Category Archives: SLT

Living the Digital Transformation We Preach

As the IT leaders at UT Austin, we spend a lot of time talking about digital transformation. We encourage campus to embrace modern tools, work smarter, and take advantage of the technology investments we’ve made. But here’s the real question, are we practicing what we preach? If we want to lead the university into a more digital, connected, and efficient future, we need to start with ourselves. We need to live in the environment we’re asking others to adopt, not dismiss it, not just support it, but fully commit to it.

Right now, we’re operating in a fragmented digital world. Some teams use Slack, others use Teams. Files are scattered across OneDrive, SharePoint, Box, Wikis, and more. Some meetings are on Zoom, others on Teams. We are juggling platforms when we could be harnessing the power of our enterprise-supported ecosystem and putting Copilot to work for us.

When groups on campus reach out for help improving their digital workflows, we should be the experts they turn to. But how can we do that if we aren’t fully invested ourselves? If we don’t know Teams inside and out, how can we teach others to maximize it? If we’re not using OneDrive and SharePoint to store our work, how can we expect others to move away from Box? This isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about leadership. The best way to drive change across campus is to lean into the change. And imagine the stories we can share with the community as we do!

Here’s our challenge, we need to standardize our own workflows before we can credibly push others to do the same.

  • Teams over Slack. All our internal communications should happen on Teams—chats, channels, file sharing, and collaboration. We can’t ask campus to make the switch if we haven’t fully embraced it.
  • OneDrive & SharePoint over Box. Moving documents to a single, integrated storage platform makes collaboration easier and security more resilient. I am not talking about engineering new workflows that support campus operations, I am primarily concerned with our internal workflows.
  • Teams Meetings over Zoom. We already have a robust, enterprise-supported meeting platform in Teams. It integrates with our calendars, our files, and our workflows. Let’s stop defaulting to Zoom when Teams can do the job. I completely understand that incoming meetings are often up to the organizer, but once we can start to show value in the automation that Copilot in Teams meetings provide, we have a reason for other groups on campus to make the change.
  • Microsoft Forms over Qualtrics. I am honestly tired of responding to basic questions using our most powerful enterprise survey tool. MS Forms should be used for all lightweight data collection.
  • AI & Automation with Copilot. Microsoft Copilot is already here, and it should be changing the way we work. But we won’t understand its full impact unless we actively use it. How can AI streamline our daily tasks? What reports, emails, and meetings can we automate? The only way to know is to test, learn, and apply. The SLT has decided that we are providing M365 Copilot to the entire organization.

I want to be clear, every time we use tools outside our enterprise systems, we create more work, more risk, and more fragmentation. We make it harder to secure data, harder to collaborate, and harder to support the very systems we advocate for. If we want campus to streamline their tech stack, we have to start with our own teams. That means cutting out redundant tools and fully investing in M365, not just because we’re told to, but because it makes our work more effective.

Digital transformation isn’t just about technology, it’s a cultural shift. It’s about building habits that make work easier, faster, and more connected. But culture change starts with us. I am asking us to set the example.

I want us to create a comprehensive plan for making this the new normal within Enterprise Technology. I know who some of the people are who can help lead this, but I am actively looking for people who can help and will take some responsibility in leading this.

OpenAI generated image showing people working together in a UT themed room.

Image created by OpenAI.

All Staff Reflection: July 2024

Yesterday we hosted my first hybrid all staff meeting in our new UTA Commons space on the Austin campus. At first, to be completely honest, it was a bit overwhelming seeing so many people together in a room that until yesterday I had not seen more than 10-15 people in at a time. I feel like I am not 100% over the isolation practices of the pandemic times — lots of people in a constrained space make me a little uncomfortable. It is weird because I am in crowded places all the time — airports, concerts, and the like. But, for some reason, it all felt a little surreal doing it in the context of our workspace with over 100 people. By about halfway into the meeting that feeling was replaced with excitement and I can’t wait to do more of it!

Photo of all staff meeting in UTA Commons.

Once the technology started to (mostly) cooperate, I was able to share some thoughts on the organization, the University, and how I want us to shape our role in being the drivers of progress and digital change. I reviewed the slides I shared in my previous post, but this time I was able to pause and talk about the “why” behind the decisions we have made. I was also able to spend a bit of time highlighting a couple of the organizational values we have developed and why I believe they are critically important — I highlighted the importance of Engagement, Service, and Security and how those three values need to be top of mind and at the center of our decision making going forward.

We reviewed the three primary pillars of our emerging strategy and discussed how we see ourselves getting there. The first thing we talked about was the Organizational Roadmap that will provide the guideposts to organizing ourselves appropriately and communicating change to campus.

Screenshot of a powerpoint slide describing our organizational roadmap approach.

We then did a bit of a dive into the IT Modernization workstream that I am aligning with the President’s Change Starts Here strategic plan. The power in this alignment allows us to utilize existing governance structures to address our largest enterprise technology challenges, hear directly from campus leaders, and turn these challenges into opportunities. The slide I shared aligns to five critical areas of focus for us to organize around. You can see it below, and to be honest, the five areas are even more important at this moment than the initiatives contained within each. This framework should help us work with campus partners to make significant progress in the most critical areas of need.

Finally, we discussed how we wanted to improve both the services we currently offer and identify those offered across campus that should be provided at the enterprise level. Essentially, my perspective is allowing the identified services to help dictate how they are delivered and supported in a holistic, enterprise way. In other words, find the services that have enterprise level consumption and treat them like actual enterprise, common good offerings from a central provider. Our campus customers should not need to know who offers a service, just that it is available. This work will need to lean on all of our campus partners, governance groups, and the needs of our audience as the guiding principle.

We closed with what felt like a very open conversation about many topics — talent, growth, work from alternative locations, the need for the team to understand how our budget works, and more. Coming out of the meeting I will be launching a Coffee with Cole series that aims to bring small numbers of staff together with me for more personal conversations. These skip level meetings have always been an important part of my understanding of the real challenges people are facing while trying to do their jobs. And with that said, I cannot wait to continue this journey with my new colleagues as we work to build upon the legacy of innovation in our work supporting this amazing university.

Making Progress

Several weeks ago, I met with President Hartzell to discuss our emerging strategy going forward. We have talked many times about his goals for technology at the University and this was a first opportunity to reflect that discussion back to him to make sure we are moving in the right direction. We had a great discussion, where he listened, provided feedback, and told me to keep pushing in this direction. It was an honest discussion about how we need to position ourselves for long-term success. I thought it would be helpful to share a little bit about some of the early changes we are making

I have mentioned before that we are taking on the daunting task of rebranding our new organization. Now that we have brought the existing ITS team together with AIS and eBITS we have the opportunity to focus our energy at solving the largest, most complex challenges at the University as it relates to technology. Our focus is centered around envisioning, creating, and implementing enterprise level technology solutions, hence the selection of, The University of Texas Enterprise Technology as our new organizational name. There are a number of steps that need to be taken to finalize this change before we launch a branding campaign around the start of the new fall semester.

I am a firm believer in the idea that every organization must express their values proudly and transparently. When the senior leadership team sat down for this discussion, we knew that we wanted to create a series of values that represent the scope and scale of the work we perform while giving us some guardrails we can use to guide our work. To me, what is so important about being overt with our value statements is that it gives us a collection of lenses to look through to help guide our decision making. We can ask ourselves if we are living up to these values whenever we are making decisions, sitting in meetings, doing strategy work, or executing on our day-to-day activities. Values guide our actions, and the SLT believes that these 10 values will help guide us to make better decisions and express who we are.

I then took him through in detail the three primary components of our emerging roadmap. The first being a plan to rebrand our new organization and a focus on getting our own operations in order to rise to the challenge of driving the enterprise conversation forward. The second piece is where the bulk of our strategic roadmap will focus. I have worked with the Change Starts Here (CSH) strategy office to think about how we will work together to address our IT modernization efforts around CSH 3.9, Modernizing IT. By aligning with CSH, we will be able to leverage those existing governance models to help us move our programs forward.

Finally, I believe that we as a campus community need to draw a line in the sand as it relates to common good services, service delivery practices, and the alignment of our community to the delivery of these services. This will not be easy, but by working closely with the ITLC, other governance groups, and our internal teams I am confident that we will be able to make major strides in the area of common good and enterprise service delivery.

At our next staff meeting I will deep dive into the three areas of our strategic roadmap, and we can have some real dialogue about what it all means. I will also be putting together a post here that will attempt to do the same. Until then, find me on Teams or reach out to get a meeting scheduled if you have questions or just want to talk.

June Updates from the Office of the CIO

I am thrilled to share some significant updates on various IT projects and initiatives happening at the University of Texas. These projects are set to enhance our digital infrastructure, improve service delivery, and foster innovation across the campus.

One of the major highlights is the Networking and Telecommunications Upgrade. Our campus wireless network is undergoing a major lifecycle upgrade, with 91% of the new Wi-Fi 6e wireless access points already installed across 160 buildings. This upgrade is expected to be completed by August 30, 2024.

In addition, we are making strides in Mainframe Modernization. Efforts are underway to improve application interconnectivity and developer tools for the mainframe, including enhancements to the Log4Natural product to enable better logging and alerting via Splunk. The campus rollout is expected in July.

Another exciting development is the Data Center Onboarding. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is being onboarded as a new regional customer in the data center. Electrical upgrades and the installation of 76 new devices have been completed, with the first live migration scheduled for July 9th.

The UT Works Program is also making significant progress. Currently in the End-To-End testing phase for its Phase 1 implementation, the program aims to modernize campus operations and improve service delivery and data management. It is set to go live in November 2024.

We are also fostering collaboration among IT groups through the Service Desk Collaboration initiative. Regular meetings and a dedicated Teams room have led to improved issue resolution and service desk efficiency.

Moreover, the Caption and Transcription Service team has been integrated into Enterprise Technology to streamline digital accessibility support and form a Digital Accessibility Center (DAC).

In collaboration with AWS Innovation Center, we have launched the AI Tutor Initiative. This project aims to personalize learning by providing a customizable AI solution for faculty, with an initial six-week venture underway.

For a more detailed overview of these projects and initiatives, we invite you to download the full report in PDF format. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance our digital infrastructure and services!

Please Welcome Amanda Fratticcioli, Director of Operations in the Office of the VPT & CIO

I would like to welcome Amanda Fratticcioli as our new Director of Operations. Amanda will ensure that our organization runs in concert with university strategy and aligned with our priorities, streamline our business practices and project management processes, develop our communication strategy, and serve as a thought partner and leader for me and the senior leadership team. She will report directly to me in this role and will oversee our communications, finance, HR, and project management practices.

Amanda joins us from Northeastern University, where she was the Head of the Office of the CIO, IT Operations, and the Global Network. During her time at Northeastern, Amanda lead enterprise-wide initiatives, orchestrated alignment of CIO strategic priorities and roadmap across the organization and critical business partners, led large scale IT M&A projects, and was instrumental in digitally transforming Northeastern and its global network.

While Amanda has only appreciation for cats, she is a dog lover! Amanda is the proud parent of Stash (4 yr. old mini Aussiedoodle) and Bronte (2 yr. old Bernedoodle), who she assures us are spoiled regularly. While Amanda is looking forward to the Texas heat, these two are not. You will have to share your tips on how to keep these puppies cool in the Austin summer!

Please join me in welcoming Amanda to our team! We are happy that she has chosen to work with us, and I look forward to advancing the overall operations of the Office of the VPT and CIO. I know Amanda will fit in with our team and I hope all of you take a minute to introduce yourself. Amanda will be relocating to Austin and will begin on June 3, 2024 and her office will be in UTA.