1) The U of M Strategic Plan contains 11 goals, of which at least seven have information or IT implications and goal six specifically focuses on significantly advancing IT at The U of M.

2) The President created a technology officer position, initially as a Vice Provost, then upgraded it to a VP & CIO. In July of 1995 I joined the university as the first person to serve in that role. The IS Division has line responsibility for centralized networking, computing, & telecommunications; and policy responsibility for all IT institution-wide. The need for three major multi-year projects was evident: infrastructure completion, to build an integrated & coordinated academic system, and to move to an integrated administrative system in a RDBMS environment.

3) Upon arriving, a memo from the President directed me to establish a participative IT Strategic Planning process, ASAP, directly tied to The U of M SP, and linked to the budget process. The resulting three year, annually updated, rolling process also linked each IT objective to a manager who has direct responsibility for its accomplishment.