CIT Division

Environmental Scan and SWOT Analysis

November, 2005

Attachment F: Framework for the Development of an Environmental Scan

• Explore both sides of the ledger to gain a complete picture.
• Think macro and micro.
• Use multiple lenses to look at the same information or situation.
• Think beyond felt needs and opportunities

• Task (Clients and/or Customers) Environment.
• Industry (Peers Institutions, State Influence, etc.) Environment.
• Microenvironment.

1. Social
2. Technical / Scientific
3. Economic / Occupational
4. Environmental / Green Issues
5. Political.

Organizational Environment:

1) Mission Vision and Goals:

2) Organizational Structure

3) Faculty and Staff:

4) Other information needed to have a complete scan of your Organizational Environment (to be determined by each Direct Report) Suggestions:

Organizational Relationships:

1) What is your organizational structure and governance system? What are the reporting relationships between staff and senior leaders?

2) What are your KEY customer and stakeholder groups?

• All students
• All faculty
• All staff
  

3) What are your KEY supplier, partner, student, and stakeholder relationships and communication mechanisms?

• IT Newsletter
• Computing Web site
• Listservs
• Workshops
• Task forces

Organizational Challenges:

• Reintegration of CATalyst team [see FY 2007 budget proposal]
• Assumption of bedgetary responsibility for CATalyst hardware and software [see FY 2007 budget proposal]
• Professional development keeping up with changing technology
• Client support ratio insufficient, particularly end-user support, communication, and education
• Coordination with LRG and distributed IT units
  

• We buy better servers???

• EDUCAUSE Core Data
• Green Campus Computing Project
• Technology sections of college rankings
• ???
  

• Equipment replacement fund
• Telephone, network, computer store, and computer repair rates and fees
  

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?

• Technology that earns UVM high ratings in national reports and surveys
• Motivated, service-oriented, knowledgeable, and experienced personnel
  
• Variety of high-quality, reliable systems and services meeting the information, computation, and communication needs of diverse clientele
  
• Network and server infrastructure, robust to the extent budget has permitted
• Member of I2
• Member of active and vital professional associations
  
• Equipment reserve fund permits CIT to respond to rapid changes in user demand, emerging technologies and sudden threats
• Software maintenance fund
• Positive vendor relationships; stable and viable (mostly) vendors
• Early follower policy lets us learn from others' travails, and buy on the falling of price curves
  
• Good relationships with Learning Resources Group and with distributed IT units and personnel
• Generally positive client relationships
• Ability to coordinate services somewhat seamlessly through internal units (CIT, LRG, distributed IT)
• 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
  
• 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?

• Deferred maintanence [see FY 2007 budget proposal]
• Server hosting environments (machine rooms) 
  
• Mann Hall server room geophraphically separates critical back-up functions from Waterman
• Off-campus space currently being evaluated
  
• A business continuity plan not in place and tested (an institutional issue)
  
• Assessment of security exposure needs to be done as a first step in protecting the integrity and appropriate privacy of institutional and affiliate information
• Too much time spent fighting fires and not enough helping students, faculty, and staff use technology productively; our 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
• Location not convenient for many clients; CIT units geographically separated
  
• Inadequate client education and communication increases institutional security exposure and hampers user productivity
• Insufficient resources to investigate, evaluate, and support new technologies; can lead to missed opportunities and inconsistent implementations
• Lacking several key technologies that are expected by our clientele, particularly by students [List the 13 big projects here?]
• Some second-class hardware and software
  
• Trailing comparable institutions when benchmarking classroom networking, portal, help sevices, intrusion detection, funding, ______________

External Assessment:

1) Opportunities. What changes area 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?

• Clients are more facile with technology (at least until it breaks)
• Greater awareness of importance of technology use and proficiency
• 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
  
• Desirable hill-top location for wireless ventures
• The state of the technology art is always improving (things that were hard last year are easy today)
• Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft may present opportunities
• Collaborative predisposition of higher education IT peers benefits UVM through shared experience and no-cost software
  

2) Threats. What changes area 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?

• Increased threats to security and privacy
• Increasing client population
• More demanding regulatory environment: CALEA, HIPPA, DMCA, _______
• Client expectations rise faster than we can add services and support to meet demand
• Vendor pricing, practices, product changes, and acquisitions do not take our needs into account and may limit our options and raise our costs