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On  Thursday 9/13,Laura Patterson, CIO of the University of Michigan spoke on the bi-weekly conference call and presented slides over Adobe Connect. Her presentation was called "Why IT is important.  She spoke about the changes she is leading at U/M and about how EA is integral to the success of the initiatives, and then took questions for about 30 minutes.  Laura will also be presenting, along with Shel Waggener of Internet2, at the ITANA Face2Face meeting at EDUCAUSE in November.

We were unable to record the call, but the slides she presented are here.  Chris Eagle, who leads Enterprise Architecture at UM referenced an EA Framework (linked here) UM uses for assessing technologies and projects.

Here are some of the comments from people who attended the call:

Jim Phelps (Wisconsin):

  • The importance of the two simple graphics - the Wedding Cake and the Heat Map - in convincing campus partners of the need for change and in selling her vision.   Simple pictures do carry a lot of impact.
  • The fact that they were very explicit that change started with culture and governance even though they were talking about changing IT investment and spend.  It wasn't the other way around - fix the IT Infrastructure first.
  • The way they made it apparent to the departments that they were using their resources on commodity services and efforts, not on the high-value next-generation IT services that would drive innovation in Teaching and Learning and Research.
  • The close tie to Project/Program Management (Project Portfolio Management) in rationalizing and executing the complex change they are going through.

Brenda Reeb (Rochester)

  • Some departments created smaller pockets of commodity services within their local environment.  I think Laura mentioned the College was doing this.  The model successfully replicates into smaller pieces nested within the big picture.  People can replicate the model, once it is familiar.  

Colleen Nagy (Case Western)

  • It helps to have a goal for the whole university to drive out costs beyond the budget constraints.  Everyone is expected to pitch in.  So, Laura and her team have gotten the support from top leadership of the university.
  • I agree with the simple pictures.  Service and funding strategy and flipping the types of IT services are areas we try to explain to our customers, but we don't have pictures to make it clear.
  • The methodology for commoditizing would be interesting to explore further.  How do they find all the costs when things are so decentralized?  Are the schools and departments willing to share their data on costs?  

Glenn Donaldson (Ohio State)

  • Laura was great presenter.
  • She seemed really connected to and passionate about the NextGen Initiative, and really expressed how EA is related and important.
  • It is great to have an executive understand and promote these types of endeavors.
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