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Features
Special Series: Technology and the CEO >> Part 2: Expense or Investment
5/31/2005
” Change magazine, March/ April 2002) may prove useful tools. But finding the right tool is at best the second step; first, you need to commit to a“long-term” attitude regarding the purchase and replacement of information technology as a means of enhancing your educational enterprise.In fact, you will do well to think of developing a technology plan in the same way you would a plan for personal investing. Ask yourself: What educational goals do I want to achieve? Can those goals be achieved more efficiently and effectively if I enhance current operations through technological innovations? What will it cost to add or upgrade technology to current operations? How will those operations be transformed? What will the “people costs” be?
On this last point, I can’t stress too much the importance of figuring people into the technology equation. Institutions that spend for the latest gadgetry, but fail to invest in training and appropriate support personnel, usually end up seeing no improvements in either instruction or business functions. Perhaps the greatest investment one has to make is in the people who use technology. On campuses where people have been shown the advantages information systems offer in the classroom or in their offices, not only has productivity increased, but there’s been improvement in job satisfaction—and in student learning, our core business.
Finally, presidents need to appreciate the need for systematic investment in new technologies to meet regulatory requirements. While no one likes to think that the federal or state government should dictate what we do, in fact, we are subject to many regulations, and require many services that now make ongoing technology upgrades a necessity. The US Department of Education’s insistence that federal financial aid matters be handled electronically is but one example. There are issues of student privacy and records security, and there are increasing demands frommany outside agencies that we protect the information we keep—all of which demands continuing investment in upgraded hardware and software to meet the increasingly stringent requirements set by those who, for better or worse, have significant control over the way we do business.
While many of us like to think of ourselves as running institutions to serve the public good and advancing the frontiers of knowledge, it’s an inescapable fact that as college presidents, we run a business. Larry Tabb, CEO of a Massachusetts- based financial management group observed in “Out of Whack: Aligning IT & Business” (Wall Street & Technology, February 2004), “Getting one’s technology priorities aligned in this age is incredibly important—so important it should not be left to either the CFO or CIO.” Rather, he urges, technology leadership “must come from the corner office.” In my view, the only way to determine one’s priorities is to think strategically—and the only way to do that with information technology is to view it as a necessary investment that, when used wisely, will enhance the quality of education we offer students, and improve the opportunities of our faculty and staff to conduct their business effectively. Becoming a savvy investor in technology for our campuses is a role we must embrace.
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