Management Consulting

Our consultants will work with faculty, senior administrators, and department managers on a wide range of information technology issues including strategic planning, organizational design, budgeting, hardware and software evaluations, capacity planning, needs assessments, and feasibility studies.

Representative projects:

Urban Community College

18,000 students

We assisted this community college with a complex strategic planning project. Our work was primarily with the computing planning committee, made up equally of faculty and administrators, and resulted in both a full assessment of their IT environment and the creation of a three-year strategic plan for information technology for the entire institution.

University System

30,000 students; 10 colleges and universities

We worked with this system to help establish a system-wide strategy for information systems, including addressing questions such as build-or-buy, integrated vs. best-of-breed, and separate systems versus a single system to serve all of the institutions. We examined the underlying technology, system functionality, data retrieval and reporting, and service/support of their then-current environment; we looked at a variety of possible options for the future; we reviewed commercial solutions; and we laid out a plan and a process to follow to pursue future directions.

Selective, Residential Liberal Arts College
1,400 students
Our work at this institution included helping to shape the work of the Committee on Computing and Telecommunications. Tasks included conducting an in-depth IT environment analysis; delivering an executive briefing on the impact and future of campus computing; identification of background resources; and development of a process for strategic planning.

Private University
13,600 students; 3 campuses
We worked with the Information Technologies division of this institution on an information technology assessment and review on the three campuses to be used in formulating a multi-million dollar strategic plan for information technology for the subsequent three years. The review included hardware and software resources, staffing, organization, service levels, funding, and external support. This work involved extensive interviews with members of the user community, including upper administration, staff, and faculty, as well as in-depth comparisons with other similar institutions.

Public University
49,000 students
We worked with this institution to develop a strategy for student information systems, including a review of best practices, a review of the current marketplace for applications and tools, recommendations for building a university-wide, consensus-driven decision-making process, and a design for oversight and operational structures to implement the system.

University Consortium
25,300 students; 6 institutions
We worked with this entity and three of the member universities to determine the appropriate role of a then-existing consortial arrangement for information technology, especially with respect to common information systems in serving the needs of all of its member institutions.

Public University
7,650 students
After completing a program review of this university's information technology services area, we also worked with them on long-range planning for information technology. More recently, we worked on a plan for professional development for the IT staff, as well as conducting two additional program reviews.