Organizing Information Technology Support for a Networked Environment

Abstract

As networked computers rapidly become the primary source of information, a primary platform for collaboration, and a means of conducting the business of the university, IT support organizations must reevaluate their roles on campus. This paper reports how Information Technology at Northwestern University has reorganized to address the issues and opportunities that will be brought about by the distributed computing and network environment it is establishing. It demonstrates that: an IT organization must become knowledgeable about what it supports in ways that are quite different from what was necessary in the past; it must take an active role in redefining overall organizational issues of the university; and it can no longer remain neutral to the information needs, as distinguished from the information technology needs, of the institution.