Abstract
As most higher education institutions in the country are facing budget and staffing cuts, University of Delaware's Office Systems group addressed the reduction in manpower by making it a new challenge for cost-effective use of IT. A decreasing workforce causes administrators to look at less staff-intensive systems for administrative tasks. The University of Delaware's Office Systems group helps departments and colleges face the challenge of implementing automated systems where appropriate, guiding the users through the analytical, system design, integration, funding, documentation, implementation and evaluation stages. The approach is one of offering solutions rather than technology. We present it in a comprehensive package that also includes practical issues to be considered such as physical office space requirements or the appropriateness of the electric wiring inside a building. The Office of the Dean of Students project will be presented to illustrate our approach.