IT Optimization

IT Optimization is a project with a simple, but transformative purpose: address outstanding needs for new capabilities at UofSC by uniting IT efforts that are currently dispersed throughout the Columbia campus.

It was approved by the Board of Trustees in June 2020 and involves the reorganization of IT across the Columbia campus, including the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), IT teams embedded in academic units, and IT teams embedded in support and auxiliary units. As a result, IT teams on the Columbia campus will report to the VP of Information Technology/CIO at the conclusion of IT Optimization. The scope of this transformation does not include USC Aiken, Beaufort, or Upstate at this time.

IT Optimization is not about budget savings, and will not reduce staff. Instead, the effort will allow the university to provide new IT capabilities through reorganization.

Background

In 2016, the Provost commissioned Accenture to produce an assessment of the university’s IT capabilities. Among its findings, Accenture identified a wider distribution of IT organizations at UofSC compared to industry averages, with the majority of IT effort expended on end-user support, application development, and infrastructure support. This distribution of effort resulted in inefficiencies, and a lack of ability to provide novel IT capabilities. Accenture recommended reevaluating the university’s IT service model.

IT leaders in academic, support and auxiliary units, as well as those in DoIT, have worked together to formulate plans for IT Optimization. Together, they documented a comprehensive list of all IT services on the Columbia campus, gathered insight into IT Position Descriptions across the system and collected records that describe both personnel and non-personnel related IT investments.

IT Optimization isn’t taking place in order to consolidate all technology efforts under the DoIT. As a matter of fact, DoIT will undergo significant changes and modifications as well. As IT capabilities are incorporated, a new organization will be formed – UofSC IT. UofSC IT will be created to support the entire Columbia campus.

This page will be updated as the initiative progresses. Learn about the goals of IT Optimization. 

 

First Partnership - College of Arts and Sciences

The DoIT and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) are currently working together in the first IT Optimization partnership. As of January 2021, many hours of investigation, interviews, and collaborative decisions have taken place between employees working in IT, business operations, human resources and other areas in both CAS and DoIT. Together, CAS and DoIT have:

• Collected financial data describing both human resources and IT investments in CAS.
• Identified unnecessary overlaps of investments and efforts.
• Validated position descriptions and determined if they best align to systemwide IT needs or those that are specific to CAS.
• Identified CAS's non-staff IT investments, such as technology platforms and third-party services. 

Information on the units that will follow CAS in IT Optimization will be available soon. Check this site in the future for more information. If you have questions about the upcoming transition of CAS IT and DoIT staff into UofSC IT, please review the list of frequently asked questions.