Last year ITS returned to previous (pre-pandemic) practice for managing IT-related projects on campus. If you have a project that requires ITS support of any kind, please submit it using the form below, whether you believe you already have the funding or not.
Why do we have this process?
While we can do just about ANYTHING… we cannot do EVERYTHING. Being careful stewards of College resources, both human and financial, as a community we need to prioritize initiatives that draw upon the same limited pool of support. We want to be sure that initiatives that do move forward are supported as a campus priority and that we are able to invest the necessary time and money to assure their success.
What happens after I submit something?
If we have any initial questions to help clarify your request, we will be in touch. Apart from that, we will review requests with our various governance bodies to seek their input on priorities, assure funding sources are adequate, that appropriate approvals are in place and then determine what might move forward in the next 12-18 months, what might be deferred or set aside for later consideration/resubmission or in some cases removed from consideration. We anticipate completing that process by early 2025. You will be kept informed throughout the process.
What kinds of things should be submitted?
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If you are considering a software deployment - be that a new project or a project to replace or extend the capabilities of a current campus system.
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Most certainly if your project requires connection to campus authentication systems (single sign-on), a data feed from Banner or another campus system or will store College data of any kind.
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If you are seeking a technology installation in a classroom or meeting space that currently does not have an installation or that you believe should be updated ahead of our typical campus refresh cycle or have additional technology deployed, you should submit that as well. Card access installation requests would fall in this category as well.
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If you generally have an unmet technology need, you should consider submitting it.
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS OCTOBER 15.
Frequently asked questions
What if I’m not sure whether I should submit now or wait? Or, what should I do before making a submission? What are some of the steps of an ideal software evaluation project or technology installation request?
Involve ITS early
We really appreciate the opportunity to partner with you early in your assessment. It helps us to understand your unmet need, what might not be working with a current solution in play, what vendors might be most appropriate and what sort of integration requirements there may be.
Consider getting a green light (or at least a yellow light) from your senior officer before putting the considerable staff time into the required evaluation steps.
For technology installation requests -
Connect with John Coccia, Associate Vice President & Director of Technology Support Services in ITS, who can engage College-preferred vendors to provide estimates for the project. He can also advise on whether the request is likely to be covered already as part of our regular technology refresh cycle and would not need to be submitted.
For software and application-related requests–
In partnership with ITS, conduct one or more product reviews
There are often multiple vendors in any given space and it can be a good idea to look at several to get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of various offerings. You can also learn a lot about what effort and costs may be involved when you compare and contrast. As the field might narrow, there are often additional rounds of demos focused on more specific areas of a given application, to include a ‘technical’ session focused on questions from ITS. It can take a lot of time to gather all the necessary stakeholders, schedule and participate in all the demos. You do not have to complete this work prior to making a submission, since the form does accommodate an ‘evaluation,’ but this is work that can be helpful for your planning.
Integration requirements
Even if you think you’ve found your perfect solution and it lives in the cloud and a vendor suggests it will require little or no ‘IT time’ to support or implement, typically there is a desire for automated data exchange with one or more other campus systems as well as a desire to use the College’s single-sign on solutions to authenticate users. (for security reasons this is generally an institutional requirement for any campus system that is used by more than just a couple of campus employees) If these items aren’t vetted at the beginning, it often means circling back and starting again and usually requires involving numerous IT staff to help assist. It’s important to have a good understanding of these elements during the evaluation phase.
Project timeline planning
Limited resources (human and financial) mean often that there will be some wait time before any project you might want to undertake can begin. This can also be even longer if there are only one or two windows when an implementation might have to happen. For example, even with a year of lead time, if several other projects are already committed to next year’s July 1st go-live window, yours may need to wait another cycle even if you have the funding and approval.
Security Review
All software applications the College is considering licensing requires a formal security review that includes getting the proposed vendor to complete an industry-standard questionnaire. Their answers are reviewed by our IT Information Security Team. This is required BEFORE any contracts are signed. ITS can provide this questionnaire to you. Links to security documents on the vendor’s website are not accepted as a substitute to the HECVAT form (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit.)
Data Steward Approval
If you want to use or collect College data in a campus system, every piece of data on campus has a data steward that isn’t ITS. We need to seek their approval for that data to be replicated in your proposed solution. There is a separate governance process for this step.
Getting approval, funding and staff time allocated to the initiative
Understanding how funding and staffing resources are generally allocated (you may need only one of these two items but it is rare to not need either!) may be helpful. The form included in this communication is a step in that process. Each Fall, working through various IT governing bodies, desired initiatives are solicited from across campus. While not required, it can be helpful to know the likely one-time and ongoing costs, a general sense of the effort to implement and maintain the proposed solution and that there is senior officer support for this initiative.
The College Infrastructure Committee (CIC) advises the President and Senior Staff on where limited time and funding might best be allocated. In addition to new projects that are requested, major upgrades of existing solutions as well as technology-related deferred maintenance projects compete for similar resources and are accounted for in this process. These are often not optional. This process then informs the allocation of any available time and/or dollars and as well informs campus discussions about where the institution has perhaps inadequate resources. If your project advances, ITS would then work with you to plan for the eventual implementation, which may be in the current year or sometime thereafter depending on requirements. We would also need to work to get the final contract signed by the College’s contract office.
I still have questions. Who should I ask?
For software-related projects, contact Jonas Kennedy, Director of Enterprise Systems
For a technology-deployment project, contact John Coccia, AVP & Director of Technology Support Services.