To: I/T Leadership Team Cc: service-tl@MIT.EDU Subject: Vision for FY1998 - Service Process Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 12:32:23 EDT From: "Roger A. Roach" Folks, I spent some time with my previous input (drivers,impacts, etc) and have come up with some visions. Sorry for not getting it sooner, but I was not feeling well last week and am only about half normal now. I'll bring copies Monday. I had a dream that by June 30, 1998: - The I/T transformation is complete and that all work is being done in the new style (includes ALL I/T on campus) - The services that we provide are world class and best practice. - That our customers regard us as partners and gladly pay the fees required. They are routinely sending compliments to the VP and higher. - That our staff is well trained, well motivated, has a very high morale and low turnover (turnover <10%, open positions <5%.) People are not normally working more than 40 hours and have time to explore and enhance their skills. - That we have completed our upgrade of MITnet and are using it for both video and audio both on campus and off campus. - That efforts like SAP, SIS, TQF, data warehouse (including financials) are all implemented and working smoothly. - That we are working together so that movement of a project through the various processes is seemless and without delays. - That the administration is supporting us with the tools we need (space, quick decisions, additional money and headcount when justified.) - That access to our services is truly ubiquitous (including from all conference rooms and classrooms.) - That the correct infrastructure has been provided, both I/T and physical. I also had a nightmare that on June 30, 1998: - That non-IS I/T areas are still operating in stovepipes. - That the level of service has declined by trying to do more with less. - That our customers are unhappy. They are routinely sending complaints to the VP and higher. They refuse to pay their fees. - That the staff is demoralized. The best people have left and those that remain are working 50-60 hours just to stay even. They don't have time to improve their skills or to try new things. Turnover is >20% and we have 30-50 positions open at any one time. - Because of crises, we have not completed the upgrade of the network. More departments are doing their own thing; adding work and problems to the present staff. - New applications are being bogged down for lack of coordination and adherence to standards. They are buggy and ugly. - People do not have time to coordinate between processes so we have built a new set of stovepipes. - Administration has not changed. Decisions still take months instead of days. More space, people, and dollars are out of the question regardless of the justification. - We have not had the time to investigate wireless networking or other means to wire classrooms and conference rooms. People still don't want to pay for a network drop. - We still don't have the infrastructures in place. There is no distributed file system for the PCs and Macs. There is no coordination on networked printers. We still don't have proper telephone/network closets to be able to provide the services. EoN The problem is that depending on how I feel, I see either scenario as equally possible. We need to work to avoid the later as we work to implement the former. For the record, here is my previous mail with drivers of change, etc. Roger ------- Forwarded Message To: I/T Leadership Team Subject: Homework for 10/21 - First Draft Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 08:37:33 EDT From: "Roger A. Roach" Here is what I worked out with my team leaders. If I have time, I'll work on it more Fri/Sat. Roger --------- I. Drivers of Change - Higher demand for experienced I/T professionals ($$) - Need for greater network capacity, reliability, ubiquity, mobility - Increased private ownership of computers - role of clusters - Restructuring of the Telephone businesses (AT&T, NYNEX, TCG, etc.) - Reengineering - Merging of Administative and Academic Computing Infrastructure - Demand for new services (SAP, Helpdesk, Databases, etc.) - More rapid turnover in vendor products, more depand for off the shelf products (which may not fit our infrastructure) - MCC Changes (PC Service repairs and installs) - Role of the Mainframe (VM Server) II. Impacts - More use of contractors/out-sourcing - MITnet upgrade - Restructure our rate structures (Server Services, Telecom, Network, Consulting - SGI/Sun/Dec) - Better project management/use of resources - More emphasis on Telecom contract process/generate new model - More need to coordinate across processes (avoid process stovepipes) - Reduce dependancies on single vendors (AT&T, Transarc, etc.) - Be better about phasing out old services - More dependence on I/T by non-I/T professionals III. Capabilities - We have a good staff, but talent and workload is not balanced - We need to find the balance between micro-managing and empowerment ------- End of Forwarded Message