITS is "to facilitate, coordinate, or implement information technologies that effectively enable the institutional missions of research, teaching, learning, and outreach." In an effort to ensure that it is fulfilling its mission, UITS recently undertookan intensive strategic planning process, the end result of which was a five-year strategic plan that defines the role UITS will play in fulfilling the university's larger mission.

From the start, UITS utilized a collaborative approach to its strategic planning process, which began with conversations with key stakeholders, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators. The information gathered during these meetings helped UITS staff assess the current state of IT services across the university. The planning process then extended for several more months, with participation by various college deans and directors, members of the president's cabinet, and representatives from the IT Partners program, which includes three advisory committees, made up of faculty, administrators, and IT staff, respectively. At that point, UITS released a draft version of the plan and then spent more time gathering feedback from its various constituencies.

The final version of the strategic plan identifies five highlevel objectives (referred to as goals in the plan) that establish how UITS will support UConn's institutional mission and the changing IT needs of the university community:

? Goal 1: Pursue IT solutions that empower members of our community to successfully, productively, and securely engage in all of their institutional roles as individuals.

? Goal 2: Pursue IT solutions under the guidance of our academic partners that facilitate effective research, enrich teaching and learning, and enhance institutional competitiveness for extramural funding.

? Goal 3: Pursue IT solutions in concert with functional partners that support the business of the university and increase operational effectiveness.

? Goal 4: Pursue IT solutions that assist technical partners at all UConn campuses to successfully
provide for the specific needs of their respective communities.

? Goal 5: Pursue IT solutions that can best be provided centrally and deliver them securely, efficiently, and robustly at scale.
These goals now guide UITS staff in their efforts to identify, develop, and implement specific initiatives intended to support its mission. For example, some of the UITS initiatives that fall under Goal 1 of the strategic plan relate to the delivery of mobile device services and collaboration tools that members of the university community can use no matter whether they are on or off campus. In addition, UITS has placed a priority on developing high-performance computing capabilities and instructional technologies in support of Goal 2. Initiatives connected to Goal 3 include one intended to enhance the paperless document-management tools available to the various administrative and academic departments

According to UConn's CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology, Michael Mundrane, who led the strategic planning process, "Our primary goal for the plan itself was to produce a marketing document that would explain to the organization and to our community where we were going and why." And as Mundrane explains in the plan document, "The challenge was never to generate a laundry list of technologies but was always to identify the smallest practical number of key choices that would have the greatest impact on the success of the university."

Dance to help an IT organization ensure that "the important" is not squeezed out by "the urgent." As he puts it, "By focusing on the big picture, you can ensure that your goals are accomplished and that it is easier to find the resources needed to tackle unexpected challenges or to pursue unique and innovative opportunities that appear throughout the year."

Critical Thinking Questions

1. How well do the five high-level goals in the UITS strategic plan support the IT organization's stated mission? How well do the goals address the needs of the various constituencies within the university?

2. UITS's commitment to collaboration did not end when the UITS strategic plan was finalized. Michael Mundrane considers the plan to be a dynamic document and has pledged to actively solicit feedback from the university community every two years to reassess the plan and its relevance to the changing needs of the university. Do you think such a strong commitment to collaborative strategic planning is more or less important at a public institution, such as the University of Connecticut, versus a private company? Is it more or less difficult to implement?

3. Do you agree with Michael Mundrane's statement that a strategic plan should be treated as a marketing document? Go to the UITS Strategic Plan Web site (http:// itstrategy.uconn.edu), and click the link to view the strategic plan. What do you think of the final document? Is it effective as both a strategic plan and a marketing document?