Doing More With Less or Why Change if the Applications Work

Abstract

While the impact of the economic downturn has hit institutions of higher education, the effect of it has been compounded on the University of Hartford because it is a relatively young, independent university with a modest endowment base. The University's economic base has been aptly described as "tuition driven." In these stressful economic times with uncertain enrollments, more areas were reviewed with the goal of "Doing More With Less." At first, the highly successful portfolio of the University's administrative systems might not appear to be a fruitful area of investigation. While this portfolio is one of the most complete set of administrative systems in higher education and satisfies the critical current needs of the University today, it is also true that the systems were designed in the early 1980s and that the past ten years have brought many advances in the fast moving information technology field. It was realized that newer technology and less costly computer platforms were opportunities that could be utilized to achieve the goal of doing more with less. In addition, the important objective of strategically positioning administrative applications systems for the rest of the decade could also be satisfied. Plans were developed to change to a less expensive hardware platform, to attain flexibility in selecting future hardware platforms, to realize unimpeded access to information from the institutional database to enhance productivity in application support, and to keep the cadre of information professionals few in number, while maintaining the current level of service and operations with existing administrative applications. Important influences on this strategic plan are the goals and support by senior level management, the nature and organization of the University, the high level of experience and expertise of user and IS staffs, and the intense competition for resources.