1. Updating the Value Proposition:
Using Services to Define Your IT Organization
Mark Askren – CIO, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Kimberly Harper – Director of Portfolio Management, University of Nebraska – Central Administration

2. Higher Ed IT in Crisis? Experiencing Pressure From Both Sides
Demand for IT services grows, while resources stay the same or decrease (“new normal”)

3. Change or Fade Away… Short Term Challenge is how to:
Further cut already reduced budgets
Continue to produce core mission services and innovation to meet increasing demand
Longer Term Challenge is:
How do we describe ourselves and define our value?
Traditional Approach
New Approach
Project lists with updates
Services offered
Organizational charts
Technology forecasts
Security risks & mitigation strategies
Budget transparency

4. Choosing Change Our Goals
Create a better understanding of our IT organizations
Validate that our priorities are aligned and funding justified
Identify efficiency & collaborative opportunities
Improve strategic planning & decision-making, and invest accordingly
Stay relevant
Identify opportunities for services improvements

5. An Approach: Services Inventory
Scope
Identify all services provided
Identify all assets that support each service
Identify customers who utilize each service
Identify total cost of each service
Methodology
Consultant-led staff interviews
Developed service offering categories, descriptions and characteristics
Developed financial cost model for services

6. An Approach: Services Inventory
Deliverables
CSN
UNL
Data Management & Analytics
, Communication & Collaboration
Hardware & Software Support
Data Management & Analytics
, Communication & Collaboration
Hardware, Hosting & Storage
Internet & Network Connectivity
IT Governance & Service Management
User Access & Security
Internet, Phone & Network Communications
IT Governance & Service Management
User Access & Security
User Training & Community
User Training & Community
Enterprise Information Systems
Printing, Forms & Output Management
Web Development Support
Classroom, Lab & Instructional Resources
Consulting & Project Management
Development, Integration & Support
Infrastructure Hosting
Technology Innovation Support
Technology Sales & Repairs

7. An Approach: Services Inventory
Different Perspective
Cross-functional contributions vs. “Silo” thinking

8. The Key Lessons Learned
Using IT services as the value definition is more effective than the traditional organization structure and major projects view
Traditional IT becomes Service-Oriented
Technology focus
Process focus
“Fire-fighting”
Preventative
Reactive
Proactive
Users
Customers
Centralized, done in-house
Distributed, sourced
Isolated, silos
Integrated, enterprise-wide
“One off”, ad hoc
Repeatable, accountable
Informal processes
Formal best practices
IT internal perspective
Business perspective
Operational specific
Service orientation

9. The Key Lessons Learned
Decisions to continue, discontinue or develop new services have wide-spread implementations
Services inventorying and management is a long-term commitment
Challenges:
Moving from team-focus to service-focus
Resource-facing vs. Customer-facing services
Not getting trapped by what you know
Drawing lines in the sand
Staff buy-in

10. Positive Outcomes Focusing on services… Improves communication
and understanding:
For Executive Leadership…

11. Positive Outcomes For Customers…
Many other IT organizations have created online Service Catalogs:
Examples: Stanford University:
Ohio State University: University of Texas at Austin:

12. Positive Outcomes Focusing on services…
Provides the starting point for measuring our efficiency
Helps establish a framework for collaboration on campus, within the system, and with our peers in the BigTen CIC and beyond

13. Positive Outcomes Focusing on services…
Supports our Strategic Planning & Decision Making
Furthers our understanding of how changes in IT services impact the University (e.g., what functionality is affected, which customers are affected, does it have a global impact or is it focused to a small community)
Enables more accurate and timely analysis of sourcing alternatives
Helps establishes the culture of continual re-evaluation of services (create new, retire existing, combine, co-source, etc.)

14. Going Forward Today’s Requirements for Effective IT Leadership
Explain our value in non-technical terms
Align our resources with strategic differentiators
Take the cost out of core services and infrastructure
Utilize service catalogs & request processes
Implement ongoing customer feedback process
Be effective change agents and risk-positive

15. The Updated Value Equation
Expect intense scrutiny of what we deliver, and how much it costs, compared to peer institutions
Shared services: The era of one (or 20+) full-service IT department on the campus is over
It is critical to be able to define our service requirements and costs
Collaboration is now the key leadership skill, and the value of our service catalogs is how we’ll be judged

16. Contact Information
Mark Askren
Kimberly Harper