CIT Division

Environmental Scan and SWOT Analysis

14 November, 2005

Attachment G: Framework for developing a SWOT Analysis

Internal Assessment:

1) Strengths. What are our resources and capabilities that can be used to serve our faculty, staff, students, alumni and public?

1. High ratings in national reports and surveys (Most Wired, Most Unwired, others)
   
2. Motivated, service-oriented, knowledgeable, and experienced personnel; high level of local, institutional knowledge
   
3. Variety of high-quality, reliable systems and services meeting the information, computation, and communication needs of diverse clientele
   
4. Member of I2
5. Member of active and vital professional associations and user groups (e.g., EDUCAUSE, NERCOMP, VT-HEAT, HUEG, Banner users group)
   
6. Responsive budgeting for ongoing hardware and software maintenance
   
7. Positive vendor relationships; stable and viable vendors
8. Early follower policy lets us learn from others' travails, and buy on the falling of price curves
   
9. Good relationships with Learning Resources Group (LRG) and with distributed IT units and personnel
10. Generally positive client relationships
11. Deploying coordinated services that provide a single point of contact; ability to coordinate services through UVM IT units (CIT departments, LRG, distributed IT)
12. Low personnel turnover; competitive salaries
13. Good (but not complete) institutional adherence to technology standards
    
14. On par with comparable institutions when benchmarking ERP, wireless networking
    

2) Weaknesses. What resources and/or capabilities do we lack that hinder our ability to serve our faculty, staff, students, alumni and public?

1. Some University constituents are underserved
2. No institution-wide process for continuous strategic planning and for prioritizing IT investments
   
3. Network and server infrastructure, robust to the extent budget has permitted
4. Shrinking equipment replacement fund
   
• Hampers ability to respond to rapid changes in user demand, emerging technologies and sudden threats
• Deferred maintenance; failure to add or replace servers in order to live within constrained budget [see FY 2007 budget proposal]
5. A business continuity plan not in place and tested (an institutional issue)
   
6. Insufficient investment in proactive activities and client education
• Not enough time for helping students, faculty, and staff use technology productively
  
• Current support ratio of 206 students for each central IT staff position is 67% higher than the Doctorate-granting Institutions’ mean of 123 to 1
• Inadequate client education and communication increases institutional security exposure and hampers user productivity
7. Space allocation does not follow function
• Locations not sensitive to client needs
  
• Geographic separation of CIT units detrimental to intradepartmental activities and teamwork
  
8. Insufficient human and technical resources to investigate, evaluate, and support new technologies; no test labs; can lead to missed opportunities and inconsistent implementations
9. Lacking several key technologies that are expected by our clientele, particularly by students, or that are necessary for reliable and secure operation.
   
• Student portal
• Network infrastructure updates
• Network security
• Electronic storage
• Learning management systems
• System backups
• SIS enhancements
• Digital repositories
• Content management
• Enhanced email, calendar, communication, and collaboration tools
• Business systems continuity plan, implemented and tested
• Server room renovation, Waterman
10. Some second-class hardware and software
    
11. Trailing comparable institutions when benchmarking classroom networking, portal, help services, intrusion detection, and funding
12. Operating under interim leadership while undergoing institutional IT reorganization
13. Portions of network are not up to current standards
14. Wireless network is not ubiquitous
15. Limited role in supporting office productivity and automation
16. Distributed departmental ownership of University computers
    

External Assessment:

1) Opportunities. What changes are occurring in technology, the economy, our customers (faculty, staff, students, alumni and public) politics, laws, ethics and society as a whole that would present an opportunity to us?

1. Clients are more facile with technology (at least until it breaks)
2. Greater awareness of importance of technology use and proficiency
3. Prices usually fall, and quality rises, as technologies and products enter mainstream adoption; UVM often buys at that point.  Examples:
• Wireless networking
• Portal
• Student laptop requirement
• Server and storage fault tolerance
  
4. Desirable hill-top location for wireless ventures
5. The state of the technology art is always improving (things that were hard last year are easy today)
6. Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft, and WebCT's merger with Blackboard, may present opportunities
7. Collaborative predisposition of higher education IT peers benefits UVM through shared experience and no-cost software
8. Services that build, maintain, or enhance relationships with UVM customers and key constituents are generally provided by UVM personnel; services that don't meet those criteria and can be better performed externally are outsourced
9. Consolidation and consistency of services, including reintegration of CATalyst team
10. "Low-hanging" opportunities for automation still exist
11. ERP implementation presents opportunities to improve business processes
12. Collaboration with FAHC
13. New CIO will leverage excitement, energy
    

2) Threats. What changes are occurring in technology, the economy, our customers (faculty, staff, students, alumni and public) politics, laws, ethics and society as a whole that would present threat to us?

1. Potential financial and reputational impact from increased threats to security and privacy (e.g., unplanned disclosures). Assessment of security exposure needs to be done as a first step in protecting the integrity and appropriate privacy of institutional and affiliate information
2. Server hosting environments (machine rooms) 
   
• Service disruptions possible due to inadequate environment in existing space
• Significant delays in critical projects due to inadequate space
• Business continuity failures due to inadequate geographic dispersal of critical services
  
• Mann Hall server room geographically separates critical back-up functions from Waterman
• Off-campus space currently being evaluated
3. Nonprofessionally managed servers and networked devices (both rogue and sanctioned)
4. Potential disruption during CATalyst team reintegration
• Space
• Positions and organizational structure
  
• Equipment
• Skills
• Budget
5. More demanding regulatory environment: PATRIOT Act, CALEA, HIPAA, DMCA, FERPA, SOX, GLB, TEACH Act
   
6. Client expectations rise faster than we can add services and support to meet demand; failure to meet expectations would be detrimental to student recruitment and retention
7. Increasing client population, more buildings, more connections, more types of devices threaten support and service quality; failures in technology or services hurt student retention
8. Dramatically increased expectations for Internet "commodity" bandwidth
   
9. Distributed nature of UVM IT funding and management could overwhelm collaborative spirit among distributed and central (CIT, LRG) units
   
10. Vendor pricing, practices, product changes, and acquisitions do not take our needs into account and may limit our options and raise our costs