Eastern Michigan University (EMU)

Problems Solved: Facing an Apparently Unsolvable, Intractable Problem; Rapidly Rising Costs, Antiquated and Poorly Integrated Technology; Misalignment of People, Resources, and Program with Learner Needs; Anxiety over Change and Inability to Change Rapidly.		Strategic Focus: Leading/Navigating Change, Crafting/Executing Strategy, Leveraging Technology to Achieve Value on Investment, Reinventing Processes, Fostering Innovation and the Human Side of Change, Transforming Organizational Culture, Developing Staff/Organizational Capacity, Enhancing Revenues.
Project Team:  Donald M. Norris

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) is a metropolitan university serving nearly 25,000 students. In 2000, a new President found a highly fragmented inadequate technology environment, the cumulative product of 20 years of failing to take a strategic approach to leveraging technology to align programs and offerings with learner needs.  Costs were rising, inefficiencies abounded, and customer satisfaction was at a low ebb. The institution had been unsuccessful in raising resources to address these deficiencies, and unimaginative in changing its approach and culture to meet 21st century learner needs.

Working closely with the President and a diverse set of working groups, Strategic Initiatives led a strategic realignment process that fundamentally reinvented every aspect of the university's use of ICT: culture, decision-making roles and processes, ICT infrastructure, administrative applications software and organizational structure, e-learning strategies, training, PC refreshment and deployment of the enterprise portal. Using storytelling and process reinvention, new processes and practices were co-created. As part of this initiative, the university has committed to spending $28M in fresh resources on aspects of the ICT initiatives over the next five years.

For several years, Strategic Initiatives worked closely with the President in weaving these technology initiatives together and in linking them with institutional strategic planning and continuous process improvement.  These change management activities enabled EMU to reorganize, reinvent processes, and enhance productivity.  At EMU Dr. Norris developed and applied the principles of "value on investment." These have been used to shape the leveraging of the ICT tools to drive productivity enhancement, collaboration and innovation.