Abstract
Central and distributed IT organizations came together at The University of Alabama at Birmingham to establish a single source for campus desktop patching. This first-of-its-kind initiative built trust among the university’s IT organizations while providing a single source of truth for compliance. The monthly efforts of 19 organizations were reduced to one organization, saving time and financial resources for the university while ensuring a more secure campus computing environment. UAB employees Jamie Witter and Scott Carson talk about the history of central and distributed IT operations at UAB and the process they used to engage each of the distributed IT groups. They describe how they overcame trust issues between central and distributed IT staff, central IT and the faculty and staff supported by distributed IT, and how they navigated the political waters between deans, CIOs, and everyone else. They also review the challenges of enrolling all of the campus desktops into one SCCM System. They wrap up the session by reviewing their current state and what they could have done better and plans for the future now that barriers to collaborations and partnerships have been broken down.
The webinar is provided by the EDUCAUSE IT Support Services Community Group who hosted this event; visit https://www.educause.edu/community/it-support-services-community-group for more information.