The Colorado State University System has launched an initiative for IT alignment across the CSU System that includes the Fort Collins, Pueblo and Spur campuses.
This project intends to do the following:
- Align the CSU Pueblo IT organization within the CSU System, reporting to the CSU Fort Collins VPIT/CIO, Brandon Bernier.
- Implement a short-term action plan to maintain the health and stabilization of the CSU Pueblo IT environment.
- Develop a long-term system-wide IT alignment strategy that gains efficiencies by leveraging a common set of services, architecture, and budget and staffing models.
Leadership
The following IT leaders from both the CSU Fort Collins and CSU Pueblo campuses have been identified to coordinate this effort primarily in the areas of IT Architecture and Strategy and Operations:
- Core Alignment Team: David Bartolo, James Cizek, Adam Pocius and Candace Ramsey.
- Executive Sponsor: Brandon Bernier.
- Project Management: David Garcia.
- Communications: Katie Hightower.
Reach out to the team at itsa@colostate.edu
Q&A with Brandon Bernier
Brandon Bernier — executive sponsor, vice president for IT and CIO — discussed his vision for the IT Alignment initiative and its impact across the CSU System.
Q. Part of this initiative seeks to enhance communication, understanding, and relationship building between the IT organizations across the CSU System. What are some specific strategies that you hope to see utilized to achieve these goals?
We are using multiple strategies so that we can bring our teams together and set the right foundation. One example is that we’ve developed a Core Alignment Team which has IT leaders from CSU Pueblo and CSU Fort Collins. They are working hand in hand, as peers, to develop our future alignment strategy as well as addressing quick wins to establish how our teams can achieve things together. They’ve already had multiple campus visits and are using empathy and communication to better understand our technical environments and bring our teams together.
Additionally, this group is focusing on quick wins related to Cybersecurity and improving collaboration on daily operations. These quick wins are already showing positive results that included a smooth fall semester start for both campuses.
Another example is that we’ve been bringing together our technical teams to do deep dives into the existing architecture on both campuses. Because the teams are leveraging their empathy and communication skills, it is allowing us to form foundational relationships, while building knowledge and trust. This is important for our future work which will allow us to make decisions in the best interest of our campuses.
Q Why is it important to do this work now?
In recent years, the CSU-System has made good strides in moving toward shared IT services (ERPs, IT Security, Microsoft 365, and more). However, the progress wasn’t what it could’ve been, and we never really approached this from a “one team” model. That didn’t allow us to leverage our combined ability. We recognized that we could do more, and go farther, together. We realized that the strategies we’ve used in the past needed to evolve if we are going to be successful in the future. For us, that means working as an aligned team of leaders and technology professionals.
Q. What impact do you hope it will have?
This initiative has the opportunity to do a number of great things for all of our campuses. First, it can provide better and more sustainable IT services for our students, faculty, and staff. Right now, both campuses are experiencing staffing and budgetary challenges. By bringing together our teams, we’ll have more staff and resources to work on areas related to our campus missions. Additionally, we’ll increase the stewardship across the CSU System by providing opportunities to reinvest funds in IT, improve workflows between campuses, provide enhanced staff career opportunities, and reduce cybersecurity risk.
Q. What can the campus communities expect to see as a result of this partnership?
The biggest impact is that we’ll have a larger and more sustainable team (staffing, budget, etc.) to help our campus and system achieve the creation of ideas that support teaching & learning, research, outreach, and more. This means more resources to help support our students and faculty on a daily basis, better sustainability with our network and infrastructure, and more diverse voices to help us identify new ideas and strategies for the future.
Q. You now oversee the CSU Pueblo IT organization in addition to the Division of IT at CSU Fort Collins. What have you learned about this team so far? What are you most excited about in working more closely together?
There is a lot to be proud of with our CSU-Pueblo team. They are passionate, dedicated, and deliver very responsive services to their campus community. They have done a tremendous amount for their campus with limited resources. This means they have strengths in creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness. They have great leaders and technologists who have made some major advancements for their campus.
As I lead both teams, it’s great to see the tremendous ideas and collaboration happening. One key item that we’ve all learned is how much we can help and learn from each other. For example, where one team has already established a best practice it’s often where the other team is a little behind. Both campuses have already benefited from ideas that have been brought forward in the discussions.
