Operational Excellence Framework: IT Transformation

Our current IT policies need to be updated to allow us to align our IT infrastructure to operate under current standards and best practices. Adopting the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, Cybersecurity Framework, will align our practices with recent action by the state of Kansas. Next, crafting a policy development lifecycle program and a roadmap for high- and medium-priority policy adoption must also be implemented. Policy development will engage stakeholders and be based on industry best practices. The process will be agile and nimble, enabling the university to adapt to the ever-evolving IT landscape. A vital component of the new policy process will include enhanced communication and organizational training on policies.

An institutional IT governance framework is essential to provide strategic guidance and codify decision-making supporting IT modernization and alignment with the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan. Effective governance increases our agility to transform, improve and collaborate through planning and engagement. This new governance framework will be designed to ensure that IT delivers maximum value to university stakeholders, appropriately manages our risks, measures our performance and aligns with our shared strategic goals.

Meeting our operational excellence goals requires changes to our organizational structure within the Division of IT and our academic and administrative units. Additional positions will be hired within the Division of IT to increase capacity and expertise in securing our core infrastructure and improving our security posture. New positions will also focus on developing and maintaining core IT infrastructure and university workstation environments and modernizing and streamlining data integrations.

In addition, the transformation process will establish college or major unit-level IT director positions. These positions will collaboratively develop and implement strategic IT plans for a college or major unit aligning with its strategic goals and the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan and be integrated into the college or major unit providing supervisory leadership for all positions performing IT work. The goals of this reorganization will be to:

• Improve coordination and collaboration through a unified reporting structure.
• Improve our ability to offer consistent technical experiences for our workforce, instructional spaces and research areas.
• Implement consistent training for our IT workforce to meet technical standards and best practices.
• Enhance cybersecurity and risk management through improved oversight.

The goal will be to fill all open IT director roles and complete the reorganization by the end of FY 2025.

Download the Staffing and Structure Chart (PDF)