For years, IT has been considered by many to be a service provider at best and a cost center at worst. Many university presidents and other executives viewed IT as a necessary function but one with little relation to their institutions' overall mission. That viewpoint is now out of date. With institutions increasingly dependent on technology to enable nearly every aspect of their business, the role of IT is changing. Failing to understand the true value of a strong technology team partnership risks not only the security and resilience of a campus but also the opportunity to transform the campus experience for students, faculty, and staff.
The Challenge
I’ve spent much of my career reinvigorating technology functions at different organizations. One of the most common things I find is a walled-off technology team. Sometimes it’s because IT has tried to wall itself off, burying outsiders in a deluge of processes and procedures that must be followed to the letter, or insisting that the current technology dictates how business processes must work. These are the places where change is an insurmountable barrier, and the most common answer to requests is “no”.
Some, though, are walled off because leadership doesn’t think IT has real value. They think of them as little more than a necessary evil and completely fail to understand how they can contribute to the institution's core business. This leads to a disengaged IT team, resulting in no innovation or transformation.
Both types of places suffer from the same problem: they don’t understand what IT’s real job is.
Enabler of Innovation and Transformation
In healthy, successful institutions, IT is a strategic partner. They must be. Most institutions today depend on technology to enable them 24/7/365. For this to be successful, you need the right team engaged in the right issues.
Leadership
Successful CIOs today need to understand all aspects of the institution and how it operates. They must take the time to understand the institution’s processes and be part of the changes that occur within them. There’s a reason more CEOs in private industry are coming from CIO roles: to be a successful tech leader, you need to be a business leader, too.
This also applies to other leaders on the IT team. They need to think beyond just IT and understand that their real job isn’t that; it’s making their institution successful. Their work in IT is simply the primary way they contribute to and enable that success. Everyone needs to understand that.
Why does it matter?
All this matters because it can make the difference between success and failure. Budgets are tight, expectations are high, and technology touches nearly every institutional priority. Here are a few initiatives I’ve been involved in during my career that created unique value and were IT-delivered, but mission-aligned. What mattered was the IT team understanding the potential institutional implications, rather than just focusing on the technical needs to deliver it.
Found Money: At a regional university, my team discovered they owned a range of unused public IP addresses. This put the IT team in a unique position to generate revenue within the IT organization. We were able to put together an IP leasing program that, upon final implementation, will generate more than $200,000 per year to fund future IT transformation initiatives.
Employee Enablement: At a media firm, we needed to make work-from-home easier, more reliable, and more secure, should another event like COVID occur. The existing infrastructure was a hodgepodge of multiple logins and VPN connections, with significant risks and unreliable connections. To address it, the team worked backward from the business need to the technology, to ensure the tech aligned to the processes, not the other way around. The result was refocusing the hiring strategy on remote workers, which had a direct impact on net revenue and hiring flexibility.
Empowering Transfers: A university I worked with was struggling to attract transfer students because they were required to submit their current transcript and wait for a manual transfer credit evaluation. From a best-practices standpoint, we knew that automated credit evaluations would give applicants a rough estimate of what would transfer, increasing applications and yield. To make this vision a reality, we identified and implemented an AI-powered evaluation tool, configured with the university’s policies. The tool is currently in testing and part of a broader strategic enrollment shift aimed at boosting both revenue and enrollment.
Environmental Commitment: One of our client institutions has made a firm commitment, in partnership with its mission team, to reduce the university's environmental impact, a goal written directly into its strategic plan. Working with them, we found low utilization across many of their printing devices, which meant wasted money on top of the environmental cost. We developed and implemented a print-reduction plan that cut monthly maintenance costs by more than 80% and overall printing volume by 40%, helping the institution meet its sustainability commitment while reducing operating costs.
The Point
These are just a few examples, but they demonstrate how a fully-engaged IT team can act as a real strategic partner. Yes, they can fix broken computers and help you reset your password, but that only scratches the surface of what you should expect. A high-performing IT team can solve real institutional problems, help you prepare for the future, and give you an edge in enabling students, faculty, and staff. IT can be a lot more than a service provider: they can and should be a full strategic partner, and if yours isn’t, it might be time for a change.