IT Strategic Alignment: The Core of Strategic Planning (242306811)

8/11/2019 IT Strategic Alignment: The Core of Strategic Planning (242306811)

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IT Strategic AlignmentThe Core of Strategic Planning

James Bradley, UT Arlington VP of IT & CIOErin Morgan, Director Strategy & Planning

Zinna Butcher, Communications Coordinator



Why are you considering an IT assessment?

A. Align to institutional goals 595416B. Improve understanding of clients 595435C. Evaluate organizational effectiveness 595436 D. Precursor to strategic planning 595437 E. Develop IT improvement plan 595438

F. All of the above 595439 G. Other – None of the above 595460



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Purpose Statement



University of Texas Arlington

Almost 40,000 Students2,200 FacultySeventh fastest growing public research institutionFifth most diverse university

Second largest member of The University of Texas SystemOne of six national universities named a “Next GenerationUniversity ”

o Broad online course and program offeringso Increased enrollment growtho Emerging research presence



UT Arlington’s Purpose Conduct an inventory and assessment of all IT resources andstaff to achieve the following outcomes:

Develop a strategic plan grounded in university goals

Design an organization optimized for service delivery

Establish collaborative campus relationships

Align human resource capability with organizational needs



Brainstorm & Discussion (6 minutes)

What are your reasons for conductingan assessment of your IT organization?

o Use notecards to quickly jot ideas

o Generate your purpose statement

o Write one statement on the whiteboard toshare with the room



Shared Purpose Statement

Participant Feedback

• Determine gaps and redundancies in IT services• To communicate the mission and purpose of IT to the

organization• To enable better decision-making for project planning• Overarching goal of improving IT service with a focus on

diverse and distributed user base



Assessment Teams



UT Arlington Assessment Teams

System Mapping

Benchmarking

Customer

Experience

Process Design

Organization

Structure

Asset Mapping

Create holistic view ofthe organization

Identify and evaluateperformance to bestpractice

Focus groups and surveysassess perceptions andsatisfaction of customers

Evaluate process health

Map service deliverythrough the organizationstructure

Find mismatch of assetoperation, ownership,and maintenance



Team Attributes & Benefits

Attribute Participants BenefitCross-Functional • Representative from

each IT team atvarious levels

• IT Stakeholders

Shared Ownership in theIT Improvement Journey

Inclusive • Academic Leadership• Administrative

Leadership & Staff• Distributed IT• Students

Amplified StakeholderVoices

Diverse • Cross-Functional IT• IT Stakeholders Enlarged Perspective,Limited Myopic View



Assessment Team Composition

Systems Team (DNA forAll Other Teams)• 6 IT Representatives

Benchmarking• 6 IT Representatives• 1 External IT Representative• 1 Student Intern

Customer Experience• 8 IT Representatives• 6 Customer Representatives• 4 Student

Interns/Volunteers

Process Design• 6 IT Representatives• 1 Student Intern

Organization Structure• 6 IT Representatives

Asset Mapping• 5 IT Representatives• 2 Budget/Account

Representatives



Have you participated in an ITassessment?




Are there missing assessment teams? Are there missing roles?


o Compare teams and roles

o Discuss and pick unique teams and/orroles to add to the whiteboard and sharewith the room



Share Assessment Team Improvements


Missing roles:• Information Security• Human Resources• Library & Media Services• External Key Business Services• Faculty

• ResearchersMissing Teams:• Executive Steering Committee• Project Team



Assessment Activities



UT Arlington’s 8 Assessment Activities

1. Map the IT system from inputs, through transformationprocesses, to delivery of services and products to end-users

2. Benchmark against best-in-class IT organization3. Conduct surveys , analyze results, and provide

recommendations4. Conduct focus groups , analyze results, and provide

recommendations5. Analyze key IT business processes , evaluate the overall

effectiveness, while identifying improvements

6. Map ad-hoc decision-making case studies to theorganization structure7. Map processes to the organization structure8. Map assets (human and capital) to business requirements



Sample Team Methodology & Output



20Strategic Alignment



Benchmarking Team Report

Benchmark Team Interview Protocol

Questions focused on the following areas:Context (history, challenges, key initiatives)Current state (competitive edge and areas for

improvement)Organizational structure (how well it enables ordisables)Strategic orientation (connection to strategy)

Big bets (what changes had the greatest impact)Measurement (how success is measured)



Focus Group Methodology

Customer Experience Team Report

Focus group interviewsStandardized open-ended questions to minimize variabilityInformal conversational questions to explore unanticipatedresponses

11 focus groups conducted over 2.5weeks

98 people attended one hour sessionsFocus groups were scheduled as affinity groups (Deans,Chairs, etc.)

55 staff, 36 faculty, and 7 students attended52 women and 46 men



Process Team Variance Analysis

Process Team Report



VP IT & CIO

Client Services

Application Services

BusinessCollaboration

Desktop Services

Instructional Services

Service Desk

Statistical Services

EnterpriseInformation Services

ApplicationDevelopment

EnterpriseProduction Services

Enterprise BusinessIntelligence

EnterpriseApplication Services

Network &Telecommunications

Services

Network Services

Telecommunications

Office of the VP IT &CIO

Executive Support

Financials

Human Resources

Marketing &Communications

Procurement

Risk Management

Operations &Systems

Operations

Systems

Project ManagementOffice

Organization Team Analysis

24Insight: Some processes are designed to be highly transactional to limit perceived risk



Sample Inputs to Strategic Plan



TakeAction

Align IT toUniversityStrategy

StrategicPlanning

DevelopOperation

s Plan

ReviewMetrics

EngageFeedback

Loops

ImplementChanges

Who are we now?

How do we transform?

Who do we want to be?

S t r u c t u r e • Unresponsive to opportunities

• Inadequately meets Universityobjectives and complexities

• Silos slow service delivery

• Build nimble, customer-centricorganization and deploy missingelements of the IT organization

• Customer-facing, serviceorganization

• Engaged, collaborativecommunicator with ourUniversity

P r o c e s s

• Fails to collaborate with andlimited engagement of ITstakeholders

• Highly transactional and one-size-fits-all processes andsolutions

• Process immaturity and lowefficacy

• Lack of effective measurements

• Create collaborative governance• Develop flexible and

differentiated processes andstandards

• Enhance IT transparencythrough effective measures andreporting

• Broad, University-contributorwho delivers transformativepossibilities

• Provider of flexible, customer-centric standards

• Capable of telling our story withtransparency and clarity

S u p p o r t S y s t e m s

• Providers of unreliable system• Delivery of services over-

overburdens certain parts of theorganization

• Missing functions prevent usfrom providing for existing andemerging IT needs

• Fortify Tier I infrastructure• Leverage the cloud• Deliver systems that support a

Tier 1 research institute andpromotes student success

• Manager of highly-reliablesystems

• Provider of on-demand sourcingpartnerships capable of quicklymeeting University needs

• Engine that creates efficienciesthrough automation

P e o p

l e• Unresponsive, slow, and

resistant to change• Insular, inward-focused, and

limited awareness of new ITtrends

• Outdated or misaligned skillsets

• Say Yes!• Build strong academic

partnerships and national ITreputation

• Strengthen core skills andcompetencies

• Agile, nimble, and responsive tocustomer needs, adapting tochanges dynamically

• Partner with University units




Are there missing assessmentactivities?


o Compare activities

o Discuss and pick unique activities to addto the whiteboard and share with the room



Share Additional Assessment Activities


• How well are we meeting customer needs• SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

Analyst• Skill Assessment



Questions?



ResourcesContact us for information about our consultant

partners for this projectSee our full assessment report athttp://www.uta.edu/oit/Integration_Report.pdf Connect with us:

Jim Bradley [email protected] Zinna Butcher [email protected] Erin Morgan [email protected]

Visit the Strategic Planning Constituent Group onThursday at 9:10am in Meeting Room W308A/BJoin the Strategic Planning Constituent Group athttp://www.educause.edu/discuss/all-discussion-groups

http://www.uta.edu/oit/Integration_Report.pdf

mailto:[email protected]



http://www.educause.edu/discuss/all-discussion-groups














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IT Strategic Alignment: The Core of Strategic Planning (242306811)

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