University of Dammam (Saudi Arabia), University of Wisconsin,
Pace University, Eastern Michigan University

Problems Solved: Facing an Apparently Unsolvable, Intractable Problems; 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 from Multiple Projects:  Donald Norris, Samuel Kirkpatrick, Charles Thomas, Suzanne Forsyth, and Phil Taylor.

Realigning and Investing in Technology At Eastern Michigan University.
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 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.

Achieving Value on Investment at Pace University.
Pace University is a private institution of over 13,000 students having multiple campuses in and around metropolitan New York City. In 2003, Pace began Project SPARTA, which involved the selection and implementation of a replacement/enhancement of its enterprise technology applications. This involved the enhancement of the enterprise network and implementation of the five Banner modules, enterprise portal, and other enhancements.

Strategic Initiatives was engaged in 2004 to perform Quality Assurance on the Project SPARTA implementation. We were also tasked with introducing change management principles and practices into Pace University. The goal was to leverage the new technologies in ways that would generate return on investment and create new value propositions that would justify the investment in technology. Working with the Pace leadership, Strategic Initiatives developed a Change Management Plan, which identified the performance leaps needed to achieve Pace’s strategic goals, Pace’s readiness for change, and a year-long change process. Following this plan, Strategic Initiatives engaged the University’s leadership in the change process and developed a change management curriculum which was rolled out to staff and managers by Pace staff.

Leveraging Common Systems at the University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin System includes 13 university campuses, UW Colleges (two-year) and UW Extension. Beginning in January 2004, Dr. Norris led a team that met with a broad cross-section of leadership from the UW campuses to assess the efforts of the System to implement Common Systems - ERP, LMS, enterprise portal, library, and the like. These meetings have both assessed past efforts and explored how the common systems could be leveraged to create new learning experiences for students and other stakeholders. Strategic Initiatives’ final report was used to shape the development of future strategy for common systems at the University of Wisconsin System and the charge to the revamped Common Systems Strategy Group. Dr. Norris is continuing to work with the Sytem staff in identifying new value propositions that can be achieved by leveraging common systems.

Creating and Leveraging the Technology Platform for the Professional University.
Strategic Initiatives is currently crafting and executing the strategies for ICT, Distance Learning and eLearning at The University of Dammam. This includes standing up a full Virtual Learning Environment platform for today, then providing a migration path for the University to be able to establish communities of practice that will serve the continuing professional development needs of its students and faculty. This environment will enable the University to provide previously unattainable value propositions for its graduates.