Computer Services to Consolidate

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WILL CONSOLIDATE ITS COMPUTER SERVICES

     COLUMBUS -- Computing support services at The Ohio State
University will be consolidated this summer as a part of
universitywide restructuring.

     The plan calls for University Systems to transfer from the
Office of Business and Administration to the Office of Academic
Affairs effective July 1, pending approval by the university's
Board of Trustees.

     University Systems provides computer support for Ohio
State's business operations, including student enrollment,
budgeting, and personnel recordkeeping.

     Computing support for teaching and research is provided by
Academic Technology Services, formerly Academic Computing
Services, which already reports to the Office of Academic
Affairs.

     Both units will report to Ed Ray, senior vice provost and
chief information officer at Ohio State.

     "We intend to proceed with a consolidation of administrative
and academic computing services into one unit," Ray said.  "The
staff in both University Systems and Academic Technology Services
will play a major role in helping us to determine how quickly the
consolidation can be accomplished and to define an appropriate
administrative structure for the new unit.  We expect to complete
the task within the next academic year."

     Janet Pichette, vice president for business and
administration, said that budget cuts in recent years had
hampered University System's ability to meet customer needs.  "A
number of very capable and productive staff within University
Systems have been frustrated along with customers by the
university's lack of focus on funding legitimate customer needs,"
she said.

     Ray indicated that over the course of the next year
University Systems' general funds operations would be funded
centrally with money formerly raised through charges to
individual units.  Ray said this is being done to match resources
available for administrative computing with a prioritized list of
customer needs.

     "Our intention is to stabilize funding and services for
University Systems while we establish market-related prices for
services, determine appropriate levels of base funding from the
university for administrative computing, and determine what
product lines University Systems should concentrate in from now
on," he said.

     Other elements of the plan call for the appointment of two
university work groups.  One will help to define the best method
for funding administrative computing services in the future.  The
current charge-back system in which university units chase each
other's dollars back and forth has outlived its usefulness.

     The other work group will be asked to draft university
standards with respect to hardware, software, networking,
relational databases and a data element dictionary.  At the same
time, major systems acquisitions that are not already in process
will be delayed until the standards are available to the
university community, which should be possible by the end of the
calendar year.

     "The integrated telecommunications system owned by the
university, UNITS, will continue to report to Business and
Administration during this transition year," Pichette said.

     A separate restructuring committee has been reviewing
pricing, product line, and organization within UNITS and expects
to make recommendations soon.  This committee also is reviewing
the entire telecommunications network, including SONNET, a
campus-wide computer network and telephone and data services at
University Hospitals to ensure the best organization to serve the
entire university.

     "We are looking at all possibilities and will provide our
best judgment about how UNITS, SONNET, and other
telecommunication services should operate and what the reporting
lines should be," said Pichette, who chairs the review committee.

     Pichette and Ray indicated that these measures are part of
an on-going effort to restructure academic support services to
simplify structure, remove barriers to cooperative efforts and
provide better services at less cost.  Pichette pointed out that
this is one of a dozen support areas that are under active review
at this time.

                                #
                                
Contact: Ed Ray, 292-5881.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Wed, 01 Jun 1994 10:20:54 -0500 (EST)]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.