Campus Enterprise Technology Services

October 14, 2013

In June of this year, Tom Putnam, our CIO, and several individuals key to the IT systems groups in the Office of Information Systems and Technology (OIST) and Administrative Services separated. In discussions with Marc Fisher (Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services) and Pam Lombardo (Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services), it seemed an opportune time to bring in a consultant to examine our IT organizations and make a recommendation about restructuring them and re-aligning the role of the CIO. We asked Gartner to provide that service. Over the past five weeks, Gartner has collected relevant documents from campus, interviewed a large number of senior IT and business staff, and developed a recommended plan for the campus. A steering committee consisting of myself, Marc Fisher, Pam Lombardo, Denise Stephens, Lisa Sedgwick, Elise Meyer, Eric Sonquist, Sam Horowitz and Doug Drury has overseen the process. A copy of the final report will shortly be available on my website at https://evc.ucsb.edu/

The recommendation is to merge OIST and the units in Administrative Services engaged in enterprise systems into a single entity. This entity would be charged with overseeing the implementation and operation of enterprise systems and would be overseen by the CIO. I have been in discussion with the relevant leadership, and have accepted this recommendation.

The new organization will be called Enterprise Technology Services. As shown on the attached organizational chart, it will consist of six units. The office will be responsible for maintenance of the campus network, and for the implementation and technical operation of enterprise level systems such as the financial, payroll and personnel, calendar and e-mail, electronic timekeeping, and eprocurement systems. It will oversee the North Hall Data Center, telecommunications, data warehouse, and identity management. The Chief Information Security Officer, and a new Business Relationship Manager – responsible for interfacing this office to other IT centers on campus – will also report to the CIO in this structure. A business support unit will include a service desk and provide workplace support to organizations that seek it. Ultimately, the campus goal should be to house all of the campus enterprise systems under this umbrella, but for the time being only the systems listed above will live here, and the near term goal will be to make this a quality unit that will be sought after for its services.

Denise Stephens, our University Librarian, has accepted the challenge of taking on the interim CIO position to help launch this new unit and bring it to successful operation as we search for a new permanent CIO. I am very grateful for Denise’s assistance in this matter. As you know, before coming to UCSB Denise was Vice Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer from 2005 to 2010 at Kansas University. I have every confidence that she will help make this transition work.

Implementation will begin immediately.

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