Reengineering IT in higher education — from campustechnology.com by John Waters

Excerpt:

Higher ed IT is going the way of the TV repairman, eventually becoming anachronistic maintainers of commodity systems–if university and college technology managers and chief information officers don’t reclaim their rightful place as innovators. So proclaimed William G. “Gerry” McCartney, CIO at Purdue University, who spoke to attendees at the annual Campus Technology 2011 conference last week in Boston. McCarthy said he wants to see nothing less than a new kind of higher ed hybrid, one that transforms colleges and universities into “producers as well as consumers.”

From DSC:
I have  had the perspective for decades now that those organizations who utilize technologies the best will be the winners (sorry for the competitive way of framing this topic, but it’s true).

“Keeping the systems running” in the world of IT is important — but the strategic use of IT has arguably become more important as the Internet, changing landscapes, and budgetary pressures continue to disrupt higher education.

In the 21st century, if you want a successful organization, you must have at least one visionary technologist — who understands your business — on your organization’s decision-making board; if not, good luck to such an organization in the future.  If your organization minimizes and underestimates the power of technology to disrupt your business, things may not turn out too good for your organization in the future.

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