Having established the institution's overall strategic plan, the next step is to develop a comprehensive technology plan. A big picture, integrated approach to all campus technologies becomes an invaluable guide for implementing technology in an intentional, intelligent and cost-effective manner. Further, directors are uniquely qualified to fashion their institution's answers to these questions, together with their overall understanding of campus technology and the technology industry, into a meaningful, do-able long range plan. The methodology for developing this kind of plan is described in the next section. The challenge for many technology directors is to keep their eyes on the concepts instead of focusing exclusively on tactical issues.
Technologists are usually detail oriented.
Yet the fact remains that the technology director must see the forest while living amongst the trees in order to create a meaningful technology plan. Perhaps the most valuable benefit to come out of the technology planning process is the process itself. The plan may never be fully implemented - sometimes it never even gets read. But the planning process can be of great value to technology directors and to institutions, even if the final implementation is limited. This planning process provides an opportunity to assess where technology at the institution stands now and to identify needs and new requirements.