The University of Memphis
James I. Penrod
VP Information Systems & CIO

A.   Introduction

The University of Memphis has begun a major effort to implement an information strategy that will move the institution to a position of leadership among its regional peers by the turn of the century. The strategy has been instituted through a declaration in the strategic plan, the establishment of an executive level chief information officer (CIO) position, the beginning of three major information technology initiatives, the development of a university-wide information technology (IT) governance structure, and the implementation of an IT strategic planning process.

The University of Memphis Strategic Plan 1995-2000: Defining Excellence references some seven goals that directly pertain to the importance of information or information technology as a strategic resource with one focused on specific advances: (Goal 6) "Take the lead in using computing and telecommunications in higher education and the community."

The university president established a new division of Information Systems in 1995 and created the position of Vice President for Information Systems & CIO. The new unit is responsible for networking, academic and administrative computing, and tele-communications. As chief information officer, the vice president also has responsibility for the development of all information policy for the institution .

The new IS organization was formed from units that had previously reported to either the Vice President for Business & Finance or the Provost where staff were sanctioned with mid-manager or below levels of authority. The need to restructure and redirect the organization was evident. Positions have been redefined and experienced senior level administrators have been brought into the organization. Learning organization principles have been introduced into the division through the planning process with an emphasis on new management principles and practices and on client-oriented service. A team-based organizational structure is being studied to determine the readiness for such a venture.

After successfully completing a national search for the VP/CIO, the initiation of three major multi-year information technology related projects was begun. The first is to complete the basic network infrastructure for the university by connecting all offices and a proportion of classrooms and dormitories to the campus network and the Internet. The second project is to develop an integrated, standardized academic system consisting of computing laboratories, classrooms, and faculty offices. The third initiative is to move the administrative system of the university to a relational database environment with World Wide Web oriented access. The first phase was to carefully plan for what would be done.

An IT strategic planning process was developed and initiated resulting in 1996 with the first U of M IT Strategic Plan. This participative process links IT initiatives directly to strategic institutional goals and the university's budgeting cycle of available fiscal resources. The plan identifies certain measurable, time bounded objectives for which IS managers are held responsible and accountable.

An IT governance structure has been put into place with a decision-making Policy Council, and Academic and Administrative Advisory Committees. The IT Policy Council is one of three councils designated by the President with decision-making authority at The University of Memphis and has now been in existence for approximately eighteen months.

B.   Problem Statement

The Institution.

With its primary location in the geographic center of the city, The University of Memphis is the flagship institution of the six four-year universities within the Tennessee Board of Regents System of higher education. The campus of approximately 20,000 students is ethnically, socially, and economically diverse. This mid-south, regional, urban, doctoral granting institution is within a relatively short commute of 1.5 million residents of west Tennessee, north Mississippi, east Arkansas, and the Missouri bootheel. The institution has two campuses and a growing number of other locations where courses are offered. It is made up of nine schools and colleges and five Centers of Excellence. The University currently employs about 2400 faculty and staff members. Educational and service needs are provided within an annual state and non-state budget of approximate!ly $145 million.

Dr. V. Lane Rawlins has begun his seventh year as University President. Several new senior executive officers and administrators have joined the institution since his inauguration and work together in a collegial and collaborative style for the betterment of the organization. The addition of strong executive support and leadership along with experienced new academic leaders and staff support are allowing needed changes to occur at a more rapid pace than would otherwise be realized.

The Situation.

The institution is lagging regional and national peers in IT infrastructure and consequently in usage, particularly in some academic areas. There is a serious lack of direct state funding to support institutional IT requirements and the need exists for internal restructuring of IT financial support. The current development of both an operational and linked capital budget is a step in the right direction. Students currently pay a very modest technology access fee of up to $15 per semester. It is anticipated that an increase of this fee up to $50 per semester will be approved for FY98 beginning this Fall. Although this will help substantially, it is not adequate to meet the needs of an academic IT infrastructure with requisite support, thus future increases will be sought.

The U of M Strategic Plan 1995-2000 calls for a concerted effort to enhance the overall image and regional stature of the institution. For a variety of reasons, the university has an image that does not match the quality of programs and offerings that are available in certain disciplines. Responses are being devised to address this, including the advancement of an information strategy.

There is increasing competition for good students and faculty, in general, in higher education. This is heightened at The U of M since the university has experienced flat enrollment over the past few years. The institution is bordered by two sister states, yet does not have legislative approval to waive out-of-state tuition to students from those states; however, this advantage is available to some other Tennessee higher education institutions and to Tennessee students who elect to attend certain universities in adjoining states. The result is a substantially reduced diameter of recruiting area. Expanded efforts to offer off-campus classes and to recruit new non-traditional students are underway. Obviously, an information strategy is important to such efforts.

The current COBOL, flat-file, administrative system is heavily modified and requires extraordinary maintenance efforts. Additionally, it is functional-unit based, thus few cross-functional optimization efforts to improve processes have been made. There is no integrated institutional database nor are there data access tools that can assist in providing decision-making information to executive officers, administrators, or staff who need them. Thus, there is a great institution-wide need for access to decision-making information.

Strategic Significance.

The president and his administrative team are oriented toward a decision-making style that calls for those nearest the problem to be empowered to solve it. As an economist, he is perhaps more data driven than has been true of others, thus there is a strategic need for accessible information and data distributed to far more people across the university.

There is a strategic need for greater IT usage in the classroom which can only come about by providing increased IT support in the form of infrastructure, hardware, software, maintenance, labs, smart classrooms, technical training, and IT staff at the academic unit level. The university has recently established a Center for Academic Excellence and modest grants are being awarded to faculty for innovative uses of technology to enhance instruction. Projects that utilize the web for course delivery were specifically targeted during the last grant cycle.

There also exists a strategic need for a more easily maintained, flexible and responsive administrative system that can supply timely data and information. Leadership is being provided by SCT, a university partner, to convert to new DB2 RDBMS software along with a client-server based hardware platform. Cross-functional project teams have been identified to analyze and implement the various administrative modules and are directed to investigate administrative process redesign initiatives as part of that effort. The necessary change will be difficult, will not come about easily, and in some cases may be met with resistance. The administrative team has, however, reached agreement on this course as the best available option for the institution and will see that it is carried out successfully.

C.   Objectives

The University of Memphis must build and maintain a competitive IT infrastructure, down to the desktop, and has begun significant strides in this direction. However, an on-going stream of funds must be identified to support that growing infrastructure and the cost of its maintenance. The IS organization needs to learn how to become more effective as well as more efficient. Intervention thresholds for circumstances where the same or similar problems are reoccurring must be developed. The entire IT organization across campus must learn to work better in teams and share individual knowledge so that a reservoir of "corporate" knowledge is rapidly created.

The university is dedicated to expanding its regional and national leadership and recognition in selected academic disciplines. The university 's five Chairs of Excellence have resulted in prominent and renown academic leadership and are introducing its student population to a growing number of quality educational opportunities.

Information is increasing exponentially and both the academic and administrative sectors of the university must have access to appropriate and timely data. By furnishing timely and easy to obtain data and information (along with tools with which individuals can manipulate data on an ad hoc basis), improved decision-making capabilities will result.

The university will continue to build and augment a responsive administrative system that provides direct access to students, faculty and staff for designated actions and information. To give The U of M a competitive advantage in today's ever-competitive marketplace, superior service must be offered to our staff, faculty, and student clientele. A flexible, easily maintained and responsive administrative system is crucial to the accomplishment of that mission.

All the above must be coupled with keeping institutional units in synch and progressing to gain the needed competitive advantage. Coupling the IT planning process to the institutional strategic plan assists in ensuring the necessary cross-functional alignment. Linking the IT planning process to budget allocation helps ensure the development of tactical alliances between centralized and distributed IT resources in support of the campus goals and planned purpose.

In an attempt then, to respond to the above general institutional goals, The University of Memphis IWIS initiative focuses on IT governance and strategic planning as a decision-making process. The specific IWIS goals include efforts:

1. To identify "best information practices" at other institutions which might be adapted for The University of Memphis.

2. To share with other institutions successful information strategies and ideas that are utilized here.

3. To formally document advantages and shortcomings of the IT governance structure with respect to decision-making and implementation concerning strategic initiatives at The U of M.

4. To seek new and innovative ways to develop and successfully implement information strategies that furthers the mission of the institution.

5. To continue to modify and improve the IT strategic planning process at the university.

The evolution and application of an institution-wide information strategy will bring change to this or any other university. It is our belief that the change will be positive, but not accomplished without difficulty. The closing words of Jennifer James in her recent book Thinking in the Future Tense sum it up quite well.

We will pay a price for the current technological, economic, and cultural changes because of their magnitude, but we will also reap rich rewards when new contracts are finally in place. We will find new excitement in our work as well as in our relationships. We will follow our leaders with more confidence and become better leaders ourselves. We will lead by growing closer to each other. We will move forward by going deeper.

James I. Penrod's Information Technology Government and Strategic Planning's PowerPoint Presentation.

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