University IT Has a New Shared Services Team

In mid-June, Randy Livingston, Vice President for Business Affairs, announced the creation of the University IT Shared Services unit.  Shared Services provides centralized leadership and more formal coordination for several activities previously performed in various units, including: 

• Communications
• Business Partners
• Service Management
• Vendor Management
• Finance

Bringing together the Communications and Business Partners units makes it easier for us to improve our client communications; centralizing Service Management leadership facilitates implementing consistent systems and process across our units; and widening the scope of Vendor Management and consolidating Finance into Shared Services will drive greater efficiencies in how we manage our financial resources.  

The new Shared Services organization will be led by Sam Steinhardt, who has served as the executive director of Business Services in IT Services for the past nine years.

"Over the years, Sam has worked closely with clients to simplify business operations and to consolidate campus spending," Livingston said. "Recently, Sam led a team of eight leaders from across University IT to better align our three IT organizations. To this new role Sam brings business savvy, strategic perspective, and a dedication to continuous improvement."

Steinhardt will report directly to Livingston, and will join Bill Clebsch, Michael Tran Duff, and Ganesh Karkala as a member of the Office of the CIO. The University IT Finance function will continue to have a secondary reporting relationship to Noel Hirst, Assistant Vice President for Business Affairs Finance and Facilities.