1. WHO NEEDS A HELP DESK, ANYWAY? (A Short Progress Report)
Duncan Sutherland
Technology Director and CTO
Vermont Law School
March 13, 2013

2. Vermont Law School…

3. Vermont Law School… VLS Mission Statement:
“To educate students in a diverse community that fosters personal growth and that enables them to attain outstanding professional skills and high ethical values with which to serve as lawyers and environmental and other professionals in an increasingly technological and interdependent global society [emphasis added].”

4. Vermont Law School… A bit about us: Private, independent law school
Located in South Royalton, VT (“SORO”)
Established in 1972; first class in 1973—113 students
Currently 512 students 64 faculty, and 110 staff
ABA (1978), NEASC (1980), AALS (1981)
JD, LLM, MELP, MERL and more coming
On-campus and DL (currently non-JD degrees)
#1 environmental law school (5 years running)
And…

5. Vermont Law School…
Like virtually all law schools, confronting the radical changes taking place in legal education and in the market for lawyers!
Thus, under significant pressure to do more with less!

6. And then there was Irene…

7. And then there was Irene…
Tropical Storm Irene (August 28, 2011)
New Technology Director (September 13, 2011)
“Dancing with Irene”
An opportunity to rebuild our technology infrastructure
An opportunity to rethink how we plan, implement, and support technology post-Irene
And so,

8. Confronting the challenges…
Pre-Irene we had an IT department of about a dozen folks, 8-10 of whom were performing some level of Help Desk functions at any given time
Very long-in-the-tooth technology infrastructure
Totally unmanaged end-user environment
Many under-skilled students, faculty and staff
Historical culture of “How do I make it green…?”
A Help Desk staff that liked to help
A world suddenly turned upside down
Frustrated customers, frustrated IT department

9. A fresh start… New conceptual underpinning for ‘IT’
New organizational architecture
New mission(s)

10. New conceptual underpinning for ‘IT’…
Organizational Learning theory
The detection and correction of error.
—Argyris and Schön (1978)
The way firms build, supplement, and organize knowledge and routines around their activities and within their cultures and adapt and develop organizational efficiency by improving the use of the broad skills of their workforces.
—Dodgson (1993)

11. New conceptual underpinnings for ‘IT’…
But, what kind of an ‘IT’ organization would both encapsulate and enable both Argyris’ and Schön’s and Dodgson’s definitions of organizational learning?

12. New organizational architecture…
Language shapes how we think about the world.
—Benjamin Whorf
The name of the department was changed from ‘Information Technology’ to simply ‘Technology’
The word ‘technology’ refers to the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function [emphasis added].
—Wikipedia

13. New organizational architecture…
The term ‘Help Desk’ was banned!
A help desk is a resource intended to provide the customer or end user with information and support related to a company's or institution's products and services. The purpose of a help desk is usually to troubleshoot problems or provide guidance about products such as computers, electronic equipment, food, apparel, or software [emphasis added].
—Wikipedia

14. New organizational architecture…
Shift the organization’s focus from ‘computers’ to ‘technology’
Shift the organization’s focus from technology-as-thing (i.e., computers) to technology viewed as tools situated in use (i.e., tools inextricably interwoven with business processes and organizational culture)

15. New organizational architecture…
Department reorganized into two groups:
Technology Operations
Technology Competency
Competence (or competency) is the ability of an individual to do a job properly.
—Wikipedia

16. New organizational architecture…

17. New organizational architecture…
So, where’s the Help Desk?

18. New organizational architecture…
Here…
…and here!

19. New mission(s)… Technology department Technology Operations
Provide the technology required to become a learning organization
Technology Operations
Build and manage great tools
Technology Competency
Technology Business Partner’ model, ‘business unit’ focus
Ensure that the organization is competent in the use of the tools required to do their job properly
‘Organizational lead’ with respect to business process reengineering (both technology-enabled and non-technology-enabled)
Collaborate with HR on training and technology-related professional development

20. New mission(s)…
Every ‘problem’ reported (or discovered) is a learning opportunity!
Mantra: Drive ‘Help Desk’ calls to zero!

21. Progress report… Critical ‘enablers’ (all post-Irene):
Standardized on Windows 7 and Office 12 (migrating to Server 2012 and SharePoint 2013 currently; migrating to Windows 8 and Office 13 in FY14)
Totally managed environment
Technology ‘Fit Test’ (fully leverage NERCOMP!)
Overall, the new model appears to be working
‘Help Desk’ calls have dropped dramatically
We remain, however, in a transitional period

22. Progress report… Challenges Dealing with break-fix issues
Change management
Staff changes (both replacement and re-skilling)
Hiring
Budget
Culture change (students, faculty and staff)

23. Progress report… Will we ultimately ‘succeed’?
It depends on how we define ‘succeed’
There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. The innovator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old system and only lukewarm defenders by those who would gain by the new system.
—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, 1515

24. Thank you for attending
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