Introducing University IT and the OCIO

Welcome to the first edition of the University IT newsletter. I suspect the first question for many of you may be, "What is University IT?"
 
In February of this year, I announced a redistribution of some services provided by the three Business Affairs IT units: Administrative Systems (AS), Information Security Office (ISO), and IT Services. My goal is to increase the effectiveness of the services we deliver on behalf of the University, particularly by improving client satisfaction, delivering services more efficiently, and mitigating enterprise risks. Over the past several months, we have made much progress.
 
With this underlying desire to serve Stanford at our collective best, we are introducing University IT.  The three Business Affairs IT units will aim to present a "single face" to our clients so that we can simplify the way you can learn about, locate, obtain, and use our services. So what does that mean to you and those you support? To start, it means:

• a consolidated, central-IT service catalog — uit.stanford.edu gives you the ability to search for services across all three Business Affairs IT units via a single website.  You no longer need to know whether a service is delivered by AS, ISO, or IT Services. This site will get you to the right place the first time. We plan to continue to enhance the site to centralize more IT service related information.
• expanded business partners support — our business partners will extend their reach across University IT to support the academic and business strategies of Stanford’s schools and business organizations.  With this extended support, the business partners will strive to accelerate our clients' longer-term objectives by looking for opportunities to facilitate and leverage services and partnerships that provide value to the University.
• broader support from the Stanford IT Service Desk — for clients using central service desk support, whether through HelpSU or our (72)5-HELP phone line, we are working to continuously grow the skills of our staff and the breadth of support they provide. We expect this to increase our ability to provide first-call resolution as we continuously improve and add services. As always, if the request requires more in-depth assistance, we will get you to staff in the right unit as quickly as possible.
• better communications — through collaborative communications efforts (including this newsletter) and expanded efforts of our business partners, we expect to improve at filling communication gaps and at making you more aware of our initiatives.

OCIO Leadership (l-r):
Michael Tran Duff, Ganesh Karkala, Bill Clebsch, Randy Livingston

Additionally, I have established the Office of the CIO (OCIO). The OCIO is comprised of me, Bill Clebsch (Associate Vice President for IT Services), Michael Tran Duff (Assistant Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer), and Ganesh Karkala (Associate Vice President for Administrative Systems). Acting in unison, this team leads University IT and will:

• share a unified vision and strategy,
• articulate an integrated and comprehensive strategic plan,
• focus on common tools and technologies, and
• deliver clearly defined and closely coordinated products and services.

Although the three units have long worked together on the Business Affairs vision and initiatives, the OCIO represents an unprecedented level of collaboration in the specific area of IT.  This newly formed office will substantially improve University IT's ability to meet Stanford's central IT needs and support the goals of distributed IT units.
 
University IT and the OCIO are works in progress, so we value and encourage your input about how we can continue to improve. You can email uit-feedback@lists.stanford.edu any time with input and it will be directed to the person who can best address it.​

Thanks,

Randy Livingston
Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer