Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Going Fast Without Breaking Things: Balancing the “Need for Speed” with Intentional Digital Transformation Strategy
How does your institution measure intention? In the September installment of Tambellini Group’s Top of Mind podcast series, Sharon Pitt, CIO and Vice President of Information Technology at the University of Delaware (UD), joins the conversation to offer listeners a glimpse into the intentions behind UD’s growing digital transformation strategy. Sharon highlights UD’s innovative shared services efforts and the importance of collaboration and communication with stakeholders to reach the epitome of effectiveness.
Hello, and welcome to the September episode of the Tamini group's top of mind podcast. I'm your host, Liz Farrell. As we head into fall 2022, it may seem hard to believe, but it's been two and a half years since the global pandemic ended higher education. As we know it, the narrative of what has transpired over that time is now quite familiar. We know that institutions were forced to rapidly switch gears and change virtually everything about the way they operated as both places of work and learning and whether or not technology was central to their operations and strategy before March, 2020. It certainly has become a focal point since then, by the same token, though, so much has changed drastically colleges and universities have mostly settled into a new normal. This has allowed them to turn back to those longer term technology initiatives that maybe they weren't able to focus on. Well, they were in the more of the triage mode of rapid response to immediate needs. The COVID caused the resources are still strained. We know from our own Taney research that the pace of selections and investments in administrative systems, including finance and human capital management and student systems have picked up considerably at most institutions. These systems are on premise more than two decades old and reaching the end of their life cycle. CIOs and CISOs have been sounding the alarms about the liabilities. These aging systems created long before the pandemic, but it is only now that so many of them have bandwidth in terms of time and hopefully staffing resources along with that essential support they need from presidents and boards to move ahead and modernize as quickly as possible. It's been a bit of an abrupt reversal from what they were used to before March 20, 20, as many are facing so much pressure from leadership to move fast, perhaps a bit more fast than they can or should. That's why we're talking about balancing speed with intentionality today, and I'm so grateful to have Sharon Pitt here to discuss how she and her fellow it leaders can balance these pressures to move ahead quickly on technology upgrades with the equally important need to be intentional and strategic while making these big transformative changes. Sharon serves as CIO and VP of information technology at university of Delaware. Welcome Sharon. Thanks. It's great to be here. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. You bring such a wide breath of experience with over three decades working in higher ed and technology. So for our listeners background, in addition to coming on her fifth year at university of Delaware, Sharon has also served as CIO at Bingson university in New York and deputy CIO at George Mason, U in Virginia, and in various leadership positions in learning technologies at North Carolina state U James Madison, U and Virginia tech. So Sharon, before we jump into this whole E R P selection process, these balancing these conflicting needs and pressures, let's start by touching on some of the ongoing successful it initiatives that are in progress at Delaware. We heard so much about shared services these days. Can you tell us about the service management tool implemented at Delaware?
Speaker 2:Sure. So first, um, service management is the discipline of designing, building deploying and controlling and defined service. So information technology divisions create a service catalog that publishes a portfolio services across a university and service management really ensures that service information is accurate. So service management is focused on ease of use outcomes, data and reports. So service management is really about efficiency and effectiveness. So at university of Delaware, we've invested in team dynamics and at the same time really embrace what I would call a maturity function of information technology and service management. So as a result, we've been able to provide better data within our own systems, in terms of project management, project intake, it governance, security, incidents, trouble tickets, what have you. And for the most part, um, many of the colleges and departments at our university have also adopted this tool. So it's not something where our leadership at the institution says, Hey, we have to do this. Everybody has to do it, but we really focused on the benefits of embracing service management. So we have college, it groups and communication teams and facilities and others that have adopted service management across UD utilizing that tool. So our service management team is very, very busy responding to daily requests for that understood benefit. So one of the hallmarks of being able to have shared services is making sure that it's a good service among people see the benefit of that service. Um, so we have to be able to show that it's valuable. And I think we've done that at UD based on the adoption that we're seeing across the institution.
Speaker 1:It seems like a lot of that adoption, just an organic based on that value that you've all conveyed. Um, beyond the service management tool, you had also told me about how some of Delaware's ongoing technology, proje projects are helping the institution adapt to its changing needs as a workplace. We know that every institution is still figuring out how they can determine which roles can be done remotely, how much they can be done in a hybrid way. And it obviously varies across different roles and higher education environments and institutions. So the key is figuring out what best meets the needs of your workforce. Again, not the easiest thing to do. You had mentioned that a shared culture, a, a culture, excuse me, of shared governance and collaboration have helped Delaware to identify where and how to adapt its best technology tools as the workplace continues to evolve.
Speaker 2:Right? Um, communication and collaboration are so important because we need to convey the tools that we're considering contribute to our shared sense of institutional purpose and provide values to our stakeholders. So, um, for instance, whenever we look at a technology that serves academic or even administrative, uh, needs, we work with a faculty Senate group that looks at computing technologies so that they are aware of the kind of investments that are being made and why we are considering those, uh, an example of a tool that we're looking at to help with, um, uh, workplace and work modes is something that supports hoteling. So at UD, that means we have a defined space that can be booked for a day by a team member working in a hybrid mode. And that individual wants to be on site for a day. So we're trying to invest in a unified hotel service that will be owned by facilities. It will link into, uh, already existing systems that have floor plans. And we want one tool that everyone uses instead of lots and lots of different tools spread across our campuses. So that way we really get a sense of who's doing hotel. What kind of space do they need? When will they need that space? What kind of spaces are we saving across the institution? And that's hard to know unless you have some sort of unified response. So we have to communicate and collaborate with different groups, faculty, and human resources to help them understand the rationale for choosing a tool and the value that it brings. So we need to make sure that everyone understands that they will have a space to work at on any given day. Uh, and it allows for better reporting on data usage. So from a facilities management capability, we can understand how much space we need as an institution overall. Um, we also need to make sure that we're getting feedback, especially from our it professionals embedded in local areas who can let us know if the tools that we're considering don't really meet the needs of the respective groups or the institution as a, as a whole, I'd say another example of this as a universal communications. I, I like to call it phone to the cloud where almost any device can emulate a university of Delaware phone number, allowing our faculty and staff to work from anywhere yet present themselves as calling from a university of Delaware location.
Speaker 1:Those are some great examples that I know I've heard in various permutations. A lot of institutions you're considering, but as you had said in both of the examples, um, the, the common theme I see is the, uh, their effectiveness hinges on that stakeholder engagement and communication, and behind the, getting the, to the tools that work and implementing them and seeing them reach critical, massive usage. There's that time that you have to take, to identify the needs, gather input and feedback across all these various silos and build consensus. So, which brings us to another major effort underway at university of Delaware, uh, the pro the process of choosing a modern E R P system. And as we mentioned earlier, we know these systems are so old. I know that when we spoke previously, you had said, it's crazy to think how old most of them are<laugh>. And so this is a perfect example where we have this tension where there's this urgency on the other hand, on one hand where you have the pressure to go full speed ahead, hurry up, get it done. It should have been done yesterday with this very real need to be intentional and strategic in who you choose to help you implement it, which tool you or platform you choose. And we know when it comes to E R P selection, this can take years. So can you level set for us, give us a sense of where you're at at the university of Delaware in, in this system choice selection and how long you've been working on it.
Speaker 2:Right. So investing in a new E R P for the university of Delaware is one of the defined objectives of our institutional information technology, strategic plan. So I, the, the beginnings of this was in the development of our it strategic plan. We started our planning effort two years ago for E R P transition, but we're behind in our progress as a direct result of COVID. Uh, we made enormous progress in our objectives related to online learning, because that's what COVID pressure does to do, but the pandemic also stopped us in our track, uh, on E R P planning. Um, lately we've been able to resume working on E R P planning and understand how much that's going to cost us to transition to a modern E R P, which we need to do. And we have released and invited RFP to choose a transition partner who will help us select our future E R P provider. Um, we're fairly unique in choosing our transition partner. First, we're helping to find a transition partner who has helped institutions utilize multiple E R P providers. Not because we want multiple E R P providers. We, we want someone who has expertise dealing with different E R P providers so that we can tap into the best knowledge possible to determine early on what's going to be right for the environment at the university of Delaware. Um, certainly our own it team has successfully completed major upgrades, but an E R P transition is a massive, massive effort. So we want to bring as much expertise in that will ensure that we are as effective and successful as we can possibly be.
Speaker 1:Just to emphasize that point for our listeners. This is all happening before you've even started the process of selecting a system<laugh>, um, let alone implementing it. Can you explain the level of stakeholder engagement you've had thus far in building that RFP,
Speaker 2:Right? Yes. We engage stakeholders from across the university, into our planning discussions, because moving from our on premise capability with PeopleSoft to a cloud capability means that we're inherently changing our infrastructure, but also the way that we operate. So each, each major E R P capability, whether that's human capital finance, student information system impacts the other major capabilities. And of course there, you know, other sub capabilities, um, you know, we look at research effort, we look at student financials, so many, uh, stakeholders that are involved in this process. So with a new E R P, we have to break down silos and encourage the flow of data across systems so that the university as a whole can make effective decisions based on trusted and complete data. So overall the finance and human capital systems that we choose have to work with the student information system that we choose later in the transition process. So the tool that we choose for one will impact the other, and everyone needs to understand that and be thoughtful about that. So at university E R P is not just about the core capability, it's really an ecosystem. Uh, the E R P deeply links with many systems used by various departments for various services. We literally have hundreds of systems that connect into our E R P. Uh, I don't think we reached thousand, but it's definitely hundreds. So the new cloud environment may allow us to sunset some of the tools that the university has inve invested in because PeopleSoft didn't provide a needed capability and departments had to go outside of the E R P to acquire a needed and desired service. So the decision about what E R P provider we're going to acquire is something that demands stakeholder engagement from the start of the process. Um, certainly it can make its best effort in understanding what it is that's needed, but working with the subject matter experts in those areas, help us to define that RFP much more thoroughly, much more clearly, uh, to ensure that we'll get the right transition partner.
Speaker 1:It can be a bit of a, a misnumber to think of these as E R P or financing human capital management systems. Because I think in the past, maybe the assumption was, well, that's just like HR stuff. I mean, we've got such a, a massive volume of people working in different capacities at an institution that when it really hits home, when you mention, you know, there may not be thousands, but there are definitely hundreds of different individual apps, tools, dependencies that are going to have to all be looked at collectively and individually for this to work.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So what have you gained thus far by taking the time and effort to involve all these groups in the process? And I think before we get to that, can you explain a bit of the nuts and bolts of, of how you get all their feedback? I think you had mentioned something about a certain Google doc, or just the amount of time it takes to schedule a meeting with all of these people.
Speaker 2:<laugh> right. So, um, we started out with a Google document that where, where we had put together a draft RFP to articulate everything as it professionals that we felt like we thought needed to be in the RFP. But then we scheduled, uh, zoom meetings with the different groups. We put together a Google document. We had conversations about what it is that we were trying to achieve. We, we went back and reminded all of those stakeholders about the discussions that we'd had for planning. And then we asked them to really help us provide more information within the RFP, uh, to ensure that we were being very thorough and very clear. So I think once we'd gotten to that almost final draft, it took us about two to three weeks, uh, to have those conversations, uh, make that Google document available to everyone, take all of that feedback and make sure that it was an appropriate university of Delaware, uh, RFP format, and then a are able to go out more effectively to our potential transition partners with this is what we really need at the university of Delaware.
Speaker 1:And, and it seems like that's one of the most clear and tangible benefits of this. So you had said that the more information our partners have, the more effective they're going to be in deploying these, these tools. Right.
Speaker 2:Um,
Speaker 1:Can you talk about some of the, like, what does that give you longer term in terms of budget and timing and into?
Speaker 2:So, uh, from, from that perspective, we're trying to be very thoughtful and very careful about how we plan, because we want to avoid cost overruns, uh, whether that's how much money we spend or how much staff time we take to do this. Uh, I, you hear horror stories about, um, E R P transitions that have gone poorly the amount of money that keeps getting thrown into them because you don't, uh, plan as thoroughly as you need to plan. So having the stakeholders in that process, I think really, really helps and gets people mentally prepared for what it is that we need, uh, to do a, as I mentioned before, it's a, it's a massive project management process with many different voices and many different projects within, uh, the massive project that are all happening simultaneously. So ensuring that we're meeting the needs of all our constituencies is really critical to the success of, of the project staying on time and under budget as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you talked about hearing those horror stories. I've definitely heard some of those as well, and it's just, it seems even more intimidating because once you've gone so far down the road with one of these providers, it's not like you can say, you know, it's not like, oh, I don't like my iPhone, so I'm going to go get an Android. I mean, there there's so many,
Speaker 2:I say we we've been very thoughtful in our contract of how we would exit if we needed to. I mean, you have to be thoughtful about all aspects of it.
Speaker 1:Be interesting. That is not something I've heard discussed before, but, um, it's, it's great to, to have that contingency plan built in so that you do have that exit strategy. Wow. Um, when you describe the rationale for taking this time to engage stakeholders, it definitely makes sense. Um, I think to anyone who's listening to this or has been in your shoes or familiar with the, the trials and tribulations involved in any sort of digital transformation effort. Um, but do you think other leaders understand that we, we know they all understand, oh, this is needed now and everything you all said years ago about the liabilities that was, that were created by not having these things. They've got the message on this now, but you know, a lot of them, as we mentioned, want to go really fast. Like what, what do you think RIT large is the, is the experience and in terms of balancing those tensions,
Speaker 2:You know, and, and thinking about folks who might be, um, listening to the, the podcast, I really believe that my it colleagues across higher education understand the complexity of undertaking any E R P transition. I also know that other CIOs like me face serious challenges in terms of how they successfully navigate those complexities, as well as what they can realistically accomplish because of limitations on budget constraint or staffing levels. So we all know that those complexities have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Um, many institutions have not yet recovered from a budget perspective and they lost staff because of reductions in force or they're now in, uh, competition externally to rebuild their staff levels. So while I firmly believe that most CIOs get this, I don't know that all leadership and higher education understands the challenges or even the amount of cultural change that these transitions require, whether that's mature data governance or the need to truly think about transformation of services, which requires that deep partnership, uh, with the stakeholders to ensure that we're addressing that need.
Speaker 1:You had mentioned that so many of these changes really have nothing to do with technology. Um, but with the difference business groups across an institution being prepared, as you said for this, it's sort of like, um, you've gotta put them through this high altitude training of, um, acclimatizing to what's coming down the road. Um, and it's so crucial that as you mentioned, that they've gotta be intentional with the data and data governance. Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Speaker 2:So I, I will say that I think the most forward thinking of institutional leaders understand the importance of good data, as well as the need to establish data governance, policies and practices. Um, I, I laugh because our, our director of institutional research, uh, here at UD will sometimes say that the best data point is an empty data field because he knows it's accurate. And so, you know, understanding the importance of, of data accuracy and input is really critical to the, the longer term capability of creating reports. Um, so a lot of the necessary work that we've done in this realm to ensure that we're being thoughtful in how we develop these frameworks to ensure that we are accurate in the input and provision of data. So what we want at the end of this process is to have as much data immediately available to us, uh, in reporting that we currently receive and reporting that we don't currently receive to guide our institutional decisions. Uh, and, and we need to be nimble and agile in that as an institution. So everyone has to understand the critical importance of data to institutional operations, how data flows, where they might need to give up some control. And this requires collaboration at levels that we haven't necessarily required or needed before. So if we don't take the time to build effective data governance and establish consistent data collection and reporting across the institution, we run the risk of going through this major transition process, spending a whole lot of money, and then ending up in a situation where everyone may still have untrusted and different data and utilize shadow systems to get what they feel like they need to be effective. That is not where we want to be.
Speaker 1:Especially after spending millions of dollars and years, you don't wanna end up in the same place you started. And you always hear that, um, you know, demographic clip, particularly where one department has a projection of how many students are going to be enrolled in the next year and another, because they're counting it differently, has another one. When you, when you need that data at your fingertips and you need to be able to respond quickly to it, develop contingency models and everything, you, you can't have that, that inconsistency left. And, you know, getting back to your point, it really has little to do with the technology because technology is only as good as its inputs. Um, so I mean, there's so much about the challenges that lie ahead on this. You've mentioned the, um, you know, the skill shortage that we know so many institutions are dealing with. We even know whether you're talking about an inflammation, excuse me, an implementation partner, or a vendor who provides these services. Um, they're probably TA uh, facing staffing shortages as well to serve their, their client base. Um, I know that we've seen that particularly when it comes to programmers or, or people who specifically understand higher education and the technology that's, those are the unicorns that are hard to find in the best of times, let alone now. So it seems like Delaware and under your leadership as CIO has been very intentional in taking this measured twice, cut once approach to ensure that you're going to get your E R P selection. Right. Um, but you've been very candid to you. Don't have all the answers. It's still let let's wait and see what happens. Um, in addition to the ongoing skills shortages, there's, there's that problem, you know, not all leader necessarily, right? The enormity of what's involved, and that can create a lot of pressure where there isn't the institutional support for people to not be as intentional and end up in those situations that we see so often where they've spent all this money for not, or to not get the result that they were investing in getting. Um, it seems like with the volume of work, the resources, the coordination, and just the, the volume of change that lies ahead in the coming years, that it's a real uphill battle. So how do you deal with that? Like, what do you recommend as, as an approach that, that keeps you sane and<laugh> through all this, because you seem to have such a good attitude about it.<laugh> overall, which I think is hard to do in the current environment.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks. Um, you know, I'll have to say if, if you look the, at the entirety of what it is that you need to accomplish, and this, this wall that you have to break through to get to the other side, it it's just too much. You can't deal with it from that perspective on a daily basis, you really have to approach it from a project management perspective. You have to break at the challenges into small pieces and ensure that you're making progress. It's just a giant big puzzle. Um, this is a bit different from the conventional wisdom we're given as strategic leaders. We're, we're told all the time to stay focused on the goal to lift of your chin, always think of the end game, but to really figure out how it is that you get through that ma to get to the end goal, you have to think about the effort and fragments to ensure that you're making consistent and incremental progress. Uh, it, it, it's, it's the turtle and the hair, right? The, the turtle ultimately wants the race because the turtle takes its time to get there. Maybe it's tortoise. So sorry if I'm getting my, my, um, uh, nursery rhymes and fables and incorrect, uh, and to, to stay with the, um, the, the hair analogy. If you go down a rabbit hole and start looking at all the challenges, you'll never make progress, you'll just saw. So you have to figure out your path through it to understand that you come out at the end with a more effective environment that you have today. And you, you just have to take it step by step and try not to be too overwhelmed from day to day. And as a leader, you sometimes have to remind your team about that as, as well, because you, you just can become very overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:Yes. It can be overwhelming for others as well. Not even just when you're overseeing all of it. Um, it is important to not only have that attitude yourself, as you pointed out, but making the distinction of reminding others of it, because when you have those good stuff, they often take it on as their own responsibility to do things, and they can't hold themselves to standards that no one can meet.<laugh>. So, um, you've outlined this very zen-like approach where you've got to respect the need for urgency while also preserving the importance of taking that time to be intentional. And, you know, that need, you've gotta look at the big picture, but break it down into chunks. I think that's great advice overall on how to deal with any of these large scale digital transformations to, to keep that ultimate goal in mind, but not think that it's just so far off, that it's never going to be attainable. Um, so I really appreciate you Sharon, for taking the time today to share your insights with me and our listeners. And I hope you have learned, I hope others rather have learned as much from your experience as I have in our conversation. Well, thanks so much for having me, And that concludes this month's TA group top of mind podcast. Don't forget to check out our other podcast and public resources through our blog Tamini group.com.