CIOs in Wonderland: Transformational Leadership for Interesting Times Hilary Baker Michael Berman John Charles Amir Dabirian California State University

Copyright California State University 2010 Copyright California State University 2010. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

Now...it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.

California State University Largest 4-year higher education institution in US San Jose State campus est. 1857 Channel Islands campus est. 2002

California State University Bakersfield Channel Islands Chico Dominguez Hills Fresno Fullerton Hayward Humboldt Long Beach Los Angeles Maritime Academy Monterey Bay Northridge Pomona Sacramento San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco San Jose San Luis Obispo San Marcos Sonoma Stanislaus Chancellor’s Office

California State University 400,000+ Students 44,000 Faculty & Staff

Driving Factors for Change–The New Normal CA Budget Emergence of cloud based services, web 2.0 and virtualization Created new opportunities to rethinking radically the ways that we provide services to students, faculty and staff CSU CIOs decided to work together synergistically!

CSU CIO Call to Action Above campus Transformational Campus-led/governed “Coalition of the willing” . . .Called “Synergy” Initiatives 8

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Synergy Initiatives

Virtual Information Security Center Goal Share Information Security services across campuses Timeline Pilot - Spring 2010 Production – July 2010

Regional Data Centers Goal Identify data center cost savings and efficiencies Timeline Proof of concept with 1 campus - March 2010 CSU data center inventory - Nov 2010

Virtual Network Operations Center Goal Network monitoring and management Timeline Pilot Spring 2010 Production Fall 2010

Virtual Computer Labs Goal Provide virtual application lab services to CSU campuses eliminating need for physical labs Timeline Pilot - Spring 2010 Expanded Pilot - Fall 2010

Synergy Learning Management Services Goal Implement a more cost effective way to provide IT support for teaching and learning Timeline LMS Governance - Fall 2010

...it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Synergy Project Outcomes: Some moved quickly Some moved forward quickly & achieved early wins for the participating campuses Virtual Information Security Center (VISC) Virtual Computing Labs (VCL) Regional Data Centers (RDC)

Synergy Project Outcomes: Some just now taking off Some had slower starts & are now beginning to show results Virtual Network Operations Center (VNOC) Synergy Learning Management Services (LMS)

Synergy Project Outcomes: Some stalled Some stalled out within months Synergy Procurement Synergy Help Desk

What’s Next? Moving Beyond the CSU Walls CENIC brokered or hosted “above campus” IT services VCL-Cloud Services VoIP Services Data Center Services CIO synergy collaborations with CFOs & CAOs Procurement (Revisited) Community college transfer pathways

Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons…

Lessons Learned: ROI Return on Investment (ROI), but… Low initial investment Risk aversion Executive-ready Greenfield factor Ease of governance = faster action

Lessons Learned: Collaboration Recognize realities of existing structures Really, only two kinds of collaboration: Voluntary shared benefit Forced march Exhortation without motivation or coercion has little impact

Lessons Learned: IT as driver vs. follower Big payoff: business process consolidation IT synergies can enable business synergies Shared Business Services Options for students Mobility Online options 24

Lessons Learned: Campus Cultures Respect local campus culture and organizations Every project is not for everyone One size may not fit all Easier to deploy pilots and proof of concepts to demonstrate value 25

Lessons Learned: Political Barriers Loss of control/autonomy Risk-averse culture Difficulty conceiving how it could work Accepting the new normal = giving up Cost savings vs. cost avoidance Lots of excuses to do nothing 26

Discussion

Acknowledgements Thanks to Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel for their brilliant work, to Gettysburg College Library for preserving and sharing it, and the Internet Archive (archive.org) for making it freely available to the world.