A restructuring of technical support units in 1993 combined academic, administrative and infrastructure computing under the leadership of the Associate Vice Chancellor of Information Technology. A new Student Information System implementation was occurring in parallel with this restructuring. This implementation was severely challenged because of scope and procedural problems. With the help of outside consulting, which focused on establishing project management practices and mentorship of staff, this project was delivered on-time and within budget. Increasingly, initiatives seem to share certain characteristics.
Initiatives utilize more than one technology.
Client server architectures, and distributed technologies mandate increased consideration of network protocols, file delivery systems, security methods which match the security delivered by mainframes, desktop software configuration, server software configuration, etc. Further, expertise in these areas cannot be found in one authoritative source. Subject matter expertise crosses functional boundaries. Not only is it impossible to find one authoritative source of technical expertise, the experts are spread throughout the institution, in different functional and business areas. This is also true for business matter experts.