Strategic Plan

Introduction by Associate Vice Chancellor & CIO, Sharyne A. Miller

Information Technology Services strives to anticipate the needs of the university by looking beyond traditional services and systems to provide innovative services and comprehensive support to our campus community. We are committed to providing proactive and informed planning for the needs of students, faculty and staff.

The Information Technology Advisory Council will facilitate the implementation of the plan through communication with campus constituents to identify technology needs, ensure efficient planning and encourage the strategic use of information technology resources. Data governance will support more accurate and timely reporting, which in turn, will help enable more efficient and strategic institutional research and decision-making. The IT community will be better equipped to: support more research, function with greater collaboration, and strengthen the delivery of IT services to students, faculty and staff.

The planning and development process for the Information Technology Services' Strategic Plan was intentionally a collaborative effort. The ideas for how to improve from where we are today to the vision for our future included thoughtful input from across the campus. ITS staff participated in an exercise to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, including analyzing and concatenating the data from these activities to develop the framework for the ITS Strategic Plan 2021.

Our strategic plan is designed around three themes aligned with the broader university strategic plan endorsed by the university community. Our dedication to the promotion of the university's goals will be visible to university stakeholders by our increasing coordination, communication and collaboration of technology initiatives across the university.

University Strategic Priority 1: Attract & Retain
ITS Theme 1: Facilitate Organizational Effectiveness, Efficiency and Innovation

University Strategic Priority 2: Educate, Advance, Research
ITS Theme 2: Enable Innovative Teaching and Learning

University Strategic Priority 3, 4, 5: Enable Place, Organize, Engage, Fund Build
ITS Theme 3: Modernize Information and Business Systems

This plan will serve as a guide to give flight to imagination for the University of North Carolina Wilmington's community, following ever-changing industry standards, leading the way for digital transformation and looking towards next-generation technologies to support the university's goals to drive student success and completion.

Created by: Sharyne A. Miller

Strengths

• Deep Knowledge of Technology and Services
• Commitment and Dedication of ITS Staff
• Information Technology Advisory Council
• TAC Library Presence
• Reliable and Secure Enterprise Solutions
• Fluid Communication within ITS
• Commitment to Professional Development

Weaknesses

• Staffing Available to Work on Projects
• No Formal Project Prioritization Process
• Staffing for Single Points of Failure
• Campus Experiencing Message Overload
• Perception of ITS being Detached from the Learning Process

Opportunities

• Recurring Training for New Faculty, Staff and Student Workers
• Expanding Methods of Communication
• Cloud-first Technologies
• Working more closely with OEL and CTE
• Cultivating trusted Advisor Relationships Across Campus
• Creating Channels for Faculty and Staff to relay IT ideas to ITS

Threats

• Cybersecurity
• Staff Retention
• Running Out-of-Date Software and Hardware
• Lack of Alignment of IT-Related Purchases Across the University

Engagement

Data documenting our engagement with stakeholders demonstrating increased communication, collaboration and knowledge-sharing with ITS serving as a trusted strategic partner.

Alignment

Tracking utilization of IT Governance through the IT Advisory Council for collaboration, alignment and prioritization of technology initiatives for better capacity and capability management.

Meaningful Services

Surveying data collected from instruments developed for students, faculty and staff to assess the delivery of IT services that meet the UNCW community needs and enhance and support innovation and research activities.

Infrastructure

Optimizing use of cloud services and vendor partnerships to provide improved resiliency and availability of critical technology systems and infrastructure.

Information Security

Implementing an effective security program through a principled and measured approach to reduce information security risk while championing a sustainable and effective security culture in the campus community.