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Candace Fleming Reports on a Year of Assessments and Accomplishments at CUIT

22 Jun 06

This commencement period presents an opportune time to take stock of what CUIT has accomplished in this past academic year and what we want to accomplish in the coming year. With my arrival on campus last summer, we began the process of integrating AcIS and AIS into one unified IT organization. We developed teams, built joint processes, and started combining our services.

We actually restructured in February to develop more cohesive strategies, to be more responsive to our customers, to demonstrate clear accountability, and to achieve some synergies. Since then we have implemented better processes—addressing project proposals, plans, and ways to communicate our progress. We have also evaluated our strengths and opportunities, and have a better understanding of our costs, resources, and current service offerings.

Our objectives for the coming year include:
  • Establish, prioritize, and communicate clear goals, timelines, and committed deliverables to our clients—and share our progress on a regular basis
  • Improve the way we manage and respond to client requests, and optimize service level agreements
  • Consider more effective ways of funding IT services

Some notable achievements for students and faculty

During this past year CUIT delivered CYRUS, a new email system that ensures higher reliability, better performance and more storage.

Working with the schools we increased the number of electronic classrooms.

We partnered with Student Services to increase the amount and flexibility of printing quotas for students, and to improve SIS and SSOL system availability for “high-crunch” registration periods.

CUIT teamed with the schools, the Libraries, and the Columbia Center for New Medial Teaching and Learning to double the number of classes that rely on CourseWorks (from 1700 to 3000), and we piloted a new course management technology, Sakai, in a dozen courses.

During the coming year, we will:
  • Finalize plans and complete most of the technical development required to improve identity management using the CU ID cards across campus
  • Develop a strategy for the evolution of course management technology at the University for years to come
  • Assess the needs for the upgrade and expansion of the University’s network infrastructure, and develop a multi-year network investment plan

For faculty and staff

We partnered with the Office of the Executive Vice President of Finance and the Office of the Controller to deliver improved reliability and performance for DARTS (Departmental Advanced Tracking & Reporting System), the major financial reporting tool used across campus.

To ensure HIPPA compliance, we enhanced the Rascal system. We worked with Research Administration and the Office of Projects and Grants to initiate development of InfoEd, a new grants management system with enhanced proposal development and tracking capabilities that will go live this summer.

We collaborated with Human Resources, University Facilities, Housing and Dining, the Office of the Controller, and the Medical Center to plan, find resources for, and initiate projects that will improve human resources administration and the management of University real estate.

CUIT has also assisted the Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Research Administration in planning for the implementation of a clinical trials management system.

Over this next fiscal year, we will:
  • Complete the implementation of the InfoEd grants management system, and improve the matching of funding opportunities with investigators' research interests, as well as streamline electronic proposal submission to Grants.gov, the federal grants web site.
  • Complete implementation of the People @ Columbia system Benefits Administration component, which will automate benefits eligibility determination for 13,000 faculty and staff, enable new employees to self-enroll for their benefits, and allow current employees to change their life event status.
  • Complete implementation of a tenant and institutional real estate management system, Intuit MRI, to improve administration and space management of the University’s residential and commercial properties.
The past year has been a year of learning and self-challenge for us. We have delivered some improved technology initiatives for the University, but we have also invested in strengthening our infrastructure and processes. We are poised to take on increased challenges and to step up to our clients’ increasing requirements. We look forward to your partnership and feedback.

Candace Fleming
Vice President, Columbia University Information Technology