IT Services Response to Budget Reduction

Debra Allison
Interim Vice President for Information Technology

Like other divisions, IT Services has been faced with hard decisions this year. IT Services was asked to cut $2,315,390 (a budget reduction of about 11%) as part of Miami’s permanent budget reduction. Additionally, my appointment as long-term Interim Vice President, coupled with several changes in the IT Leadership Team and the budget reductions, offered an opportunity to reexamine the organizational structure of IT Services.

We addressed the budget reductions in a strategic way: assessing our core strengths as well as those services and functions that are less central to Miami’s strategic goals. Throughout our process we recognized that the budget situation encompasses both challenges and opportunities. We looked carefully at how we can provide excellent service to Miami’s students, faculty and staff while being both quality and cost conscious. We realized that this is not just about making cuts to the budget. We also considered where investments are needed for the future. Above all, our focus must remain on student success.

To address the organizational structure, I worked with a team of three higher education IT professionals in a very targeted external review of the IT Services division. That process wrapped up in January and the final report recommended a new high-level organizational framework and identified key goals for our organizational realignment. These include development of a more agile organization and improved lateral communication among our units. We received support for our proposal from the President, Provost and other members of the President’s Executive Council, as well as the IT Strategic Advisory Council and selected faculty.  

Since receiving the report of the external review team, I have been working with the leadership team and the first line managers to identify the “building blocks” for our new organization – those functions that we see as critical for us to provide to the University community and the processes we need for optimal service delivery. We’ll identify the key roles required to support those processes and functions. As a final step, we’ll develop the organization chart to reflect reporting relationships. We expect to have more information to announce in May.