As a relative newcomer, I am very aware — and proud — of the University’s reputation for its creative problem solving, innovation and robust “can do” spirit in the face of adversity.

Chancellor Oblinger and the whole University’s leadership team are calling on all these strengths to deal with North Carolina’s current budget crisis. Cuts have already been made in University allocations, and while next year’s amount is uncertain, we know that more budget cuts are coming.

Information Technology services campus-wide will need to continue to take their fair share of these cuts. However, IT can also play an important role in the University’s efforts to be smart and strategic in response to these mandated reductions.

The core mission and values of the University — education, research, extension and service – must not only be protected but we must also be prepared for the future.

The goal is to make decisions that enable the University to emerge from this crisis stronger, more innovative and responsive to opportunities.

As the Vice Chancellor for IT and CIO, I was asked by Provost Larry Nielsen and Chief Financial Officer Charlie Leffler to develop some innovative ideas that could produce $1 million in recurring savings for the University. After brainstorming with staff and others, four preliminary ideas emerged as most promising.

These preliminary ideas and “back of the envelope” cost-savings projections have been circulated, are being discussed on campus and further researched. None have reached any sort of formal proposal stage or selection to move forward, which is critical to the process.

Below are four ideas I believe are worth further investigation:

1)    Move all faculty and staff e-mail to a single centralized system, discontinuing other e-mail systems on campus. This assumes that the Cyrus/Webmail service will be discontinued and student e-mail moved to an outsourced platform. (For more about this proposal, visit the Student E-mail Initiative Web site.) The final step would be to determine the best platform for faculty and staff e-mail including possible outsourcing.

2)    Expect students to have laptop computers and then decommission at least 50 percent of the computer lab seats campus wide. This change assumes that many services now provided in the labs can be provided through application delivery tools, student-installed software, the Virtual Computing Lab and other options. Specialized computer labs that are still required for software, teaching, research or other activities that cannot be delivered through other mechanisms would still remain.

3)    Unify University Web hosting and move many of the University Web sites to a content managed environment. Special Web sites that cannot be moved could be exempted. Web hosting for these environments at competitive pricing would be used. There is already a pilot under way to look at solutions that might allow this type of service. This suggested service would not have a direct impact on services to students.

4)    Move all staff and lab computer systems to a managed desktop environment and move appropriate staff systems to a virtual desktop environment. Some colleges have already implemented a managed desktop for most of their computers and realized significant reductions in support calls. Many current desktops do not need the computational power of a stand alone machine, and desktop virtualization may save even more than fully-managed desktops. If implemented, this idea would have no impact on student-owned computers.

None of these ideas are final. Task forces are being created to dig deeper into each idea and develop a more complete proposal of implementation requirements, costs and potential savings.  Students, staff and faculty will be involved in the process.  From these more refined plans, we’ll make decisions on which to pursue.

It is through collaboration, innovation and creativity that we can cooperatively develop solutions that improve our future while meeting the demands of the current environment.

If you have ideas you believe can save significant IT resources, please send them to me so we can consider them. Visit oit.ncsu.edu/forum/budget-reduction-strategies to submit your comments and ideas.

Please help by working together to try new ideas and challenge old paradigms to create success and leadership at the University.