Leveraging Enterprise Technologies for New Solutions

The CIO Division is providing powerful tools for campus departments to automate their business processes. When department IT staff need added support, Campus IT Partnerships’ Implementation Team can step in with subject matter expertise.

The Air Force ROTC contacted Campus IT Partnerships (CITP) when they wanted to centralize their cadet ratings into an easily navigable format for use in the field as well as the office. Their goals were accuracy, simplicity (even in mobile), and accountability. CITP worked with the ROTC to build a SharePoint site with a full directory of their cadets.

The application registers logins for accountability. Out in the field, reviewers can select the cadets from the directory in a mobile app and rate them in four different areas on a scale of 1 to 5, with an additional option for photos. These ratings can be reported by cadet and date, and can include average scores.

To build the application, enterprise services were used including Microsoft’s Power Apps, Power Automate, Excel, Excel scripting, and SharePoint.

Other departments with projects the Implementation Team assisted includes Campus Recreation and the Division of Human Resources. The Implementation Team is also working to create communities of practice by fostering connections between experts from campus departments to share knowledge with each other.

CITP also partnered with CIO Division departments and campus units to support other IT service efforts such as the CatNet 2.0 project. They shepherded several projects by soliciting feedback and outreach for central services, and leading and supporting communities of practice.

Collaboration is Key to Sustaining Campus IT Efforts

The IT Coordination meeting continues twice weekly as a critical collaboration tool for IT staff to share and brainstorm with each other. Having the regular meetings and the Microsoft Teams tool available as resources has proved invaluable for collaborating with campus IT staff such as Wired Network Registration and Managed Cloud Services.

Trends in Campus IT Workforce

In FY22, market demand for IT talent globally remained high, as the need for technologies vital to remote work and life have increased dramatically since the COVID 19 pandemic.

IT talent at the University of Arizona is decentralized in support of teaching, research and service across the institution. In FY22, the University’s campus IT workforce was comprised of 485 staff in one or more IT teams in 72 departments. While the University hired 102 new employees into IT positions, 98 IT employees departed, contributing to 20.2% turnover rate for campus IT units, (see University IT workforce data on page 44 for more details). This translates to 1 in 5 IT staff being new to the University last year.

High turnover rate for campus IT is a challenge for the University and can create additional stresses on units with small IT teams. In FY23, the CIO Division will be providing additional secure IT services to campus units which will give IT staff more capacity to focus on serving their individual unit needs.