1. What is ECAR, What is its Research Process, and How Can You Make the Most of it?
Susan Grajek, Vice President, EDUCAUSE
ECAR Annual Meeting, Tempe, Arizona, January 2014

2. Today: ECAR and more

3. Benefits of ECAR Subscriptions
Professional research
All ECAR research, including more than 30 reports
Family of resources: maturity indices, infographics, data tables, and key findings and actionable recommendations
Available to your entire institution, not metered or restricted
CHECS reports
Gartner research
Community and professional (and profession!) development
ECAR Annual Meeting
ECAR Working Groups
Opportunity to lead or participate in
Working group publications
ECAR is the only subscriber-driven research organization dedicated to understanding IT's role in colleges and universities

4. ECAR Grows!
Subscribers

5. Expansion Program Areas From 0  2 Meetings Security, Policy, GRC
Admin IT
Meetings
From 1  3
Enterprise
Security
ECAR
Grants
From 1  2
Gates
Lumina
Capabilities +1
ECAR Working Groups
Staff
From 9  15/16

6. Diverse Services and Programs
Cybersecurity Programs and HEISC
Core Data Service
IT GRC
Working Groups

7. How does it all fit together?

8. Quite well, actually Teaching and Learning Admin IT
GRC, Security, Policy
other areas
in support of
Emergent/Future
IT Issues
Predict and Plan
Formative
Working groups
Define and Design
Descriptive
ECAR research
Understand, Make the Case
Normative
Core Data Service
Assess, Plan, Make the Case
Phase
Product Line
Derivative products and services: HE Briefs, SITAR, Custom Analyses
Jobs to be done

9. Upcoming

10. ECAR 2014 Research Research on Technology in the Academic Community
Annual Undergraduate study
A new Faculty study
IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance
The Top Ten Strategic Technologies for 2014
New Models for IT Service Delivery
Integrated degree planning and advising analytics (IPAS)
Maturity and Deployment Indices for Higher Education IT

11. Current Working Group Projects
Lead(s)
Focus
Big Data
Guy Almes,Texas A&M University
Examines how campuses will support big data and work with national data centers
Emergency Communications
Jim Jokl, University of Virginia and Mark Katsouros, The Pennsylvania State University
Summarizes recent changes in emergency communications and the impact these will have on campus and statewide.
IT Service Catalog
Ricardo Chavira, Yale University and Hillary Rosenfeld, Boston University
Best practices and a expandable, flexible taxonomy to define common catalog of core services
Mobile Data Collection
Rosemary A. Rocchio, University of California, Los Angeles
Focuses on the promise and concerns of the emerging practice of collecting data using mobile devices and uploading that data to a server for aggregation and analysis.
Research Data Storage
Judy Caruso, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Focuses on what services and governance might be needed as institutions increase their maturity in data management and storage support.
Responsive Web Design
Looks at the basics of responsive web design, an approach that makes content available on a variety of devices.
TCO for Cloud Services
Gabe Youtsey, University of California, Davis and Erik Lundberg, University of Washington
Developing a methodology to accurately and fully benchmark costs of today's campus-based services against cloud alternatives.

12. Sneak Preview: Top 10 Technologies!
“Strategic technologies” are those relatively new technologies institutions will be spending the most time implementing, planning, and tracking in 2014.
Business intelligence reporting dashboards
Mobile apps for enterprise applications
Mobile app development
Enterprise identity and access management solutions
Learning analytics: Course level
Administrative or business performance analytics
Unified communications and collaboration
802.11ac wireless networking standard
Virtual desktops or virtual PC applications
Learning analytics: Degree advising

13. Under Development
Helping you assess the value of IT

14. A Conceptualization of IT’s Value
Value is a balance of Inputs relative to Outputs
Individual services and technologies
Services (Deployment Indices)
This is what the institutional community actually experiences
Outputs
Governance, culture, process, infrastructure, leadership, etc.
Capabilities (Maturity Indices)
Finances, Staffing, Management practices
Inputs to IT
This is primarily what we measure today.
Inputs

15. Value is Relative What are you aiming for? Peers Strategic Priorities
How is your maturity, deployment depth relative to your peers?
How are your inputs:outputs relative to your peers?
Peers
Are you leading in the areas your instituiton’s strategy wants to lead in?
Might you be over-investing in areas that are not priorities?
Strategic Priorities
What level(s) of maturity have you achieved?
How do you compare to a “best in class” standard?
External Standards
Outputs in relation to inputs
Peers
Strategic priorities
An absolute level of progress

16. Under Development: SITAR and MIDAS
Funded by the Lumina Foundation
Step 1: Develop a strategic set of IT benchmarks based on both inputs and outputs
Step 2: Create tools and a service to enable institutions to use those benchmarks affordably and productively
Leverage existing EDUCAUSE data and research
Collaborate with those who will use the tools and services

17. Project Components
Use existing data from the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service
Primarily IT staffing and finances (inputs)
Use existing and develop new data to measure IT outputs (MIDAS)
Develop a semi-customized templated reporting service to enable institutions to benchmark affordably and “authoritatively” (SITAR)

18. A Higher Ed IT Research and Benchmarking Framework
IT Service Management, Policy, Governance, and Strategy
Deployment, service management, and governance toolkits, standards, standard processes (create and connect to and adapt existing materials)
Emergent Areas
Practices, Solutions, Technologies, Applications 
Frameworks
Landscapes
Models
Building HE markets
IT Domain Areas
Teaching and Learning
Informa- tion Security
IT Support
ERP
Research
Network, Voice and Data
Data Center Services
Web
Product- ivity Apps , Calendar, etc.)
Staffing
Finances
Deployment indices
Maturity Indices
Standards
Core Technologies and Applications (several within each domain)
Detailed tracking in CDS (solution, costs, quality, contextual info, plans to change)
Annual market analysis reports
Solution-specific SIGs
Customer panel wishlists
Adjunct Technologies and Applications (many within each domain)
High-level tracking in CDS or via recurring brief surveys
Simple almanac-type reports

19. MIDAS: Maturity indices
Examines multiple dimensions of progress, not just technical
Enables institutions to determine where they are…and where they aspire to be
Both expert- and data- driven
Research computing
Analytics

20. MIDAS: Deployment indices
Stages of deployment for specific technologies and services
Aggregate to track progress in a domain
Example: Planning and Advising Systems

21. SITAR: Strategic IT Assessment Report
Institutions contribute data by participating in CDS and completing maturity and deployment indices
They specify their benchmarking parameters
Comparison institutions and groups
Strategic priorities
They receive a report with the results, showing strengths, gaps, and providing expert analysis and recommendations
Uses
Self-study
Mediated through a consultant
Used by consortia
Vision: An affordable alternative or supplement to major consulting studies, a service by and for higher education

22. Timeframe Winter 2014 Spring – Summer 2014
Develop a prioritized taxonomy of maturity and deployment indices needed to benchmark higher education IT
Spring – Summer 2014
Design and prototype strategic IT assessment report (SITAR), based on CDS data and templated narrative
Design, implement, and collect data for three new core MIs and DIs that can be generated via an improved MI tool and also used to inform SITAR
Develop a plan for operationalizing SITAR beyond the prototype stage
Develop data management and improvement plans and SITAR report framework enhancement plan for follow-up in Phase II
Create a sustainability plan (business model) for the new services

23. Making the most of ECAR and Related Programs

24. What are you trying to accomplish?
Predict and Plan
Define and Design
Understand, Make the Case
Assess, Plan, Make the Case
Use the Top 10 IT Issues and Technologies in planning sessions
Join an existing working group
Propose a new working group
Suggest ECAR research
Use ECAR research products
Studies help you understand
Powerpoints and infographics help you make the case
Executive briefs will help even more
Complete Core Data
Use the Reporting tool in a self-assessment
Contact peers to learn how they’re doing it
The SITAR project will help even more

25. Thank You to our Sponsor!

26. Questions?
Susan Grajek, Ph.D.