IT Director Forum
Overview
The IT Director Forum was established as a strategic response to the unique IT landscape of ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ·, an R1 institution with a complex array of IT needs. Recognizing the necessity for both foundational and specialized IT services, the forum serves as a nexus for IT Directors to collaborate and ensure that our IT infrastructure is not only robust and secure but also agile and responsive to the evolving demands of our campus. The IT Director Forum is a commitment to a CU-first approach, where the collective expertise of our members drives the delivery of exceptional IT resources and services.Ìý
Scope
Spanning critical service areas, the IT Director Forum is integral to the university’s IT framework and includes eight broad service areas.
| Athletics | Athletics administration, recruiting, procurement, and ticketing systems. NIL systems. |
| Auxiliary Systems | Support for auxiliary or ancillary campus systems, activities, and operation. Might include legal management, childcare, mail services, recreation services, art collections, etc. |
| Business Capability and Process Automation | Practices, frameworks, and technologies that automate, improve efficiencies, and measure the effectiveness of business processes. Includes IT service management; ticket management; operations, business, sales, and marketing management platforms; document and signature management services; customer relationship management; job scheduling; and workflow management. |
| Facilities Management | Support of room and facility systems, including event management (room management, hotel, concierge, seating, conference registration, etc.), mapping, building security, safety and risk management, dining systems, point of sale, transportation, laundry, and parking systems. |
| Medical and Health Systems | Systems and technologies in support of clinical processes, including health record management, pharmaceutical data, medical appointment scheduling, and residency placements. |
| Data, Reporting, and Analytics | Business intelligence platforms, data warehouses, dashboards, analytics tools, transactional reporting, operational data stores, and data governance when offered as a service. |
| Conferencing and Telephones | Telephony, including voice/VoIP, teleconferencing, and web conferencing hosted either in cloud or on-premises. |
| Email and Collaboration Services | Electronic message, information sharing, productivity, and integrated collaboration suites used to facilitate interactions between individuals and work groups as they create, share, and exchange information. Includes services such as email, calendaring, productivity suites, file sharing, instant messaging tools, and web-based collaborative platforms used strictly for collaboration. |
| Mass Communications and Emergency Notifications | One-way communications and emergency communications to the entire campus or other defined groups. Includes campus alert systems, broadcast email and text messaging, electronic newsletter distribution, enterprise mailing list management, and digital signage. |
| Media and A/V | Broadcasting, live streaming, video recording and media production. This area includes audiovisual-related event support. |
| Web Services | Content management systems, portals, web hosting, web analytics, user experience design, and URL management. Also includes website and mobile application development. |
| Desktop and Mobile Device Support | Support for all types of end-point devices, including laptops, desktops, mobile devices, and related peripherals that are not in the printing service. These devices might be personally or institutionally owned (including loaner equipment) and might be part of a shared pool or a computer lab. Includes support for the associated operating system, hardware, and systems that provide enterprise management of computing devices. |
| Hardware Lifecycle Services | Purchasing consultation, hardware procurement, device refresh, leasing, and technology recycling. |
| Printing and Related Services | Technology associated with printers and copiers, such as copy, scan, fax, and print. Includes supporting technologies such as copy centers, print quota systems, 3D printing, and other replicating technologies. |
| Software and Applications Distribution | Distribution, installation, and troubleshooting of software and licenses via media, online methods, and license servers. Includes both cloud-based and desktop software. |
| Identity and Access Management | Identity and access management, including accounts, authentication, access, and role-based provisioning at the enterprise level. |
| Secure Computing | Offerings that provide a secure computing environment for end users. Includes network security, system security, application security, and threat monitoring and management. |
| Security Incident Response and Investigation | Offerings that respond to, remediate, and seek to prevent security incidents and vulnerabilities. |
| Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery | Business continuity consulting and planning, as well as disaster recovery planning, including disaster recovery exercises and execution. |
| Data Center Services | Strategy, planning, architecture, and operation of physical and virtual data centers, including on-premises, remote, and cloud-based data centers. |
| Database Management | Hosting and administration of databases, physical and virtual. |
| Integration Services | Consultation and integration services, when offered as a consolidated service. |
| Monitoring and Alert Management | Monitoring of IT services, including the underpinning technologies. |
| Network and Connectivity Management | The architecture, installation, and operation of infrastructure items required to offer network connectivity, such as network cabling, routers, and firewalls. Includes connecting devices (including Internet of Things devices) to the network, network access management, securing access to networks, and appropriate authentication (e.g., network registration systems, VPN, and NAC). |
| Server and Storage Management | Provisioning, hosting, and administration of physical and virtual servers and related storage. Includes the maintenance and provisioning of core storage capabilities such as server storage and database backups. |
| Continuous Improvement and Innovation | Consulting unrelated to a specific technology service, such as business process streamlining, business relationship management, and business analysis. |
| Digital Accessibility | Assessing or enabling accessibility of academic software, enterprise applications, or electronic/digital resources. Might include accessibility reviews, defining standards, analysis, or end-user training/awareness. |
| IT Communications and Documentation | Development and delivery of IT communications related to delivery of IT services. Might include communications related to system changes, service offerings, or service outages (planned or unplanned). Functionally, might include maintenance of support documentation and/or the service catalog. |
| IT Service Delivery and Support | Includes design and maintenance of the capabilities, tools, and service points needed to deliver IT services or provide end-user support. Includes service desks, call centers, and online support delivery. Might include concierge support or special event service delivery. |
| IT Strategy, Governance, and Enterprise Architecture | Enterprise-level strategy and planning. |
| Portfolio and Project Management | Project portfolio management and related project management services. |
| Training and Outreach | Developing, delivering, or coordinating end-user technology training for applications and systems. Functionally, might include organizational change management and/or development and delivery of digital literacy campaigns. |
| Lab Management Systems | Recording and tracking lab experiments, equipment, and specimens. |
| Research-Specific Computing and Applications | Computing and storage resources that support research that uses specialized or highly intensive computation, storage, bandwidth, or graphics. Includes advanced or specialized applications, such as plotting, visualization, modeling, rendering, animation, graphics programming, and image manipulation. |
| Research Data Services | Support of the data life cycle, including data creation; discovery and collection; analysis and visualization; storage, backup, and transfer; and research data policy compliance. |
| Research Software | Software package management, research software development, research software optimization or troubleshooting, workflow engineering, containers and cloud computing, securing access to software, and software associated with physical specimens. |
| Academic Technology and Support | Ensuring that physical classrooms, specialized learning environments, and virtual learning environments (e.g., immersive learning, augmented reality) are suitably equipped and functional to meet the needs of the education experience. |
| Instructional Technology | Providing service management for teaching and learning technologies and ensuring that faculty and other course creators have the knowledge and assistance needed to use these technologies. |
| Lecture Capture | Recording, storing, editing, and publishing lectures. |
| Polling and Surveys | Polling and survey offerings used to solicit feedback from a group of individuals for academic or business purposes. Includes application-based, online, and device-specific polling or survey systems. |
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Charge
The IT Director Forum is charged with two primary functions:
- Making operational decisions within the scope of the forum, which represents a significant portion of the IT infrastructure on the Boulder campus.
- Operates within the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· IT Governance Model as one of the cross-campus groups and therefore is informed and consulted by one of the six IT Enterprise Governance committees on projects and initiatives. Also, as part of the shared governance model, work with and provides recommendations to other IT committees and initiatives including those from OIT and other cross-campus groups.
Each IT Director has explicit support from their UELT (University Executive Leadership Team) upline to participate.
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Success
The IT Director Forum measures success through:
- Aligning IT initiatives with campus strategic goals
- Enhancing the value of IT services and user satisfaction
- Strengthening campus IT security and risk exposure
- Ensure communication and collaboration between central IT (OIT) and distributed IT
- Increase in overall campus IT operational resilience
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Members
- Alan Fasick – Infrastructure & Sustainability
- David Kohnke – Leeds School of Business
- Grant Matheny – Institute of Behavioral Science
- Ian Lenehan - Athletics
- Orrie Gartner – Office of Information Technology
- Nate Campbell - CIRES
- Matthew Hynes-Grace – BioFrontiers Institute
- Patrick Mulcrone – Integrated Teaching & Learning Program (CEAS)
- Scott Griffith – Student Affairs
- Steve Silva – College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI)
- Tom Klenow – Colorado Law
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Membership
Members of the IT Director Forum are appointed by the campus CIO with support from the head of unit for the IT Director and approval from their University Executive Leadership Team (UELT) member upline.
Membership requires overseeing significant IT Infrastructure and two or more the service areas listed in the Scope section above.
Contact
If you have questions about the IT Director Forum, contactÌýOrrie Gartner fromÌýthe Office of Information Technology.